The number of altered ride height vehicles is growing rapidly and presents a very profitable market for shops capable of servicing these specialized vehicles. Hunter WinAlign Tuner™ software, hardware and procedures enable your shop to align altered ride height or “tuner” vehicles and increase your shop's profitability.

Modifying a vehicle’s ride height may cause changes in alignment geometry that result in improper camber, caster and toe. Changes in tire and wheel offset can have drastic effects on the scrub radius. WinAlign Tuner instructs your technicians on how to adjust for these factors and provide the best possible solutions for vehicle handling and tire life.

Vehicle modifications such as altering ride height can negatively affect vehicle performance in several ways including:

A vehicle lowered by 1” will experience a camber change of approximately -.84°, whereas a vehicle lowered by 3” will experience approximately a -3.86° camber change.

When modifying the height of a vehicle, the effect on the vehicle’s toe can be dramatic.

One of the most common results of lowering the height of a vehicle is bump steer. This is the result of a lack of parallelism in the steering linkage. Correcting this phenomenon presents additional profit opportunities for your shop by installing bump steer kits, special steering arms and rack repositioning kits.

Many modified vehicles require the use of special kits or parts to return them to an alignable condition. Typical examples are adjustable control arms or camber plates. The enhanced Tools and Kits feature of WinAlign Tuner software displays any special tools or kits that will be needed for the job. Your shop may also have the opportunity to sell other parts and components such as dropped spindles, sport springs and sway bar kits.

Many technicians may not be familiar with the fundamental procedures for modifying ride height. WinAlign Tuner software provides guidelines for modifying the vehicle and altering specifications.