Originally posted by militarymaxx
Camber - when you view the car from straight ahead or behind, the amount that the wheels "lean" towards each other. Negative camber looks like this: / \ Positive camber looks like this: \ /
Toe - when you view the wheels from the top, how much the wheels point towards each other. It looks like this (remember, viewed from above!): / \ (the opposite, \ /, is really bad -- you'll be wandering all over the place!)
Caster - the trickiest of the three to understand. It's the angle
between the tire's contact patch and the steering axis. Imagine a grocery cart to get a sense of what this looks like. More caster helps straight-line stability; grocery carts have a lot, that's why the wheels line up nicely when you push the cart.
Here's some more on caster:
To understand caster you need to picture an imaginary line that runs from through the upper arm and extends through the lower arm. From the side view the imaginary line will tilt forward or backward. The tilting of this imaginary line is defined as caster.
Caster is measured in degrees by using a caster camber gauge. If the imaginary line described above tilts towards the back of the car, at the top, then you will have positive caster. If the imaginary line tilts forward then you would have negative caster.
Positive caster provides the directional stability in your buggy. Too much positive caster will make the steering effort difficult. Negative caster requires less steering effort but can cause the car to wander down the straightaway.
