After I put my lift in I did the temp tape measure alignment. It seems to drive straight and dont know if I really want to spend the extra $$ for a shop to do it as all the adjust is the toe.

The steering wheel is already straight.

How many of you do your own alignment and how accurate is the tape measure method?

I assume it should be toed in a little, but read somewhere that people with the 242 TC do not toe in?

 

i do my own, but thats still on an alignment machine

find an alignment on sale for $50, its the best 50 you can spend. just cuz it drives straight, doesn't mean its toed right.

you won't know if you're alignment isn't just right untill it wears the tires unevenly, and then its too late, tires cannot wear back in properly.

 

IDK, I've done it myself with good results, and more money in the wallet!!

 

Hmm...

I used to do it on my old Jeep since everytime I wheeled it would get knocked out of alignment. The few times I took it in (death wobble) they advised that it was within an 1/8 or so of spec.

I got a local shop that will do it for $40, but if I can save the money and put it towards another repair (the way things are going there will be another one around the corner) I will be that much ahead.

 

ive done it a few times it takes forever sometimes depending on how good your jeep wants to cooperate with you.. we have a allignment rack at my shop and it usually takes from a hour if everything is going good to forever with our allignment machine..btw this is a computerized one

 

i've done it alot of times with great results. unless you have adjustable control arms, you can really only do toe-in. your caster might be out tho. and maybe your tracking.
it's easy, as long as you have 2 people and use the same tire lug to measure from. some tires have a center line painted around the center of the tire.

and yeah, 231 within 1/8th toe-in. 242 likes to be at 0.

some guys like to be toed out a bit on a trail only rig, but i won't get into that.

 

I always do my own and the one time I actually took it in to an alignment shop the guy told me it was right on and there was nothing he could adjust.

 

I do my own and it only takes about 15 minutes. Using just a tape measure, I can get it to .125” toe-in.