was going to post this in a recent thread made but felt Gower's needed their own thread. this is in response to 69's recommendation. thanks!

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69:

Quote :

"gowers on south saunders st., best damn alignment guys in raleigh, and much cheaper than the national chain, high school dropout employing dumbasses they do a lot of custom work on lowered cars/ lifted trucks, yours should be no problem] "

just gotta give gower's a thumbs-up! i've seen them down there but never used them. i took my truck there this morning to have them align it. damn truck wouldn't fit on the rack but i guess that's part of owning a real man's truck. however, he offered to align it the "old fashioned" way by actually measuring it out. i'm impressed. he only charged me $45 but i gave him $60 since he did have to lay on his back outside in the parking lot. i told him he was too cheap and he said others have told him the same thing and he was going to increase his rates the first of the year. hell, i bet even after a rate increase he'll still be a lot cheaper than anyone else. 4wheelparts quoted me $145! that's insane.
the truck wasn't pulling to the side before but my damn steering wheel was crooked and i can't stand that shit. not only did he align it and make the steering wheel dead center but he also fixed the positive camber issue that was created from leveling the front via torsion bar adjustment. yes, i know that's part of an alignment but if it were on a machine with the average joe dickhead doing the alignment the camber issue wouldn't have been corrected because it would still be "in the green" according to the machine.
another positive i saw was they treated my truck like they've known me for years. i always hear people say they will take care of it "like it's their own" but hell i've seen what they drive and the shape that it's in so i wouldn't want them to treat it like it's theirs. this is the first time i've ever had someone else touch my vehicle and actually take care to not slam the door. not that it's a big deal i just don't do it and was surprised to see several mechanics at gower's open and shut my door and demonstrate they had common sense to see i like to take care of my shit and the competence to not slam the damn thing. i think that says a lot about a shop and the work they do.
one thing that baffles me, though, is the fact that my brakes feel tighter. the pedal pressure is a lot better and feels like i've got a set of new pads on there. i've had many vehicles aligned but i've never experienced that. truck stops fine. i've just never experienced a firmer pedal pressure after an alignment. maybe one of y'all would know why that would happen?

8/26/2009 10:56:35 AM

I, too, had good experience with Gowers. They did a great job realigned my wheels after i swapped a buncha junk yard parts into it following the accident.

8/26/2009 1:28:41 PM

Ever since I started using them (while I was still in Raleigh), the biggest problem I ever had with them was just trying to get a good time for an appointment. They're service and price are pretty damn good, I just feel bad they're stuck near a ghetto and not closer to the road for more business. Most places even won't come close to $5 to balance a tire (big plus when others do a surcharge for 33-35" tires of up to $15-20/tire.

While I'm not defending 4wheelauto - $145 is ridiculous - I know a lot of smaller specialty shops upcharge for standard service like oil changes and alignments simply because they have enough business in their normal field of work (offroad, chassis work, etc.) and doing stuff that any other shop can do doesn't allow for them to take care of the customers looking for the specialty service.

[Edited on August 26, 2009 at 9:35 PM. Reason : .]

8/26/2009 9:30:42 PM

They've always been good to me and I've recommended them as much as I can.

8/26/2009 10:47:50 PM

Quote :

"but i guess that's part of owning a real man's truck"

Uhh, we need to talk about that.

8/26/2009 11:05:18 PM

Most people don't know how to open and close a Chevy door. Its good someone knows how fragile they are

8/27/2009 9:15:45 AM

Quote :

"one thing that baffles me, though, is the fact that my brakes feel tighter. the pedal pressure is a lot better and feels like i've got a set of new pads on there. i've had many vehicles aligned but i've never experienced that. truck stops fine. i've just never experienced a firmer pedal pressure after an alignment. maybe one of y'all would know why that would happen?"

so nobody knows the reasoning behind this?

8/27/2009 8:40:59 PM

Well my car(s) feel faster after an oil change.

Placebo is the worlds strongest drug (close 2nd is nostalgia)

8/27/2009 8:50:23 PM

I went there a few weeks ago, guys did a great job. Didnt take long and def was the cheapest around.

8/27/2009 10:32:55 PM

^^ you are just weird

but seriously, they are the best by far, glad you gave them a shot

the longest they can get on there is a extended cab longbed, a crew cab long bed is like 6" too long of a wheelbase, but they can align anything even without the laser, hell on most big trucks, your only other option is to take it to cardinal international and pay $texas$ for a half ass job

i had to replace my tie rods ends on my old truck before a long trip then get it aligned, and found out my idler and pitman arm were worn out, but i didnt have time to replace them, since they couldn't get it perfect, even though it wasn't their problem, they didnt charge me anything and told me to just bring it back after i fixed everything else

8/27/2009 10:40:42 PM

I also had an experience similar. My camber was out like -2 degrees and they weren't sure what it was. balljoints were worn the fuck out. replaced em, went back and told them that I found out why it was out and I'd like to get it aligned again to make sure. They align it, make the adjustments, pull it out and say have a nice day. I was happily surprised.

8/28/2009 9:21:51 AM

anyone here ever actually been to the Digital Chassis in Durham?

8/29/2009 8:46:59 PM

Yes, often.

[Edited on August 29, 2009 at 9:51 PM. Reason : *]

8/29/2009 9:44:55 PM

Okay. So a bit of google searching turned up nothing.

The mx-3 needs an alignment. I wanted to do something a bit more aggressive to give the car better handling characteristics. It would help if I could find the manufacturer's specifications, but I can not.

Here's what I was thinking, so please advise:

Front:
1/16" Toe In
-1.5* Camber

Rear:
0" Toe
-0.5* Camber

10/15/2009 9:16:23 AM

your tires will wear like shit

10/15/2009 11:10:41 AM

So... less camber up front?

Should I also request for a little bit of toe in on the rears as well? Are the rears on a fwd going to toe out a little when at speed? I haven't found any useful info on the dynamics of rear alignment for FWD vehicles.

Eh fuck it. I'll just have a spec alignment done. I'm sure better tires > alignment.

[Edited on October 15, 2009 at 11:37 AM. Reason : .]

10/15/2009 11:28:52 AM

just stick with stock if it sees street miles

10/15/2009 3:34:11 PM