What is Camber? How does it work? How does Camber affect my car?
This article looks at Camber in relation to steering and suspension geometry.
Camber plates are basically adapters for your vehicle’s struts. They replace the stock strut top mounts that connect the strut to the chassis. Unlike stock strut top mounts, which are fixed, and can not be adjusted in any way, camber plates allow a wide range of adjustments to your camber settings.
How Car Camber Affects Handling
Most stock vehicle suspension systems do allow a certain degree of camber adjustment. However, the amount of adjustment is usually very limited, and to know how much you have changed the camber using a stock system, you need complex and expensive wheel alignment equipment. On top of this, access to stock camber adjustment hardware is always on the underside of the vehicle, and a vehicle must be jacked up or on a lift if you wish to access the stock camber adjustment hardware. This is why changing the stock camber settings is not just limited, but it also means you have to visit a wheel alignment shop every time you make a change. This is both time consuming and very expensive if you need to make more than one change.
Camber plates greatly simplify and speed up the camber adjustment process. They replace your stock strut top mounts. They maintain the connection between strut and chassis just like your stock top mounts, but they offer a much wider range of camber adjustment by allowing the strut to move within a much greater range. Camber plates, on the other hand, do more than just improve the camber’s capacity. They also make the process a lot easier. They move the camber adjustment hardware from the underside to the top of your strut towers. This means you can instantly modify the camber while the vehicle is on the ground. This implies that you can adjust the camber at the track to suit different types of tracks, driving styles, or changing road conditions.
Negative vs. Positive camber
Changing camber using your camber plates allows you to run more negative camber than stock. Negative camber is good for cornering performance because it improves cornering grip. Negative camber helps your vehicle achieve the ideal tire contact patch during cornering. Since the tire now leans more towards the inside of the vehicle, the outside wheel in the corner will gradually edge back towards zero camber. This means that your tire will sit mostly flat and flush against the road surface as you speed through the corner, giving you the maximum grip your tire size can achieve. However, too much camber can result in negative performance and reduced contact patch. In general, most performance suspension setups benefit from anywhere between -1 and -2.5 camber. Anything beyond this is usually done for cosmetic purposes of vehicle “stance” and does not positively impact cornering performance.
Positive camber is rarely seen on cars nowadays; it was more common on older vehicles that needed it to compensate for suspension shortcomings or lighten up the steering wheel, which made low-speed manoeuvering in cars without power steering easier.
MaXpeedingRods Camber plates features
- All MaXpeedingRods camber plates are high precisions CNC cut from high-grade aluminum alloys that offer high strength, low weight, and rust-free.
- MaXpeedingRods camber plates are equipped with high-strength, high-quality hardware that is zinc-plated to prevent rusting.
- All our camber plates feature high-precision CNC cut or laser etched high-visibility markings to ensure you can always accurately set your camber to the desired levels.
- Available with rubber or pillowball mounts, MaXpeedingRods camber plates are a great choice for a wide variety of different applications. Our pillow-ball or spherical bushing top mounts are teflon coated to ensure longevity minimize friction and radial forces exerted on your suspension, which provides ultimate performance.
The MaXpeedingRods website offers a hassle-free shopping experience and lets you easily choose and compare camber plates for a wide range of popular vehicle platforms. If you have any doubts or questions, feel free to ask for professional assistance via our website maxpeedingrods.com. (Use code:Blog to get 5% discount)