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Old 08-27-2009, 10:18 AM   #1
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Re: will the weight of the veggie oil throw off my alignment?

With the solid front axle in a bus you will not suffer from caster and camber changes (uneven ones anyway) from an uneven load like you would in a car with long-short arm suspension or struts. That said, Smitty is absolutely correct and you will want to keep your bus somewhat evenly loaded. However, a couple hundred pounds of veggie oil is just a drop in the bucket really. Snowplows with 9 foot patrol wings hanging off the side of the truck and all their rigging typically only get one leaf added to the wing-side spring packs to compensate to put it in perspective.

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Old 09-03-2009, 11:24 PM   #2
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Re: will the weight of the veggie oil throw off my alignment?

This is a leaf spring. A leaf is one individual piece of flat spring steel within the spring pack.



So I should have looked at the fact that your bus has a 6.2L making it smaller and most likely having independent suspension with coil spring. In light of this information, yes, veggie oil could theoretically throw your alignment off, but you're going to need a ton of it to make a small difference. I wouldn't worry about it. I've had to do some alignments on class C (van-based) motorhomes before and I can assure you they are a pain in the ass and when all is said and done they still handle like a motorhome. Other than major toe issues, none of the other alignment issues are going to result in tire wear issues before dry rot sets in for the majority of RV owners.
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Old 10-14-2009, 03:23 PM   #3
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Re: will the weight of the veggie oil throw off my alignment?

I'm curious about this as well. I have a 35ft 66 passenger school bus with a 40gal deisel tank on the right front side. My plan is to install an 80gal wvo tank on the left front side. I also plan to put in a 40gal water tank (for the shower) on the right side, which I hope will balance the load, but of course it won't always be full. Would this be a sound plan?
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Old 10-14-2009, 03:44 PM   #4
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Re: will the weight of the veggie oil throw off my alignment?

The kids in the bus didn't always sit evenly when I was going to school and the bus still went right down the road fine. Your larger chassis is going to have more room for error than a smaller chassis.
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Old 10-14-2009, 04:29 PM   #5
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Re: will the weight of the veggie oil throw off my alignment?

Sweet, thanks for the reassurance
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