Coleman Outfitter 550 Adjusting Toe in

[Dale Stansbery]

It looks like I have a steering toe in(out) issue with my Outfitter 550. It's a 2021 with pretty low hours so nothing should be too worn. After slowly driving the left front tire over a mound of dirt today, making tight turns has become much more difficult. Just eye balling it, it looks like the tires toe out. I suspect they always have some, but some how I made it worse today. My question is, do the tie rods only use one lock nut on the outer end which is visible, or is there a second lock nut on the inner end under the boot? The maintenance manual doesn't address the tie rod configuration, though I suspect there is only one. If anyone has actually made this adjustment, is there any thing to look out for? The manual makes it look like a pretty straight forward procedure.

 

Edit: I was able to find the parts diagram for the steering and there is only one lock nut on the outboard end of tie rod. That will make life easier.

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by Dale Stansbery
Added info

[Dale Stansbery]

Toe-in adjustment successful. I used the string method since there's almost no way to follow the manual and measure the distance between the tire centers at the rear of the tire. Also using the string method allows 1 person to set the toe-in. The string method uses a string stretched along the sides of the rear tires to the front tires. The string just touches the front and back of the rear tire and should be parallel to the side of the front tire if the toe-in is neutral. One caveat, the front track on the Outfitter 550 is 15mm narrower than the rear tires, so the string shouldn't touch the front tires, but be parallel and about 7.5mm (15mm/2) away.. I'm attaching three photos to help describe the procedure. First, the string stretched along the side rear to front tires. Second and third are the left and right front tires showing the misalignment before I started. The gaps between the string at the back of the tires in photos 2 and 3 is the amount the tires were toed out, the string at the front of the tire is just touching the tire. As can be seen in the photos, the toe-out was considerable on the left front and not as bad on the right front. The specs are for ~0 to 18mm toe-in. I set mine at 10mm toe in. I didn't take photos of the final string position but it was 5mm closer to the rear of the tire than the front giving me a total 10mm toe-in. One caveat, before adjusting the tie rod, slide the boot clamp out on the tie rod off the boot freeing the tie rod to rotate without winding the boot around the tie rod. I didn't and was watching the string and tire and didn't see the boot being twisted around. I had to adjust the left tie rod so far that I had the boot twisted tightly around the tie rod. I also suggest using two sets of jack stands and string both sides at the same time. It makes it easy to set the tires parallel and straight ahead with the steering wheel centered.

 

 

[Greg Kilgore]

I hate to disappoint but the way you have the tires now. With the front of the tires further from each other with the back closer, is called toe-out.

Toe-out will make the sxs roadwalk easier. 

(Also if the rear tires stick out further that the front. The string shouldn't touch any of the front tires. The rear of the front tires should be equal distance from the string. And the front of the front tires should be equal distance from the string. And the front of the front tires should be further away from the string than the rear of the front tires.)

See pic

 

I find it hard to adjust the toe-in/toe-out with the string method.

I use 2 pieces of U-strut.

Make sure the machine is level front to back and side to side. Make sure the steering wheel is secured in the center position.

Jack up the machine, remove all wheels, set the weight of the machine on jack stands as close to the ball joint as possible so the weight of the machine is still on the suspension.

Then I bolt the u-strut on the rear rotor (enlarge holes u-strut if needed). So the u-strut is on the bottom two lug nuts. Extends all the way past the front rotors. Make sure the u-strut is level front to back.

Now you can use a tape measure to adjust the front of the rotor is slightly further away from the u-strut than the back of the rotor.

I try to have 1/4 toe-in on each side or 1/2 overall toe-in. 

This will give solid materials to take measurements off of.

After making adjustment, take for a test drive at low speeds to try it out. And re-adjust if needed.

[Dale Stansbery]

The photos I showed are what it was when I started, and indeed with a lot of toe out, especially the left tire. I didn't take photos after correcting to10mm toe in. Thanks for the added drawings, they will be very instructive for others who may be interested. I only have about 40 -50 hours on the machine so I'm pretty sure it came with the excessive toe out. I should have labeled my photos better, but I wanted to show how you can measure toe in(out) with the string method . The steering is noticeably easier with the correct toe in. It would be wise to check any machine's alignment if one hasn't done so already. The manual suggests checking every 100 hours, but I'd also suggest doing it at 0 hours. The advantage I saw with the string method is being able to get the front tires parallel with the rear, and when properly adjusted, the string was not touching the rear; cleared ~ 7-8mm (15mm/2), and the front cleared an additional 5mm to get a total of 10mm toe in.

[Greg Kilgore]

My bad. Don't read so good. LoL

 

Glad you got it fixed. My Axis had a tie rod lock nut loose at 75hr.

 

You are correct. The toe is the life of the tires and should be checked before hour 1 is put on it.

 

1/4 inch is 6.3mm (+ -)

 

Enjoy the ride and be safe this summer 

[Dan_Lockwood]

Keep in mind that when driving down the road, you cannot have one wheel more/less toed in/out than the other.  Because of the nature of the steering system, your tires will self-center to have equal toe in/out while driving straight, not necessarily steering wheel straight though.  Doing statics adjustments can be subjective.  Is the steering wheel really aligned dead center???  So, you set your toe in to whatever you want and then test drive the SxS.  If while going straight the steering wheel is not straight, adjust one tie rod in and the other out until the steering wheel is straight.  Just my opinion and how I have done it for years.

I'll admit that SxS tires are very hard to get a good side wall alignment as the treads tend to overlap the sidewalls quite a bit.  You could jack up each front tire and spin the tire and at the same time use a nail or something sharp to score a line around the tread of the tire.  Do this on both front tires.  Now you can measure the distance between the two scribed lines to get your toe measurements.  I use a carpenter's square on the concrete and align with the scribe line.  This allows you to measure at the horizontal centerline of the wheel/tire for a true reading.

Also keep in mind, these SxS's have very poorly designed control arms.  I have a UT400 that the right front tire obviously leaned in at the top compared to the left side wheel/tire.  After putting it up on the hoist, I determined that the lower or upper control arms on the right side were off, OR, the attachment mounts on the frame were not correct.  Either way, there's NO camber adjustment on these, nor many of the other main stream brands that I can find.  I ultimately had to cut the lower control arm and shorten it about 3/16" to get an equal camber angle to the left side.  My front right tire showed quite obvious inside tread tire wear.  I'm now happy with the results.  But with that being said, how do we really know that the rear tires are pointing straight forward???

Sorry for rambling...

Dan