Align before the new steers go on
The order of these two jobs decides whether a fleet gets full value from either, and it is the thing most often got backwards.
Fit new steer tires to a misaligned truck and the fresh set spends its first miles being scrubbed by the same fault that destroyed the last one. By the time anybody books the alignment, the new tires already carry the wear pattern. The alignment is then correct and the tires are not, and they will continue wearing oddly because the damage is in the rubber.
Align first and the new set starts straight. It is the same two jobs in a different order, and the difference is a set of steer tires.
Say when you book that both are due. The store will sequence it.
What gets measured
The steer axle angles, the drive axle alignment, and the relationship between them.
That last one is what produces a truck running slightly crabbed down the road: the drives pushing in a direction the steer has to correct for continuously. It is quiet, it is constant, and it costs fuel as well as rubber.
Where the measurement points at a bent or worn component rather than at an adjustment, the store will say so. Aligning around a worn part produces work that comes undone.
The trailer is the other half
A trailer that tracks crooked drags the tractor's drives sideways for every loaded mile, and the driver feels very little of it. Trailer alignment is offered here, and measuring the combination is what settles which end is at fault.
The casing argument
A steer scrubbed away on one shoulder will not pass at the plant, and the Purcell retread plant is on this same road. A fleet collecting casings for the program has a direct financial reason to keep alignment right, beyond the tires themselves. See retreading.
About this store
The Boise store runs sixteen services, carries all nine Purcell tire categories, and is managed by Tyrel Perkins. Idaho Falls Commercial and Twin Falls also align heavy trucks.
See the national heavy-duty truck alignment page for all 40 locations.