How long does a tractor alignment take?

Allow for most of a morning or afternoon, more if something is found that needs correcting first. Call with the unit and the symptoms and the store will give you a window.

Can you align the trailer at the same time?

Trailer alignment is offered here as a separate service. Booking both on the same visit is worth asking about when you call.

Our steers keep wearing on the inside edge. Is that alignment?

Usually, and it is worth confirming before the next set goes on. Bring the worn tires in with the truck; the wear pattern tells the story faster than the rack does.

Do you align pickups and vans?

Not at this location. Car and light truck alignment is not among the nine services offered here.

Heavy-Duty Truck Alignment in Albuquerque, NM

Steer tires are the receipt

A tractor out of alignment does not announce it. The engine runs the same, the truck drives acceptably, and the driver adapts to a slight pull within a week without mentioning it.

The evidence shows up on the steer tires, months later, as a set that came off well short of where the last set came off. By then the money is gone and the replacement set has started down the same road.

Reading the removed tires is how a fleet catches this without guessing. A steer worn evenly across the face has nothing to say. One worn away on an edge, or feathered so it feels smooth one way and sharp the other, has already given the answer.

What alignment on a tractor involves

Both axles, not just the front. A tractor's drive axles decide what the front axle has to correct for, and aligning the steer while the drives push the truck sideways is work that undoes itself.

The angles that matter on a heavy unit are toe above all, then camber and caster, then the relationship between the axles. The last of those is what produces a truck that runs slightly crabbed down the highway, burning steer rubber for every mile of a long haul.

Long hauls make it expensive faster

The cost of a misalignment is proportional to miles, which is why it hits harder on a fleet running out of New Mexico than on one working a city.

A unit covering a lot of interstate accumulates the wear quickly, and a tire scrubbed away on one shoulder is also a casing that will not pass for retreading. The second loss is the one fleets forget to count.

When to put a truck on the rack

After a hard impact: a curb at speed, a pothole, anything that moved a wheel.
When a set of steers wears unevenly, whatever the mileage.
When the truck pulls, wanders or will not settle after a correction.
When new steer tires are going on, so the fresh set starts straight.
After suspension or steering work.

If the truck vibrates rather than pulls, that is usually balance instead. If the trailer is the thing wearing tires, see trailer alignment, also offered here.

About this store

The Albuquerque store is a commercial location, the only Purcell listing in New Mexico, managed by John Puchi. It carries commercial, trailer, agricultural, industrial, OTR, track, and UTV and ATV tires.

The nearest Purcell locations doing heavy-duty alignment are Tucson, AZ and Colorado Springs, CO.

See the national heavy-duty truck alignment page for all 40 locations.