Vocational trucks lose their alignment at the job site
Highway tractors spend their lives on smooth pavement. Dump trucks, mixers, roll-off trucks and other construction vehicles do not. They climb in and out of excavations, cross rough site entrances, mount curbs to reach a pour, and back over debris.
Every one of those is a chance to knock an axle or a steering component out of position. Each impact is minor on its own. Over a season they add up, and a vocational truck can drift a long way from its settings without any single event anyone would remember.
The cost shows up in two places. Tires on these trucks are often expensive, specialized and hard-working, and a misaligned axle scrubs them away. Steering and suspension parts take extra strain from running at the wrong angles, which brings forward their own replacement.
When to align a vocational truck
When new steer tires go on. A fresh set is a large purchase, and starting it on a truck that is out of alignment wastes part of it from the first day.
After the season's heavy work. Once the busiest stretch of construction is over, check the trucks that did most of it.
After any steering or suspension repair, and after any impact hard enough that the driver mentions it.
When a truck pulls or wanders, or the steering wheel sits off center on a straight road.
Booking it
Tell the store what the truck is and what work it does, since a mixer and a dump truck carry their weight very differently. The national heavy-duty truck alignment page covers what the measurement includes.
If the truck pulls a trailer, trailer alignment can be done at the same visit, and damaged wheels found during the check are wheel refurbishing, both at this store.
Other stores nearby
The Salt Lake City Truck Tire Center and Ogden also align heavy trucks.
About this store
This is the Salt Lake City Commercial & Consumer store, managed by Brian Morris. The Salt Lake City page explains how the city's listings divide the work.
See the national heavy-duty truck alignment page for all 40 locations.