Steering wheel angle while towing

astraelraen wrote:
My problem is both left and right. Generally the wheel will be "off" in the direction you made a turn. I.e. if you made a right turn and go to straighten the wheel it will be off center to the right and vice versa.

I still thinks it's the lightweight P Range belted tires. First imagine them very flattened. The tread belt will avoid center and move to one side or the other of the sidewalls and cause the thrustline of the truck to extremely dog-track.

Now imagine a more subtle dog-track situation with a very slight off-center treadline caused by overloaded tires combined with the need for increased tractive load. This increased rear thrust from towing should be located just marginally to one side. One might be able to see this when parked. The belt (and sidewall bulge), on both tires, will be to one side or the other rather than dead centered. This will cause the natural steering play in worm-gear steering to "lay" to one side or the other. A centered steering wheel during straight-line travel depends upon a level road at normal rear axle tire alignment and correct, non-sticking, self-centering caster.

Some muscle-car manufacturers have slightly off-set the live rear axle in the past to correct hard launch because the axle always loads one tire more than the other due to extreme driveshaft torque. The deflected sidewall effect, the off-center "squirm" the OP experiences, is similar in a negative way.

That's my theory.

Wes
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