The Golf Cart Wheel and Tire Alignment Reference
It’s crucial to keep your golf cart’s wheels and tires aligned for the ease of use, performance, and quality of the ride. Your alignment is thrown off by regular use (running into curbs, potholes, and rough terrain), by driving a lot of miles, and by using wheels and tires that aren’t standard sizes.
Although it may seem complicated, aligning your golf cart is not difficult. Our three step quick-guide below will teach you what you need to know to get your wheels and tires lined up, to adjust your toe to 1/8 inch, and your cart on the straight and narrow!
Step 1: Verify your Camber!
First, lay a straight flat edge on the ground and check to see if there is a space between the edge of your driver’s side front tire and the edge. We must modify the cart’s heim joints if there is a gap. The two joints where the wheel assembly attaches to the steering assembly are called heim joints.
Put the parking brake on and lift the front of the cart. Once the cart is jacked up, loosen the nut on the inside of your lower control arm (bottom heim joint) and adjust your tire to even-out the camber based on the gap your tire had when held next to the straight-edge. If your caber is out (the top of the tire is closer to the frame than the bottom), move the bottom of the tire closer to the center of the cart’s frame. The top of the tire should be pushed toward the center of the cart’s frame if your camber is in, which means that the bottom of the tire is closer to the frame than the top.
Lower your cart and check your camber again after adjusting the heim joint to a more uniform (flush/straight) tire position. The second heim joint, which is located just above the heim joint on the lower control arm on the same side of the cart, will be adjusted if your camber is still out of whack. If your camber is still out / this does not fix your camber, repeat the process on both joints and continue to adjust as necessary.
After doing this on your own a few times, you’ll quickly improve at eyeballing it. Follow the same procedure to fix the front tire on your passenger side after finishing the driver’s side front tire.
Step 2: Align the Cart, Adjust the Toe In / Out
Face your cart as if it were about to knock you over. The distance between the inside tires on the left and right sides of your cart should be measured by pulling a tape measure across the front of your tires. Lay on your stomach and move to the side of your cart. Repeat the procedure from inside edge to inside edge on the backside of the tires. Our ideal is to have a difference of 1/8″ – 1/4″ difference in space from the front set of tires edge-to-edge to the rear set of tires edge-to-edge. The cart’s stability will be improved by this.
When you are done measuring, we will need to make adjustments to reach our desired range. Set your parking brake, then lift the front of your cart. We will be adjusting your toe in. If you need to change the direction in which the tire is adjusted, loosen the tie rod on the driver’s side wheel and twist it left or right to change the toe in.
When turning the rod toward the back of the cart, the tire will turn inwards if you need to adjust it toward the front of the cart. If the tire needs to be adjusted outward (or out, towards the back of the cart), turn the tie rod in the direction of the front of the cart, which will turn the tire out.
Once the rods on both sides are adjusted to our deal toe in of 1/8″ – 1/4″ difference between the front and rear side of the front tire set, we will drop the cart down, roll it forwards 20 feet, and re-check the alignment. To detect any variations in our toe after the adjustment, this is done. Check the toe in again after the cart has rolled forward and make any necessary adjustments if the alignment is incorrect.
BOOM! Enjoy the improved ride smoothness, better fuel efficiency, tighter performance, and reduced tire wear now that everything is in place.