# Rear wheels out of plumb? Bad title, see inside for more... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 4, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803 "2007-05-04T20:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/1 "2007-05-04T20:14:37Z")
Not sure where this should go; feel free to move if necessary. I’m noticing something lately on cars as I’m commuting to work. I’m seeing many cars that have the rear two wheels sort of tipped in at the top, as if the axle is bent. If I’m in the center lane and a car passes me on the left, I can see that compared with the front right wheel which appears to be straight and plumb, the back wheel looks as if the top of the wheel is maybe an inch or two closer to the center of the car than the bottom is. They’re not wobbling, just sort of solidly out of plumb. Not sure if I’m explaining this well. As it pulls farther up, I see that both rear wheels are like this. At first I thought it was just on more “urbanized” vehicles, like with spinner hubs and such, but I’m seeing it on all types of cars. I’d think that this is hell on the tires- they’d wear unevenly- and can’t be good for the wheels themselves. And how is it accomplished? What could the advantage be? Please don’t tell me I’m imagining this… ---
**Author:** ![Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/41988e/32.png) [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dazzling_White_Diamonds)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/2 "2007-05-04T21:05:29Z")
[QUOTE=McNew] Please don’t tell me I’m imagining this… [/QUOTE] You’re not imagining it - I’ve seen it several times myself. I can’t imagine that it’s a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/3 "2007-05-05T00:25:41Z")
It’s definitely not a good thing either for handling or tire life. The most common cause that I’ve noticed for this is that the suspension has been lowered on the cheap, without adjusting the camber. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/4 "2007-05-05T09:02:26Z")
Place the blame on the do it your selfer… i worked at Home Depot for yrs, and daily we would see people wheel a cart of 25 bags of cement, or 30 boxes of slate tile and pack it into the back of an SUV thinking they had a vehicle tough enough to “take it” Often we would refuse to load such vehicles, or even make the owners sign a waiver for vehicular damage, road liability. Didn’t stop them. They’d just wheel their 1800 lbs of stuff out, load it them selves and then hit the parking lot speed bumps doing 30… hope their home improvement project savings covered the loss of value on their vehicles… regards FML ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/5 "2007-05-05T12:34:13Z")
I haven’t seen any new vehicles like that, I’ll have to watch. I would think like you that a design that was like that would be bad on the tires. I would expect there will be lawsuits if it’s a bad mfg. design. I followed a pickup for a short distance were the back tires were almost down to the rim and the fromt tires kept lifting off the road. I stayed far enough back so I would be in the acident when catistrophic failure occured. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/6 "2007-05-05T13:36:49Z")
Front wheel drive vehicles don’t hav a rear axle. As such, the designers are free to make less sophisticated (ie cheaper) suspensions that don’t keep the wheels plumb as the suspension flexes up & down due to road bumps or cargo loading. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/7 "2007-05-05T14:35:10Z")
Last weekend I watched a guy drive out of a Home Depot parking lot in a Honda Ridgline with at least 30 pieces of sheetrock in the back. The rear bumper was almost on the ground and the rear tires looked flat. About half a mile down the road, something snapped under the Honda and a bunch of sparks came out from under the vehicle. As I drove by I noticed the left rear tire was now firmly planted well up inside of the wheel well. When I got home I checked the payload rating of the Honda and it is about 1500 pounds. The load of sheetrock was at least a ton and most of it hung aft of the rear axle. Someone learned an expensive lesson as to the meaning of load capacity. ---
**Author:** ![zelie\_zelerton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/8 "2007-05-05T17:38:07Z")
It’s not a DIY thing. Smarts have this as a design feature. The tipped-in wheels help maintain balance apparently. I’ve seen it on several other makes of car though naturally I can’t recall what they were at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/9 "2007-05-05T20:41:50Z")
I of course wanted to avoid the acident. I had a hang during the edit time, and closed the browser until SD was responding again. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rear-wheels-out-of-plumb-bad-title-see-inside-for-more/402803/10 "2007-05-05T21:32:57Z")
> **[Camber angle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camber_angle)** > > Camber angle is one of the angles made by the wheels of a vehicle; specifically, it is the angle between the vertical axis of a wheel and the vertical axis of the vehicle when viewed from the front or rear. It is used in the design of steering and suspension. If the top of the wheel is farther out than the bottom (that is, tilted away from the axle), it is called positive camber; if the bottom of the wheel is farther out than the top, it is called negative camber. > Camber angle alters the handli...