Set your ride height with your tires on the car, to make sure the chassis is at the correct level for when you will be adjusting the wheel alignment.
Remove the wheels and ensure the chassis is flat by placing the car directly onto a flat board. Undo the topdeck and use RC MAKER Tweak Stick to pin down the bulkheads whilst re-tightening the topdeck
Check your droop on droop blocks and ensure each corner is set correctly (I do this with the dampers attached)
Remove droop blocks from underneath the car and attach a setup station, along with your choice of caster gauges. Our new RC MAKER Digital Caster Gauge is a really cool and accurate way of adjusting your caster whilst on the setup station. The old "pointer" method also does the job, so install them on whatever end of the car you will be working on first. Make sure you have a battery installed in your car from here on in, this will effect your results massively!
I generally start with the rear. First of all adjust your camber and caster so that you achieve your desired camber and caster. Some people like to set caster first and then turn both turnbuckles the same way and by the same amount to do camber. Personally I do it all at once, but this can take a bit of practise. To keep it simple, set caster first, and then camber by adjusting both turnbuckles the same is a fool proof way of doing it.
Once you have set your camber and caster on the rear, you can set your rear toe. DO NOT set rear toe until camber and caster are perfect. Rear toe is often set at ride height, but you can also set rear toe under compression or "gain". This is personal preference, and also depends on what shims you are using under ART link if you want to try this method. When setting your rear toe, it is a cool idea to compress the suspension and monitor the toe change as the suspension compresses. This is your "Active Rear Toe" at work, which can be adjusted via the shims under the outer pivot of the toe link. Less shims here = greater toe increase, more shims = lesser toe increase.
Repeat the same procedure for the front, however I like to set toe out differently to most people. Instead of setting toe, I actually set the amount of degrees lock I want left and right. Turn your wheels one way and you can slide the gauge to check the lock angle on inside and outside. Match these the same both sides by adjusting the inner wheel turnbuckle. You should also try to aim for "overall" 2 degrees of total toe out with the steering lock you have set. For instance, if you set each side to 30 degrees inside lock, but you have 4 degrees toe out overall in the centre, you may want to bring the inside lock down to 29 degrees both sides, in order to reduce toe out to a more normal setting. Then just use trim on radio to ensure the car is going straight. This method gives a super balanced feeling left and right! Note; if you cannot get the lock you want with the desired 2 degrees toe out, you may want to consider using RC MAKER Bellcrank Limiters to limit or increase the throw. This can help to give both desired lock and toe out! This is all done manually without your transmitter, just by manually moving your steering left and right.
Lastly, remove the setup station and install setup wheels. From here we will check the tweak. You can see how we adjust the suspension tweak on the Awesomatix here.
Install the tires you will be running, and double check your ride height. Ensure that you are adjusting both ride height screws by the same amount as not to effect the tweak we have just set.
Turn on your radio and ensure the front wheels are pointing as straight as possible by eye - if not you can adjust it with sub trim to get it close. We can trim it on track to ensure the car tracks perfectly straight. Ensure your steering lock is set to bottom out each way, while leaving a very small amount of play before it bottoms out, to ensure no binding or tweaking. I set mine maximum and then back them off 1 click each way to allow a very small amount of play.
