Camber

Many guys who are at some techie level in cars and automobiles may have come across the term Camber many times. People who are unknown to Camber may think of it as very big and technical term but in reality, it has very little effect on the vehicle in general. In light utility vehicles and all other average cars, camber has no large effect because they are not put into much of high speed nor into much of loading. This doesn’t mean that Camber is not important at all, Camber is important when dealing with load vehicles and high-speed cars where an inch of tire-road contact plays a very big role.

Camber is simply the angle made by tires of the vehicle with the imaginary verticle axis of the vehicle. This angle is very small and is of range below 5°. This angle is created either by the control arm itself at turns or it is fixed by the manufacturer in cars. In cases where the

In cases where the Camber needs to be fixed already, there is used double wishbone suspension which holds the tire from upper and lower part and doesn’t let the angle to be changed.

In a case of self-adjusting Camber, MacPherson Strut is used which doesn’t hold the upper part of the vehicle and camber adjusts itself at every turn. This is used in daily vehicles where speed is not very high.

There are two types of Camber:

1. Positive Camber
2. Negative Camber

1. Negative Camber – Negative Camber of the vehicle is the one in which upper part of the vehicle is inside and lower part of the vehicle is outside. Here, the upper part of the tire is in negative quadrant of the imaginary 4 quadrants cartesian system. Negative Camber is beneficial in those vehicles where high stability is required. High stability is attained in negative Camber because of more contact with lower part of the tire which makes it easier for the rider to control the vehicle while cornering.                                                           
2. Positive Camber – Positive Camber is the one when the upper part of the tire is leaning outside the vehicle and lower part of the tire leans inside. The upper part of the vehicle is in positive quadrant. This type of Camber is used in heavy load vehicles because while loading, the high load put on the vehicle will push the lower part of the tire outside and upper part of the tire will come inside, causing a negative camber automatically. So, to overcome this, there is put some positive camber already in which upper part is outside and lower part inside (less contact with the road). So when the load is put on the vehicle, the vehicle comes in zero camber and acceleration can be made easier even under high loads.