Camber kits (and poor design)

[Zdster]

I would like to make people aware of the potential issues that can be faced with camber kits. First we should start by discussing what is camber? From Whitelines website:

"Camber is the inclination of the wheel from the vertical when viewed from the front. When the top of the wheel leans out you have positive camber, lean in equal’s negative camber."

Now as many of you are aware when you put on new wheels or you lower your car or even hitting a pothole or curb can push your camber out. Now in most instances this is not a big deal, but when a car is lowered significantly camber can become quite harsh. To alleviate the effects of camber you turn to a camber kit which can allow for adjustment outside of the parametres of the normal car settings.

Rear camber kits can range anywhere from adding additional washers to 'proper kits' that are sold on the market.

Front camber kits are a bit more complicated. The point of this thread is to bring awareness to some of the poor designs on the market and the potential issues that have arisen.

Here is what a camber kit looks like:


The metal silver piece (the ball joint) is adjustable so that it slides back and forth (therefore adjusting the camber). On either end of the metal piece are two bolts that lock the camber angle in place. One of the main problems identified with this design is that the channels that the bolts sit in are made of only a small amount of metal and have been known to bend or break. Skunk2 released a revision to their kit which now tries to stiffen up the area and stop the ball joint ripping out.

This thread was just to bring awareness to you all about the kits on the market and to research them well before committing. I have attached some links below to show some real world examples:
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=762468
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1767312
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=635008
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1876321
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1560685
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=2034061
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1541857

P.S. camber does not effect tire wear at the same rate toe does.