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| Vorshlag Camber Plate Secrets |
One of Vorshlag's most famous product lines is our rugged and reliable camber adjustment plate, also known as a "monoball top mount" or simply a "camber plate". These assemblies are used in place of the rubber strut top mount on McPherson strut cars, to replace the squishy rubber mount (that deflects badly under load and reduces wheel camber) and to add easy camber and sometimes caster adjustment. The benefits on a car that is tracked or autocrossed are huge, with a reduction on camber loss and the ability to add additional "static negative camber". These aspects combine to greatly reduce tire wear while cornering, under racing or agressive street driving, as well as to increasing front end grip and lower lap times.
We've sold thousands of these camber plates since 2003 and we feel it is the best offering for the market, for each model we cover. Some of our competitors agree - because several are now not making their own plate and are instead Vorshlag camber plate dealers.
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Bigger, Better Sphercial Bearing
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So what makes Vorshlag camber plates better than anyone else's? It all starts with the spherical bearing. All true "camber plates" use a metal spherical bearing (sometimes called a mono-ball), and this bearing is the most important part of the camber plate.
  One-piece, CNC machined, alloy steel bearing holders. The spherical bearing has a press-fit + snap ring secured fit, for serviceability
A sphercial is basically a heavy duty ball and socket joint. It serves two purposes.
1. First, the vertical loads from the front suspension are transferred through the McPherson strut into the spherical bearing. These loads can be substantial, in the range of 5000 lbs in the case of a pothole impact load.
2. Second, the angle of the strut relative to the chassis changes as the suspension moves through it's range of travel. The Spherical bearing accommodates this movement by allowing rotation about the center of the sphere but eliminating movement in any other direction. (axial rotation)
3. In addition, the bearing must have zero free play. Any amount of looseness in the bearing leads to noise (typically a light tapping / clunking sound)
To summarize, the bearing must handle a substantial thrust load from the strut, yet rotate freely about the center point of the bearing. It must operate in harsh conditions (dirt, water, heat, cold) and do so with a long service life. The spherical bearing isn't exactly the place to cut corners when building a camber plate. Yet that is exactly what some of our competitors do...
(This picture is un-doctored. The bearing at right came out of a competitor's camber plate. And it was completely shot)
A picture says a lot. The spherical bearing on the left is the one used in all Vorshlag camber plates - expensive, US made, big and strong. The little bearing on the right is used in most of our competitors' camber plate designs (no one else's BMW or Subaru camber plates use the same size or larger spherical than our's). And people wonder why their camber plate bearings start clattering and fall apart after a short while? One pothole can kill the bearing on the right. A quick technical comparison of the two bearings:
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Vorshlag |
Competition |
| Part Number |
US built, Stainless casing, Performance Racing Series, Teflon Lined |
Aurora Commercial Series COM-10T Teflon Lined or Chinese Equivalent |
| Outer Diameter |
1.375" |
1.1875" |
| Inner Diameter |
.75" |
.625" |
| Width |
.875" |
.625" |
| Maximum Load Rating |
7730 lbs |
~4200 lbs |
Key Points:
- The load rating on the Vorshlag Spherical Bearing is considerably higher than the competition's.
- The larger spherical will have a much longer service life. Service life is defined as the point at which the bearing has noticeable play, and should be changed.
- The larger bearing has a much larger factor of safety (Engineering Factor), with respect to impact loads. Assuming a 5000 lb impact load on the bearing from striking a pot hole at speed, the Vorshlag bearing will be unaffected where as the Competitor's bearing will likely be permanently damaged.
Given the importance of the spherical bearing to the overall performance of the camber plate, it was a simple decision for Vorshlag to incorporate the larger bearing into our design. We decided that the increase in performance was worth the increase in bearing cost versus the cheaper, smaller bearings used by our competition.
 
Vorshlag camber plates are the Best in the World - because we have the best design and use only the best bearings!
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Sealed Radial Bearing Spring Perches
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Another key element in making the Vorshlag camber plate so indestructible is the way we build the entire assembly. Instead of making a "one size fits all" camber plate that just sits on top of the existing spring perch and strut shaft, we include a new upper spring perch with all camber plates we sell. This allows us to build the camber plate/perch assembly to each customer's order - it will fit their spring diameter, their exact strut shaft upper stem profile, have the right "Stack up height" for their application, and even allow us to adjust rebound and bump travel in the suspension - just by moving the camber plate/perch up/down relative to the strut shaft.
That's a lot to digest there, so if you want to know more just email us or give us a call. Let's look at the radial bearing, which is a key aspect in all of this. Isolating the strut shaft rotation on a front McPherson strut suspension is critical. The spherical bearing (explained above) is only designed to pivot axially, or about the strut shaft top. Spherical bearings are NOT made to rotate about the strut shaft centerline, and if they are subjected to these steering loads they will wear out quickly. Seems simple enough - there is already one radial bearing assembly in the strut itself, so just add a radial bearing between the camber plate and the strut shaft and you are good to go.
The problem lies in the type of radial bearings some camber plate manufacturers use. Most of our competitors use a thin, flat Torrington style bearing that sandwiches between the existing spring perch and their camber plate. There is no good way to seal these types of bearings from the elements, and that's where things break down. The problems arise when water and road grit wash away the grease on these "open to the elements" flat bearings. They quickly lock up, which translates to stiction in the steering you can feel, and noises the driver can hear. Pop! Pop! Pop! Very distinctive, disturbing, and it happens very quickly - sometimes after a few times driving with your new camber plates in the rain. The solution? "Remove the camber plates then clean and re-grease your bearing!". After every few times you drive the car in the rain, or every few months, whichever comes first. That sounds like hours of work and unnecessary maintenance hassle.
If you drive around with a locked up radial bearing for too long, all steering loads then have to go through the spherical bearing, and with it twisting within its casing, it quickly wears out. Sometimes just 2-3 weeks of driving is all it can take. Then... Bang! Bang! Bang! over the smallest of bumps. That is unacceptable to most people.
The Vorshlag solution does away with these maintenance and wear issues by providing a similar solution to the factory strut top mount - a dedicated radial bearing assembly, made up of a sealed, ball bearing unit, with either one or two rows of ball bearings. It is pre-greased and sealed from the elemtns. The load rating is substantially higher than even the factory unit, and with two seals the typical road grit and rain cannot wash out the grease. This means the radial bearing and spherical bearing can last for many, many years without periodic maintenance or replacement.
Our sealed radial bearings have a taller stack-up height, so to compensate we machine a specific spring perch to minimize total height of the perch + bearing. We will either use the OEM spring perch (or make a CNC billet version) for use with stock diameter springs or make a new upper spring perch to fit your 2.25", 60mm or 2.5" ID coilover springs. Then we press in the radial bearings (single or double row), then the adapter bushings to fit the customer's exact strut shaft - for a perfect, noise-free fit. It's much more costly and complicated to do it this way, and it means every order has to be custom built, but we're pretty good at making them to order. Most orders are built and shipped out within 4 hours, even drop-shipped orders to our dealer's customers. We have thousands of perches and adapter bushings on hand to fit any strut style known to man, and we can custom machine bushings to fit new strut models in-house on our lathe.
Many Vorshlag camber plate customers are former customers of our competitors, but tired of the banging and popping of their high-maintenance plates. With our plates you can pretty much put them on and forget about them for the life of the car. See our customers' experiences below. Fast adjustment track-side, but otherwise hassle and noise-free camber plates? Yep, you've found the right solution.
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Customer Testimonials
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Don't take our word for it. Our customer's and their experiences are the best selling point for our camber plate designs. One customer below has seen over 125,000 miles and 8 years of track & street use on one set of untouched Vorshlag camber plates:
"I'd like to let you guys know that I just crossed the 100k mile mark with my Vorshlag camber plates and they're still tight and rattle & squeak free! They've outlasted 2 sets of wheel bearings, a set of control arms and a LOT of track and canyon driving (and a daily commute!) Congratulations on making such a great product!" - Joe C
That unprovoked endorsement was sent in back in 2010 - Joe has since told us that his plates have now logged over 125,000 mile of use and are still silent and trouble-free. We've seen many other customers each log tens of thousands of miles of trouble free use as well - it is the norm, not the exception.
We have also had countless hundreds of racers log thousands of races on Vorshlag camber plates in HPDE, autocross, club racing, pro racing, rallycross and pro rally levels. From the heights of Pike's Peake down to the corkscrew at Leguna Seca, bombing around the Nürburgring or Silverstone, from Targa Tazmania to Targa Newfoundland, 25 hours of Thunderhill, you name it - we've had our camber plates used and abused there. Here's a good story from a rally racer and Pike's Peake class champion Brianne Corn. She has Vorshlag camber plates, front and rear, on both her 2005 STi (below right) used for Pike's Peake and her Open Light Subaru Impreza (below left - click for video) that she races in Rally America events:
Quoted from her blog: Brianne encountered ... problems on Stage 12 on a ‘kick’ (a jump that was mis-marked in the rally notes) that caused damage to the rear suspension. She ... stopped to check the damage and found a bent rear left strut which caused the rear wheel and tire to rub against the wheel well. Miraculously, only the strut was damaged and the Vorshlag camber plate was not harmed, and Brianne was able to finish the stage (and win her class at the event!).
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