Lots of times I get a setup sent to me and it has maximum caster. This results in very strong forces on my wheel, so many times I bring the caster down (without adjusting anything else). Will this have an effect on the way the car turns or tires wear, besides just the force?

It will reduce the change of camber that steering causes, which may give you more/less grip, more/less tyre temperatures (on the inside edge) and more/less tyre wear.

Run a setup you like with your preferred castor and FFB strength, then put the maximum castor, adjust FFB strength so it's the same as before and compare lap times and tyre data.

If the setup with high caster is a good one, then you're better off reducing your force feedback strength than reducing the caster.

The reason being that reducing caster will reduce the additional camber generated from your steering inputs. Assuming that the setup is a good one, then by reducing the caster you won't have enough camber when you need it (in the corners) and you'll lose grip (especially in tight corners).

In real life applications, increasing caster does several things. First, as already stated, it increases camber gain, that is, added camber through steering. Think of those choppers with really long front forks. When the bar is turned, the wheel sits practically sideways - big camber gain.

Second, it increases road feel and allows the tires to center themselves more naturally. In this case, think of a shopping cart from the grocery store. Those wheels that sit well behind their pivot point makes it so that if you give it a nudge through a turn and immediately let go, it will almost automatically recenter itself. Both of these positives come at the expensive of additional steering resistance.

so is there any reason not to run maximum caster all the time

Some people just prefer to use it to fine tune any minor understeering issues. Because as you turn at slow speeds (where caster is noticed the most), you should be able to tune caster in order to give a better 'loose' feeling when turning in a slow corner. You will find hotlappers do this just to gain a bit of time in the slow spots. For example on Aston National, the tight set of two corners is crucial for time gain in a GTR car, so you will notice a bit less than maximum caster on hotlaps setups. It is better than having to lower your overall camber, because that would hurt your highspeed cornering. I think caster helps the most for FWD cars, where you need to feel loose and flat to get the power down... because excessive camber while accelerating/exiting a corner, not good. Also the higher the caster, the most pesky the steering becomes with its sensitivity at slow speeds (In other words, the highest you go, you will find a quicker grip-loss point as you turn the wheel farther and farther.... whereas lower caster it will be more gradual transfer into understeer the more you turn the wheel to its extreme, conserving the tires).

To further expand on what Tweaker said... Static camber is available all the time, so it's there when you begin to turn in, giving you good turn-in right from the start. Caster gradually applies more camber as you turn the wheel, so it takes a bit more time to become effective.

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Quote from drinklime :

so is there any reason not to run maximum caster all the time

Realism is a reason not too use max caster.
In real life you can't turn down your "force-feedback", so you'd have to cope with the extra effort it takes to turn the wheel.
In real life, I doubt anyone could (or would) last a decent race distance (or even a couple of laps) with the extreme caster settings you see on most lfs setups. Not a fault of the game though.....

Quote from Lex77 :

Realism is a reason not too use max caster.
In real life you can't turn down your "force-feedback", so you'd have to cope with the extra effort it takes to turn the wheel.
In real life, I doubt anyone could (or would) last a decent race distance (or even a couple of laps) with the extreme caster settings you see on most lfs setups. Not a fault of the game though.....

Um, I ran max caster in my old autocross Prelude. I think the maximum adjustment my suspension would allow was like 5.2 degrees, though.

The simple truth is, most "endurance" races that those drivers can't bare max caster in, are high speed races. It's better for them just to run more static camber than increase caster as they would be doing a lot of high speed maneuvering, and extra caster would do more to hurt than it would to help.

Caster is helpful during lower-speed driving, such as tight technical courses. Lower it as the speeds increase, however.

Running 5.5° in real life

Cars in LFS max out at 6 degrees anyway, which isn't that much. Some cars use up to 10 degrees in real life (nom that IS a lot).