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Yes, but from what you previously posted, it didn;t sound like you knew what dogtracking was.Unless I'm misunderstanding it, they are expecting that you understand that dog tracking is crab-like behavior and it (truck) should -not- be dog tracking.
Rather than dog tracking being the fact the fronts and rears have different track. I don't know if that's called a stagger, usually I hear that in relation to tires, but it's just a difference in track for design purposes.
If the amount of track difference left/right isn't the same then you get dog tracking.
Staggered is generally referring to your wheel/tire combo, squared -vs- staggered. Squared is when you are running same size wheel and tire in all four positions. Staggered is when you are running different wheel/tire size combo on front and rear. Usually with the larger being on the rear, though it does happen the other way on some FWD track cars.
Only by someone that doesn't know what they are talking about.the fact the rears are narrower track than the front, not that they rears are offset both to one side, that may be called also dog tracking but it's not what they are talking about.
The red lines in the picture I posted in my last reply show what the tire tracks in snow would look like. The fronts are offset from the rears. It could be towards one side or the other but always the same on that vehicle. Again it is normal, and by design, for the front track to be wider than the rear track.It really goes back to what do dog tracks look like in the snow? Are the fronts always to one side of the rears, or, is it that the fronts are always wider than the rears? I dunno and have no snow to test right now.
But you can Google it, and it looks to me like the rears are inside the fronts.
You haven't? I'd say you weren't paying attention and never noticed, most of us have probably seen it a lot.Now do you ever see a dog running with their whole body slanted sideways (crab-like)? I don't think so, it's something you'd right away go, wait, something is wrong with this dog. Or maybe you do see it and I just never noticed. To me it would imply the rear tracks of the dog don't line up with the front - maybe it's true.
Have you ever seen a car (intentionally) shuffle sideways 90 degrees from the direction its facing. Yeah I haven't either, but someone (probably costal) used that as a description and it stuck as well.
That's exactly what dogtracking is referring to. The rears tracks don't line up with the front. I don't know how many time we have to say that.
You don't need to explain to the guy, just say thanks and keep on driving. The guy could be wrong. Generally it's going to be another driver telling you this. His perspective already puts him offset to one side of the vehicle, that combined with a rear tire that is noticably not in line with the front (by design) can give the illusion of dogtracking. This could be exaggerated even more on a steeply crowned road.Like, let's say you're driving along, they some guy says, hey, do you realize your truck is dog tracking? And you go, no, it's just the crowned road makes it -look- like that to you, but I checked it, and it's in spec.
How did you check it? Was it just checked front relative to rear, or were all checked relative to each other and to chassis? It's possible to do a front wheel alignment, be in spec, and still be out enough to dogtrack.
It all depends on how much they check and how far they go with checking. They can correct the front tires to be in spec relative to the rear and match factory specifications. If the frame is tweaked (not square) or the rear axle is out of alignment (not square) with the frame then it's still going to dogtrack.The truck in question ('97) drives great, it doesn't pull to either side at any time, or wander, that I see, either under constant throttle, acceleration, or braking (kind of one of those things you test when you're looking at one, right?). So I don't have an issue, at least not known, and all tires seem to wear normally and evenly. But if I had alignment checked, which no doubt I will at some time, I'd ask them, what's the spec you are using and how does it compare to factory spec. Obviously they are doing to have different specs for different vehicles so I would expect it to match the factory spec.
How you would change the track either front/rear who knows, probably you would be adjusting the front, but it probably means moving major things relative to the frame.
How you would correct depends on the problem causing the issue. I could take guesses, it would be like playing darts and I'm not very good at that.
Correct, that manual is written for someone with some training and/or experience that would know dogtracking is bad.So here's what the manual says. I think they just expect that you just know, dog tracking, it's bad (because... I dunno... it looks weird? drives weird?), you don't want it. Note they say on a crowned road it may appear (!) to dog track but my take is they're just warning you, this doesn't mean it's dog tracking (out-of-spec) it just appears that way, but here's how you check it.
oh and I have I re-correct myself my track should be 1.5" narrower on each side so 3" total. (Dana 35). The truck is straight along the side that's why you see the rears quite far inside the fenders, front, not so. They didn't make any attempt to hide it in the body shape, on this vehicle.
Correct, they are saying this is what dogtracking is, but that the crowned road can give the false appearance of it. If you think it actually is dogtracking, here's how to check it. If it checks good and still appears to dogtrack on a crowned road, it's just an illusion so ignore it.
That illustration sucks. It shows the (exaggerated) effects of dogtracking with the tracks offset but the measurements they give are for the normal distance that the rear track should be inside the front track. If everything is in proper alignment the rear track should be 1.5" inboard of the front track on each side. If its dogtracking one side is going to be greater than the other. It is possible to dogtrack without either of the rear wheel tracks being outboard of the front wheel tracks. That image and the one I posted previously are somewhat extreme cases. In either of those the driver should be aware of it on their own since they'd be looking out the passenger side of the windshield while driving straight down the road.
I said they usually design to hide it. Usually, not always. That's referring to all vehicles, not just Rangers. 85_Ranger4x4 posted while I was taking an excessively long time to formulate this reply, but he's correct in his reasoning for why. I would like to add my personal assumption for why the difference is so much more than necessary. These were designed when trucks were used as trucks. The beds would be loaded down to the point that they squatted, or even bottomed out the rear suspension. With the narrower track width the rear tires would tuck up inside the wheel wells when carrying a load, rather than rubbing on the fenders causing damage. That's not necessary on modern truck design since most of them won't carry more than a laod of groceries.
That image, still exaggerated, is more in line with what you can expect to see from tracks in the snow. With mild dogtracking the rear wheel tracks are probably still going to be inside the front wheel tracks, but offset to one side or the other. Those are very good instructions on how to check, if you can;t get some sidewalk chalk and follow those instructions, you need to let someone else check it for you.It's the second column of the last pic where they talk about how to measure it. "when you notice the vehicle dogtracking" - um... how do you notice this? the body is crooked relative to your straight line, is how I take it.
As for how to correct, that depends on what is causing it to be off, which I could only guess at from this side of the screen.
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