Dog track

[James Morse]

The front tires ('97) are a lot closer to the edge of the fenders than the rear. I always wondered about that.
Turns out the rear tires are 1-1/2" inboard (each side) compared to the front, Ford calls it "dog track".
That explains the difference in clearance.
Why they do this I have no idea but I have to believe it's something to do with handling.
Weird huh?

 

[Shran]

It reduces your turning radius. Most trucks you don't notice it, but GM pickups from the late 80's-mid 90's are the most obvious.

 

[superj]

i don't think mine is that way but i will sure check now that you commented on it. i have seen it on vehicles driving but they always had different sets of wheels on that didn't match

 

[sgtsandman]

My 2011 is like that. I'm not sure on the 2019. I haven't noticed.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Dog tracking as I understand it is when the rear is noticeably over to the left or right compared to the other side. I've never heard it used to describe the narrower rear track compared to the front.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Dog tracking as I understand it is when the rear is noticeably over to the left or right compared to the other side. I've never heard it used to describe the narrower rear track compared to the front.

Yeah, I’ve always hear it as this. Or even if you don’t notice a difference but the vehicle moves down the road like // instead of straight but the steering is straight and doesn’t pull. My choptop, for whatever reason, dog tracks like that but only if both front hubs are locked in and in 4x4. Guessing it’s an effect of locked axles?

 

[rusty ol ranger]

My 83 F150 used to leave 1.5 tracks on each side in the snow.

Damn wheelhop caused the axle to shift.

 

[James Morse]

The shop manual has a way to test, get the vehicle going straight by lining up something on the hood with a point, mark on the ground where is center tread of front tires, then drive forward (straight) and measure where back centers are and measure the difference that's the amount of dogtracking, for mine the spec is 18mm (less than 3/4") per side so it's 1.5" total, not per side as I'd said earlier.

They're saying if the road is crowned a lot, you might notice the front seeming higher and that's why. I guess they mean higher relative to the rear, since crowned road always makes the truck tilt. I think that would be hard to notice.

So they tell you how to measure it but I don't yet see anything about how to adjust it, if it were off. I would think it would have to be done with spacers?
Certainly when shops check alignment they have to go by the specs.

Pretty sure the rears are both inside of the fronts.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Pretty sure the rears are both inside of the fronts.

They are, as designed.

 

[JoshT]

It reduces your turning radius. Most trucks you don't notice it, but GM pickups from the late 80's-mid 90's are the most obvious.

Very noticable on the bumpside Fords. The front track width is almost 4" wider than the rear.

i don't think mine is that way but i will sure check now that you commented on it. i have seen it on vehicles driving but they always had different sets of wheels on that didn't match

It is the same. Like @85_Ranger4x4 said, it's designed that way. Most trucks (and cars I think) are designed that way. The bodys are usually designed in such a way that it isn't noticable.

Dog tracking as I understand it is when the rear is noticeably over to the left or right compared to the other side. I've never heard it used to describe the narrower rear track compared to the front.

That's the way I've always understood dog tracking as well. ASlso referred to as crab walking. Looks like the vehicle is driving sideways down the road.

The shop manual has a way to test, get the vehicle going straight by lining up something on the hood with a point, mark on the ground where is center tread of front tires, then drive forward (straight) and measure where back centers are and measure the difference that's the amount of dogtracking, for mine the spec is 18mm (less than 3/4") per side so it's 1.5" total, not per side as I'd said earlier.

They're saying if the road is crowned a lot, you might notice the front seeming higher and that's why. I guess they mean higher relative to the rear, since crowned road always makes the truck tilt. I think that would be hard to notice.

So they tell you how to measure it but I don't yet see anything about how to adjust it, if it were off. I would think it would have to be done with spacers?
Certainly when shops check alignment they have to go by the specs.

I don't know what you mean by the bolded part. Are we talking about alignment or ride height? If your ride height is messed up fix that first then get the alignment in spec, because fixing the ride height will likely require tweaks that will affect the alignment.

On the road is the wrong place to be judging anything about stance (ride height) or wheel tracking. Any tests like that you want to do should be done on flat level ground, and the road definitely isn't that.

When driving in a straight line the track of the rear wheels will normally be narrower than the front. Dog tracking referrs to when the rear track is offset from the front. See picture below that I stole from somewhere online, also this youtube video showing what it would look like driving down the road.



Generally this would be caused by the rear axle being out of alignment with the vehicle as in the image above. Correcting it would require fixing what ever is causing the axle to be out of alignment, then doing a full alignment.

Now if the vehicle looks like it is driving straight down the road and still has the tracks offset, it is possible that the axle is physically offset to one side. Don;t ask me how one would accomplish that, but I've heard of it happening on a solid axle truck before. Most logical explination I cangive would be custom axle with the spring perches located wrong. How ever it was accomplished, fixing would entail the same thing.

The road being steeply crowned is going to cause the vehicle to pull to the side. Correcting for this pull may appear as dog tracking, but it isn't. That's why you chould be checking on a flat level surface, like a parking lot, not on a crowned surface like the road.

Shops do go by specifications when doing alignments. Typically when you ask for an alignment they are going to adjust the front wheels to be in specification in relation to the rear wheels. If the rear is out of spec (or the chassisis off) everything will be off, but the wheels may still show in alignment.

 

[James Morse]

I was just quoting from the manual (bolded part).

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.

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.
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.

You don't check it on a crowned road they are just saying you might notice it (front left height higher because it's further up the crown) but really I doubt you'd see it. Roads are all crowned or else water pools in the middle. Some are severely crowned. That's life, and depending on the vehicle you can get pull to the right (downhill) because of gravity. If it's noticeable, you can adjust the front toe-in so the car tracks straight on an "average" crown (mild) but if it's on a total flat it will pull slightly to the left, of course. Long ago, I've done this. But I'd say it's probably not recommended. Front wheel -may- be affected more in this way (it was front wheel drive).

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

[Blmpkn]

Springer spaniels run crooked as a MF, uncle of mine always had at least one at a time when I was growing up.. don't remember if they were English springers or what exactly but yeah.. super goofy.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

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?

Front is usually wider than the rear.

IMO it is a penny pinching move to increase handling. Making the front wider improves street handling over a narrower front axle while making the rear wider doesn't have as great of an effect.

But then things like the Explorer are the same front to rear because they need the extra axle width to help counter body roll because they run heavier, especially while towing.

Some philosophical thought on differing axle widths while offroading here:

He has a really interesting channel on offroading. He doesn't do a thing with Fords but stuff like this carries over. Really interesting photography/trips as well.

Anywho I can't really comment on the performance differences. When my truck was stock the narrower rear axle only really bugged me for aesthetics. I never seriously offroaded it until after axle swaps.

I have the front axle from a '95 Ranger, rear axle from a '96 Explorer and my axles are the same width. You can go to the axles section in the tech library and compare various axle widths over the years. I eyeballed the toe comparing the sidewalls of the front and rear tires and I had it set within half a degree of perfect. Kinda freaked out my brother who did the alignment, "how did you get it so close?" He loved my answer...

I have never really noticed the rears hunting in different wheel tracks. I also run heavier/taller than the average Ranger front time to time and appreciate any extra stability the wider rear axle will offer.

 

[sgtsandman]

Front is usually wider than the rear.

IMO it is a penny pinching move to increase handling. Making the front wider improves street handling over a narrower front axle while making the rear wider doesn't have as great of an effect.

But then things like the Explorer are the same front to rear because they need the extra axle width to help counter body roll because they run heavier, especially while towing.

Some philosophical thought on differing axle widths while offroading here:

He has a really interesting channel on offroading. He doesn't do a thing with Fords but stuff like this carries over. Really interesting photography/trips as well.

Anywho I can't really comment on the performance differences. When my truck was stock the narrower rear axle only really bugged me for aesthetics. I never seriously offroaded it until after axle swaps.

I have the front axle from a '95 Ranger, rear axle from a '96 Explorer and my axles are the same width. You can go to the axles section in the tech library and compare various axle widths over the years. I eyeballed the toe comparing the sidewalls of the front and rear tires and I had it set within half a degree of perfect. Kinda freaked out my brother who did the alignment, "how did you get it so close?" He loved my answer...

I have never really noticed the rears hunting in different wheel tracks. I also run heavier/taller than the average Ranger front time to time and appreciate any extra stability the wider rear axle will offer.

From what I understand, the Toyota Landcruisers are more exaggerated than most vehicles. Both he and Ronny Dahl have talked about the issue and what the solutions are. Apparently, the longer the wheel base gets, the more of a problem the track hunting gets.

 

[James Morse]

what year Landcruiser? new ones seem not so
2021 Toyota Land Cruiser/Track width
64.9-65″ front, 64.4-64.7″ rear

that's odd I'd think it was the other way around, as the vehicle gets longer the angle of dogtracking would be less not more for a given discrepancy to spec
I'm missing something
by hunting you mean you try to drive the vehicle straight but it keeps trying to go at an angle? I mean, the vehicle as an entirety is going straight just it's doing it crooked.
so they are saying in the test, pick points you can line up and drive straight then look at the truck. is it straight or angled? if it's angled it's dogtracking and you can measure it and find out why (and fix it)

I'm wondering how much difference in stability 3" makes (the track difference on the '97) but if you say it does I believe you

yes you can do toe-in with strings too
here's the thing if there is a lot of difference front/rear in track then you'd have to account for that if you ran strings front/back otherwise you'd think you were seeing toe in when there was zero toe in
although you could meausre the fronts and backs of the front tires, maybe,
I'm saying if you use strings then, if you assume truck is in spec, you need a 1.5" block between the rear wheels, each side, and the string to know if there's toe in and how much