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FREEDGUY 
Orange Level Access
Joined: 15 Apr 2017
Location: South West Mich
Points: 5391
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 Topic: Dog Tracking ??
Posted: 06 Mar 2020 at 6:31pm |
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What is the "main" cause of a vehicle "dog tracking"? This afternoon I met an oncoming Ford Ranger P/U('90's vintage) that had the front/steer wheels at least a tire width+ offset from the rear wheels. I honestly don't know how the driver could utilize the door mirrors and see his/her rear bumper LOL!!
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steve(ill)
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: illinois
Points: 81140
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Posted: 06 Mar 2020 at 7:13pm |
the rear axle is setting on leaf springs and it is not square ( or perpendicular) to the truck body......... So lets say the wheel base on ONE side is 125 inches and the wheel base on the OTHER side is 126 inches .......... if you look close when driving, there are a LOT of truck that way... normally older models.. You dont see that as much in cars these days... Probably because a good percentage are front wheel drive and the rear wheels are mounted on A-frames--- hard for them to "move".
What happens is the rear axle has to be perpendicular to the road in order to go STRAIGHT... so the driver has to turn the steering wheel a few degrees off center to point the front tires STRAIGHT down the road, even tho the truck body is setting cockeyed.
Edited by steve(ill) - 06 Mar 2020 at 7:16pm
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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steve(ill)
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: illinois
Points: 81140
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Posted: 06 Mar 2020 at 7:24pm |
See the picture in the lower left........
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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jaybmiller
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Greensville,Ont
Points: 22460
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Posted: 06 Mar 2020 at 7:24pm |
yup, what Steve says.... When I build trailers, the frame is SQUARE ( within a 1/8" ) AND the axle IS also within a 1/8" AND the tongue IS dead centered. Everyone comments on how well the trailers 'pull straight' down the road.
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3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112
Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor)
Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water
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LeonR2013
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Joined: 01 Jan 2013
Location: Fulton, Mo
Points: 3500
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Posted: 06 Mar 2020 at 9:00pm |
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When we bought a new '69 Ford right away I noticed it dog tracked about an inch. Took it back to Ford and said fix it. They found the center bolt hole had been bored a half inch off. So they drilled it to match the one on e the other side and it tracked straight and still does today. A lot of them sold around here did the same thing. Mine was built in Canada but I don't where the springs were made. Leon
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shameless dude
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Joined: 10 Apr 2017
Location: east NE
Points: 13607
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Posted: 06 Mar 2020 at 9:17pm |
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the vehicle could have been wrecked sometime too...frame bent. I had a leaf spring bolt break once and it allowed the springs to slide a bit, that caused it to dog track a couple inches. I didn't notice it in the cab while driving, but a friend told me about it while he was following me one day. it got fixed the next day.
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Ted J
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Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: La Crosse, WI
Points: 18821
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Posted: 06 Mar 2020 at 10:23pm |
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Yep, what Shameless says,,,,,,,,,,,and also ESPECIALLY on older vehicles and trailers, RUST. Rust eats away part or all of a bolt or hanger and the result it something has room to move. Check yours all the time, the spring shackles and anywhere it's bolted together. Check welds for cracks.
If you see somebody dog tracking down the road, do all you can to tell them about it. Doesn't take much to get someone killed.
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"Allis-Express"
19?? WC / 1941 C / 1952 CA / 1956 WD45 / 1957 WD45 / 1958 D-17
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binfo
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Joined: 08 Apr 2020
Location: new york
Points: 1
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Posted: 08 Apr 2020 at 8:08am |
am so sorry about your parents! Now that I have expressed basic human empathy, sex me please!Edit: One of you idiots really PMed me asking me why I was doing the same thing. It was a joke. Sarcasm. Forgot the /s but I didn't think it was needed.
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https://www.petsdirectstores.com
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Sugarmaker
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Joined: 12 Jul 2013
Location: Albion PA
Points: 8281
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Posted: 08 Apr 2020 at 9:38am |
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SPAM!!!!!!!!
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D17 1958 (NFE), WD45 1954 (NFE), WD 1952 (NFE), WD 1950 (WFE), Allis F-40 forklift, Allis CA, Allis D14, Ford Jubilee, Many IH Cub Cadets, 32 Ford Dump, 65 Comet.
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Brian Jasper co. Ia
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Prairie City Ia
Points: 10508
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Posted: 09 Apr 2020 at 12:37am |
As I've been restoring my 68 Torino I noticed one day that the rear axle was offset about an inch towards the driver side. As I dug farther into it I uncovered a sh**ty crash repair that looked like the RR wheel must have taken the bulk of the hit. Both rear springs were bowed in the middle. That 90's Ranger probably had leaf spring brackets rusted out and shouldn't be driving around.
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"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian." Henry Ford
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Tbone95
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Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Location: Michigan
Points: 11604
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Posted: 09 Apr 2020 at 6:55am |
Brian, how's that Torino coming along? I'd still like a ride!!! 
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DMiller
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Hermann, Mo
Points: 31070
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Posted: 09 Apr 2020 at 6:58am |
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Have seen leaf spring replacements installed backward, there is a short and long side to most of them where that will cause it too. Same as with the old 1157 lamps with offset pins, people did not pay attention and would force them in where the brake lamp element was on as tail lamp and could not see t/s or stop lights, so too they will replace a broken spring with a yarder and install it wrong.
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BuckSkin
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Joined: 12 Sep 2019
Location: Poor Farm
Points: 409
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Posted: 09 Apr 2020 at 12:57pm |
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With leaf springs, the most common reason is a broken or worn-away spring-pack pin.
The spring stack has an alignment hole in every leaf and a round-headed bolt that passes through the whole lot.
The spring perch on the axle has a center hole where the big round head of the "pin" goes.
Old age and corrosion will eat the bolt head and also the hole it resides in, allowing the spring pack to move.
The most common cause of the head getting sheared off is wrapping a chain around the axle and jerking a hung truck out of a mud-hole.
I grew up in a big tire shop and I have pointed out more broken spring pins and broken spring leaves than I could count; hardly a day would pass that I didn't find at least one stack of springs with broken leaves.
Chevrolet/GM from the sixties to the eighties were the worst for having broken springs, even broken main leaves, though no brand is immune.
The boxed/tube frame trucks are bad for the frame rotting in two and causing dog-tracking; I have seen three-year-old tube-frame trucks with big holes rotted through them; any filth or salt that gets in there can't get out and rots them from the inside.
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BuckSkin
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Joined: 12 Sep 2019
Location: Poor Farm
Points: 409
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Posted: 09 Apr 2020 at 1:09pm |
 Ted J wrote:
If you see somebody dog tracking down the road, do all you can to tell them about it. Doesn't take much to get someone killed.
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My own experiences with informing people of dangerous problems with their vehicles, no matter how tactfully I may go about it, has only ever resulted in me getting my head snapped off and told to mind my own business. It was different in the tire shop, though; their vehicle would be up on the hoist and I would just say "you might want to take a look at this", and they would be all appreciative and "boy, I am glad you spotted that"; point the same problem out to them in the Walmart parking lot and I would take a cussing and be told to keep my nose out of other people's business.
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