"Dog-walking" SUV

I'm not sure what causes it but I have seen it as well a few times. I've seen it on old trucks most of the time. You call it funny I call it scary. The fact that cars with so much damage are legal on the roads of US is scary. I've seen people duck taping part of their cars (I'm talking the sides of the bed on a truck that would cause havoc on a road if it actually fell off on a highway, for example) together because it's so rusted that there is nothing to hold it anymore.

To clarify, I meant funny in the strange sense, not the ha-ha sense.

Paddy,

I know what you meant, it wasn't directed at you. Cars in that bad of a shape should not be allowed on the road in my opinion.

A broken centre bolt in the leaf spring (one side only) would cause the axle to shift forwards on that side, under power that is, thus causing the axle alignment to change. To keep moving forwards in a straight line the front wheels would have to be adjusted accordingly ie you'd have to turn the steering wheel off from centre to stay straight.

On the other hand, this could be the result of an accident where the frame was never straightened by either the body shop or the cheap owner that didn't give a rat's ass. Don't get too close and pass when possible. OPP.

Thats what I'd go for. By the way, if you get a motorcycle MOT'd in the UK, one of the checks is front and rear wheel alignment. If they don't follow exactly, the tester has to then ride the bike to see if it affect the safety. I do not know of any failure due to this. It's worth noting that some early Yamaha's had a misalignment of a up to an inch (25.4mm)

Just like old vespas did, which in order to balance the engine weight that was positioned completely on one side of the moped (the right one if remember well) had It´s front wheel displaced to the same side and nothig really happened except for a light tendency of the front wheel to turn to the same side where the engine was mounted.

It's not so much that "dog-legging" is necessarily dangerous in itself, but that it may be a symptom of something more nasty. More than one young man has died in the US when they get a really great deal on a Corvette. They take it up to speed and the car disintegrates because it was a total wreck that some chop-shop had patched back together with crappy welding and a ton of body putty.

My road racing friends and I typically use a laser to align front and back wheels of our bikes.

If your rear axle has coil springs rather than leaves, it could be because of worn or missing bushings in the drag link which transmits the wheel power to the frame. I'd bet leaves with the broken center bolt, myself.

RichH

BTW, it's called dog tracking.

RichH

I have experienced this in my early days of being a mechanic. I took apart the leaf springs on a truck, had them recurved to add strength and on re-assembling them put them on the wrong way around, one was correctly positioned with the intended front to the front the other was front to back.

This meant that the back axle was slightly twisted, the vehicle ran perfectly well but always looked odd when seeing it come towards you, you could see the side of the vehicle as it approached.

I thought it was very bad alignment. I recall driving a car years ago that had wheel drive and as I recall, rack and pinion steering. One day i started getting this weird feeling while driving. After a few day, i noticed my orientation to the road was a bit strange. It was if I was turned in my seat, but the car was going straight. A little observation in the mirrors confrimed that the car was "dog walking". I had the car aligned and that took care of the problem.

Hi Paddy,

There are a lot of possibilities given but it seems to me that the ones given can't create a situation as drastic as the scenario that you give. 8-12 inches out! A case where the rear wheels run in separate tracks from the front wheels? That's a HUGE misalignment problem.

I could not imagine trying to "drive" something like that. I wonder how well it cornered? I'll bet it gets about 10 miles per set of tires.

My suggestion is that the vehicle had been wrapped around a telephone pole and the owner never had it repaired (but then maybe the owner at that time is no longer with us).

Thus the driver that you saw was most likely a "misguided" car thief with a very low IQ.

Cheers,

John

Long time ago I experienced this with one of my several trucks with leaf springs at the rear axle. when the center bolt on one of the springs breaks, the rear axle moves away from being parallel to the front azle and drags. I remember once passing over a small culvert, one of the rear wheels struck the parapet wall of the culvert as the axle had skewed. I think this is the best reason for the dogwalking SUV

Hi vishmayor,

You're probably right. I just wonder though what make of vehicle is it? Does it have leaf springs? If not, RichH has a point.

I remember in my teen-age years (50's) I had a 1947 Chevy (first car). It had leaf springs. The California rake was popular at the time and not having sufficient $ for proper suspension components, but being, of course, very innovative (& ignorant), I wedged pieces of 2x4 lumber between the axle and underside of frame. WOW! Was that car ever cool! I had an instant California rake. When I drove the thing I learned a VERY valuable lesson: if you don't know what you're doing, don't screw up a valid concept!

Everything was fine until you hit a bump in the road. The car would literally bounce off the ground. When I went around the first curve at probably 25mph+ the thing came up on two wheels and scared the @$#&** out of me (& girls). They never had anything to do with me after that.

What I'm getting at is suspension is such a critical, and usually under-appreciated, aspect of automotive engineering. It boggles my mind that anyone in their right mind would drive a "Dog-walking" vehicle anywhere except directly to a repair shop.

John

John,

That's what I was talking about. These cars should be driven to a garage right away. Driving cars like that is just irresponsible. Even though you can blame the driver I think the law enforcement should be blamed even more. A police officer will not stop a car like that (as far as I have seen and know).

SUVs are in great demand!!! It would not surprise me for a chop-shop to take an SUV that was totalled and piece it back together... You can get a crushed frame only so straight. If no one knows the history of the SUV, they can turn it around for an amazing profit.

I may sound negative, but it's a problem in the US.

This is the result of the distance between the front wheel axle and the rear wheel axle being different on each of the two sides of the vehicle.

To check these distances, you cannot use the front axle nuts because they move with the steering wheel. You must use a point behind the wheel near the king pin attachment.

The measurement to the rear wheels can be directly to the wheel axle.

Hi Snakers,

I don't think anyone is trying to figure out how much the alignment is out but rather what would cause such a drastic misalignment.

And, I might add, this thread has leaned toward the stupidity of driving a vehicle in such a misaligned state.

Cheers,

John