what is a "doglegging" trailer?

Here we go again...lets change this question:

What term do you use for when the trailer isn't tracking straight with the tractor?

Not criticising, it amazes me how many different terms ther are for the same definition. We have so far on this;

1) Doglegging
2) Dogtracking
3) Off Tracking

C'mon everyone join in...how many?

 

looks like the ### end is trying to outrun the front end likea dog walking that has its ### to the side.

 

ive never heard any of that except dog leggin

 

The only things I've heard call Dogleg are bends on a race track and a turn on a golf course.

For as long as I've been around the business (long before I started driving as quite a few people in my family were career drivers) it was always called Dogtracking for the reasons stated above in reference to the appearance of a dog running a little sideways.

Off tracking was not a term I had ever heard until I went to Swift Academy (and even some of the older guys called it dogtracking instead).

 

I couldn't care less what you call it. What's it matter to me if you look like a dumb ###

 

Only term I ever heard through school was Doglegging. But all 3 terms make sence and mean the same thing.

 

Hell, I've used all three at various times to describe the problem. Never had anyone question what I was talking about.

I guess the dumb ### would be the one that did NOT understand what the conversation was about, now wouldn't it.

 

You could add drunken trailer to the list..

 

In my career thus far, I've learned the following regarding this subject.

Off Tracking (all TRTR and TRLR tires in perfect alignment): This naturally occurs, for instance and is greatly amplified, when you turn a corner or on the highway in a banked turn. For example, the TRLR tires do not follow the same track as the steer tires/drive tires when swinging wide to turn a corner. The TRLR tires will "OFF TRACK" (not follow over the same steer/drive tire path, but instead will create their own track around a corner different from the steer/drive tires (hope you did not get lost in this laborious explanation).

Dog Legged Trailer (TRLR tires out of alignment left or right from TRTR tires): Yes...I have had a few of these trailers in my career thus far. For me, it's a SAFETY ISSUE on the highway. In a banked highway turn to the left the TRLR will naturally off track and slide to the bottom of the curve. I keep the TRTR up high right on the curve to keep my TRLR tires from crossing over into the left lane. In a Left Dog Legged TRLR the skew in the tandems will be added to the natural off tracking.

Once I had a Left Dog Legged loaded trailer and whenever entering a left banked curve I had to keep the TRTR steered up higher than normal to the right in the curve to keep my tandems from entering the left lane.

Hope this helps.