Quote - So apparently poser does in fact, save body translations by default, whether the option is checked or not, even if those translations are at 0, 0, 0.

I'm using PP2014.

So what am I doing wrong?

By default Poser does not save BODY transforms in any version from P4 through P9/PP2012. I can't imagine that this has changed in PP2014.

Your images show transform channels but they don't show which actor the channels are in. I'm guessing that they show the hip translation. If that is correct, then I offer this explanation. In the first image the hip zTran is zero. In the second image the hip zTran is -19.13. In the third image the pose has been applied, and the hip ztran has returned to a value of zero, the same value it had when the pose was saved. This is what I would expect, the pose saved the hip translation, so when the pose was applied the hip translation was restored to the value saved in the pose. Assuming that I'm correct, and it is the hip translation that we are looking at in the images, there is nothing in the images to sugest that the translation of the BODY actor has changed! The mistake is that in the second image, you zTranslated the hip, instead of zTranslating the BODY.

It is easy to prove wether the BODY is trenslating in responce to the pose. Try this. Repeat your experiment, but this time note down the translations for the BODY and hip in image one, then save the pose.  Now move the figure again as you did in image two, then apply the pose. Now look in the BODY actor. If the BODY has translated, then the values on the translation dials will be different from those you noted in image one. Are they different? If so the pose has translated the BODY. If the translation valuse in the BODY are the same as in image one (I'm sure they will be) then the BODY has not moved.

Now look in the hip. Before the pose was applied in image two, the hip zTran was -19.13 (or whatever), now it should be the same value as it had in image one (eg zero). If so than it is the hip actor that has moved not the BODY actor.

In a properly constructed pose file the hip translation should normally be zero or a fairly small value. Applying the pose will restore the hip translation to what is was when the pose was saved. This is normal and to be expected. If the figure moves to a radically different location when the poses is applied, either the pose contains a large hip translation (which it should not), or you gave the figure a large hip translation before the pose was applied (which you should not have done, you should have translated the BODY instead of the hip), and the pose is just putting the hip back where it should be in relation to the BODY. It's correcting your mistake of translating the hip.

Now if what we are seeing in your images is the dials for the BODY actor, not the hip, then I will stand to be corrected.

Two further points. I don't have Dawn, I'm assuming that 'hip' is the proximate child of the BODY in that figure. That is the case in most figures, but not all. If some other actor is the proximate child of the BODY, then you should read that other part in places where I refer to "hip". Also, I note from your images that zTran is slaved to some other channel, I'm not sure if that is affecting anything in this case, but I suspect not. [cross posted] :(