Re: [VACList] Four Wheel Steering - Delphi engineer's comments

["Oliver Filippi" <ofilippi@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

About a year ago, I spoke to a Delphi engineeer who worked on their four
wheel steering system.

He noted that although the system improves manuverability significantly, it
is absolutely great for pulling a trailer. "Like putting  steering wheels on
the front of the trailer."

You see, with the four wheel steering on the highway, in tow mode, all four
wheels of the tow vehicle go in the direction of the turn.  Thus the trailer
sees the two vehicle as going "sideways" in the direction of the turn, which
means that the pivoting of the trailer at the hitchpoint is virtually
eliminated.  In this way, the tow vehicle does not introduce any sway forces
at the hitch typically caused by the tow vehicle heading in a direction
(angle) different from that of the trailer.

The Delphi engineer noted that the stability of the entire rig is improved
dramatically.

Oliver Filippi