Everything about Steering totally explained
Steering is the term applied to the collection of components, linkages, etc. which will allow for a vessel (
ship,
boat) or
vehicle (
car) to follow the desired course. An exception is the case of
rail transport by which
rail tracks combined together with
railroad switches provide the steering function.
Introduction
The most conventional steering arrangement is to turn the front
wheels using a hand–operated
steering wheel which is positioned in front of the driver, via the
steering column, which may contain
universal joints to allow it to deviate somewhat from a straight line. Other arrangements are sometimes found on different types of vehicles, for example, a
tiller or rear–wheel steering.
Tracked vehicles such as tanks usually employ differential steering — that is, the tracks are made to move at different speeds or even in opposite directions to bring about a change of course.
Rack and pinion, recirculating ball, worm and sector
Many modern cars use
rack and pinion steering mechanisms, where the steering wheel turns the pinion gear; the pinion moves the rack, which is a sort of linear gear which meshes with the pinion, from side to side. This motion applies steering
torque to the
kingpins of the steered wheels via
tie rods and a short
lever arm called the steering arm.
The rack and pinion design has the advantages of a large degree of feedback and direct steering "feel"; it also doesn't normally have any
backlash, or slack. A disadvantage is that it isn't adjustable, so that when it does wear and develop lash, the only cure is replacement.
Older designs often use the
recirculating ball mechanism, which is still found on trucks and utility vehicles. This is a variation on the older
worm and sector design; the steering column turns a large screw (the "
worm gear") which meshes with a sector of a gear, causing it to rotate about its axis as the worm gear is turned; an arm attached to the axis of the sector moves the pitman arm, which is connected to the
steering linkage and thus steers the wheels. The recirculating ball version of this apparatus reduces the considerable friction by placing large ball bearings between the teeth of the worm and those of the screw; at either end of the apparatus the balls exit from between the two pieces into a channel internal to the box which connects them with the other end of the apparatus, thus they're "recirculated".
The recirculating ball mechanism has the advantage of a much greater
mechanical advantage, so that it was found on larger, heavier vehicles while the rack and pinion was originally limited to smaller and lighter ones; due to the almost universal adoption of
power steering, however, this is no longer an important advantage, leading to the increasing use of rack and pinion on newer cars. The recirculating ball design also has a perceptible lash, or "dead spot" on center, where a minute turn of the steering wheel in either direction doesn't move the steering apparatus; this is easily adjustable via a screw on the end of the
steering box to account for wear, but it can't be entirely eliminated or the mechanism begins to wear very rapidly. This design is still in use in trucks and other large vehicles, where rapidity of steering and direct feel are less important than robustness, maintainability, and mechanical advantage. The much smaller degree of feedback with this design can also sometimes be an advantage; drivers of vehicles with rack and pinion steering can have their thumbs broken when a front wheel hits a bump, causing the steering wheel to kick to one side suddenly (leading to driving instructors telling students to keep their thumbs on the front of the steering wheel, rather than wrapping around the inside of the rim). This effect is even stronger with a heavy vehicle like a truck; recirculating ball steering prevents this degree of feedback, just as it prevents desirable feedback under normal circumstances.
The steering linkage connecting the steering box and the wheels usually conforms to a variation of
Ackermann steering geometry, to account for the fact that in a turn, the inner wheel is actually traveling a path of smaller radius than the outer wheel, so that the degree of
toe suitable for driving in a straight path isn't suitable for turns.
The worm and sector was an older design, used for example in Willys and Chrysler vehicles, and the Ford Falcon (1960's).
Power steering
As vehicles have become heavier and switched to
front wheel drive, the effort to turn the steering wheel manually has increased - often to the point where major physical exertion is required. To alleviate this,
auto makers have developed
power steering systems. There are two types of power steering systems—hydraulic and electric/electronic. There is also a hydraulic-electric hybrid system possible.
A hydraulic power steering (HPS) uses hydraulic pressure supplied by an engine-driven pump to assist the motion of turning the steering wheel.
Electric power steering (EPS) is more efficient than the hydraulic power steering, since the electric power steering motor only needs to provide assistance when the steering wheel is turned, whereas the hydraulic pump must run constantly. In EPS the assist level is easily tunable to the vehicle type, road speed, and even driver preference. An added benefit is the elimination of environmental hazard posed by leakage and disposal of hydraulic power steering fluid.
Speed Adjustable Steering
An outgrowth of power steering is speed adjustable steering, where the steering is heavily assisted at low speed and lightly assisted at high speed. The auto makers perceive that motorists might need to make large steering inputs while manoeuvering for parking, but not while traveling at high speed. The first vehicle with this feature was the
Citroën SM with its
Diravi layout, although rather than altering the amount of assistance as in modern power steering systems, it altered the pressure on a centring cam which made the steering wheel try to "spring" back to the straight-ahead position. Modern speed-adjustable power steering systems reduce the pressure fed to the ram as the speed increases, giving a more direct feel. This feature is gradually becoming commonplace across all new vehicles.
Four-wheel steering
Four-wheel steering (or all wheel steering) is a system employed by some vehicles to improve steering response, increase vehicle stability while maneuvering at high speed, or to decrease
turning radius at low speed.
In most
active four-wheel steering systems, the rear wheels are steered by a computer and actuators. The rear wheels generally can't turn as far as the front wheels. Some systems, including Delphi's
Quadrasteer and the system in Honda's Prelude line, allow for the rear wheels to be steered in the opposite direction as the front wheels during low speeds. This allows the vehicle to turn in a significantly smaller radius — sometimes critical for large
trucks or vehicles with trailers.
Many modern vehicles offer a form of
passive rear steering to counteract normal vehicle tendencies. For example, Subaru used a passive steering system to correct for the rear wheel's tendency to toe-out. On many vehicles, when cornering, the rear wheels tend to steer slightly to the outside of a turn, which can reduce stability. The passive steering system uses the lateral forces generated in a turn (through suspension geometry) and the
bushings to correct this tendency and steer the wheels slightly to the inside of the corner. This improves the stability of the car, through the turn. This effect is called compliance
understeer and it, or its opposite, is present on all suspensions. Typical methods of achieving compliance understeer are to use a Watt's Link on a live rear axle, or the use of toe control bushings on a twist beam suspension. On an
independent rear suspension it's normally achieved by changing the rates of the rubber bushings in the suspension. Some suspensions will always have compliance
oversteer due to geometry, such as Hotchkiss live axles or a semi trailing arm IRS.
Recent application
In an active 4ws system all four wheels turn at the same time when you steer. There can be controls to switch off the rear steer and options to steer only the rear wheel independent of the front wheels. At slow speeds (
for example parking) the rear wheels turn opposite of the front wheels, reducing the turning radius by up to twenty-five percent, while at higher speeds both front and rear wheels turn alike (electronically controlled), so that the vehicle may change position with less
yaw, enhancing straight-line stability. The "Snaking effect" experienced during
motorway drives while towing a
caravan is thus largely nullified. Four-wheel steering found its most widespread use in
monster trucks, where maneuverability in small arenas is critical, and it's also popular in large
farm vehicles and
trucks.
General Motors offers
Delphi's
Quadrasteer in their consumer
Silverado/
Sierra and
Suburban/
Yukon. However, only 16,500 vehicles have been sold with this system since its introduction in
2002 through
2004. Due to this low demand, GM won't offer the technology on the
2007 update to these vehicles.
Previously,
Honda had four-wheel steering as an option in their
1987-
2000 Prelude, and
Mazda also offered four-wheel steering on the
626 and
MX6 in
1988. Neither system was very popular, in that whatever improvement they brought to these already excellent-handling vehicles was offset by an unavoidable decrease in sensitivity caused by the increased weight and complexity.
A new "Active Drive" system is introduced on the 2008 version of the
Renault Laguna line. It was designed as one of several measures to increase security and stability. The Active Drive should lower the effects of under steer and decrease the chances of spinning by diverting part of the G-forces generated in a turn from the front to the rear tires. At low speeds the turning circle can be tightened so parking and maneuvering is easier.
Production cars with active four wheel steering
Articulated steering
Articulated steering is a system by which a four-wheel drive vehicle is split into front and rear halves which are connected by a vertical hinge. The front and rear halves are connected with one or more
hydraulic cylinders that change the angle between the halves, including the front and rear axles and wheels, thus steering the vehicle. This system doesn't use steering arms, king pins, tie rods, etc. as does four-wheel steering. If the vertical hinge is placed equidistant between the two axles, it also eliminates the need for a central
differential, as both front and rear axles will follow the same path, and thus rotate at the same speed.
SuperSteer
SuperSteer is used by NewHolland to make tractors turning radius smaller. The SuperSteer front axle articulates when the wheels turn. The inside wheel moves away from the frame, while the outside wheel moves in front of the bumper/nose of the tractor, providing more tire clearance and a greater turn angle. A picture of this turning action can be seen
here.
Steer-By-Wire
The aim of
steer-by-wire technology is to completely do away with as many mechanical components (steering shaft, column, gear reduction mechanism, etc.) as possible. Completely replacing conventional steering system with steer-by-wire holds several advantages, such as:
The absence of steering column simplifies the car interior design.
The absence of steering shaft, column and gear reduction mechanism allows much better space utilization in the engine compartment.
The steering mechanism can be designed and installed as a modular unit.
Without mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the road wheel, it's less likely that the impact of a frontal crash will force the steering wheel to intrude into the driver's survival space.
Steering system characteristics can easily and infinitely be adjusted to optimize the steering response and feel.
As of 2007 there are no production cars available that rely solely on steer-by-wire technology due to safety and reliability concerns, but this technology has been demonstrated in numerous concept cars.
Safety
For safety reasons all modern cars feature a collapsible steering column (energy absorbing steering column) which will collapse in the event of a heavy frontal impact to avoid excessive injuries to the driver. Non-collapsible steering columns very often impaled drivers in frontal crashes.
Audi has a retractable wheel system called procon-ten.
Collapsible steering columns were invented by Bela Barenyi.
This safety feature first appeared on cars built by General Motors after an extensive and very public lobbying campaign enacted by Ralph Nader.
Ford started to install collapsible steering columns in 1968.
Cycles
Steering is crucial to the stability of bicycles and motorcycles. For details, see articles on bicycle and motorcycle dynamics and countersteering.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Steering'.
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