It appears from a newly obtained patent filing that Ford is looking into incorporating four-wheel steering in its F-Series trucks
Models offering four-wheel steering are a rarity in today’s automotive industry. Generally, the technology is used with sportier vehicles, the idea being to improve road handling in corners during high-speed manoeuvres.
And the technology is not new either. In a sense, its rarity on the market is due more to lack of will than to lack of technical know-how.
The will may be growing, however. Over the past year, we heard more frequent mention of the possibility that four-wheel steering may make it into certain upcoming models. 2020 starts off the same way, and this time the candidate for getting the technology is a different one: a pickup truck.
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General Motors did previously toy with the idea with its Quadrasteer system, but it hasn’t been offered for 15 years in the Chevrolet Silverado or GMC Sierra.
Now it appears Ford is looking into incorporating four-wheel steering. The PatentStorm website obtained a document showing the design for such a system that would be intended for the F-Series trucks. The system uses Ackerman steering geometry, which allows for the inside and outside wheels to take slightly different paths in order to reduce unnecessary friction. The Drive website also points out that the ZF equipment maker uses a Ford F-150 to test out its own similar system designed for pickup trucks. Is that more than coincidence? Time will tell.
The document’s images show an HD version of Ford F-Series. You can be sure we’ll be asking about the possibility of four-wheel steering at next week’s media drive event for the Super Duty line of trucks.
Stay tuned.
