Back to results
US 5,305,844 AGranted
Remote steering of on-highway vehicles
OwnerEdgar A. Ducoteinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
OwnerEdgar A. Ducoteinventor
Estimating the term…
Motor vehicles in which steerable wheels aft of the front wheels are steered by the same steering wheel which steers the front wheels. In one aspect the present invention provides an extended motor vehicle thus steered, and in a second aspect a tractor-trailer assembly in which the trailer is steered from the tractor. In one embodiment a mechanical power train is used to forcibly steer the steerable wheels aft of the front wheels. In a second embodiment the wheels are steered electronically, and in a third embodiment they are steered pneumatically. For extended vehicles the steerable wheels aft of the front wheels are forcibly steered in response to the position of the Pitman arm which controls the front wheels. For tractor-trailer assemblies a directional sensor is disposed and held in the V-shaped slot of the fifth wheel of the tractor, and the steerable wheels on the trailer are forcibly steered in response to the direction of motion of the tractor sensed by the sensor.
An extended motor vehicle having front and rear ends, the vehicle comprising:
An extended motor vehicle having front and rear ends, the vehicle comprising:
A mechanical sensor connected to a Pitman arm which forcibly steers a pair of steerable wheels, for detecting the orientation of a steering shaft and thereby the orientation of a steering wheel, and for transmitting the orientation of the steering wheel to the Pitman arm, the sensor comprising:
A motor vehicle comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.