Method and apparatus for measuring the dynamic camber of vehicle tires

In combination, a tire/wheel assembly and an apparatus for continuously measuring the dynamic angles of camber of a tire of the tire/wheel assembly of a moving vehicle as it moves along a road surface, including:

• a) a bracket;
• b) means for mounting the bracket on the tire/wheel assembly of the vehicle extending substantially perpendicularly outwardly from the tire/wheel assembly above the road surface and free of movement with respect to the tire/wheel assembly;
• c) transducer means mounted on the bracket above the road surface for transmitting at least two beams of energy against the road surface;
• d) means for detecting the energy of the transmitted beams reflected off the road surface and producing signals, the magnitudes of said signals representing two distances between two known references on the bracket and the road surface at specific instances of time;
• and
• e) signal processing means coupled with the detecting means for converting said signals into output data representing the angles of camber of the tire for specific instances of time.

A method of measuring a camber of a vehicle tire mounted on a wheel assembly of a particular vehicle as the vehicle moves along a road surface, including the steps of:

• a) providing at least a pair of energy sources for producing beams of energy;
• b) providing detector means for each of said energy sources;
• c) mounting said energy sources and detector means at a predetermined fixed position on a rigidly fixed non-rotatable bracket extending substantially perpendicularly outwardly from a vertical plane of the wheel assembly above the road surface, with said energy sources and detector means being at a predetermined spaced relationship with respect to each other on the bracket;
• d) transmitting at least two energy beams against the road surface;
• e) detecting and measuring the reflected energy of each transmitted energy beam from the road surface by each detector means as the vehicle moves along the road surface, and converting the reflected energy into signals which represent a distance to the road surface for each energy beam;
• f) calculating the angles of camber which the tire experiences for particular instances of time from the signals which represent the distance to the road surface for each energy beam;
• and
• g) storing the calculated angles of camber in a memory device.