[tomgwyther]

As the title suggests; would rear wheel steering (in a car) make cornering easier/safer/faster?
This question is someting I've been pondering for a while. Having driven front wheel, rear wheel and 4x4 vehicles and sliding them around a bit on public roads for fun whilst no-one's looking, I've often wondered how a car would behave if it were rear wheel steering.

Presumably, having the rear wheels drive and steer the car would result in a little over-steer, rather like the effect you get when performing a J-turn in a front wheel drive car.
A front wheel drive with rear wheel steer might behave more like a boat or aeroplane with it's rudder turned hard a-port/starboard; or like a hare kicking it's back legs out to turn at a sharp angle.

Having had no experience driving a rear-steer vehicle, this topic might well be considered a speculation, but I do have a hunch that rear-steer = better cornering. i.e. that pushing the back end of a car left or right might - in some - way - be better then pulling it in either direction.

Anyone have any knowledge or experience of such chassis lay-outs in cars? I'd be interested to know.

[Xittenn]

I think if it was rear drive + steer, cars would jacknife and people would die, often. Maybe if it was front wheel drive with rear wheel steering, there would be a functional mode of travel, but the end result would be vastly inferior. I have nothing to substantiate my claims, my opinions come from limited experience driving cars (8 hours total) and forklifts (10 years+). I'm seeing something for each in my head but I can't put it in words at the moment. Free body diagrams FTW?

There have been interesting advances in independent 4 wheel steering!

[Phi for All]

You would probably see less problems on the inside of the turns, but it seems to me that rear steering would throw the rear end out wider so the outside of the turn is more dangerous. I'd rather clip a curb on a turn than clip another car.

I haven't had any rear steering experience though. It's likely that once you were used to it turns wouldn't be a problem.

[Moontanman]

I've spent many hours driving rear steer fork trucks and clamp trucks, they were both front drive and rear drive, they were hard to corner at anything but very slow speeds, trying to take a curve sharp at any speed throws the rear end way out and can spin you around. We used to race them around the warehouse...

[InigoMontoya]

Another here who has spent many an hour on forklifts of various flavors including...

rear drive, rear steering.
front drive, rear steering.
4 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering (including crab capabilities).

I also used drive my work vehicles in reverse a lot (long story).

Rear steering is doable. I've done it with zero problems at speeds up to about 30 mph. It really isn't that hard to do but it is much more sensitive/responsive. If you're not used to it, you WILL oversteer and likely lose control. If you're used to it... No big deal; it just requires much finer control of the wheel.

[DrRocket]

tomgwyther, on 9 February 2012 - 11:03 PM, said:

As the title suggests; would rear wheel steering (in a car) make cornering easier/safer/faster?
This question is someting I've been pondering for a while. Having driven front wheel, rear wheel and 4x4 vehicles and sliding them around a bit on public roads for fun whilst no-one's looking, I've often wondered how a car would behave if it were rear wheel steering.

Presumably, having the rear wheels drive and steer the car would result in a little over-steer, rather like the effect you get when performing a J-turn in a front wheel drive car.
A front wheel drive with rear wheel steer might behave more like a boat or aeroplane with it's rudder turned hard a-port/starboard; or like a hare kicking it's back legs out to turn at a sharp angle.

Having had no experience driving a rear-steer vehicle, this topic might well be considered a speculation, but I do have a hunch that rear-steer = better cornering. i.e. that pushing the back end of a car left or right might - in some - way - be better then pulling it in either direction.

Anyone have any knowledge or experience of such chassis lay-outs in cars? I'd be interested to know.

Try it out. Just take a front wheel drive car and drive in reverse.

This post has been edited by DrRocket: 10 February 2012 - 04:41 AM

[tomgwyther]

Thanks for the replies guys. Given that nearly every vehicle that travels over 10mph is front end steer, I'll assume that the automotive industry knows what it's doing. Thinking about the inertia of a car, it does in hindsight seem better to have he front end 'pull' the car around a corner rather than having the rear end try to push it off course.

p.s if you hear any reports of a Ford Escort crashing backward into a ditch, you can assume it's me!