
23 Manual steering
23.1 STEERING PRINCIPLES AND LAYOUT
The Ackermann steering principle
Considered in plan view, a basic feature of the steering
geometry of any vehicle concerns the relative angular
movements of the front wheels while travelling along a
curved path.
Very early motor vehicles had their front wheels
mounted on a turntable to provide a single-pivot
steering layout after the fashion of horse-drawn vehicles
(Figure 23.1a). This simple arrangement suffered from
the great disadvantage that shock loads acting in the
horizontal direction on either wheel produced a leverage
on the steering mechanism equivalent to half the wheel
trac