Another vehicle topic, 4 wheel stearing

Ok, so GMC puts 4 wheel stearing into a truck. How long until this is in almost every vehicle?

This happened many years ago, as well. I'm guessing it was the early 80s. It died in a year. I don't imagine it will catch on this time, either.

Didn't Mitsubishi have that on the early 3000GT / Stealth AWD models? Seemed like a solution in search of a problem back then...

Some honda preludes had it

What amazes me more is that they are shouting about the fact that their product only has a 37 and a half foot turning circle !!! I think it is fair to say that the US car market is "unique"...

The Nissan 300ZX had 4 wheel steering. Along with the twin turbos it made it very easy to doughnut...probably

Monster trucks have four-wheel steering.

Monster Trucks also have the biggest need for it, but that is done manually with a switch on the dash. The main flaw I see with GMC's system is what if you are trying to corner at high speeds? it says the rear wheels steer in the same direction as the front over 40 mph, so it seems to me that would cause some major understeer not to mention a world of other problems

The main flaw I see with GMC's system is what if you are trying to corner at high speeds? it says the rear wheels steer in the same direction as the front over 40 mph, so it seems to me that would cause some major understeer not to mention a world of other problems.

I thought this too, but that isn't the case. Remember, this is mainly for extended pickups with long beds and crew cabs. I'm involved in the dealer training for maintenance of these things and it is a really overbuilt system. I forget how many times a second the system is working, but it has several dedicated computers for it. And the degree of wheel rotation at speed is very very slight. Only a few degrees. I'm not sure how much info I can give on it, but I'm sure the web would have info.

Basically, it makes one of these super-huge work trucks park like a normal pickup. Great for a work site. It is not a sports car type system.

It makes sense, but I beleive, being a driver of a large truck, that it is an option that wouldnt be very usefull and is just another thing on a GMC truck that will break. If you cant park a truck or tow a trailer with one, then simply dont drive it

Disclaimer: I haven't checked the specs on this version of 4 wheel steering, but if it's anything like Honda and Nissan's versions the rear wheel steering varies:

at low speeds you get a fair amount of opposite steer;
at high speeds with a little steering wheel movement you get small steer in the same direction as your front wheels;
at high speeds under heavy steering it tends towards opposite steer again.

It was always pretty intelligent and didn't do weird things (meaning scary under/over steer things)

My 1991 Nissan 240sx had four-wheel steering. They called it "Super-HiCAS". A friend of mine with a 240sx with normal steering and I swapped cars to compare the effect. In "normal" driving, the differences are real, but subtle.

Given all the other features that may or may not show up on a car (anti-lock breaks, traction control, all-wheel drive, in-dash MP3 players, etc.), I'd rate four wheel steering pretty low on the list of desirable features. It's just not that big a deal and I suppose it's really just one more part that can fail (not that I had any problems with it; it's a very simple system if you look at it -- a servo motor centered between the two rear tires with connecting rods that let it "steer" for you).

Dan

Well again, that was Honda and Nissan, this is GM, dont get me wrong I am a very big supporter of American Cars, just I dont trust anything GM produces for atleast 3 years on the market. It is just like my dad, he has always been a Ford man, when the new Chevy Heavy duty trucks came out he decided to test one out, bought a brand new duelly with the 5speed Allison automatic transmition (which for anyone who knows anything about heavy transmissions, they do not get much better than Allison) drove it 48 miles and the whole transmission fell out. Not just locked up, but completely fell out.

Yeah the variable cam timing (aka VTEC in Honda's) was toyed around by GM in the 60's but they couldnt get it to work. And another domestic car thing. Both my mom and my dad own 95 model vehicles both purchased new within a month of each other. One a Ford Exploder (loaded) and the other an Acura Integra SE (loaded Integra non-VTEC) so they both had the same level of up keep. The Integra always gets comments like "thats a 95?!, its in awesome shape" and well the explorer feels and looks old. Also when buying a car look at resale value one of the reason even with a huge discount from Ford my dad is gonna get my mom a Honda pilot. That couple thousand more now may end up buying you alot more in resale value. I have never and will never own a domestic.

Please dont rate Ford on the worst vehicle they ever built ( The Explorer) , I have seen these things fall apart in front of eyes, even blow up in front of my eyes, which is when we started calling them exploders. I have no idea why ford kept producing these things other than people still bought them. just proves the fact though, quantity sold does not prove quality

Yeah the variable cam timing (aka VTEC in Honda's) was toyed around by GM in the 60's but they couldnt get it to work.

I don't think that Honda could get it to work in the 60's either! I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that American car makers havn't gotten into this technology much. Even turbos are rare. I think a lot of it is the American "it needs to be a V8" mentality. That is the only reason that so many people bought the Jeep Grand Cherokee at first - it was the only SUV w. a V8. The V8 that Ford finally squeezed into the Explorer was junk compared to it's V6, but people bought it!

Ford finally has a variable intake cam on the SVT Focus...