During the summer of 1970, a new trailer hitch was designed which effectively removes the dangerous yaw oscillation between car and trailer. The device is a simple linkage which places the 'virtual' hitch point at the center of mass of the towing vehicle. This hitch point placement decouples the fundamental mode of energy interchange between the two vehicles greatly increasing the overal safe speed of operation. Experimental evidence shows that this new soupling passively desensitizes the system from drifer error or from poor loading procedures. Even under the worst operational conditions, the system remained stable at very high speeds (such as 80 MPH). A brief review of the literature provides additional analytical verification of these results. That the proposed hitch design solves an important safety problem is clearly demonstrated by the fact that existing car-trailer systems are known to be 4 to 16 times more unsafe than the car alone. (Peters)
A New Coupling Hitch for Car-Trailer combinations which Eliminates Swaying
Eine neue, Pendelbewegungen verhindernde, Anhaengerkupplung fuer Auto-Anhaenger Kombination
1980
8 Seiten, 8 Bilder, 4 Quellen
Conference paper
English
A New Coupling Hitch for Car-Trailer Combinations Which Eliminates Swaying
SAE Technical Papers | 1980
|A new coupling hitch for car-trailer combinations which eliminates swaying
Automotive engineering | 1980
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