How does the Steering Wheel automatically returns to its center?

You might have noticed that after making a turn, when you release the steering wheel it will automatically return to the central position. You will be amazed to find out that this steering wheel returnability is not achieved by any complicated mechanism using springs or valves, instead, engineers have achieved the return motion of the steering wheel solely by giving the front wheels an angle, called a caster angle. Let’s discover the interesting physics behind how providing an angle to the front wheels makes the wheels, and the steering wheel, come back to their original positions.

[enesprtc]

Your animations make the learning process enjoyable. This kind of learning is so much effective than the ones at schools. Thanks a lot for your effort to make these videos.

[aasmith]

3:51 That car's gonna need new side skirts.

[RustyCyler]

The same setup is found on ATV's except that the racing ATV's have adjustable caster. When you set the caster to zero(vertical) the ATV\car steers quicker, the steering response is "go-kart like" but at zero caster you lose your high speed stability, the quad is scary to ride about 40 mph. The exact opposite happens when you start giving it positive caster, you lose that quick turning ability, but you gain high speed stability. We setup our caster angles based on the track we're running for the day.

[yakir]

"its obvious that.." "it is clear that..." no, its not so obvious and clear why r u making me feel stupid haha

[eat_ze_bugs]

TLDW: There are multiple slave dwarfs constantly adjusting your steering wheel.

[spelunkerd]

Well explained. You get a first hand look at how this works by watching how wheels on a grocery cart follow where the cart is pushed, even though there is no active steering control. Castor provides a moment arm to rotate the wheel behind the pivot arm as the cart is pushed forward. Also note that when driving in reverse you don't get a stabilizing force to center the steering wheel....

[RAF]

You do not understand how long I've been searching for an answer to this. I knew it couldn't be as simple as a wheel just returns to a straight-line path automatically without some ingenuity behind it!

[ken]

I think this kind of mechanism also shows up when you are free handing in the bike. When you're turning the bike, the centripetal force acts in the pivot point with restoring torque due to the fact the the pivot point is in front of the patch area of a bike, therefore, provides a restoring torque

[Xev]

This is such a hard concept to grasp. When I first heard about it I kept getting bogged down by the fact that the tire basically is turning through the ground. Definitions really helped with this tricky concept. I'm still confused about the turning into the floor thing but at least i know about patch area and the axis not lining up with the patch area being the reason for that restoring torque...really cool stuff!

[dv.singh]

YouTube at 3 am: You wanna know how does the Steering Wheel automatically returns to its center?


Sleepy me who can barely open his eyes: Interesting.

[salsperspective]

Above 80% people are visual learner's but in schools we are taught abstract language then abstract information and when we decode the words into a clear picture then we understand
Your channel is at the top because of its visuals.

[hbrown]

2:25 Wow that's a lot of understeer

[Mike]

This video is actually awufk at explaining what is happening. Neither the words nor the animations clearly show what happening such that you can imagine it for yourself.

[goravdyan]

Please make a video on car suspension..

[Wildstar]

The steering wheel is supposed to return to center ? WoW ! I have been driving bent beaters that either pull to the left or pull to the right for the past 40 years. This return to center deal sounds like a luxury to me.

[harshbhardwaj]

I have literally watched all the videos of this channel, now what i want is my graduation degree lol:)😂

[jeromes]

This feature can actually help you steer into (or out of) a slide. I was in a situation similar to those 'Sport Car Fails' where the driver fishtails uncontrollably. I was driving an older truck without power (assist) steering. I realized I was sliding and tried to steer into, but after a few fish tails I was not fast enough at the corrections. And, to my surprise, the steering wheel spun too fast for my hands - I pulled my hands back, and the truck did two more smaller fishtails and recovered.

[tomkelly]

The term "patch area" is more commonly known, as far as I know, as the "tire footprint". The specific point in this footprint where the steering axis intersects has a huge bearing on handling and steering performance. Caster angle is not the only critical element. Proper alignment specs will differ between front-wheel and rear-wheel drive, as well as the manufacturer's geometry. It is important to know that changing tire/rim sizes or offset from the hub ("wide track" rims etc.) will change the designed steering/suspension intersection with the footprint and could cause unexpected and possibly severe handling or wear problems. Some immediate symptoms may be "bump steer", "oversteer" or "failure to centre". Stick to manufacturer's specs unless you know your suspension geometry!

[pradhyumnkokane]

One of the best Engineering channels out there. I have learnt so much here, something which is very difficult for a book to portray with imagination.

[abdulsalamone]

and that's why bicycles moves without falling when we're not handling its handle.