From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Letter to The Adamant Engineering Co. Ltd. discussing the merits and inefficiencies of American versus Marles steering systems.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 28\2\ Scan038 | |
| Date | 12th August 1932 | |
| X4094. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}1/AD August 12th, 1932. The Adamant Engineering Co.Ltd, Dallow Rd, Luton. Dear Sirs, We thank you for your letter of the 11th inst. reference FCM/AGS/CB. and note what you say. The writer recently paid a visit to America and was very much impressed with the complete absence of road shocks on the modern American car. As an indication of the irreversibility of these steerings, we observed that a Buick car broke into a high speed wobble without any reactions being felt on the steering wheel. This, we think you will agree, is a rather remarkable result. We made enquiries as to how this was achieved and found that the Americans purposely make their steerings very inefficient. They use a helix angle as low as 7°. They use ball bearing pivots so that in spite of the inefficiency of the steering they get a reasonably light operation. They use a big king-pin inclination and a big castor angle, in order to get self-centering in spite of their irreversibility. Having reference to these observations we must say that we cannot believe that the Marles steering, particulars of which you have sent us, will give us the result that we require. It is possible that the Marles-Weller type of steering gear which you mention, will be more suitable and should like to know if you have any figures showing the relative efficiencies in the forward and reverse direction of this gear. We would point out that 3 1/4 turns of the steering wheel from full lock to full lock is about the limit which we think we are able to employ and this is about the ratio used on the Cadillac car which has considerably more weight on the front axle than our own, and yet the steering of this car is beautifully light. | ||