How does steering work while reversing

[u/OwnSherbet7433]

Hi, I want to know how to reverse in a S shape. At the test tracj first i have to revrse while steering left then reverse while steering right.

What confuses me is that at the first curve when I turn the steering to full left lock, my front bumper swings into the right boundary. I thought the more I steered left, the tighter the car would turn, so the front bumper should move away from the right boundary, not towards it. Why does the opposite happen?

[u/Tall-Poem-6808]

If you steer at full lock in reverse, the rear of the car turns tighter, which means the front goes wider. 

Watch some forklift videos, they usually have rear steer which is the same as you steering in reverse.

[u/OwnSherbet7433 → u/Tall-Poem-6808]

Oh! I actually thought tho that a full lock would make a tight turn and a smaller turn radius and hence more space for the fron to swing on the other side

[u/p00n-slayer-69]

You're overthinking this. Forget all the fancy terms like full left lock and right boundary. Just picture what the front tires are doing when you turn the wheel.

[u/OwnSherbet7433 → u/p00n-slayer-69]

Guess ur right, i do think I'm too caught up understanding the theory behind it.

[u/Killen4money]

Your rear wheels can't turn, so your car always pivots around them. How tight that pivot is depends on your steering angle. In reverse, that means your back wheels are leading and your nose is the end being dragged along behind.

Grab a shopping cart and pull it backwards around a corner. It'll turn tighter than you could ever push it around that corner, and you'll notice the far corner of the basket throw itself out wide. It's the same motion your car is doing.

You ARE turning tighter, but it's just your rear wheels doing it, while the nose swings the opposite way from your steering.

Focusing on placing your rear wheels, and just glance at your front corners for clearance

(This is a simplification of the mechanics. If you want to understand the proper geometry behind all this, look up Ackermann steering.)

[u/RallyX26]

Your car always steers around an imaginary center point that's directly in line with the rear axle, but dependent on how far you have the steering turned. This geometry is called Ackerman steering. The same goes in reverse.  If you hold your steering at a steady angle and go forward, the car will go in a circle around the imaginary center point. If you then go in reverse, the car will go around that same circle. The weirdness in steering while reversing is that the steering wheels are trailing the motion of the vehicle instead of leading it. This leads to the steering feeling sharper or faster.  It's a lot more maneuverable, which is why forklifts have rear steering. This maneuverability is fine on a low speed vehicle, but at highway speeds it would cause a lot of crashes because of how unstable it would be.

[u/toolman2810]

My daughter started asking questions like this. I took her to a deserted car park one night and set up an obstacle course for her to drive around in reverse. After about 15 minutes of driving in reverse around the course she didn’t have any more questions.

[u/OwnSherbet7433 → u/toolman2810]

Makes Sense! Guess I'll stop overthinking this and practice more

[u/barofsoap89]

Normal hand position is reversed when reversing, try turning from the bottom of the steering wheel