Automakers are all the time seeking to one-up one another by rising the towing capability of their pickup vehicles, which has led Common Motors to ponder a wild towing answer.
GM lately filed a patent software for a tow-assist gadget that reinforces a car’s towing capability. Revealed by america Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) on March 21, 2023, however initially filed Oct. 21, 2019, the appliance is for a “tow help system” primarily based round a wheeled booster unit that {couples} between the tow car and trailer.
Common Motors tow help gadget patent picture
The unit would have as much as 4 wheels and {hardware} that enables it to couple with the hitches and a car and trailer. Patent drawings additionally present a fifth-wheel attachment for towing these forms of trailers. By turning its personal wheels, the unit would complement the tow car, utilizing onboard sensors to find out how a lot energy to use. It may additionally brake itself to help with trailer braking, in accordance with the patent software.
Electrical motors would drive the tow-assist unit’s wheels, doubtlessly with one motor per wheel to simulate a differential by altering the quantity of energy going to every wheel. Traction should not be an issue as a result of the unit will carry most of a trailer’s tongue weight, GM notes within the patent software. The motors could be powered by an onboard battery pack, which is also configured to assist energy a trailer, and even assist cost the tow car through bidirectional charging, which GM is beginning to roll out in electrical vehicles just like the GMC Hummer EV. GM did not say how a lot horsepower or torque the unit may produce.
Common Motors tow help gadget patent picture
The tow help gadget may additionally make hooking as much as a trailer simpler. It may transfer a trailer round by itself, or be guided utilizing a deal with, eliminating the necessity to reverse and line up with a hitch, the patent software states. Whereas GM has not indicated manufacturing plans, this may give the automaker a solution to rival Ford’s driver-assist options for connecting a trailer.
An exterior unit like this provides drivers extra flexibility, GM claims. It envisions clients utilizing the gadget to tow heavier hundreds than their autos would in any other case be able to. That eliminates the necessity to purchase a sure car only for occasional towing use, but it surely assumes drivers will take heed to what they tow. Growing towing capability an excessive amount of may put a load in a weight vary that requires a CDL, no matter what car the motive force is towing with.