Method and system for controlling a vehicle suspension for reduced rolling resistance
A system and method of operating a vehicle includes determining a condition of the vehicle, changing a camber of at least one tire in response to the condition and changing a contact patch from a first portion of the at least one tire from a first portion to a second portion. The first portion has different rolling characteristics from the first portion.
1. A method of operating a vehicle having at least four tires comprising:
generating a selection signal at a user interface, said selection signal corresponding to one of a plurality of conditions, each condition of the plurality of conditions corresponding to a different camber;
changing the camber of the at least four tires in response to the the selection signal; and
changing a contact patch from a first portion of the at least four tires to a second portion, said second portion having different rolling characteristics from the first portion.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a wheel speed.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein when the wheel speed is greater than a threshold, changing the camber corresponding to the selection signal to another camber so a low rolling resistance portion contacts a driving surface.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the selection signal comprises generating the selection signal corresponding to one of the plurality of conditions comprising a mud setting, a snow setting, a sand setting and a rock setting.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the plurality of conditions further comprises determining a four wheel drive setting.
6. The method of claim 4 wherein the plurality of conditions further comprises determining a four wheel drive low setting.
7. The method of claim 4 wherein the plurality of conditions further comprises determining an ambient temperature and an ambient humidity.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the camber of the at least four tires in response to the condition comprises controlling camber actuators to change the camber of four tires.
9. A system for operating a vehicle having at least four tires comprising:
a user interface comprising a plurality of selectable condition settings, said user interface generating a selection signal corresponding to one of the plurality of selectable condition settings, each selectable condition of the plurality of selectable condition settings corresponding to a different camber;
a controller determining a camber based on the selection signal; and
a camber actuator coupled to the controller changing the camber of the at least four tires so that a contact patch changes from a first portion of a tread to a second portion based on the camber, said first portion having different rolling characteristics than the second portion.
10. The system of claim 9 further comprising a wheel speed signal corresponding to a vehicle speed.
11. The system of claim 10 wherein the controller, when the vehicle speed is greater than a threshold, controls the camber actuator to change the camber of the tires so a low rolling resistance portion contacts a driving surface.
12. The system of claim 9 wherein the user interface comprises the plurality of selectable condition settings comprising a mud setting, a snow setting, a sand setting and a rock setting.
13. The system of claim 12 wherein the selection signal comprises a four wheel drive setting as one of the plurality of selectable condition settings.
14. The system of claim 12 wherein the selection signal comprises a four wheel drive low setting as one of the plurality of selectable condition settings.
15. The system of claim 9 wherein the controller determines the camber based on an ambient temperature signal and an ambient humidity signal.
16. The system of claim 9 wherein the camber actuator comprises a plurality of camber actuators, said controller controlling the plurality of camber actuators to change the camber of four tires.