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Tilting three wheeled vehicle

A tilting three wheeler, tilting trike, leaning trike, or even just tilter, is a three wheeled vehicle and usually a narrow track vehicle whose body and or wheels tilt in the direction of a turn. Such vehicles can corner without rolling over despite having a narrow axle track because they can balance some or all of the roll moment caused by centripetal acceleration with an opposite roll moment caused by gravity, as bicycles and motorcycles do. These types of vehicles have also been described as "man wide vehicles" (MWV). "Free" and "passive" usually mean that the vehicle tilts as a bicycle or motorcycle, and the rider must control the tilt angle indirectly by steering the vehicle. direct and indirect usually refer to how active control is applied. The rider on a "free tilting" and "passive tilting" trike usually can apply a steer torque directly, which then controls the tilt angle indirectly, as on bicycles and motorcycles. The rider on a "free to caster" trike, on the other hand, can apply a roll torque directly, which then controls the steer angle indirectly. highside and lowside are expressions already commonly used in the motorcycle world to describe ways in which the bodies of these vehicles may collide with the ground.

Rear wheel steering tends to be directionally unstable, and so the vast majority of trikes employ front wheel steering. A notable exception is the Toyota i Road. In the case of two wheel steering, some accommodation is usually made to account for the different radii of their paths, such as Ackermann steering geometry.

As with tricycles in general, seating may be upright, as on the Piaggio MP3, or recumbent, as on the MEV Tilting Trike. If the vehicle is designed to accommodate a second rider, the seating is usually arranged in tandem to maintain the narrow profile, as on the CLEVER.

The rider may be fully exposed, as on the Tripendo, behind a fairing or windscreen, as on the Piaggio MP3, under a canopy, as on the Honda Canopy, or fully enclosed, as on the Vandenbrink Carver.

Power may come from the rider, as on the Tripendo, from batteries and electric motors, as on the Toyota i Road, or from conventional internal combustion engines, as on the Yamaha Tricity.

One vehicle variation is to control the steered wheel(s) indirectly by tilting them, along with the vehicle body, and this system is known as free to castor [FTC]. The directional control of a FTC wheel is not particularly strong, as demonstrated by the wheels on a shopping cart, and the castored wheel(s) will turn due to any applied side loading. If the steering axis is not vertical, however, the directional stability above about is very strongly controlled by the dynamic forces. If the castored wheel is attached to the front of a narrow tilting vehicle the castor will automatically place itself on the correct steer angle for the tilt and the speed of the vehicle. A system can be used below to improve slow speed performance where the steerable wheel(s) are progressively captured to the vehicle tilt action as vehicle speed decreases.