I have an idea and am wondering if there has been anything like it produced before.

I want to build a landboard/ATB that has wheels that will stay straight when you lean back on both feet to edge, but when you rock one foot, front or back, those wheels would turn so you could still steer. Has anyone ever seen this kind of setup?

You mean like a Rip Stick? :D

flexboardz?

I think I know what he means. Like, independent front & rear steering? So that you can twist the board with your front or rear foot and only turn that end?

Yes similar to the rip stick but with a wider 4 wheel stance. I am thinking how on the water and snow to you lift up with your toes and press with your heels, but on a ATB that makes you turn and you have to press down with your toes. I'm thinking of a way that you could edge just like you do on water or snow but the use one foot to steer when you need to even while leaning hard into it.

I'm pretty sure this is what Flexboards is trying to accomplish ?

http://www.flexboardz.com/

What is it that would be different?

Yes I was looking at those and it kind of looks like they still turn when you lean with it. I have one of those engineering classes were your on a team and have to design something but never actually build it. My mind went to kites of course. I've been thinking about this a while and for the first time tried to draw something up and came up with something that from everything I can tell should work. Probably wont do the class project on it but I am going to built it anyway :-D and patent it if need be, lol.

If you want to lean back hard on an ATB and go in a straight line, just do it and adjust the power of the kite to correctly proportionate the force of the turning action with the pull of the kite, to cancel them out. AKA, the turning action of the board is counter-balanced by the pulling action of the kite. I can lean back and let my fingertips skim the grass and still be going straight; I just have to lower the kite a little. Then to turn, sheet out a little and turn like you normally would.

There is a type of longboard called freeboards. One of the top companies is Freebord.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmZa1TP2pHI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDI-u7PGzcQ

I suppose you could do the same thing with an ATB, but hitting the gopher holes would be a real bummer. I think the friction would be greater as well. Maybe it would work in very wet grass. I don't see it working well at all on sand...maybe with a light touch.

Anyway, there was a project featured on instructables.com a while ago. It is for a longboard, but don't count that against it. :moon:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Laterally-Slide-able-Board-f...

-Mike

On my Outback MountainBoard, the rear wheel is fixed and leaning on the deck pulls /pushes the front wheels with tie-rods. It has steering like a car. The front wheels track nicely even when very powered on the kite. The rear holds wells too but is easily pushed out to make nice tight carves when you want it. It has the closest feeling of carving on snow.

The picture shows the bottom of the board.