Automakers are at all times trying to one-up one another by rising the towing capability of their pickup vans, which has led Basic Motors to ponder a wild towing answer.

GM just lately filed a patent software for a tow-assist gadget that enhances a automobile’s towing capability. Printed by the USA Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) on March 21, 2023, however initially filed Oct. 21, 2019, the appliance is for a “tow help system” based mostly round a wheeled booster unit that {couples} between the tow automobile and trailer.

The unit would have as much as 4 wheels and {hardware} that permits it to couple with the hitches and a automobile and trailer. Patent drawings additionally present a fifth-wheel attachment for towing these varieties of trailers. By turning its personal wheels, the unit would complement the tow automobile, utilizing onboard sensors to find out how a lot energy to use. It may additionally brake itself to help with trailer braking, in response to the patent software.

Electrical motors would drive the tow-assist unit’s wheels, probably with one motor per wheel to simulate a differential by altering the quantity of energy going to every wheel. Traction shouldn’t 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 can be powered by an onboard battery pack, which may be configured to assist energy a trailer, and even assist cost the tow automobile through bidirectional charging, which GM is beginning to roll out in electrical vans just like the GMC Hummer EV. GM didn’t say how a lot horsepower or torque the unit may produce.

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 could give the automaker a solution to rival Ford’s driver-assist options for connecting a trailer.

An exterior unit like this offers drivers extra flexibility, GM claims. It envisions clients utilizing the gadget to tow heavier masses than their automobiles would in any other case be able to. That eliminates the necessity to purchase a sure automobile 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 automobile the driving force is towing with.

HIGH-RES GALLERY: Basic Motors tow help gadget patent picture

This text was initially printed by Motor Authority, an editorial accomplice of ClassicCars.com