Entrepreneur Hopes to Have Last Laugh With Steering Invention

Mention Dee Howard and his Power Center Steering System almost anywhere in the trucking industry — especially on the manufacturing and maintenance sides — and you get a chuckle.

He is a well-known businessman, and his invention, which he has been tirelessly advocating for about eight years, also is well-known. But just when you think you are about to be told that Dee Howard is, perhaps, a few pallets short of a truckload — you are not told that at all.

Instead, the chuckle seems to be a kind of tribute — sometimes admiring, sometimes grudging — to the inexhaustible efforts of this colorful, energetic 79-year-old entrepreneur.

In an industry as big as trucking, it is hard to make a new invention take hold.

This is especially true if, as is the case with Howard’s steering system, you have a product designed to improve a situation that few people thought needed improving. The device uses hydraulics to hold a truck’s steer wheels on center automatically, even on crowned or rutted roads or in crosswinds. The vehicle will track straight unless turned by the driver.

The reaction of Gerry Gamlin, staff engineer at Mack Trucks, is typical.

“Big trucks are becoming more car-like’,” he said. “A driver doesn’t have any trouble holding a truck straight on the road if it’s lined up properly.”

He conceded, however, that he had not tested the system himself and that it “may truly be helpful when you have conditions like heavy crosswinds.”

For the full story, see the July 19 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.