The chassis configuration is a formula that gives information about the wheels of a road vehicle including number of wheels, number of driven wheels and number of steered wheels. A common example is 4x4.
The formula is defined as follows:
A ÃÂ B / C
or
A ÃÂ B * C
with:
Basis is always the standard configuration, meaning a steered front axle and a non-steered driven rear axle. This means: If only the front wheels are steered, the rearmost part of the formula can be left out. The most common example is probably the 4ÃÂ4 configuration. 6ÃÂ4*4 is the chassis configuration for a vehicle with six wheels where four wheels are driven, in addition, the two front wheels as well as the rearmost two wheels are steered. In this case it is a three-axled vehicle.
Often the formula A ÃÂ B ÃÂ C is used. Even if the information contained by C is needless, it means that only front axles are steered. This can give information about the distribution of axles. For example, provide manufacturers the chassis configuration 8ÃÂ4ÃÂ4 to show that the vehicle has two steered front axles and two driven rear axles, compared to the chassis configuration 8ÃÂ4/4 where the vehicle has one steered front axle, one steered rear axle (the fore axle) and two driven rear axles (the aft axles).