Pneumatic trailing beam suspension with a bolted axle connection, thus without welding the axle to the trailing arm-beams

A pneumatic trailing beam suspension system for land vehicles, including trailers;

• comprising:
• a hollow steel tubular axle having a sidewall having a characteristic outside diameter;
• left and right air springs;
• left and right trailing arm-beams, each extending between (1) a leading, eye-formed end adapted for housing a bushing adapted to be bolted to a hanger hanging from an undercarriage of the land vehicle, or an intermediate structure thereto such as a sliding undercarriage being slidable and having multiple fixable longitudinal positions, and, (2) a trailing end formed with an air-spring seat adapted for seating one of the respective air springs;
• left and right steel monolithic landing pads, each landing pad having a box foot having a characteristic planar geometry outline and extending upwardly to an upper semicircular concave raceway upper end sized and configured with an inside diameter adapted to closely match the characteristic outside diameter of the axle and having an angular extent to receive about a lower quarter of the sidewall of the axle;
• the left and right landing pads being welded to the axle at a selected left and right dispositions whereby each box foot projects radially outward on a common radial axis;
• each of the left and right trailing arm-beams having an upper surface intermediate the leading and trailing ends formed with a recessed pocket seat sized and configured with a planar geometry outline counterpart to the characteristic geometry of the respective box foot of the respective landing pad;
• the axle and trailing arm-beams being initially assembled together with the landing pads being landed in the respective pocket seats of the respective trailing arm-beams;
• and
• a plurality of bolts clamping the axle to the left and right trailing arm-beams whereby the close fit between the each transversely spaced left and right box foot of the respective transversely spaced landing pads, and, each transversely spaced left and right pockets seat of the respective transversely spaced trailing arm-beams resists twisting of the axle due to external impulses including brake torsion loading, or G-force impacts from over-the-road surface roughness.

A heavy duty trailing beam suspension system for cargo transportation vehicles;

• comprising:
• a hollow steel tubular axle having a sidewall having a characteristic outside diameter:
• left and right air springs;
• left and right trailing arm-beams, each extending between a leading, eye-formed end adapted for housing a hanger bushing, and, a trailing end formed with an air-spring seat adapted for seating one of the respective air springs;
• left and right steel landing pads, each landing pad having a box foot having a characteristic planar geometry outline and extending upwardly to an upper semi-circular concave raceway upper end sized and configured with an inside diameter adapted to closely match the characteristic outside diameter of the axle;
• the left and right landing pads being welded along the raceways to the sidewall of the axle at spaced left and right dispositions whereby each box foot projects radially outward on a common radial axis;
• each of the left and right trailing arm-beams having an upper surface intermediate the leading and trailing ends formed with a recessed pocket seat sized and configured for receiving and assembling with a respective box foot of a respective landing pad;
• and
• a plurality of bolts clamping the axle to the left and right trailing arm-beams whereby an axle with a relatively thinner sidewall thickness can be utilized.