Toe-out change preventive swing-arm vehicle suspension
AssigneeNissan Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorHideo Ito
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A swing-arm type suspension having a suspension arm for suspending a road wheel on a vehicle body. A lateral link is also provided for restricting yawing movement of the suspension arm and thereby for restricting toe-angle change. The suspension arm is connected to the vehicle body by bifurcated legs via elastic bushings. The suspension arm is adapted to roll in response to rolling movement about a camber axis to change camber. The actual camber axis of the suspension arm is so arranged as to reduce toe-out change in accordance with the rolling movement of the suspension arm to cause positive camber.
Claims19
A leading or trailing arm vehicle suspension for a wheeled vehicle comprising:
- a suspension arm having a pair of connecting portions;
- wheel means for rotatably mounting a road wheel oriented in a desired rolling direction on one end of said suspension arm;
- pivot means for pivotably securing the other end of said suspension arm to a vehicle body cross member through said connecting portions, one of said connecting portions being spaced inwardly relative to the other connecting portion, said pivot means permitting vertical pivoting movement of said suspension arm and wheel means about a pivot axis and resiliently permitting lateral yawing movement of said suspension arm and wheel means and rotational movement of said suspension arm and wheel means about a camber axis;
- said suspension arm having a theoretical camber axis extending along a line through said one end of said suspension arm and through a midpoint between said connecting portions of said pivot means, said theoretical axis forming an angle with respect to the desired rolling direction of said road wheel;
- a shock absorber means disposed between said suspension arm and said vehicle body for creating a shock absorbing force against relative movement in an essentially vertical direction between said suspension arm and said vehicle body;
- means for connecting said suspension arm to said vehicle body for preventing lateral yawing movement of said suspension arm and wheel means;
- and
- means associated with said suspension arm for establishing an actual camber axis for said suspension arm, said actual camber axis crossing said pivot axis of said pivot means at a position outwardly shifted from the midpoint between said connecting portions;
- whereby the tendency for toe-out change of the orientation of the road wheel to take place when rotational movement of the suspension arm and camber change of said road wheel occur is reduced.
A swing arm vehicle suspension for a wheeled vehicle comprising:
- a suspension arm having a first end fixedly connected to a spindle for mounting a rolling wheel, and having a second end with a pair of mounting points;
- means for mounting said suspension arm to said vehicle body such that said second end is connected through said mounting points to said vehicle body and said suspension arm can pivot about a pivot axis passing through said points and such that said suspension arm is permitted to rotate about a camber axis substantially aligned with the longitudinal direction of said vehicle, said camber axis intersecting said pivot axis at a position between said pair of mounting points spaced from a midpoint between said pair of mounting points.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.