Vehicle suspension system and height control valve therefor

A height control valve for controlling the relative height between a vehicle frame and a trailing arm suspension comprising a trailing arm having one end pivotally mounted to the vehicle frame and carrying an axle that rotatably mounts around engaging wheels, and an air spring positioned between another end of the trailing arm and the vehicle frame to resist the rotation of the trailing arm relative to the frame, the height control valve comprising:

• a housing defining an interior chamber and having an inlet port for fluidly connecting to a source of pressurized air, an air spring port for fluidly connecting to the air spring, and a shaft opening extending through a first wall, the shaft opening forming at least a portion of an exhaust port for fluidly connecting to atmosphere;
• a manifold cover module removably mounted to a manifold body to enclose the air spring port and the inlet port;
• a control valve comprising a rotatable disk having a first side which abuts a first wall disposed within the interior chamber, the rotatable disk having a seal formed by pressurized air supplied from the source of pressurized air to the interior chamber, which biases the first side of the rotatable disk against the first wall, the rotatable disk selectively operable between a fill position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the inlet port to introduce the pressurized air into the air spring, an exhaust position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the exhaust port to exhaust the pressurized air from the air spring, and a neutral position where the air spring port is fluidly disconnected from both the inlet port and the exhaust port, to thereby control the introduction and exhaustion of air from the air spring to rotate the trailing arm relative to the vehicle frame and adjust the height of the vehicle frame;
• wherein the seal is formed substantially by the force of the pressurized air supplied from the source of pressurized air to the interior chamber;
• and
• a static disk positioned between the first wall and the rotatable disk and coupled to the first wall such that the static disk does not move relative to the first wall upon rotation of the rotatable disk, the static disk having an exhaust passage extending therethrough and in fluid communication with the exhaust port and an air spring passage extending therethrough and in fluid communication with the air spring port.

A height control valve for controlling the relative height between a vehicle frame and a trailing arm suspension comprising a trailing arm having one end pivotally mounted to the vehicle frame and carrying an axle that rotatably mounts ground engaging wheels, and an air spring positioned between another end of the trailing arm and the vehicle frame to resist the rotation of the trailing arm relative to the frame, the height control valve comprising:

• a housing defining an interior chamber and having an inlet port for fluidly connecting to a source of pressurized air, an air spring port for fluidly connecting to the air spring, and a shaft opening extending through a first wall, the shaft opening forming at least a portion of an exhaust port for fluidly connecting to atmosphere;
• a manifold cover module removably mounted to a manifold body to enclose the air spring port and the inlet port;
• a control valve comprising a rotatable disk having a first side which abuts a first wall disposed within the interior chamber, the rotatable disk having a seal formed by pressurized air supplied from the source of pressurized air to the interior chamber, which biases the first side of the rotatable disk against the first wall, the rotatable disk selectively operable between a fill position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the inlet port to introduce the pressurized air into the air spring, an exhaust position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the exhaust port to exhaust the pressurized air from the air spring, and a neutral position where the air spring port is fluidly disconnected from both the inlet port and the exhaust port, to thereby control the introduction and exhaustion of air from the air spring to rotate the trailing arm relative to the vehicle frame and adjust the height of the vehicle frame;
• wherein the seal is formed substantially by the force of the pressurized air supplied from the source of pressurized air to the interior chamber;
• a shaft extending through the shaft opening and affixed to the disk whereby the rotation of the shaft rotates the rotatable disk between the neutral, fill, or exhaust positions;
• and
• wherein the rotatable disk comprises a slot and the shaft comprises a key received within the slot to connect the shaft and the rotatable disk.

A height control valve for controlling the relative height between a vehicle frame and a trailing arm suspension comprising a trailing arm having one end pivotally mounted to the vehicle frame and carrying an axle that rotatably mounts ground engaging wheels, and an air spring positioned between another end of the trailing arm and the vehicle frame to resist the rotation of the trailing arm relative to the frame, the height control valve comprising:

• a housing defining an interior chamber and having an inlet port for fluidly connecting to a source of pressurized air, an air spring port for fluidly connecting to the air spring, and an exhaust port for fluidly connecting to atmosphere;
• and
• a control valve disposed within the interior chamber and selectively operable between a fill position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the inlet port to introduce pressurized air from the source of pressurized air into the air spring, an exhaust position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the exhaust port to exhaust the pressurized air from the air spring, and a neutral position where the air spring port is fluidly disconnected from both the inlet port and the exhaust port, to thereby control the introduction and exhaustion of air from the air spring to rotate the trailing arm relative to the vehicle frame and adjust the height of the vehicle frame;
• wherein the housing is characterized by a manifold body defining an air spring chamber fluidly connected to the air spring port and an inlet chamber fluidly connected to the inlet port, and a manifold cover module removably mounted to the manifold body to enclose the air spring chamber and the inlet chamber;
• and
• wherein the manifold cover module comprises at least one air supply connector for fluidly coupling a source of pressurized air to the inlet chamber and at least one air spring connector for fluidly connecting the air spring chamber to the air spring.

A height control valve for controlling the relative height between a vehicle frame and a trailing arm suspension comprising a trailing arm having one end pivotally mounted to the vehicle frame and carrying an axle that rotatably mounts ground engaging wheels, and an air spring positioned between another end of the trailing arm and the vehicle frame to resist the rotation of the trailing arm relative to the frame, the height control valve comprising:

• a housing defining an interior chamber and having an inlet port for fluidly connecting to a source of pressurized air, an air spring port for fluidly connecting to the air spring, and a shaft opening extending through a first wall, the shaft opening forming at least a portion of an exhaust port for fluidly connecting to atmosphere;
• a manifold cover module removably mounted to a manifold body to enclose the air spring port and the inlet port;
• a control valve comprising a rotatable disk having a first side which abuts a first wall disposed within the interior chamber, the rotatable disk having a seal formed by pressurized air supplied from the source of pressurized air to the interior chamber, which biases the first side of the rotatable disk against the first wall, the rotatable disk selectively operable between a fill position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the inlet port to introduce the pressurized air into the air spring, an exhaust position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the exhaust port to exhaust the pressurized air from the air spring, and a neutral position where the air spring port is fluidly disconnected from both the inlet port and the exhaust port, to thereby control the introduction and exhaustion of air from the air spring to rotate the trailing arm relative to the vehicle frame and adjust the height of the vehicle frame;
• wherein the seal is formed substantially by the force of the pressurized air supplied from the source of pressurized air to the interior chamber;
• wherein a control passage is provided in the rotatable disk, the control passage presenting an increasing cross-sectional area to the air spring port as the rotatable disk is moved to either the fill or exhaust positions to provided for increasing air flow rate as a function of the degree of movement of the rotatable disk;
• and
• wherein the housing comprises a second wall extending from the first wall to partially define the interior chamber, the air spring port and the exhaust port being positioned on the first wall, and the inlet port being positioned on the second wall, the rotatable disk having a first and second opposing sides connected by a peripheral edge, the first side of the disk overlies the air spring port and the exhaust port and the second side faces the inlet port so that pressurized air entering the chamber through the inlet port biases the disk first side against the first wall to seal the air spring port and exhaust port relative to the inlet port.

A height control valve for controlling the relative height between a vehicle frame and a trailing arm suspension comprising a trailing arm having one end pivotally mounted to the vehicle frame and carrying an axle that rotatably mounts ground engaging wheels, and an air spring positioned between another end of the trailing arm and the vehicle frame to resist the rotation of the trailing arm relative to the frame, the height control valve comprising:

• a housing defining an interior chamber and having an inlet port for fluidly connecting to a source of pressurized air, an air spring port for fluidly connecting to the air spring, and a shaft opening extending through a first wall, the shaft opening forming at least a portion of an exhaust port for fluidly connecting to atmosphere;
• a manifold cover module removably mounted to a manifold body to enclose the air spring port and the inlet port;
• a control valve comprising a rotatable disk having a first side which abuts a first wall disposed within the interior chamber, the rotatable disk having a seal formed by pressurized air supplied from the source of pressurized air to the interior chamber, which biases the first side of the rotatable disk against the first wall, the rotatable disk selectively operable between a fill position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the inlet port to introduce the pressurized air into the air spring, an exhaust position where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the exhaust port to exhaust the pressurized air from the air spring, and a neutral position where the air spring port is fluidly disconnected from both the inlet port and the exhaust port, to thereby control the introduction and exhaustion of air from the air spring to rotate the trailing arm relative to the vehicle frame and adjust the height of the vehicle frame;
• wherein the seal is formed substantially by the force of the pressurized air supplied from the source of pressurized air to the interior chamber;
• a shaft extending through the housing and having a key, the rotatable disk having a slot that receives the key of the shaft and a resin is disposed within the slot to fill in any spaces between the key and the slot;
• and
• wherein the rotation of the shaft rotates the rotatable disk to selectively fluidly connect the air spring port to the inlet port and the exhaust port to place the rotatable disk in the fill and exhaust positions respectively.

A height control valve for controlling the height between a vehicle frame and a suspension with an air spring positioned between the suspension and the vehicle frame, the height control valve comprising:

• a housing having a manifold body defining an interior chamber and having an inlet chamber connected to an inlet port for connecting to a source of pressurized air, an air spring chamber connected to an air spring port for connecting to the air spring, and an exhaust port for connecting to atmosphere,
• a manifold cover module having at least one air supply connector for fluidly coupling a source of pressurized air to the inlet chamber and at least one air spring connector for fluidly connecting the air spring chamber to the air spring, said manifold cover module being removably mounted to the manifold body to enclose the air spring chamber and the inlet chamber;
• and
• a control valve disposed within the interior chamber and selectively operable between:
• a fill position, where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the inlet port to introduce the pressurized air into the air spring;
• an exhaust position, where the air spring port is fluidly connected to the exhaust port to exhaust the pressurized air from the air spring;
• and
• a neutral position where the air spring port is fluidly disconnected from both the inlet port and the exhaust port.