Passive vehicular suspension system including a roll control mechanism

摘要

A suspension system is provided for a vehicle having a chassis supported on at least one front pair of laterally spaced wheels and at least one rear pair of laterally spaced wheels. The suspension system includes vehicle support devices for supporting the chassis above each pair of wheels, and roll moment reaction devices for providing location of the chassis about a substantially level roll attitude. The roll moment reaction devices include a respective roll attitude control mechanism for each pair of laterally spaced wheels for passively controlling the position of the wheels relative to each other and the chassis. Each roll attitude control mechanism is connected to at least one other roll attitude control mechanism by roll mechanism interconnection devices. The roll mechanism interconnection devices are arranged such that the roll moment reaction devices resist roll of the vehicle chassis with respect to the wheels, while simultaneously permitting cross-axle articulation motions of the wheels. The vehicle support devices for at least one pair of wheels include at least a first support for supporting at least a portion of the load on the vehicle support devices. The first support provides substantially zero roll stiffness of the vehicle. The roll moment reaction devices are separate devices from the vehicle support devices, thereby providing substantially zero load carrying capacity.