Panhard spring suspension arrangement for off-road vehicles

Abstract

A heavy duty suspension for an off-road vehicle including an axle assembly formed of a transversely extending axle housing and a forwardly extending tongue rigid with the axle housing, the axle assembly having front and rear pivot connections defining a fore-and-aft extending roll axis. A rigid bracket extends downwardly from the chassis to a point substantially offset in the lateral direction from the roll axis. Connected to the bracket is a horizontal link, one end of the link being pivoted to the lower end of the bracket and the other end of the link being pivoted to the axle housing so that the link restrains the axle assembly from moving laterally with respect to the chassis while accommodating rolling and vertical movement as the vehicle passes over irregular ground. A single damped spring suspension device is vertically arranged adjacent the axle, the suspension device being connected at its upper end to the chassis and supportively coupled at its lower end to the axle assembly at the roll axis so that the supportive effect of the suspension device is distributed evenly to both of the wheels. In one embodiment the horizontal link is in the form of a centrally pivoted lever, permitting the suspension device to be substantially spaced from the chassis center line. An auxiliary damping biasing spring of the centering type is provided for relatively biasing the axle assembly toward a position parallel to the chassis.