Anti-roll system for wheeled vehicles

Abstract

An anti-roll system for wheeled vehicles has one selective, unidirectionally lockable device per each independent suspension assembly having telescoping members connected between the sprung and unsprung masses that are free to extend or contract during vehicle operation which results in minimal lateral acceleration of the vehicle's sprung mass as when traveling down a straight roadway. The telescoping members include a piston that partially defines first and second chambers interconnected through valves to one another and to a common reservoir. The valves are activated, by a control system signal, when the sprung mass is subjected to a lateral acceleration which exceeds a preset threshold as when rounding a curve, blocking flow from one or the other of the first or second chambers so as to lock the outboard device, with respect to the curve, only against contraction and to lock the inboard device only against extension. The devices, in the locked-out condition, impart a high roll stiffness to reduce the tilt angle of the vehicle for a given maneuver and increase the vehicle's roll-over threshold. The devices, while in a locked mode of operation, are allowed to react, when signaled, to high frequency road disturbances by opening a fast acting valve, momentarily unlocking the device so as to not affect ride quality, when the wheel of a respective independent suspension assembly is subjected to a vertical force which exceeds a preset threshold. The fast acting valve is again closed once the road disturbance has passed re-locking the device in the appropriate direction.