- Rear suspension
For
front-wheel drive cars, rear suspension has few constraints and a variety ofbeam axle s andindependent suspension s are used.For
rear-wheel drive cars, rear suspension has many constraints and the march to the superior but more expensiveindependent suspension layout has been a long slog. The dynamics of such a vehicle are that the rear suspension must counteract by the tendency of the rolling wheel traveling in the opposite direction from the vehicle. This must be countered by the rear suspension taking up a counter-clockwisetorque ; otherwise, the body and frame of the car will strip itself off the rear suspension, whatever it is. It is that need which dominates several of the varieties of rear suspension.Henry Ford 'sModel T used atorque tube to restrain this force, for his differential was attached to thechassis by a lateralleaf spring and two narrow rods. The torque tube surrounded the truedriveshaft and exerted the force to itsball joint at the extreme rear of the transmission, which was attached to the engine. A similar method was used by the late-1930sBuick and by Hudson's "bathtub car" of 1948, which used helical springs which could not take fore-and-aft thrust.Hotchkiss drive is the name of the most popular rear suspension in American cars from the 1930s to the 1970s. It was invented by a Frenchman. His system uses longitudinal leaf springs attached both forward and behind the differential of thelive axle . These springs transmit the torque to the frame.Europe ans consider thisprimitive technology(Though Citroen, Aston Martin, Volvo, and many more had used live axles during this period in at least a few of their autos), not producing goodride quality orcar handling , but it was accepted by American car makers because it wasinexpensive to manufacture. Also, the dynamic defects of this design were suppressed by the enormous weight of US passenger vehicles before implementation theCorporate Average Fuel Economy standard.Another Frenchman invented the
De Dion tube , which is sometimes called "semi-independent". Like a true independent rear suspension, this employs twouniversal joint s or their equivalent from the center of the differential to each wheel. But the wheels cannot entirely rise and fall independently of each other; they are tied by a yoke that goes around the differential, below and behind it. This method has had little use in theUnited States , though it does not evidence thebump steer that a more expensive, true independent suspension does. Its use around 1900 was probably due to the poor quality of {tires|tyres}, which wore out quickly. By removing a good deal ofunsprung weight , as independent rear suspensions do, it made them last longer.Rear wheel drive vehicles today frequently use a fairly complex fully independent,
multi-link suspension to locate the rear wheels securely while providing decentride quality .
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