Although cars are amid the most frequent categories of vehicles on the road today, other vehicle categories such as vans, pickups, commercial trucks, buses and even motorcycles make up the vehicles we witness on the road each day. Since these vehicles have diverse weights, dimensions and applications, there is no one-size-fits-all formula for suspension design. Of the suspension designs engaged today, the most progressed would be those used for luxury sports sedans and sports cars.
Beginning from the beam axle and leaf springs designs that took their creativeness from horse-drawn buggies, contemporary high-end performance car suspensions feature dual-wishbone or multilink suspension designs. These suspension constituents will be made from lightweight supplies, chiefly aluminum, that offer much lower unsprung weight if equated to stamped steel. Moreover, these suspensions will be supplemented by high durometer bushings, anti-sway bars and high performance shock absorbers. The top performance car manufacturers even use shock absorbers that encompass magnetic fluids whose damping rate is controlled electronically. But again, these are vehicles intended for road use where ride quality and handling performance are supreme. The other end of the spectrum for vehicle suspensions would be suspensions used for off-road automobiles. Instead of focusing on ride quality and on-road handling, vehicle suspension categories for off-road use are concentrated on suspension travel, steadiness, component strength and ground clearance.
