Multi-link Suspension tagged posts

Now let’s take a look at the third type of automobile suspension: the MacPherson type system. For simplicity, you can consider the MacPherson suspension to be the double wishbone suspension with the upper A-arm replaced by a vertical strut, whose upper end is rigidly fixed to the car body’s strut tower.

In the following chart, the one highlighted as “Original” is the most original MacPherson suspension. Of course there are multiple variations...

Suspension Design: Double Wishbone

In part II we briefly analyze the first type of suspension: trailing arm. Now let’s take a look at the second major type: double wishbone suspension.

This type of suspension uses two “A” shape arms, one place on the top and the other in the bottom. Because each A arm can limit 2 degrees of freedom, so the two A arms together limits 4 out of the total 6 degrees of freedom. Therefore we still need one more restriction to make the whole system to be 1 degree of freedom.

For front wheels, the extra restriction is the steering arm; for rear wheels, car designers usually use a toe angle control arm.

In the below chart, the one labeled...