A Review of the Development of Independent Suspension for Heavy Vehicles

Though widely used in automobiles for many decades, independent suspension did not find much application in heavy vehicles until the early 1970's when it began to find a niche in the wheeled armoured vehicle market. Since then it has penetrated rather slowly in high performance applications, such as airport rescue and fire-fighting vehicles. A breakthrough came in the 1990's with its adoption on the Oshkosh MTVR truck, which is being produced in considerable volume. Independent front suspension has also, in the last decade, found increasing acceptance where performance benefits justify the higher cost, for example in touring coaches and motor homes. Significant efforts are being made to develop IFS for commercial heavy trucks but in this sector cost presents a very real obstacle to market acceptance. Independent rear suspensions for twin road wheel configurations present even more challenges for the designer.