Section 8

Gain Knowledge About Vehicle Ride and Handling

Ride and handling of a vehicle comes down to two things:

1) Compliance of frame and suspension.
2) Ability of suspension to absorb road and engine vibrations.

As a bushing engineer you will always be torn between trying to satisfy three different people at your customer:

Purchasing – who wants quality product as cheap as possible
Engineering – who wants part to fit in small space and survive fatigue tests
Ride Engineer – who wants part that feels good in the vehicle regardless of what the first two people want.

As a bushing designer you will be involved in designing a compliant suspension bushing, robust enough to survive fatigue requirements without resorting to expensive polymers.

This Section Will Review:

 What the Ride Engineer looks for.

 Review of Suspension Components.