Hydraulic stabilizing device

Claim 1

In combination, a tractive vehicle, a trailing vehicle, coupling means pivotally connecting said vehicles for relative turning thereof about a pivot center, and a pair of extensible and contractible hydraulic stabilizing members connected to said vehicles at opposite sides of and in normally symmetrical and spaced relation to said pivot center whereby one member is extended and the other member is contracted when said vehicles turn relative to each other on said pivot center, each stabilizing member sway-controlling device of the type having a liquid containing cylinder, an apertured piston and a piston rod projecting from said piston and having a sealed sliding fit in one end of said cylinder, said device defining a closed chamber whose volume varies as said piston and piston rod move in said cylinder, a sealed, flexible, resilient, hollow bladder within said cylinder containing a gas and free to expand and compress responsive to movement of said piston and piston rod whereby to compensate for variation of said chamber volume, and bypass means carried by said cylinder at an end portion thereof to reduce the resistance of said liquid to movement of said piston within a predetermined range at the end of its stroke adjacent said bypass as compared to the resistance of said liquid to movement of said piston while at least a portion of said piston is within the portion of the cylinder spaced longitudinally from said bypass means, said piston being located with a portion only thereof juxtaposed to said bypass during normal straight vehicle travel. Normal straight travel condition.