Apparatus for assessing the damping performance of vehicle suspension systems

Claim 1

Apparatus for assessing the damping performance of a vehicle suspension system, said apparatus comprising a collapsible wheelsupport onto which at least one wheel of a vehicle to be tested is driven, said wheel-support including a ramp over which the vehicle wheel runs as the wheel is positioned on the support, the ramp being pivotally mounted at an intermediate point with the pivotal axis at right angles to the direction of movement of the vehicle so that the weight of the vehicle, as the said wheel first contacts the ramp, causes the ramp to tip and bring the wheel-support into a raised position, releasable means for holding the wheel-support in the said raised position with the vehicle wheel supported thereon, control means for releasing said releasable means whereby the wheel-support collapses and drops downwards from the said raised position, the vehicle wheel supported on the wheel-support thereby being dropped a predetermined distance under the action of gravity augmented by springs of the vehicle suspension, indicating means to detect the total amount of up-and-down motion of a selected part of the vehicle adjacent the said vehicle wheel after the vehicle wheel has come to rest following the collapse of the wheel-support, recording means forming part of said indicating means to produce a permanent record on removable sheet material of such up-anddown motion, and movement-transmission means adapted to be attached to the said selected part of the vehicle adjacent the said vehicle wheel and to transmit movement of that vehicle part after collapse of the wheel-support to the said indicating means.