Vehicle suspension apparatus

Claim 1

A vehicle suspension apparatus comprising a contraction/expansion body including a cylinder and a hollow rod telescopically coupled to the cylinder in a substantially coaxial relation so as to reciprocate therewith and having therein an internal space of variable volume, the internal space being separated into a gas chamber filled with a gas and an oil chamber filled with a working oil; A restriction member submerged in said working oil and arranged in the oil chamber to be substantially perpendicular to an axis of the contraction/expansion body and having an orifice to allow passage therethrough of the working oil; an auxiliary container having a gas chamber containing gas therein and an oil chamber containing oil therein; a channel for coupling through a valve the gas chamber of the internal space of the rod and the gas chamber of the auxiliary container; a hydraulic pump means for increasing/decreasing the quantity of oil contained in the auxiliary container and commensurately decreasing/increasing the quantity of gas contained in the gas chamber of said auxilary container; and means operable in response to travel conditions encountered during movement of the vehicle for controlling, during actual vehicle use, an area of the orifice arranged in said restriction member in order to vary damping; for controlling the operation of the valve to set the amount of gas passing therethrough in order to control springiness, and to control said hydraulic pump means by increasing/decreasing the amount of oil contained in the oil chamber of said auxiliary container to set height of the body by varying the volume of the gas chamber in said rod with a commensurate variation of the volume in the gas chamber of said auxilary container.