Vehicle: Car: Suspension
The six-wheeled car   (0)  [vote for, against]
Rides smoothly over speed bumps

I am aware that people have made six-wheeled cars before - only today I saw a stretched, six-wheeled Range Rover.

This six-wheeled car would be different though. As the front axle hits a speed bump this axle would be lifted up and the weight of the car transferred to the rear two axles. Then as the middle axle hits the bump, the middle axle would be lifted and the weight would be on the front and rear axles. Finally, the rear axle would be lifted in the same way.

Using this, your progress over speed bumps (or potholes or anything else) would be smooth. To dissuade speeding, the software driving this wouldn't do this delicate ballet of moving axles up and down at a speed of greater than 30mph.
-- hippo, May 07 2003

(??) Panther 6-wheel Cabrio http://www.geocitie...field/toptrumps.jpg
...from my Top Trumps. Notice the truly laughable top speed. [hippo, Oct 05 2004]

Active suspension technology primer http://www.edmunds..../43853/article.html
eminently bakable [krelnik, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

Moon Patrol! http://www.mobygame...d,18568/gameId,575/
[bungston, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

(?) Scary cars http://www.f1nutter...uk/tech/6wheels.php
[hippo, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

(?) Mike's New Car http://www.apple.co.../mikes_new_car.html
The coolest 6-wheeler ever. [land, Oct 05 2004]

But is the ride smooth enough for a rabbi to perform a bris in the back seat while this happens?
-- krelnik, May 07 2003


My dual-hybrid powerplant was designed to fit into a six-wheeled concept I came up with several years ago. The axles were evenly spaced, and the middle wheels (which were the drive wheels) were further apart than the front/rear wheels. The front and rear wheels did the steering.
-- galukalock, May 07 2003


Rather defeats the purpose of the speed bump, no?
-- phoenix, May 07 2003


Fishboned for that reason, given the incidence of speed bumps outside schools. If you want a smooth ride, get a hovercraft.
-- DrCurry, May 07 2003


[phoenix] - Ah, no. If you know that your clever suspension system is capable of smoothing out speed bumps so that they're unnoticable when you're travelling at 20mph, but just can't move fast enough if you're travelling at 30mph, then you'll travel at 20mph.
-- hippo, May 07 2003


Porsche built a 6 wheel, 6 wheel drive race car. The odd thing is that the group of 4 wheels was in the front with 2 in the back.
-- bristolz, May 07 2003


Now I have the theme to the Moon Patrol Atari game stuck in my head.
Doop doop Doooo-doop doobiedoobiedoobie doop doop doooo-doop doobiedoobiedoobie doop!
-- bungston, May 07 2003


[bris] Like the Panther (link) and those other scary-looking cars (link)? (I had no idea there were so many).
-- hippo, May 07 2003


I dunno, your Panther link is dead but, yes, in a similar form factor as to what the scary cars links shows. The Porsche looked vaguely like a 911, though, intead of an open wheel racer.
-- bristolz, May 07 2003


nah, it would suck ass ifit only did it under 30, besides if you go exactly 30, you dont feel speedbumps anyways. yeah, lets all get hovercrafts.
-- NVadirZim, Jul 08 2003


Three axles are no good for bumps as you are always pivoting around the centre axle - the old 3 axle rail cars were phased out in favour of 4 axle dual bogies which provide a solid basis for all railcars.

If a car moves from a 2 axle design, my buttered buns are on a 4 axle 2 bogie/subframe design.

see kaz project. http://web.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~hiros/ kaz/
-- timbeau, Jan 05 2004


Lady Penelope's pink Roller (registration number FAB 1) has six wheels, just ask Parker if you don't believe me, he has to keep them pumped up.
-- KiwiJohn, Jan 06 2004


My 35 years old Citroen 2 CV does that with only four wheels. Serious. But six wheel arrangement is cool. +
-- finflazo, Sep 03 2004



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