The invention relates to a reaction strut bracket for a vehicle in accordance with the preamble to patent claim 1.

State of the art

Bus manufacture usually involves as a first stage the manufacture of a chassis and as a second stage the mounting of a vehicle body on that chassis. It is also usual for the chassis and the vehicle body to be made by different manufacturers. The chassis manufacturer makes a number of different standard chassis and the body builder purchases the most suitable chassis on which to mount the particular type of vehicle body. Although this manufacturing process has long been developed, mounting a vehicle body on a chassis involves various special operations. For example, it is usual that the chassis manufacturer makes a front section and a rear section (each provided with frame side members) and that the body builder makes a vehicle body with self-supporting structure between these two sections. A problem which arises in this respect is that of fastening the vehicle body to the chassis. Various forms of struts and inserts are usually required for fastening the vehicle body to the chassis frame side numbers. This involves operations on the chassis to create additional fastening holes in the frame side members, a region where there is a shortage of space. There is a consequent risk of having to position brackets at unsuitable points from the force absorption point of view and also a risk that further fastening holes might weaken the frame side members.

It is usual to weld such struts directly to the flanges of the vehicle's side members, but as these flanges are relatively weak the fastening cannot absorb any large forces.

Particularly for the fastening of the vehicle body to the rear chassis section there is a problem in that the strut which fastens the vehicle body to the chassis has to

extend across an area which it is also desired to use as luggage space. It is of course desirable to be able to provide as large luggage space as possible, with as few struts as possible penetrating it.

A generally known practice in vehicle and bus construction is the use of reaction struts to absorb forces from the vehicle's wheel suspension, and such reaction strut brackets are examples of components which have to be positioned at points on the frame side members which are suitable from the force distribution point of view.

Objects of the invention

The invention is intended to eliminate the abovementioned disadvantages. Its object is therefore to make it possible for the vehicle body to be fastened to the chassis in a manner and at points which are advantageous from the force absorption point of view. One aspect of this is that the fastening of the vehicle body should not weaken the chassis or the chassis frame side members. A further aspect is that the fastening should not result in the vehicle's luggage space being limited by penetrating struts or the like.

Brief description of the invention

In order to achieve the abovementioned objects, the invention is distinguished by the features indicated in the characterising part of patent claim 1.

The fundamental idea of the invention is that at least two of the reaction strut brackets fastened to the chassis are provided with fastening surfaces to which it is possible to fasten the vehicle body. This means that in fastening the vehicle body to the chassis the body builder will not have to make any fastening of his own to the frame side members. As the reaction strut brackets will have already been fastened to the frame side members in the course of chassis manufacture, the vehicle body mounting process will involve no further operations on the frame

side members. The frame side members will thus not be subject to weakening by the creation of further fastening holes or the like. It is primarily the reaction strut brackets situated in the vicinity of the vehicle's rear axle which have to be used in this respect, since this is the most critical area from the space point of view, but other reaction strut brackets may of course also be used.

The design of the fastening surfaces of the reaction strut brackets may for example consist of a simple surface to which it is possible to fasten the vehicle body by welded connections, but other designs are of course possible with regard to both the design of the fastening surfaces and the fastening connections.

One purpose of reaction struts is to transmit the forces which arise from the wheel suspension to the vehicle body with a view to their being absorbed by the latter. The solution according to the invention makes it possible for the forces arising from the wheel suspension to be transmitted via the reaction struts and the reaction strut brackets directly to the vehicle body without following unnecessarily circuitous paths.

The fundamental idea of the invention is thus to provide a reaction strut bracket such that it can also be used for fastening the body to the vehicle's frame and frame side members.

Other features distinguishing the invention are indicated in the description below of an embodiment with reference to the attached drawings.

List of drawings

Fig. 1 shows a side view of a rear section of a chassis with a reaction strut bracket on a frame side member, Fig. 2 shows a rear view of the chassis according to Fig. 1 , and

Fig. 3 shows a perspective view of the front section of the

chassis according to Figs. 1 and 2 and sections of a vehicle body fastened thereto.

Description of an embodiment

Fig. 1 shows a side view of a chassis 1 for a vehicle which in this example takes the form of a bus. The details depicted include a rear section 2 of the chassis 1 which also includes an undepicted front section which, like the rear section 2, incorporates a frame with frame side members 3 and a number of cross-members 4. To the front section and the rear section 2 is fastened a vehicle body 5 which connects the rear section 2 to the front section so as together to form a whole bus. Sections of the vehicle body 5 are only depicted in Fig. 3. The vehicle body 5 is constructed as an integrated self-supporting unit which has no conventional frame.

In the region of the bus's rear axle 6 and rear wheels the longitudinal frame side members 3 are bent upwards to provide space for the rear axle 6 and its wheel suspension. The rear axle 6 is air-sprung, so the bus's wheel suspension incorporates air bellows of inherently conventional design which are therefore not described in more detail.

An advantageous characteristic of air springs is that they provide good possibilities of damping out vertical oscillation movements between the wheels and the chassis. A disadvantage of air suspension is that the air bellows cannot locate the axle 6 in the horizontal plane relative to the chassis 1 and the vehicle frame. It is therefore necessary to use instead a number of reaction struts 7,9 whose function is to locate the axle 6 relative to the frame. The reaction struts 7,9 consist of a number of substantially straight bars which each have one of their ends fastened to the axle 6 and the other end fastened to the reaction strut bracket. This embodiment incorporates two upper reaction struts 9 which are fastened to the inside of the frame side members 3 via inner reaction strut brackets provided for the purpose which extend obliquely forwards from the

middle of the axle 6 and outwards towards the frame side members 3. The latter do not form part of the invention described in this embodiment and are therefore not further described. This embodiment also incorporates two lower reaction struts 7 which extend from the axle 6 substantially straight forwards in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle towards outer reaction strut brackets 8 on the outsides of the frame side members.

Each of the lower reaction brackets 8 consists of two plates welded together which have their lower ends bent outwards. These plates extend substantially vertically in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. Between these plates and beneath the respective frame side member 3 is fastened a bearing in the form of a bearing sleeve 11 to which the respective lower reaction strut 7 is bearingly fastened. The reaction strut brackets 8 are in their turn fastened by bolted connections 10 to the frame on the outside of the frame side beams 3. As relatively large forces are required for positioning the axle in all operating situations, it is important that the reaction strut brackets 8 are situated at points which can absorb large forces. It is also essential that the reaction strut brackets 8 are properly fastened to the frame side members 3 by a sufficient number of bolted connections 10.

Each of the reaction strut brackets 8 depicted in the drawings is fastened by twelve bolted connections 10 to the frame side member 3. This means that the reaction strut brackets 8 are fastened to the frame forward of the vehicle's rear axle 6. In the region of each reaction strut bracket 8 the frame is provided with a cross-member 4 to stiffen the frame in the transverse direction. The bolted connections 10 for each reaction strut bracket comprise six forward and six rearward of the cross-member 4.

In addition, each reaction strut bracket 8 is provided with a fastening surface which in this embodiment consists of a vertical surface 12 facing forwards and a lower horizontal surface 13 facing downwards which together form a continuous fastening surface. This surface is arranged beneath the frame side member 3. In

practice this fastening surface may take the form of an angle-iron which runs across the vehicle and is welded firmly to the lower forward angle of the two plates which form the respective reaction strut bracket 8. Similar reaction strut brackets 8 are arranged on both frame side members 3, but as these are symmetrically alike, only one of the reaction strut brackets 8 is described.

The fastening surface 12,13 is intended for fastening the vehicle body 5 to the chassis rear section 2. A strut 14 is fastened by welding to this fastening surface 12,13 to connect the vehicle body 5 to the frame side member 3. This strut 14 extends obliquely downwards and forwards and transmits forces between the vehicle body 5 and the chassis 1. The strut 14 is fastened both to the vertical side surface 12 and to the horizontal surface 13. The ideal from the force absorption point of view would have been for the strut 14 to extend entirely horizontally, parallel with the reaction strut 7, because vehicle braking results in relatively large braking forces having to be transmitted in substantially the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. Having this strut 14 nevertheless extending somewhat obliquely downwards is a compromise solution to make it possible to have a large luggage space in the area between the front and rear axles of the vehicle. This design does make it possible, however, for there to be no need for any struts in the area occupied by the luggage space. The vehicle body strut 14 is connected to a cross-member 15 to which an undepicted luggage compartment floor in the vehicle body is fastened. The depicted cross-member 15 also has fastened to it a vertical element 16 which in turn is also firmly welded to a forward end of the web of the frame side member 3. The strut 14, the element 16 and the cross-member 15 form part of the otherwise undepicted structural frame of the vehicle body 5.

The design of the fastening of the vehicle body 5 to the front section of the chassis 1 may in principle be analogous to what is described above for the fastening to the chassis rear section 2, but the positioning of the strut for the forward fastening of the vehicle body is not as critical, which makes it possible to

use a fastening of known design, further description of which is not material to the present invention.