A method dynamically stabilizes a vehicle having a suspension system including pneumatic air springs, with one air spring being associated with each wheel, each air spring being independently adjustable in height; an air spring valve associated with each air spring; and a reservoir containing a source of air. The method obtains data relating to at least lateral acceleration, yaw rate, roll rate, velocity and the steering wheel angle deviation of the vehicle. Thresholds are established, and the data is compared to the thresholds. If thresholds are exceeded, at least one air spring valve is automatically opened to increase air pressure in the associated air spring by receiving air from the reservoir, or to decrease air pressure in the associated air spring by returning air to the reservoir, so as to adjust a height of the associated air spring to help transfer the weight of the vehicle.

A road surface condition is determined appropriately. A road surface determining section (84) configured to determine a road surface state includes a threshold setting section (845) configured to set a threshold for determining the road surface state, so that a value of a desired control variable is multiplied by a coefficient determined in accordance with a result of the determination by the road surface determining section (84).

A suspension device includes: a damping device that damps a force generated between a vehicle body and a wheel of a vehicle; a determination unit that determines whether the vehicle is jumping, using an acceleration of the vehicle in a front-rear direction, an acceleration of the vehicle in a left-right direction, and an acceleration of the vehicle in a vertical direction; and a damping force control unit that increases a damping force of the damping device so as to be greater than the damping force generated when the determination unit does not determine that the vehicle is jumping, when the determination unit determines that the vehicle is jumping.

An air suspension system which includes the ability to adjust the working air volume, pressure, and spring rate of one or more air springs to reduce or eliminate various types of vehicle oscillations. Switchable or variable volume air spring assemblies have the ability to change air spring volumes, which results in changes in air spring rates, and therefore changes in normal loads applied to each wheel. Changes in wheel normal loads change wheel traction (slip) and vehicle dynamics (pitch, roll, yaw displacement, rate and acceleration). The spring rate of one or more of the air spring assemblies is adjusted automatically when a vehicle oscillation is detected. This vehicle oscillation is calculated from the raw vehicle signals, or another vehicle module may detect the oscillation and send a command to the air suspension module to change the spring rates. This changes the natural frequency of the vehicle, dampening the oscillation.

An automatic tilting vehicle is provided that includes left and right front wheels supported by knuckles, a steerable rear wheel, a vehicle tilting device, and a control unit. The vehicle tilting device includes a swing member, a tilt actuator for swing the swing member, and a pair of tie rods pivotally attached to the swing member and the knuckles. The control unit calculates a target lateral acceleration of the vehicle, estimates a lateral acceleration of the vehicle caused by the gyro moments of the wheels and calculates a target tilt angle of the vehicle based on a sum of the target lateral acceleration and the lateral acceleration caused by the gyro moments.

There is provided a damper control device and a suspension apparatus that are capable of effectively preventing a posture change such as pitching or rolling of the body of a vehicle. To achieve the above object, a damper control device of the present invention is designed to control a damping force of a damper in accordance with a rate of change in acceleration or a rate of change in angular acceleration. If there is a time delay in the rising of the acceleration acting on the vehicle body with respect to the driving operation being performed by the driver of the vehicle, the rate of change in the acceleration has a phase lead relative to the acceleration, and accordingly, the rate of change has only a short time delay with respect to the driving operation.

In a suspension control system (20) including a variable damper (6fl, 6fr) provided between a vehicle body and each of left and rear front wheels (2fl, 2fr), a ground contact load computation unit (31) computes a front wheel target ground contact load according to a fore and aft acceleration of the vehicle body. A ground contact load distribution unit (32) computes target ground contact loads of the left and right front wheels by varying a distribution of the front wheel target ground contact load between the left front wheel and the right front wheel according to a direction and a magnitude of the fore and aft acceleration and/or a direction and a magnitude of a lateral acceleration of the vehicle body, and a damping force computation unit (33) sets a target damping force of each variable damper according to the target ground contact loads of the front wheels.

A suspension apparatus includes: a damping device which damps a force generated between a vehicle body and a wheel; and a control section which controls a damping force of the damping device. The control section includes a multiplication section which multiplies a longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle body detected by a longitudinal acceleration sensor and a differential value of the longitudinal acceleration to thereby obtain a multiplication value.

Methods and systems are provided for enabling a vehicle for which a jet pump that functions to transfer fuel from a passive side to an active side of a saddle fuel tank is degraded, to reach a desired destination by the taking of mitigating action. The mitigating action includes conducting a driving maneuver in response to an indication that the jet pump is degraded, the driving maneuver conducted in order to transfer a desired amount of fuel from the passive side to the active side. In this way, a vehicle may reach a desired destination even under circumstances where the vehicle may otherwise be unable to reach the desired destination.

A suspension system includes a first and second mass and an actuator connected with the first mass and with the second mass and configured to influence a relative movement between the first mass and the second mass. The actuator includes a tube, and a magnetic assembly disposed in the tube. The actuator is configured to generate a force between the magnetic assembly and the tube as a result of the relative movement between the two. A motor is configured to rotate the magnetic assembly relative to the tube to vary the force in a velocity-dependent relationship. The actuator may generate forces to resist or assist motion between the first and second masses.