From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Investigating and solving vehicle wobble through damping in steering and axles.
Identifier | ExFiles\Box 29\1\ Scan012 | |
Date | 1st September 1925 | |
R.R. 493A (50 H) (D.D. 31, 12-6-25) J.H.D. -4- EXPERIMENTAL REPORT. Expl. No. REF Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rn{Mr Robinson}2/LG3.9.25. a wobble. The available means of applying the damping are :- (1) In the steering system. (2) On the axle. The amount of damping in (1) is limited by the freedom of steering required, in (2) by the riding comfort required. There is little doubt that if sufficient damping could be consistently applied in either position, wobbles could be eliminated. Unfortunately we find that the amount of damping required is enormous. If we go to the permissible limit of heavy steering by inserting damping, we have not cured wobbles. If we go to the limit on the axle with the hydraulic dampers at our disposal, we still have not definitely cured wobbles and the riding of the car has been altered. We can do a good deal towards reducing wobbles. In a number of cases we have eliminated a bad wobble. We know, however, that in order to ensure that customers do not suffer from wobbles we have got to be able to cure easily every high speed wobble which we can bring up on our own cars. Some customers will strike a series of conditions worse than the worst we can produce. In addition any damping device on which we rely will not always maintain 100% efficiency in prolonged service. We have a case of a pair of 7.3" balloon tyres which we have balanced statically, but which will still promote wobbles which we cannot damp out entirely. It would appear the problem has narrowed down to finding the best combination of permissible damping; we feel that when we have reached this point we shall still be unable to cater for people with large diameter low pressure tyres. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rn.{Mr Robinson} | ||