Patent 8985594 was granted and assigned to Toyota on March, 2015 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A spring constant of each of four suspension springs and a shared load on each of four wheels are adjusted so that a sprung resonance frequency corresponding to two front wheels and a sprung resonance frequency corresponding to two rear wheels are mutually different. From among the four shock absorbers, only two shock absorbers provided corresponding to two wheels of lowered sprung resonance frequency, from among the two front wheels and the two rear wheels have respectively damping coefficient modification mechanisms that modify a damping coefficient serving as a reference of the magnitude of the damping force generated by the two shock absorbers. The behavior of the entire vehicle body can be effectively curbed by controlling the damping force exerted on the comparatively large movement of sprung sections corresponding to the two wheels. Thus a vehicle having both enhanced steering stability and enhanced ride quality can be configured comparatively inexpensively.