Wheel suspension for motor vehicles, especially rear wheel suspension

The wheel suspension comprises a rigid axle beam, on either end of which a shock absorber or spring strut carrying a wheel carrier is supported. Between these parts a universal joint is inserted which is fixed on the axle beam so that it cannot rotate. The axle beam is pivoted on the vehicle body by means of longitudinal suspension links rigidly fixed to this. In this construction the wheel carriers only have two degrees of freedom lying in vertical planes perpendicular to one another so that, although capable of wobbling, they are supported on the axle beam in such a way that they cannot rotate about a vertical axis. The wheel carriers are thereby held on the axle beam with a fixed toe-in so that only those moments caused by wheel caster acting about the vertical axis act on the axle beam. Moments resulting from longitudinal and lateral guiding forces and acting about the other two axes of rotation of the universal joint are only supported as forces on the axle beam.