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Panhard Rod

 
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A Panhard rod (also called Panhard bar or track bar) is a component of a car
Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
 suspension
Suspension (vehicle)

Suspension is the term given to the system of spring , shock absorbers and Linkage that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Suspension systems serve a dual purpose ? contributing to the car's car handling and brake for good active safety and driving pleasure, and keeping vehicle occupants comfortable and reasonably well isolated from road no...
 system that provides lateral location of the axle
Axle

An axle is a central shaft for a rotation wheel or gear. In some cases the axle may be fixed in position with a bearing or bushing sitting inside the hole in the wheel or gear to allow the wheel or gear to rotate around the axle....
. Originally invented by the Panhard
Panhard

Panhard is now a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005....
 automobile company of France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 in the early twentieth century, this device has been widely used ever since.

While the purpose of the rear suspension of an automobile is to allow the wheels to move vertically with respect to the body, it is undesirable to allow them to move forward and backwards, or from side to side.






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Panhard Rod
A Panhard rod (also called Panhard bar or track bar) is a component of a car
Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
 suspension
Suspension (vehicle)

Suspension is the term given to the system of spring , shock absorbers and Linkage that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Suspension systems serve a dual purpose ? contributing to the car's car handling and brake for good active safety and driving pleasure, and keeping vehicle occupants comfortable and reasonably well isolated from road no...
 system that provides lateral location of the axle
Axle

An axle is a central shaft for a rotation wheel or gear. In some cases the axle may be fixed in position with a bearing or bushing sitting inside the hole in the wheel or gear to allow the wheel or gear to rotate around the axle....
. Originally invented by the Panhard
Panhard

Panhard is now a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005....
 automobile company of France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 in the early twentieth century, this device has been widely used ever since.

While the purpose of the rear suspension of an automobile is to allow the wheels to move vertically with respect to the body, it is undesirable to allow them to move forward and backwards, or from side to side. It is this latter movement that the Panhard rod is designed to prevent. It is a simple device, consisting of a rigid bar running sideways in the same plane as the rear axle, connecting one end of the axle to the car body or chassis
Chassis

A chassis consists of a Frame that supports an inanimate object, analogous to an animal's skeleton, for example in a motor vehicle or a firearm....
 on the opposite side of the vehicle. The bar is attached on either end with pivots that permit it to swivel upwards and downwards only, so that the axle is, in turn, allowed to move in the vertical plane only. This does not effectively locate the axle longitudinally, therefore it is usually used in conjunction with trailing arm
Trailing arm

A trailing-arm suspension is an automobile suspension design in which one or more arms are connected between the axle and the chassis. It is usually used on rear axles....
s which locate the axle in the longitudinal direction. This arrangement is not usually used with a leaf spring
Leaf spring

Originally called laminated or carriage spring, a leaf spring is a simple form of spring , commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles....
 rear suspension, where the springs themselves supply enough lateral rigidity, but only with coil spring suspensions.

Solid Axle
The advantage of the Panhard rod is its simplicity. Its major disadvantage is that the axle must necessarily move in an arc relative to the body, with the radius equal to the length of the Panhard rod. If the rod is too short, there will be excessive sideways movement between the axle and the body at the ends of the spring travel; therefore the Panhard rod is less desirable on smaller cars than larger. A suspension design that is similar but dramatically reduces the sideways component of the axle's vertical travel is the Watt's linkage
Watt's linkage

Watt's linkage is a type of mechanical linkage invented by James Watt to constrain the movement of a steam engine piston in a straight line....
.

Some vehicles including Land Rovers with live axle
Live axle

A live axle, sometimes called a solid axle, is a type of beam axle suspension that uses the driveshafts that transmit power to the wheels to connect the wheels laterally so that they move together as a unit....
 suspensions use a Panhard rod as a component of the front suspension where a Watt's linkage
Watt's linkage

Watt's linkage is a type of mechanical linkage invented by James Watt to constrain the movement of a steam engine piston in a straight line....
 is not an option.

See also

  • Scott Russell linkage
    Scott Russell linkage

    A Scott Russell linkage converts linear motion, to linear motion in a line perpendicular to the input. These linkages are often used in front wheel drive vehicles with solid rear axles to control lateral movement, as they do not share the disadvantages of the asymmetric Panhard rod and are simpler and more compact than Watt's linkage....