Suspension on carts

[user 44366]

Throughout the history of horse drawn vehicles - suspension, and "better" suspension for them, has been sought after by all builders, and even more, by drivers. What suspension does, is "absorb" energy. In practical terms, that translates into "smoothing out", for both driver AND horse, either holes, or bumps, that one might encounter where one drives. In the industry as it relates to driving minis - there are levels of suspension that are being applied, starting from zero - to springs under the seat, to full axle suspension in some configuration or another, up to the actual true ultimate - fully independent suspension. Over all our time connected to driving, we have seen but one cart (photo included) that had a suspension that has the cart body totally suspended in three ways (but no axle suspension) It was designed for ROAD driving, and it would give one quite a ride if they were to try to drive it at anything more than a walk, on rough terrain. Barring that cart - all "catapulting" experiences that we have seen, have happened with carts that had zero suspension, or ONLY seat springs. We have many videos on the Patty's Pony Place FB page that show exactly how suspension works, and I would reference folks back to Barry Hook's video - as contained in the video, the most "severe" testing of independent suspension to date, and it was in fact, the specific suspension that caught Barry's interest in our carts. Another method of adding energy absorption into a cart is the use of "sprung" shafts. These are included in the design of our Firefly cart, and they work amazingly well to "separate" impacts to the cart from the shafts and horse. Last, but not least, pneumatic tires. They do absorb energy, and help with impacts as well, though on a very much smaller scale, pending the exact tires.
In closing - suspension "required" works on a gradient scale of where one drives, and how fast one wants to go. With that, the absolute ultimate vehicle for driving on rough terrain, will have independent suspension. For cornering at speed - independent suspension is unparalleled in it's function - I personally refer to it as "corner eating", and that is visible in Barry's video, and in many, many, of the ones I have done at home. In corners, the suspension takes all the "torque" - without it - all of the torque is taken by wheels, cart frame, and horse.


Here is a video clip of our independent suspension in action, close up and in slow motion, clearly showing how the suspension is "absorbing" energy.

 

[Minimor]

The very best cart I have ever seen was one made in Europe in the 90s. It was called the Gazelle. It was not legal for CDE (because of the design--it could do things and go places that no other cart could) and I assume that is why it did not go over as big as it should have, and why it is no lo get in production. When people pay that kind of money for a vehicle they want to be able to use it for competition. I wish it were still available now, and in mini/small pony size (it was full size only). I still have the videos somewhere --that was an amazing cart.

 

[user 44366]

I found a video of it on youtube - too bad there is only the one, and it is so fuzzy! Best I could determine though, is that it had a pretty good suspension, and too bad, that it was not allowed in CDE's. Gladly, our independent suspension Cricket has been, and is, widely used in CDE's all across North America, and the ability to go anywhere one might want to go with it, has been one of the big selling features of the cart, and why it is in such high demand. Horribly rough terrain is not common in CDE's, but fast, tight corners are - and that is really where the suspension shines. One of our clients in Florida (and others) credits the cart's design, and turning ability to be playing a key role in her past three seasons of record setting runs.

 

[user 44366]

A really nice report back on an independent suspension Cricket. Tina has had a very rough go with her past carts, but shared her excitement and wins with her beautiful mini, Pearl. Always proud to help people drive again, when they were sure they would not be able to. Both Tina Silva, and Julie Forsyth (referenced in an above comment) have offered to make themselves available to anyone who would like to chat about their experiences with both the cart, and us. You can connect with either of them on Facebook. More on that list are Mary Swinn, Bethany Brown, Kathryn O'Brien, Molly Jackson-White, Martha Scott, Liz Brown, Stacey Skyrpan...and there are more, and more, and more, and more.