Leaf spring is a simple form of spring used for suspension in wheeled vehicles. They are also referred to as laminated, semi-elleptical spring, carriage springs, cart spring, or helper spring.In mid 1970's leaf springs were very common in automobiles. At present, most of the automobiles are designed using oil springs, gas springs, or air suspension. They are now used in heavy vehicles such as trucks and cars. The reason that leaf springs are still used in heavy vehicles is that they have the advantage of spreading the load uniformly over the vehicle chassis, whereas coil springs transfer it to only a single point.
Leaf springs are very simple and are not fancy like the other springs that are currently available. They have slightly curved, long and narrow plates fixed to the frame of a trailer that are placed above or below the trailer's axle. They look similar to that of a bow in archery without the string.
There are two types of leaf springs,monoleaf springs and multileaf springs. The monoleaf spring or single-leaf springs consist of only one plate of spring steel. These are normally thick in the middle and taper to the end, and they don't typically offer too much strength and suspension for heavy vehicles. On the other hand multileaf springs consists of several leaf springs with varying length placed on top of each other. The shorter plates are placed at the bottom and the longer plates are placed at the top. They have the same curved shape which have thinner edges and are thicker in the middle.
There are two different leaf spring based on the springs ends, double-eye leaf springs and open-eye leaf springs. On double-eye leaf springs the top plate is the longest and has both ends curved like a circle. The ends of the double-eye leaf springs make two holes, which can be connected to the bottom of a trailer's frame. Open-eye leaf springs have only one hole. The other end of an open eye leaf spring usually has a hook end or a flat end.
Whatever may be the type of leaf spring, buying it from the right dealer is most important. For more information please visit www.woodheadsprings.com.
