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Competition in Automotive Market is driving the need for more time - and cost - effective testing methods. In the fatigue life analysis of new passenger and commercial vehicle designs, laboratory testing through servohydraulic equipment plays a very important role. In DaimlerChrysler do Brasil, the Durability Test Laboratory represents an important basis to assure high endurance reliability for all kinds of our commercial vehicle applications. In order to respond to the above mentioned testing tasks, this paper will focuse what we call our “New Policy of Durability Tests for Commercial Vehicles”, based on development of simple and low cost Road Simulators, fully dedicated and customized to testing of vehicle components and chassis. Experimental results as well as other data related to consumption of laboratory's: area, utilityes, pressurized hoses and test time, will be used in order to illustrate advantages and disadvantages of the new testing resource.

1 The present work describes the modeling and analysis processes of a medium sized truck manufactured in Brazil with regard to comfort behavior. The vehicle model includes Hotchkiss suspensions front and rear with shackle and with a double stage with bump stops at the rear. It is also included frame flexibility in ADAMS, the frame characteristics were imported from a Finite Element Analysis model. Nonlinear shock absorber curves are also represented for the vehicle and cab suspensions. Viscoelastic bushings for cab and powertrain suspension are also included. Random track profile is generated as input and vehicle comfort is described in terms of the ISO 2631-85 Standard. The effect on vehicle comfort of changing a design parameter can be predicted in the model and verified experimentally.