Their advantages include low weight, moderate cost, and limited space needs. Leaf springs are generally found in the rear of large cars and trucks. The most common leaf-spring setup consists of a series of flat steel leaves bolted together to form a single unit. This design is called a semi-elliptical leaf spring . A U-bolt attaches the springs to the rear axle, and the two ends of the leaves are bolted to the bottom of the frame using spring shackles.
Some cars utilize a variation on the traditional leaf-spring design.
GM's Corvette, for instance, uses transverse leaf-spring suspension . In this arrangement, a single, high-performance leaf spring runs parallel to the rear axle, attaching to the wheel hubs at each end. They also are better than coil springs at transferring forces from the road to the frame. Plastic inserts will generally fix this. Torsion bars represent a third kind of vehicle suspension.