Abstract The application of the power generated by the proposed magnetic energy-harvesting suspension (MEHS) is to power a wireless sensor in the MEHS. In this paper, the generated powers of the MEHS at various excitations have been theoretically analyzed and experimentally validated. Firstly, the dynamic mechanism of the proposed MEHS is revealed and investigated. Secondly, the analysis expression of energy harvesting is obtained to find the related variables that affect the energy harvesting, and the influence parameters on the energy harvesting characteristics are analyzed numerically. The experimental tests are carried out to verify the numerical analysis and investigate the effect of various excitations and external load resistances on the energy harvesting characteristics. Experimental results demonstrate that the maximum output power of the MEHS can be obtained by changing the excitation frequency, excitation amplitude and external load resistance. Furthermore, the peak output power is generated when the excitation frequency is equal to the natural frequency, and the generated peak output power is 0.34 W at the excitation frequency 3.3 Hz. Meanwhile, the self-powered sensing experiments of the MEHS have been successfully verified in the laboratory, which lays the foundation for further application in a real vehicle.