4wd truck vs. 2wd

have always had 2wd, but getting older and thinking 4wd. I use my truck for hunting and fishing. I just remember the "70s and all the guys with 4wd constantly having very expensive repairs on the 4wd parts. I know the guys I knew at the time abused the things, but how much trouble does the 4wd option cause these days for a guy who will not abuse it?

I recomend 4wd. I've had 4wd on every pickup I've owned except for 1. I wouldn't go to a 2wd again but 2wd will do better on gas than 4wd. Depends on the country and terrain you're in. Usually if you think you shouldn't go through something, you're usually right. You don't generally use 4wd much but it's damn nice when you do. I think they are pretty much bullet proof if treated with respect. I've had f 150's and f 250's so I can't speak for the other brands. Just my 2 cents, hope it helps.

They have the 4wd vehicles perfected more than in the 70's. You have to consider a rear wheel drive vehicle a rarity now days is the best way to look at it. So what I mean the four wheel drives don't give any more trouble than the front wheel drive vehicles of today. Most of all you 4WD's are just a push button electric shift now so there is a little more to go wrong.

The worst thing for a 4wd truck is driving on dry pavement in 4wd and having the wheels completely turned one way and hammering it. A 4wd can have more problems due to the fact that they have more moving parts. If you find a nice tight truck and maintain it, it will last a long time. Check the ball joints and all u-joints for wear. We farmed up until 1987 with a 2wd drive, in Wisconsin no less. When we bought a 4wd we thought we had the world by the tail. No more putting chains on or studded tires, or having extra weight in the back. I say go for it. You do know that with this topic you probably have someone claiming a 2wd is the greatest thing ever. And that they will go just as many places.LOL
All my 4wd trucks are manual engagement with either lock out hubs or the type where the axle spins all the time and locks in at the transfer case.

4WD's go further before they get stuck, compared to a 2WD.

My X FIL had a 70 or 71 chevy C20 2wd with positrac. Would outdo 4x4's with a load of firewoon on back when using old log roads. FF to something newer, I've got a Kia sportage that goes everywhere I need to go. It had auto hubs that I switched to manual because the originals were not working right. Sure was nice to stay warm and dry and just shift to 4x4. I find myself using the quad a lot more now tho because I hate getting out and locking hubs. Think the 1st thing I'd do to any pickup I bought would be fit a 1/4 inch plate of steel in the bed.

Dave

(quoted from post at 02:53:37 08/25/10) 4WD's go further before they get stuck, compared to a 2WD.

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Yea and they get stuck deeper when stuck. I have a rd bale spike bed on my PU and would be lost without 4WD.

I drove 2wd pickups for years and years and got around just fine. I thought.
I finally bought one with 4wd and will never be without it again.
If you are thinking about a new pickup, 4wd will cost you about $3K extra. But when you sell it you'll get 2/3 of that back plus around here it will sell much quicker. The $1000 it cost divided by 5 or 10+ years is cheap.
I use 4wd frequently. Not just in winter. Monday, trying to back up a heavy trailer on wet, dewey grass made me real glad I had it.

The worst thing for a 4wd truck is driving on dry pavement in 4wd and having the wheels completely turned one way and hammering it. A 4wd can have more problems due to the fact that they have more moving parts

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Agreed on both counts. Our "Freestyle" is AWD with a torsion box to absorb the differances between the front and rear wheels while travelling at highway speed. Great for using on roads with patches of snow and stretches of dry pavement. Not something to be taken across the feedlot to feed hay out of.


If you truly need it buy one, but many of the older 4x4s have been driven lots of miles with the transfer case locked in 4X4 high and the drive train has taken a significant beating because of it.

If you're just using a truck to drive around on the road, 4wd is seldom needed, but I'm constantly using my 4wd on the farm. We're pretty hilly here in SW Wisconsin and it takes 4wd just to go up a steep grassy hill sometimes. Others may be right that putting weight in the bed would greatly help a 2wd truck, but then they just lost their claimed better fuel economy.

That said, many people who have it shouldn't because it makes them think they're invincible in snow and ice. It just makes them a hazard to those around them. I push snow in Madison so I'm driving in pretty bad weather to get to work. I can't believe how much traffic is out when it's snowed 10 inches and there's ice on the road. If they didn't have 4wd, they'd use their brains and stay home in that crap! Funny thing is, most of the fellows in the ditch have 4wd!

Bill in WI

They cost a bit more but its mostly the same parts as a 2wd that wear out. Tie rod ends, unit bearing, sway bar links, tie rod ends.

Usually the 4wd parts are pretty close in price to.

A 2WD full-size pickup wouldn't even make it up my road to my house, in the middle of the summer during a hard rain. Useless. But, I'm on top of a mountain on a very steep dirt road.

And winter?? Forget it. 2WD car or truck is completely useless. 4WD truck goes up our road OK, but going down - might be sideways. Braking is more of issue then going. That's why we drive Subarus most of the time during the winter when our road is iced or snowed over. And, my 4WD diesel Blazer plow-truck has chains on all four wheelsl, all winter.

In regard to 60s and 70s 4WDs having problems? I never noticed any big problems. I still have my 69 Dodge 4WD Power Wagon. It's 4WD system isn't any different then my 92 Dodge 4WD diesel truck. Same axles, same transfer case, same hub system, etc. People that had big problems with 4WD trucks back when they weren't very common, didn't know how to use them.

When I was a mechanic for a Deere dealer, my service vehicle was a 70s IH Scout. Old-fashioned 4WD, and overloaded with tools. Also had posi-traction front and rear. I put many many miles on it and there were no issues with the 4WD system. Only drawback is posi - which can be a death trap if you're not careful. I'll take an open-differential anytime. Keeps one non-spinning wheel anchored to the road. Posi will spin the wheel with the best traction and throw you off the road unless you're careful.

We don"t buy one without it, but we don"t necessarily use it all the time. It"s just there when you need it. In a lot of situations it can keep you from making a mess by spinning through something. Also, like a MFWD tractor or rear-wheel assist combine, you can run it on softer ground and stay on top, while a 2wd will want to sink a little. Like I said we don"t have it so we can mud with them, but so we have it for normal situations. Its like insurance, you pay for it because you know it could be ugly if you don"t. Resale is easier, better, and in some cases you can get back the full cost of the upgrade when new in our area. My dad bought his first in "78 and his dad thought it was a waste, but after he saw how nice it was when pulling a cattle trailer in and out of a muddy barn lot or getting across a muddy ditch with a load of wood, he was a believer too. A 4wd 1/2 ton will do things that might be hard to believe for some. We"ve pulled tractors and heavy trucks off to start on gravel. You wouldn"t have gone anywhere for spinning with a 2wd even with the same engine. Simply put, they are just very handy, like a front-end loader on a tractor.

I wouldn't even think of owning a truck without 4wd UP here. I use it most of the winter and find myself using it in the summer as well. On saturday I used it to back a trailer up a wet grassy hill. And yesterday my equipment trailer had sank down in some sand from sitting and without 4wd it would have never came out.

Also my truck has a locked rear differential and an air locker up front and having all 4 wheels spinning when needed will get you places that will amaze you. A truck with open front and rear differentials in 4x4 is really 1 front wheel spinning and 1 rear spinning on the best day because of the way open differentials work. When buying a truck look for one with a posi traction or locking rear end, they will greatly help if getting around; they just take some getting used to in slippery conditions.

I have put over 100,000 miles on a 93 chevy half ton I bought used in 01 with 100,000 on it then. The only repairs I have had to make on it that were directly related to the 4X4 parts on it have been a stripped out front drive shaft (Around $150) and a CV axle (around $100). This truck has not been "abused" so much as it has been "used hard" on the farm and there have been times when I made it to my night job in the snow when no one else did.

Dave

The idea of just one wheel giving power on each axle with an open-differential is a fallacy. On one axle, just because one wheel spins, that does not mean the other wheel isn't getting any driving force at all. In most cases, it gets some. Many bulldozers work off differential drive, and do pretty well. Case, Cletrac, Terratrac, etc.

There are times when having a locking differential offers advantage, and other times when it creates a hazard.

I've driven in some of the worse conditions anybody's likely to find in ice and snow. That when I was a road mechanic for several Deere dealers. still encounter it every winter where I live. And, we have many new trucks go off our road every winter. I've had to pull many out of the ditches. I've yet to see any great advantage, overall, with any sort of locking differential . . . unless the operator has full control over it.

If I have to climb a steep icy road, that last thing I want to have is a locking differential that keeps spinning the wheel with the most traction while I'm trying to climb the hill. It will sometimes throw you off the road. With an open differential, the wheel with the most traction won't spin, and therefore keeps you anchored to the road. Like I said, in some conditions. I live on a steep mountain road that never gets sanded, and rarely gets plowed in the winter. Driving a 4WD truck up here with locking differentials is asking for trouble. You'd walk off the road sideways as you tried to climb. With an open-differential truck, no problem. Even if you couldn't make it up in certain conditions, you didn't have to worry about going off sideways.

What I'd like to see is an operator controlled differential. Like Deere uses in log skidders. Or - like some autos have, called "traction control" or something close. Differential action is controlled by brake application. In a cruder sense, like a farm tractor has with separate wheel brake pedals.

There has [i:5ac467a86f]never[/i:5ac467a86f] once been a time when i was upset I had a locking diff in the rear and an air locker up front (in fact the other half just got a locker installed in the rear of her jeep because she liked how my truck drives with the locker). I've seen plenty of guys with open diffs stuck with 2 tire on some ice and 2 tires on gravel or pavement; they sit there with the tires with zero traction spinning. Sure my locking diff makes the back end want to pitch a little sideways, but with experience you get used to it and don't even think about it because you are driving away while the other guys are stuck.

I certainly don't want a tire to "anchor" me to the ground when I'd rather be moving forward.

Hey, " to each his own." If you like your lockers, that's fine with me. I've be driving bad roads, and/or on virtually no roads in ice and snow, on mountain hills for over 40 years - in northern "Northeast Kingdom" Vermont, Maine, central New York, and the central Adirondacks. I've also watched many truck and SUV drivers go "off road" when it wasn't in their plan. Especially those with oversized tires and posis.

All a person has to do, with an open differential, is gradually apply the brakes until all the wheels cut in. Or if just rear wheel drive, you can do it with the parking brake. Of course I'm talking older trucks before anti-lock braking came into vogue.

I've driven many vehicles with posi (clutch-locking) differentials and every one of them was terrible on steep hills that were crowned (high in the middle and low shouders). Otherwise, they worked pretty well. Now has there been improvements with them recently?? I have no idea. Maybe some newer ones are better controlled. I'm talking about the wet-clutch driven posis that were common 1960s-1990s. I don't know if something new has evolved or not with standard equipment on autos and small trucks. My 83 and 89 Chevy K5 plow trucks both have rear posis, but thank heavens they haven't worked in years. They just perform as open differentials.

The reality is, when my road is iced over, I'll go up it in a open-differentialed Subaru 4WD with half-bald tires, whereas a full size Chevy with 4WD and posi can't make it. Done it many, many times. But that's more about the Sub's low center of gravity, small skinny tires, low weight, etc. Our house is at the breaking point on the hill where just about every dumbbell gets stuck, and/or loses it - in the winter. That's why the town keeps threatening us with Eminent Domain. That to take our land, widen the road, pave it, salt it, etc. Just to please the people who don't need to be here anyway, come winter. We have no neighbors and are the only full-time residents on this "unimproved" road.

What do you mean by Differential action is controlled by brake application?

A differential divides the 100% of driving force between two wheels. If both wheels have equal traction, each one gets 50%. The problem is, the wheel with the least traction gets the most power. So, if one tire has worse traction then the other, it gets more power, not less. Also why if you jack one up in the air, it spins double-speed while the other does nothing. If one wheel has zero traction, it gets %100 of the power. But, with a car or truck on the road, it's pretty rare when any wheel has zero traction - so even when the lower traction wheel isn't turning, it usually still has some force being applied to it.

This is also why trucks with very weak springs tend to get better traction. Weak springs usually means the truck weight is more evenly applied to all four wheels on uneven ground. Stiff springs usually means worse weight distribution. Back when Chevy had coil-spring rear trucks, they were known for being lousy load carriers but having great traction.

When a lower-traction tire spins, if you have a way of applying a brake to it - it will force the other to spin. Just like on any farm tractor with a left and right brake pedal. If the right tire spins, you hit the right brake and the left then gets more power.

Newer cars with "Traction Control" do this sort of brake controlling electronically.

In an older car or truck, if you can apply all the brakes to an extent that it makes drag equal, they will all turn. An old trick with 2WD pickups is, when one wheel starts to spin, you apply the rear parking brake until they both start to work. Of course, that means the parking brake has to be working.