Two wheel drive or 4x4?

[POPPASMURF]

If you choose to live, camp, and visit only those places a 2wd vehicle will get you to-go for it. The most embarrassing time is when the 2wd can't move off wet grass, and even more embarrassing time is if you have a locker, or no-spin in the rear and try to go across a little side hill- you WILL end up at the bottom of the hill. If you call it camping to move from one paved spot to another, and only in good weather, a 2 wd is the ticket. If you want your choices less limited go 4wd. Another thing is a lot of people don't use their brakes like they could. The partial application of brakes with ABS can apply some braking to a spinning wheel to help you get unstuck.

[Captn John]

I’ve had a 4 x 4 since 1972. My new dually 4x4 with LS should arrive tomorrow. I have only pulled 4 2 wheelers with trailers at CGs. Impossible to count the number of cars I’ve pulled from ditches, mostly when I lived in snow country. I live where it never snows now. I said “cars” as I figured a truck was either 2 wheel drive or on idiot with 4 wheel drive and passed them by. My most recent pull was a young lady and baby in an older suv. I stopped and a trooper came soon. He asked about towing service and the look on her said she could not afford it. The trooper blocked the lane so I could pull her out backwards. She had no damage. Stated the rear of a trailer pulled by a semi would have hit her after passing her.

[vanion2]

I have a 4x4 F150 that I use to tow my TT. In the last 3 years I have only turned on the 4WD high mode to make sure it still works. Tires are probably the reason why. I bought some all season E rated snow ATs and even playing around couldn't get it stuck.

09 F150 FX4 with electronic locking rear diff. Front and rear diffs needs fluid changes every 30k miles for proper maintenance, fuel mileage and payload take a hit, but the FX4 suspension is nice and comfortable. I'm not into 4 wheeling much but it takes some pretty rough roads to require 4wd in my experience and you can rest assured I am not towing on anything that would require 4wd.

That being said, I prefer 4wd for "just in case". And if your tires are slipping on wet grass you need better tires. Street tires are just for that.

[dsttexas]

Originally Posted by 450Donn

Back in 2007 i had the same debate with myself. Wound up with a 4x2 dually and never in 12 years had a regret. Pulling heavy I knew I was never going to take that trailer off pavement. Heck picking up 5000 pounds of rock at the quary I never had a problem either. A 4x2 with positrack or what ever the mfg wants to call their version of a rear end is just as good as a 4x4 with an open rear end. There is not one on road 4x4 that will lave a locked front end, so at best you might get 3 wheels trying to move you foreword. A 4x2 gets you two. Not enough difference to bother with IMHO.

I don't know about your truck, but my current 2017 Chevy 4WD definitely locks the front wheels. Very noticable turning on pavement. I believe so did my 2005 Ford dually 4WD, and my 2001 Chevy dually 4WD. I was hauling heavier horse trailers with the duallies.

[Deny]

1 time, on a wet gravel campground site N. GEORGIA, up an incline, backing up the incline, I needed 4X4

Never needed it with motor home

IF, I had thought to take the pressure off the weight distributing hitch, I think I could have made the rise.(more weight on the rear wheels0

We moved to another site..no problem.

[mikena]

Rarely but the truck does double duty. If I lived south of the snow belt I doubt I’d have a 4X4 but living in upstate NY means I need a 4X4 or all wheel drive.

[Davidsd]

I bought Chevy 2500 HD 4x4 because the resale on 4x4’s are higher the 2WD.

[BudMan5]

4WD is like a policeman, a fireman or a paramedic.
You never need any of them until you need them real bad

[LargeMarge]

Our rig == 1997 Ford CF8000 rwd.
Our situation == we boondock exclusively. Rivers, forests, Baja beaches.

* * * * *

You raise an interesting question with your observation of 49% of pick-up trucks are rwd.

We did south America twenty-four months twenty-four thousand miles. Alaska, Panama, all over north and central America.

2003, we built our ExpeditionVehicle using the deepest logger-lug tires. For our use, this makes sense. For cruising town in a 'grocery-getter' or 'ZomPoc costume-car', that is probably too much.

In our travels, we see folks using converted 4x4 and 6x6 and 8x8 military rigs as ExpeditionVehicles, but they rarely go off-trails cross-country. If they get the thing stuck, they have to call the military to drag them back to the road.

We tow a Dodge Cummins 4wd; the transfer case simplifies towing because it has a neutral position.

Since 2003, we considered mounting a winch, but we are still searching for a use.

And 'yes', a wet lawn can be a dickens!

[sirtate]

Originally Posted by dsttexas

I don't know about your truck, but my current 2017 Chevy 4WD definitely locks the front wheels. Very noticable turning on pavement. I believe so did my 2005 Ford dually 4WD, and my 2001 Chevy dually 4WD. I was hauling heavier horse trailers with the duallies.

The crow hop is caused by the front and rear axles being locked together...

Not side to side front axle. That would make it dangerous to steer.

[cekkk]

For many years we lived where 2WDs frequently didn't get you home. But for the average TV and its occupants it's like insurance. Great to have if you need it.

[motojavaphil]

We were back East last fall. Hurricane Michael hit unleashing lots of rain. We towed into its aftermath. We rented a site in Virginia and before I backed in I looked the site over, it looked good. Backed in and the CG guide had me stop when almost done. The rigs tires sank in almost a foot in the deceptive ground. They found another site and I turned the knob to 4wd. Popped right out and I was happy I had opted for the 4wd option. Your choice to have or not.

[StageCoachDr]

Never used it, on my 4th trailer, but I live in snow country and my truck is my primary mode of transportation. Wife has a RAV4, also 4 x 4. Every vehicle we have bought in the past 20 years has been 4 x 4.


The roads out here (Reno, NV) get closed in the winter unless you've got 4WD or chains.

[AdvntureCats]

Originally Posted by TonyMac

Lemme tell you a story. I drove I80 from SLC to Cheyenne once a week for 14 years. In that time, I noticed a lot of "gypsie truckers", folks who used pickups to do commercial towing, a lot of those towed TTs and 5th wheels to the dealer. I started counting. Result: 80% used Dodge DRW 2wd across the highest interstate in the country.

Dollars to donuts they were Cummins diesel-powered, too. Monstrous torque all applied with the weight of the 5th wheel right over the axle. A diesel dually Dodge has a lot of towing payload capacity, for sure.


I have regular 4x2 Cummins-Dodge (single rear wheels) for a work truck. That thing could probably pull the house off of its foundation.


4x4 is probably more versatile for the average pickup owner, and therefore more commonly available on dealer lots these days. (Although, as pointed out already, they come with open rear differentials which can leave them stranded in some terrain conditions, and no center differential which means you can't use the 4wd on dry pavement without putting a lot of wear on the driveline.) Serious off-road 4x4 systems have fully-locking (not just posi-traction limited slip) differentials and the really sophisticated setups add a center differential that locks for the ultimate in flexibility. But the average 4x4 pickup is built for lower cost and simplicity, with enough 4wd capability to handle winter driving and dirt roads easily enough, but not much else.


4wd tends to come with a slightly lower towing weight capacity. That's why the dually pickups used commercially tend to be 2wd -- they have the absolute maximum towing capacity. 4wd components add weight and power losses from more rotating mass in the driveline.