2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive

DSteiner51 wrote:

bpounds wrote:

DSteiner51 wrote:

Veebyes wrote:

DSteiner51 wrote:

Veebyes wrote:


Taken a step further, a winch is for the guys who have 4wd drive & thought they could go anywhere only to find out that they really only have 2wd, then need to pull themselves out with a winch.

???? You either have 2wd or 4wd and if the driver/owner hasn't figured out which he has he be in real hurt.

At any point with 4WD only 2 wheels normally have power going to them. A front wheel & a rear wheel. A 2WD only has power to 1 wheel, the one that is spinning joyously.

This is totally false. Have you ever seen the inside of a differential?

You're kidding right? It is totally true unless you have limited slip or other locker. Open diffs, all power goes toward the wheel with least resistance. Most 4WD trucks do get ordered with limited slip in the rear axle, but plenty of them don't.

NO!!! I AM NOT KIDDING! A 2 wheel drive vehicle is exactly that. In an open differential BOTH wheels get equal torque. If one wheel hits a slippery spot then it will spin limiting the amount of torque to the other side to the same amount as it takes to spin the wheel on the slippery surface.

Many limited slip differentials add a slip clutch to the differential allowing extra torque being put on the wheel with more traction. Locking differentials will allow all the torque to go to the wheel with traction. Newer traction control will use the brakes, much the same as we did years ago on old farm tractors by holding the brake on the spinning wheel requiring added torque to turn it and it response increasing the torque also to the traction side.

A 4wheel drive vehicle has two differential, front and rear and both work the same way making it a true 4wheel drive vehicle.

The differential is not just a right angle gearbox as many believe. I was working on one years ago when an older farmer first told me that lie. It didn't take but a few minutes with the axle on the work bench and tires off the ground proving that lie for what it was.

Learn something before spouting.

Here is another one. It does have one small error in the commentary but most folks won't catch it.

Well, clearly you were kidding, or just felt like being argumentive. Of course it is a simplication to say an open diff is one wheel drive, but in practice that is exactly what it is. If you've ever been stuck in the mud and watched one wheel roostertail the mud, or layed down one a track burnout, which I know you have, then you understand why. So you just wanted to pout and show us all that you know how a diff works. Good job!