We don't need no stinkin 4X4 honey !

[Sportsmen]

Wife and I upgraded our tow vehicle a few months back from a 150 SuperCrew to a 2016 F250 CC gaser 2 wheel drive. We test drove 2 identical trucks. One a 2wheel drive and the other a 4 wheel drive. My wife found the 4X4 difficult to get into because of a bad back. I told her that we didn't need 4 wheel drive. Haven't had a need for one in 20 years. Fast forward to last Saturday night. We attended a wedding in the country where it had been raining cats and dogs for 2 days. Yep, the parking was in a grassy field on an up hill slope. Yep, you guessed it. We sunk up to the rims on the truck. Me and several others had to be towed back to the road. Guess this truck is a little heavier than the old 150.....


Lesson learned, stay on the pavement !

[Lessmore]

drsteve wrote:
My 2WD truck with locking diff is much more capable since I installed all terrain tires on it. It came with highway tires that offered no traction at all on anything but dry pavement.

Exactly.

A locker is an important factor in traction and as you point out....tires vary widely in traction.

Case in point, we recently switched one of our vehicles tires from all season (really spring, summer, fall only) tires to Goodyear All Weather tires. A huge difference...the vehicle now actually gets traction in snow, plows through deep snow and wet, thick mud uphill...something our former tires could not do.

[Boomerweps]

Groover wrote:
One thing that frustrates me is that to get offroad tires or tow hooks on an F150 you have to buy 4wd. I thought that the point of 4wd was to avoid the need for tow hooks. Seriously, at least the tow hooks should come on all trucks. It sure is a pain to add them later.

While looking for various items for my new F150, I saw OEM Ford F-150 tow hooks listed on eBay by Fairway Ford. I've bought a couple OEM items from them in the past for a better price than the local dealers. Most want Ford's suggested retail for factory add on accessories.

[drsteve]

My 2WD truck with locking diff is much more capable since I installed all terrain tires on it. It came with highway tires that offered no traction at all on anything but dry pavement.

[philh]

Groover wrote:
One thing that frustrates me is that to get offroad tires or tow hooks on an F150 you have to buy 4wd. I thought that the point of 4wd was to avoid the need for tow hooks. Seriously, at least the tow hooks should come on all trucks. It sure is a pain to add them later.

Tow hooks can be used to tow the 2wd buried up to it's axles in mud too 🙂

[Grit_dog]

wilber1 wrote:

Sportsmen wrote:
Wife and I upgraded our tow vehicle a few months back from a 150 SuperCrew to a 2016 F250 CC gaser 2 wheel drive. We test drove 2 identical trucks. One a 2wheel drive and the other a 4 wheel drive. My wife found the 4X4 difficult to get into because of a bad back. I told her that we didn't need 4 wheel drive. Haven't had a need for one in 20 years. Fast forward to last Saturday night. We attended a wedding in the country where it had been raining cats and dogs for 2 days. Yep, the parking was in a grassy field on an up hill slope. Yep, you guessed it. We sunk up to the rims on the truck. Me and several others had to be towed back to the road. Guess this truck is a little heavier than the old 150.....


Lesson learned, stay on the pavement !

Look at it this way. How many times do you think you will need to be towed while you own the truck and will the cost equal that of buying and operating a 4wd over that time. 4wd is nice but a costly luxury for most RV’ers.

One can overcome some of the 2wd handicap in marginal conditions with things like aggressive tires, rear lockers, lower air pressure and weight in the bed. But none of them are a substitute for 4wd if you need 4wd.
For those who drive uphill both ways in the blizzard of the century and don't need 4wd because it's a usless expensive luxury, do you also order your truck with vinyl bench seats, no radio or bluetooth, delete cruise control etc? I mean theyre all expensive luxuries that don't prohibit you from getting from point A to point B if you don't have them.

[Grit_dog]

Groover wrote:
One thing that frustrates me is that to get offroad tires or tow hooks on an F150 you have to buy 4wd. I thought that the point of 4wd was to avoid the need for tow hooks. Seriously, at least the tow hooks should come on all trucks. It sure is a pain to add them later.

I've seen precious few trucks of any nature that come with "off road" tires and the type of tires that are on a new truck should be pretty far down the list of priorities anyway since most of them are cheap tires. Even most 4x4s don't come with aggressive AT tires except a few up scale models like Raptor, trail boss chevies, power wagons or maybe Rebels.

[memtb]

Deleted: Triple post! 😮

[memtb]

Deleted: Triple post!

[memtb]

Quote: Look at it this way. How many times do you think you will need to be towed while you own the truck and will the cost equal that of buying and operating a 4wd over that time. 4wd is nice but a costly luxury for most RV’ers.


Your likely very correct, but, my old uncle once told me, ”If I bought a new Cadillac.....it would be 4x4”! I guess we all should know our potential needs and act accordingly! We couldn’t/wouldn’t live without one or two!

[wilber1]

Sportsmen wrote:
Wife and I upgraded our tow vehicle a few months back from a 150 SuperCrew to a 2016 F250 CC gaser 2 wheel drive. We test drove 2 identical trucks. One a 2wheel drive and the other a 4 wheel drive. My wife found the 4X4 difficult to get into because of a bad back. I told her that we didn't need 4 wheel drive. Haven't had a need for one in 20 years. Fast forward to last Saturday night. We attended a wedding in the country where it had been raining cats and dogs for 2 days. Yep, the parking was in a grassy field on an up hill slope. Yep, you guessed it. We sunk up to the rims on the truck. Me and several others had to be towed back to the road. Guess this truck is a little heavier than the old 150.....


Lesson learned, stay on the pavement !

Look at it this way. How many times do you think you will need to be towed while you own the truck and will the cost equal that of buying and operating a 4wd over that time. 4wd is nice but a costly luxury for most RV’ers.

[danrclem]

If I didn't need a 4X4 I wouldn't have one.

[Groover]

One thing that frustrates me is that to get offroad tires or tow hooks on an F150 you have to buy 4wd. I thought that the point of 4wd was to avoid the need for tow hooks. Seriously, at least the tow hooks should come on all trucks. It sure is a pain to add them later.

[memtb]

Even “if” you rarely/never “need” the 4 wheel drive....the 2 speed transfer case can often be a welcome option! Maybe a little more important to those of us using a manual transmission!

[naturist]

The Jeep had both old-style 4wd and awd, so I had a chance to do some experiments. One thing I discovered was that it was more directionally stable towing in awd than in 2wd. This was especially so when being passed by a semi on the interstate. I also determined for certain that mostly 4low > 4hi > awd > 2wd when things got slickery. But there were times that didn’t hold, with all open diffs. No form of 4wd was better than 2wd if one front tire was the spinner.

The new TV is awd only, but it also has very sophisticated traction control. It’ll go even if one wheel is grabbing only air, even though all differentials are open. So while I’ve no way to experiment, I’ve also not been able to get myself stuck. Which is a good thing.

[Dave_H_M]

valhalla put it all in a nut shell for me. i ordered my F250 for a few things. two wheel drive. 430 diffy, and crew cab. And not to mention a gas motor. i am happy with it and do not have to take a step ladder along the haul my creaky old body into it.

Resale, i really do not gibe a flip. This thing will probably outlast me and if it don't it won't be worth worrying about a resale anyway.

Each to his own

The only thing that is not cool is that i have not put a 4X4 decal on it to aid in getting me into the 4X4 clique at the camp ground. Just a little dig here to get the 4X4 gang riled up. 😉