4x4 Explained

Introduction to All Wheel Drive systems - By Eliot Lim

Buying a 4WD / AWD vehicle

My recommendations:

• Avoid part time, manually engaging systems, regardless of whether it has manual hubs, auto hubs or any four wheel drive "convenience" features.
  
  
• Avoid hybrid manually switchable full time/part time systems
  
  
• Full time or automatically engaging part time systems are superior from an engineering point of view and gets my vote
  
  
• A limited slip differential on the rear axle is a plus, alternatively 4 wheel traction control is also a big plus.
  
  
• If you need four wheel drive primarily for winter mobility, a set of snow tires will make a far greater difference to overall control and traction compared to differences between various AWD implementations. If I had to choose I would rather have front wheel drive and snow tires than four wheel drive and summer tires. Four wheel drive with the wrong tires in the snow is an extremely dangerous combination.
  
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