Traction control or 4x4 in ice and snow?

DTDfanBoy

Gloomendoom wrote: »

You are splitting hairs. It has the modern equivalent of a centre diff

Gloomendoom wrote: »

So, a better analogy than the Range Rover would be any traditional part time 4x4 where the simple in/out dog clutch has been replaced by variable slip clutch that allows the vehicle to automatically share the drive from 100% to the front axle to 50/50(ish) to both axles, as required, on hard or soft surfaces without risking the perils of wind up.

Like I keep saying the ability to lock front and rear to each other is how I've always perceived the difference between 4WD and AWD. The RX4 lacks this ability, which is why I would class it as AWD not 4WD. Even the manufacturer seems to agree, so I'm not sure why you are so intent on using it as an example to disprove my opinion, which seeing as it's only an opinion would be hard to disprove anyway.

I was initially responding this

vax2002 wrote: »

A 4x4 is not a 4wd, 4wd drive vehicles tend to be known as soft roaders, if one wheel looses traction, the power is just spun out on that wheel.
a 4x4 vehicle has a system of limiting revolutions per wheel such as a limited slip differential or viscous coupling as used in Renault rx4.
in a 4x4 if one wheel has lost traction the power is distributed to the other 3 wheels, in a 4wd, if one slips, thats it.

As I stated previously I found this strange because in what I have always traditionally considered to be a 4WD you can always have drive to at least two wheels. It seemed to me that he was mixing up 4WD and AWD, and then saying that AWD was preferable.

Like I say I'm from NZ so it could be that AWD vehicles are considered to be preferable over here seeing as they are used very differently, but back home 4WD's have always been considered better for off road use.

The early AWD systems were pretty hopeless off road, if you got them locked up somewhere tight it simply wasn't possible to get the torque down to where it was needed, and without low range you didn't have that much to play with anyway, they also had the habit of breaking something expensive in the process.

That said all 4WD's AWD's call them what you will, have come a long way since the old Landies, and the modern systems with all there electronic and mechanical wizardry are far easier for anyone to drive, it's also far harder to pull an expensive lever

epninety

The important difference is not clutch pack vs. viscous coupling (or haldex or any of the other variations on a theme), but the use of a coupling instead of a diff vs use of a coupling across the centre diff.

Your comparison is right though, it's much more like a traditional part time 4x4 system, with the addition of variable drive, than it is like a typical full time mechanical 4x4.

(Traditional PT 4x4s are usually RWD based though.)

epninety

Now I'm curious DTDfanboy... what's that picture from? IH maybe?