Article Comment: 4WD vs AWD

As gbc has started off with, these days the lines are fairly blurred. There are heaps of vehicles that fit into the catagory that has become known as "soft roaders". Certainly much better than your average 2WD family car but a long way short of the examples at the other end of the true 4WD spectrum.

Many years ago a 4WD was a pretty agricultural bit of kit as far as the creature comforts went. The characteristic that separated them from the rest was the fact that they had differentials front and rear. Usually they also had a transfer case that offered high and low range as well, but not always. They were designed to get you into much more remote locations before you got bogged so most had much superior under body to road clearance.

Now you get the option of locking center diffs, locking front and or rear diffs, active suspension, uphill and down hill traction assist, auto crawl ability, hill start assist and so on.

Also they quite often offer levels of comfort that challenge some of the top of range road cars and in some instances exceed them.

Cheers
Pop

Yes the lines blurred back in about 1970 - permanent 4wd is not exactly new.

I could not find any LT or AT tyres to fit my Subi's profile, 17 ", 55, 225, What tyres did your mate get?

Really lowered tyre pressures are fairly critical for most 4wd'n . . . I am sure mates rims would be less than 17", are yours after market ?
Not sure of his brand, but had a rim size easy enough to have numerous choices.

I am sure you will have to change rim size to offroad with any seriousness, those road rims / tyres just won't take much punishment, or give you traction where needed / comfort with lowered pressures.
Would talk to you local tyre place, one that is a bit specialised in the 4WD market might be worthwhile.

I can find out mates tyre info if you really want, he's away interstate now and going away Easter, but should catch up with him next week / following weekend sometime, but really that will be irrelevant (lots of choices in mainstream rims), you just need to go 16" or 15" to get something decent AT / LT grade under the wheel arches.

My car is bog standard apart from a nudge bar and underbody sump protection from SubaXtreme. I agree that 16 " rims would be better, but the people at Eblen's Subaru said that the car is really a passenger car (despite how it is sometimes portrayed?) I didn't know the lower range has been discontinued. So far, no problems in the Red Centre.

Maybe it's been reintroduced ?
What year is yours ?

AFAIK, mates Subi F was the last year to have low range at the time, not sure of his vehicles year.

Mine is just on 5 years old, a 2011 model.

I'll check with mate next week to see what his is, have a feeling it's about that, so you might also have last year LR was available.

Quote "As mentioned "proper" 4WD is part time",

Who says that - proper 4wds with full time systems have been around for years - even the very first Landrovers in the late 40s were constant 4wd.

So saying a proper 4wd is part time is nonsense and is definitely not a criteria to determine whether a vehicle is a proper 4wd vs an AWD.

I think that the total package needs to be assessed and how it delivers offroad performance.

Garry

Yes, that is the old way of differentiating between the two, Landcruisers have certainly changed that with full time 4WD, but then that is possibly different to AWD is some ways.

If you see (or better still drive) a part time 4WD vs a Subi or other AWD in all sorts of offroad situations, I'm sure you will see the difference in performance.
Perhaps sand on reasonable firm beaches, with short soft sections, would be ideal for most AWD with reasonable clearance, correct pressures in tyres etc, they are so light and float nicely.
Hilly stuff without low range (or Forester low range, which is nowhere near part time low range level) would likely cause issues where getting relatively steep up and down.