Kikinz24
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- April 1, 2017
- Messages
- 234
- Reaction score
- 25
- City, State
- Youngstown, ohio
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2015 Explorer base
As some respondants have already posted, your Explorer is always in the AWD mode. It is basically a FWD vehicle that automatically senses when AWD is required and will change to that form when required. The TMS just enhances and/or changes various drive components to meet the conditions that the TMS setting has been programmed for. Having TMS reset itself upon shutdown of the vehicle will help protect the system should it no longer be required upon startup. I have no problem with this at all. It basically comes down to the driver having to be familiar with how his/her vehicle operates. Having gone through one full Winter with mine I only used the 'Snow' mode once and that was just to test it out. The Explorer worked just fine for me in 'Normal' mode all Winter. I must also point out that I use dedicated Winter tires.
Peter
Tearing these apart it is actually a front wheel drive with the ptu just added . Normal drive wheel is left front when it senses spinning just like any other fwd vehicle it sends power to the passenger front wheel in the explorers case the passenger half shaft goes thru the ptu into the trans so essentially when it pushes power to the passenger front wheel it’s actually sending power to the rear 2 wheels and passenger front, the gauges you see in the car do not actually show the power to each wheel I believe this is to make people feel as though it is doing more than it actually is, if it was an electronic ptu that had clutches in it to engage and disengage the rear wheels like a Subaru it would be different. It is technically fwd with awd assist, not saying this is a bad design or anything gm uses the EXACT same trans and ptu setup different bolt patterns and front covers, but it’s not what everyone believes an awd or 4wd should be (how it has been the past 50 Year’s)