Weird sound when turning slightly sharply in 4wd mode?

[JDraper]

Wow! Things we don't know around here... In No Cal, by the time we get to the snow, the roads are cleared. So we rarely see any of this... And I hear they don't close the roads there like they do here... They say the snow here is heavier?

It's rare for roads to get closed here. We don't get as much snow as norcal, but what we get is usually denser and we get ice and sleet, which causes all sorts of problems.

An average winter for us has 35-45" of snow (cumulative total). We usually get it in 6-15" per storm. The problem is that the snow has a high moisture content, so when it packs down, it turns to ice.

 

[High_Order1]

I think a lot of it is people that don't have a background in offroad vehicle operation think that the 4wd button is a magic switch. They've seen a couple of shows on teevee where experienced operators in modfied vehicles ford water crossings, climb hills, etc., and they discount all of that, they just think its' the button.

Add to that you have a lot of smallish sized people and people with a small mental image of themselves, and they're used to driving a compact. They climb up into a SUV and they think they are driving a tractor trailer or a bulldozer and are now invincible.

I have worked a lot of accidents in my lifetime. The overwhelming majority of them are caused by the driver operating the vehicle outside of its' safe performing range and then either inattentiveness or a road condition causes them to overinput either steering or braking and its' pretty much all over at that point.

Far as driving a 4wd on dry pavement, I wouldn't recommend it. I do recommend exercising the 4wd occasionally, though. You don't have to go down snakebite gorge or anything, just find a gravel road or gravelled parking lot.

-Shawn

 

[Donner]

This is true...

I think a lot of it is people that don't have a background in offroad vehicle operation think that the 4wd button is a magic switch. They've seen a couple of shows on teevee where experienced operators in modfied vehicles ford water crossings, climb hills, etc., and they discount all of that, they just think its' the button.

Add to that you have a lot of smallish sized people and people with a small mental image of themselves, and they're used to driving a compact. They climb up into a SUV and they think they are driving a tractor trailer or a bulldozer and are now invincible.

I have worked a lot of accidents in my lifetime. The overwhelming majority of them are caused by the driver operating the vehicle outside of its' safe performing range and then either inattentiveness or a road condition causes them to overinput either steering or braking and its' pretty much all over at that point.

Far as driving a 4wd on dry pavement, I wouldn't recommend it. I do recommend exercising the 4wd occasionally, though. You don't have to go down snakebite gorge or anything, just find a gravel road or gravelled parking lot.

-Shawn

There should be a 4wd vehicle safety exam with the DMV... You are correct, when I'm in my wife's subcompact, I feel limited because of my physical size. But in my Ex, I feel in control and have space to move around... I don't think that people with poor self images are the 4wd problem, but they might pose a hazard if they get a truck or an suv, that they really can't operate well. (There are posting in the Whoops forum of people just like that. Not the getting stuck ones, that's part of what they do... The ones where they have no business being in that situation is what causes the problems. 4wd button, like you said, is a magic button)

There are a lot of people that really don't know how to use a 4wd vehicle or when they should/shouldn't engage the 4wd system. The thing is, when you go to buy a car, we tend to ask if a vehicle has 4wd or are told that a 4wd has a higher resale value, and so that's what we get - AWD would do just fine in most places. For people like me, in So Cal, I have no need for 4wd [I don't]; but in No Cal it's a good investment but even there, your magic button theory is applicable. However, I would never buy a vehicle that I intended to use off road if it were Awd; just as I wouldn't buy a stick shift in San Francisco. And also, everyone has a choice in the kind of vehicle they buy - and I'm just guessing, I have no stas, but most crashes would likely involve non-suvs and automatics with 4wd having nothing to do with it.

You could say that 4wd vs Awd is like operation of a manual vs. an automatic; the average person is better off, in this case, letting the Awd make the decisions of when to do what.