4wd vs. 2wd

[cowboydoc]

4wd is when all four tires are exactly the same size. MFWD is when the front tires are smaller than the rear tires.

 

[NIXON]

Richard ,
Thanks for the answer to my question !
I've been reading this forum for a while and would have thought the answer to be more technical and mysterious /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Thanks again , John

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I found out snow tires worked great )</font>

Hey, that's cheatin', Dick. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif When my job sent me to Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, for the '71-72 school year, a guy who had gone the year before told me I would have to buy snow tires. Well, the wife's car needed new tires anyway, so I put new tires on all the way around before we left Dallas; snow tires on the rear, regular tread on the front. Then learned that snow tires really weren't needed at all up there. That's the only snow tires I ever owned.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I never have liked chains )</font>

Me neither! However, one morning during the '72-73 winter we had an ice storm; not snow, but ice. It took me 3 hours to drive 22 miles to work. I had no problem driving, but I had to stop many times and get out and help push other vehicles out of the way by hand. So I bought a set of chains that evening and put them on the car in case the weather was worse the next morning; it wasn't. I drove about 2 miles out of my hilly neighborhood and stopped and took them off. Then after I retired, and was on the Texas coast, we got a call that my wife's dad was in the hospital in West Virginia, not expected to live, and it was snowing up that way. So I bought a set of chains and took them along just in case I needed them; never did take them out of the box.

But in the nearly 25 years on the police department, I think the city put chains on my police car either 3 or 4 times when we had unusual icing conditions.

And I'm probably older than you and never had a 4WD vehicle until we bought a new 1986 Suzuki Samurai with 4WD; definitely wasn't needed except as a fun vehicle, but since we had it, we did go a few places that neither you nor I nor anyone else could possibly have gone in a car or pickup without 4WD just for fun and to see what it could do. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

And like you, I've got a lot more time on 2WD tractors than I have on 4WD, but the ones I bought myself had 4WD. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Of course, I started on a tractor with a hand crank in the front end, too; doesn't mean I want to do it again. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[stvman]

I will add another name to the pro-mfwd. I have a 580 Case I have been stuck with more times than I can count, only the hoe saved me. There are numerous slopes on my property I can not go up. My neighbor bought a 790 two years ago and there is no place on my property I can't go.

I have been told by every dealer that even considered taking it in trade as well as perspective buyers that if the Case was MFWD I could get more than twice for it. Now this may be a regional thing but in the NEast you cant give a two wheel drive away. Steve..

 

[stvman]

Just thought I would post this link I know on the smaller machines the price is much closer the diff also includes power shuttle.

http://www.midlawns.com/4510.htm

I dont Know much about the TN's but it seems like 6K is a huge spread. Does the dealer stock both? If he does not have the mfwd in stock could he be inflating the price to get you to buy two wheel?

 

[SageBrush]

I want to join the club and add my 4 cents as pro MFWD.... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

As an equipment operator I hate 2wd tractors like JD 310 back hoes, its night and day. All my personal trucks are 4wd now, never been stuck in one either. In the past I had 2wd, don't miss them at all. I can drive all over most job sites unless its really muddy out. Been through mud holes up to the bumpers in 2wds, you kind of skip across... don't slow down. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

The 2wd guys are always having fun, our construction sites are not 2wd friendly. I could get by with the 2wd on flat sites but, add steep hills and hello. Where I run you can't always get a running start on the plain dirt roads. With my 4x4 I can stop if I need to and still continue up the steep hills.

Even with a new 4x4 Kubota, I can't make it out back at our place in Alabama. The Kubota is no mud machine. I've got it stuck once and learned the point of no return.

Buy what you need, if you got the $$$'s, buy more than you need. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I've had plenty of smarties who thought they could run my back road with their stock 4x4's. It took two tow trucks to get my cousin out and he didn't even get in the woods! Its really muddy down there year round. Now my locked up 1500 dodge can do it, but it really makes a mess of the truck. A 2wd would never make it, the first creek crossing stops most 4wds.

In my case I need a MFWD tractor and I also want one too. With a loader, the MFWD is 100% better. Get the rear tires off the ground of a 2wd on a steep hill going down and anyone will tell why the MFWD is better. I'll never buy another 2wd tractor either.

 

[pruntyc]

Yeah Bird, you don't get much snow in Texas. A good friend of mine, came from down there. Rev. Maurice Hart, of what use to be the singing Hart's. He lived around Dallas for years. Fact is when he was young he was a friend of Bonny and Clyde, not sure I spelled that name right. He moved to Omaha, and started a church, and I use to laugh, he knew very little about cold and snow, but of course he learned. He still lives there, when he isn't traveling around the world in his ministry. I need to call him up, I do that about a couple of times a year. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[SethO]

Let us stop this charade.

A 4WD tractor also has 2WD.

Enough said

SethO

 

[bgott]

I can drive without chains and snow tires, too. That didn't stop someone who couldn't from spinning in front of me and making me eat the drifts on the side of the road. I didn't hit him and didn't tear up the car. Tires and chains wouldn't have helped but that didn't save me from the a$$ chewin' from the CHP cop who hauled us in to Dunsmuir, CA. to spend the night in a church with all the other snow bound folks.

 

[F350Lawman]

So yes I think I would have got out of your driveway with 2wd. Not trying to be a know it all or a smart aleck, just telling you as I see it, from what I've done in the past.

Sure you COULD get out and so could I if I worked at it hard enough but what's the point. The question is 2wd vs. 4wd. One = having you come all the way from MS to help me and one = hitting a switch. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Not trying to be a smart aleck either but I live in upstate NY and have lived my entire life in the Northeast last time I checked it snows a tad more here than MS. Don't take this the wrong way but I noticed you also said your from snow country, where exactly in Mississippi is the snow country? I am planning a ski vacation and I'll add it to the list. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Maybe you are referring to another place you lived?

But seriously anytime you want to come and get my, no weight in the bed dually with a heavy diesel motor under the hood and a poor excuse for A/T tires in 2wd through 14+ inches of snow out of or up a driveway have at it. Just in case the shovel is on the side of the house right next to the humble pie/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Either way I'll be inside making some hot-coco /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif then we can swap cop stories and tell lies. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I too have conquered the snow with a 2wd and it feels good but when compared to my 4wd vehicles those vehicles were not good in the snow. You can feather foot it, blast through it, try a combo, etc., eventually they just dont't go as far or as well in 2wd as they do in 4wd.

Instead of fighting it, repeat after me "4wd's have better traction" It's theraputic, really... admitting it is half the battle /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I do admire your spirit PruntyC, especially when outnumbered like this.

Good luck

 

[snowman]

I too grew up/learned with rear wheel two wheel drives - upstate New York. Only got stuck once that I recall and burned out the transmission in my mother's Plymouth Grand Fury (sp).

However, my first 4WD was in 1989 with a Jeep Cherokee, and I have only driven 4WD since then. One time one winter I had to take my mother to a doctor's appointment and had to go up a steep hill. It was covered with snow and 2wd's were spinning and sliding trying to make it up; I just popped it into 4wd and went right up with no slipping whatsoever.

The reason that I stick with 4wd vehicles is for peace of mind, as I know that I have a much less chance of getting stuck that one or two times per year that we may get slammed with a N'oreaster or a lake effect storm.

The primary benefit, in my opinion, is that with 4wd you can get going from a dead stop in heavy snow versus needing to keep some momentum going with a 2wd in order to not get stuck. Some rationale with creeping along in traffic in a snowstorm - I don't have to worry about getting stuck due to the lack of momentum.

I do think many times "why do I need 4wd now when I didn't need it when I was younger", and the answer is simply that I'm more responsible now and have no real desire to deal with the hassles and cold of getting unstuck if I can avoid it

 

[Egon]

Me; I grew up with gravel roads or dirt roads and snow in the winter. Been stuck more times than I can remember. Guess, cause I'm not a very good driver, 4 wheel drive is a real boon for myself.

Egon

 

[pruntyc]

We don't get hardly any snow here, and I don't go out much when we do. You should see MS drivers on snow, it ain't safe to be out on the roads. Anywhere in the south really, they never get enough of it to know how to drive on it at all. They try to take off just as fast on snow and ice and try to stop in the same distance. I was born and raised in Ohio, down in the hills of it. And lived around Detroit, Michigan and then Omaha, Nebraska, till about 10 years ago, liked the warm weather better than 20 below. And the 13 inch snow I was talking about I went all over in the Detroit area, was with a 1959 Ply. car, not even a truck. I am not trying to brag, but I have seen very very few people that could go where I have went in snow. I know there are some, but not too many, most act like its the first time they ever drove in it. And besides we were suppose be talking about tractors not cars and trucks. Enough said. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[uno]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( MFWD )</font>

Doctor,
If I may ask what does the MFWD abbreviation represent ?

Thank you

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( what does the MFWD abbreviation represent )</font>

If Cowboydoc isn't on here right now, I'll answer: Mechanical Front Wheel Drive.

 

[_RaT_]

Amazing how a relatively simple idea like adding power too the front wheels can add such a diversity of discussion. I'm sure the entire reason 4WD it ever came about must have been based on logic due to the idea that the traction may not always be best on a single drive wheel and therefore adding power to other wheels may compensate for that variance. That variable may result from changing the center of gravity from the rear to the front which always happens when adding a loader, not to mention the load we place in it. When a 3 pt implement is off the ground, the CG is in a more rearward state yet changes as soon as the implement weight is reduced or removed as happens when the implement is lowered to the ground. Going up hill, going downhill, all factors that change the CG and have an affect traction. Other situations change the traction for entirely other reasons such as traversing a hill, or a ditch especially at a angle. In most of our experiences, all situations where 4WD has had a definite benefit. I can traverse a hill in 4WD and in spite of the fact that I may slide down the hill some, can turn my powered front wheels up hill and still maintain my location on the hill, something my 2WD tractor simply cannot do since simply turnning them uphill without the ability to pull the front end back up results in a continued slide. Without a doubt, 2WD has some applications, often my 4WD tractor is in 2WD, but there are times when I want to do more, the limits of 2wd would certainly have me wanting 4WD, and in fact when on my 2WD only tractor, it's a situation I find myself in a lot. Even with all my experience on tractors, theres little experience can do to substitue for 4WD, I think it's just a matter of physics. There will be many things that 4WD's benefits are not even arguable, just try pulling a boxscraper with the rippers down and you will absolutely find out why 4WD will unquestionably be your choice of drive systems.

 

[BillyP]

4WD becomes somewhat less important, in a tractor of that size and 'what you'll be doing with it'. 6 grand is a lot of money, there's no doubt there. I don't know if anyone here can tell you which way to go, for sure. It's easy to spend someone else's money /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

There's a few things for sure. The resale value will be much better on a 4WD. If you ever need it, you will kick yourself for not getting it. If you get it and need it, you'll say "man, I did the right thing". But again, you may use this tractor, never sell it and never need the 4WD.

If I was a betting man (which I'm not) I'd bet in the future, you will use/need the 4WD. Whether you would ever get 6 grand worth of satisfaction? That's a tough one.

Good luck

 

[uno]

Thank you Mr. Bird.....
why do they not call the smaller 4wd,mechanical four wheel drive ?

 

[F350Lawman]

I am really looking foward to the snow this year. My 4wd 790 and FEL has got to beat a snowblower and a shovel!

As far as the truck vs. tractor thing I think most of the 2wd and 4wd properties hold true for either one. Hving the dual rear wheel truck I guess I don't have true 4wd in the truck either. All things being equal MOST of my traction comes from the rear unless I am unweighted or on a hill. Same is true in my tractor.

The tractor should be much better due as much to it's as it's traction.

Last year I pulled MANY people out but got stuck twice myself. One time because my truck is so wide that it takes up all of my gravel driveway that leads to the barn. With the multiple snows it got to a point where it was impossible to see where the field/ditch ended and the driveway began. I drove by memory....you guessed it my memory aint' that good! About 12" off course put me right into the ditch and the truck was down on the frame. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif To make matters worse my neighbor who is oh-so-proud of his Chevy Duramax Dumptruck had to pull me out, after much anti-Ford abuse /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The other time my wife spread the horse manure creating a secret horse manure pile on the edge of our property /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif The grass grew on top of it and I drove over it thinking it was firm ground. It was NOT firm and I ended up about 3' deep in horse %^%$! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif this time my buddies F350 pulled me free so I saved at least some dignity even if my truck stunk /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I always carry 2/35' straps rated at 30,000 lbs. and a clevis. I find the 70' length allows me to find some good traction so I can pull most vehicles out. Even got a real stuck dumptruck free last winter. People here seem to be pretty good about helping one another out.

 

[Bird]

Uno, I said "Mechanical Front Wheel Drive" and it may be "Mechanical Four Wheel Drive" instead. I've heard it said both ways. </font><font color="blue" class="small">( why do they not call the smaller 4wd,mechanical four wheel drive ? )</font> Technically that would be right; most of us just shorten it to 4WD. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Supposedly a true 4WD is all tires the same size; look at the big articulated tractors that are 4 wheels or 8 wheels, or even more, that are all the same size, and are full time all wheel drive. And then the MFWD is like most of our tractors; bigger wheels on the back than on the front.

Minor technicality ignored by most (well . . ., maybe not by most, but by me anyway). /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif