4wd vs. 2wd

cowboydoc · Sep 5, 2003

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

NIXON · Sep 5, 2003

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 · Sep 5, 2003

( I found out snow tires worked great )

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.

( I never have liked chains )

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 · Sep 5, 2003

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 · Sep 5, 2003

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 · Sep 5, 2003

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 · Sep 5, 2003

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 · Sep 5, 2003

Let us stop this charade.

A 4WD tractor also has 2WD.

Enough said

SethO

bgott · Sep 6, 2003

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 · Sep 6, 2003

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