4x4 needed? NOT!

abheye · Sep 8, 2002

I KNEW I would start some typing! I didn't say I never owned one, We sold our Ford Exporer a couple years ago. I also was involved in many offroad adventures with my CJ5 with a 304V8. We also enterd mud races and other events. I'm saying you just don't need one when you look at the big picture! Sure you can justify owning anything, Do I really need two snowmobiles when they sit in a barn for about 300 days? Heck no. What I'm saying is whenever I get stuck I either use my tractor or have some 12mpg 4x4 like YOURS pull me out! Then I smile and am glad to have helped you justify buying that thing. Guys like me help you,ya see? Go home and say, Hi, honey! I just used me 4x4 lever for the SECOND time this year! Yeah dear, I know gas is $1.50 a gallon but you shoulda saw me pull em out!!!

P.S. see photo, this one of our trails when gas was cheap and the wife and I "practiced" having kids!

manganos · Sep 8, 2002

Hold up ...I know you didn't just put Ford Explorer and 4x4 in the same paragraph

What is going to happen when all the 4x4 owners find out about this thread and keep their 12mpg 4x4's going past you while your stuck

. I use mine probably more then most. Monthly trips to either the beach (you can drive on the beach, great for going surf fishing) or going up to the mountains where you can't get up without it.

abheye · Sep 8, 2002

So far I have not been stuck yet.. (today)! No, really, a very few people do need them. I work for a county highway department and need to go to work and plow at 4am sometimes. I drive my front wheel drive car to the nearest state road and go! I have owned alot of 4bys, but am saying that the TRUE need just is not there to justify it. I hear from a 76 year old friend who jokes that "when you learn how to drive" you buy a 2wd! He was joking for the most part. My friend, who lives in VA, has a 4x4 Cherokee, she thinks you need to engage the front end when you go onto your lawn!!! Boy do we ride her!!

RobertN · Sep 8, 2002

As in the other post, I use 4wd somewhat often. Like when pulling brush, a turbo diesel 4wd works well. Or when hauling my tractor on a gravel drive, and need to make a quick entrance onto the main road what with traffic and all. I could sit there and spin a little in the gravel while a 2wd truck coming the other way plows into me. Or, to get a concrete buggy back where we want to pur, when the 2wd is stuck out front and wheel barrowing it around back. Then there's the times out gathering fire wood, when I can get closer, without getting stuck or compromising safety.

Too, there are lots of times when I can use 2wd, and maybe have a little slippage, but still make it where I want. But using 4wd doesn't leave spin marks on the clients drive, or lawn, or side yard.

I have pulled a few folks out. And, I have been pulled out. Sometimes after waiting hours for someone to stop, or hiking a distance to get to a phone.

4wd is worth it in many instances. But, yes, there are a lot of pavement pounders that never make it past the front lawn where they pull up to get washed.

cowboydoc · Sep 8, 2002

Yea you're right city slickers don't need a 4 wheel drive but if you live on a farm or a ranch you need one just about every day.

MossRoad · Sep 8, 2002

Sure, you don't NEED four wheel drive. The only things you NEED are food, water and shelter. You don't NEED your tractor either, but you chose to buy one, didn't you /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Boondox · Sep 8, 2002

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones who depend on AWD to get home. There's a spring in the middle of my road. Not much water in the dry months, but enough to make for a river of ice in winter. Plus about four feet of snow on the ground from late November till about the middle of March (gets compacted and refreshed pretty continuously), then slush for a month, then mud till mid-June. Oh, and AWD comes in awfully handy when practicing the art of dodging tourists.

Gave up my Pathfinder (8mpg in 4wd) for a Subaru (27mpg all the time).

Pete

abheye · Sep 8, 2002

Hi again
I too wish I lived where 4x4 was not an ego trip, but needed for real. I do however live on a dead end road in the country where horses, cows, and orchards outnumber us folks! I live near Buffalo NY.I have owned many four wheel drive trucks, but I myself didn't "need" them, only wanted them. thanks for the replies, TBN is very helpful, and fun!

GrantMO · Sep 8, 2002

Recently I borrowed a friends F250 2WD truck to pull my trailer full of hay. I got it stuck in a little muddy patch between gates and that convinced me that my next big truck was going to have 4WD. I may not use it all the time but when I need it the expense of not having it is too great.

cstocks · Sep 8, 2002

You got that right, Grant. I got my F250 2wd stuck four times in the first six months I owned it before I finally figured out that if my truck caught me even looking at mud that it would get stuck! Now I know to avoid situations where I might get stuck and I make out just fine. Even so, that means that there are probably a couple of dozen times a year that I can't go places I want/need to go and am unable to do things I could do with my last truck. If I could do it over again I would get the 4wd just so my truck's capabilities would be less limited.

I do agree that there are a lot of folks out there that buy 4wd vehicles to stroke their egos but I know that there at least that many more people who buy them out of necessity or to compliment their particular lifestyle. I know some folks that fit into both groups.