AWD vs 4WD... Which is Best?

Should you buy 4WD or AWD cars? What's the difference between AWD and 4WD? Aren't they the same? No! Watch our guide to the differences between All-Wheel Drive and Four Wheel Drive cars, trucks and SUV.

#awd #4wd #subaru

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[patrickmochen]

In short, awd can monitor and provide different amounts of power to each wheel to provide the most traction. 4wd is a constant power to all wheels.

[christopherholland]

For me, I think that the key takeaway is that constant power to all 4 wheels, instead of varying power makes for better off-road slow-speed conditions as opposed to varying power, which is better for high-speed on-road conditions.

[markpashia]

I have been amazingly surprised at my 2018 RAV4 AWD and it has gotten me out of two stupid mistakes going where I should not have gone. One sand and one mud. I could literally feel the power dancing between the wheels as needed to pull me through bad stuff. Six to eight inches of loose sand for a quarter mile uphill as once I started down and realized I had no where to turn around until bottom of hill but it pulled up through that will only one quick slip in a turn going back up. Don't think it made one full rotation before adjusting and grabbing. The second time was a dirt path that turned to frame deep mud on me. Got turned around and pulled right out again. I do not recommend these mistakes to anyone, but glad I had a Toyota. Mostly I car camp in desert or in national forests back east and so far so good. Not going to do any rock crawling or mud bogging so I am very happy. Just waiting for some snow but usually hate winter so try to avoid. Give me beach sand over snow any day.

[RiyadAbouJaoudeh]

So many words said to explain almost nothing.. you just complicated the difference. If on purpose, great job 👍

[thethreatwrestling.]

Currently, I drive the 2021 Honda CR-V Real Time AWD and no issues in the snow, heavy rain and low to medium volume of mud. It's a great AWD system so far made by Honda.

[Doc]

We live in a very mountainous area of north central Washington state.
We’re 5 miles from town, (25 miles from the city), on a private road that we have to plow and maintain ourselves.
We get 5-7 feet of snow every winter so owning an AWD or 4WD vehicle is a necessity.
We put 260# of sandbags over the rear axle of our truck for better traction. We keep our pickup in 4WD for most of the winter.
Our Subaru’s are AWD and are the first vehicles that we’ve ever owned that we don’t have to put studded snow tires on in the winter.
Prior to buying our Subie’s we drove Toyota’s for 40+ years. Even though they were AWD or 4WD, we still had to put the studded snow tires on during the winter months.
With our Subaru’s, we drove on our factory tires year round until they wore out.
We now have Michelin Cross Climate 2 tires on both our Outback and Forester. Their Great on dry, wet, slushy and snow covered roads.
We have Cooper Discoverer A/T tires on our pickup.

[angeloivoj]

All wheel drive means all wheels move especially the spare tire

[christiandiaz]

Actually 4wd don't lock the front and rear differential unless you have lockers, those can be factory lockers or you can install them in the after market, like ARB lockers or so many different variants, and the lockers you have to active separately from the 4wd system, if you don't have them you won't lock each wheel, the video was great untill I heard that part🤦🏻‍♂️

[cassandralesh]

My full size Bronco is four wheel drive with traction lock in front and rear. As long as one tire has grip, I can go

[chrossphyre]

Which is why I bought a Ridgeline. I'm generally on the road and want something that will get me through a foot and a half of snow in the winter. I also go gopher hunting in the summer and need something that will get me up and down in the coulees and short grass prairie. Otherwise its dump runs and hauling drywall and plywood home. The Ridgeline does all of these things really well and has an intelligent traction vectoring system that I've seen plowing through obstacles with one rear wheel 2 feet off the ground. So yeah, with all that I have no need to continually feed a thirsty 5.7L V-8 just to haul my butt around Calgary and area. Besides that the independent 4 wheel suspension ensures a much more comfortable ride for the 90% of the time that it will be in the city or on a highway.Time to enjoy all that brilliant tech under the dashboard. I'm not hauling an RV the size of a Greyhound Bus across Canada, but I could easlly haul two motorcycle and a quad (My bike 850lbs, my son's bike 600lbs, a Honda Rubicon 520: 700lbs, 10 foot trailer 1000lbs - total 3150lbs) and still have another 1850lbs worth of gear left to haul without even touching the in-vehicle payload (another 1530lbs). So, when I was researching a replacement for my much-missed 2018 Ram Longhorn, I had to be honest with myself exactly how much truck I actually needed. After 30 years in Agriculture I've driven them all and to be honest, choosing the Ridgeline, an AWD Unibody was an easy choice. For those of you who "just can't do it", I understand. There's lots of cramped, harsh-riding, loud mid-sized 4 wheel drive body-on-frame trucks for you. Btw I do not in any way work for Honda although I did own a CR-V in the past and that was also bullet proof.

[johncameron]

Having spent the last 25 years driving tractor trailers I have some VERY good advice. I have driven over 2, 000, 000 miles without an accident. I see 4-wheel drives in the ditch every winter. I see two wheel drives(rear too) going right along in 2 feet of snow. I tell you exactly what to do. It’s all about weight on the tires that are engaged. A front wheel drive car goes well in snow because the weight of the engine is right on top of the front wheels that are engaged. A VW Beetle will go well in snow or mud because the engine is in the back right on top of the wheels that are engaged. In other words, if you have a two wheel drive truck spinning in the snow or something then put as much weight as you can get in the bed of it. Same thing with a car. If it’s rear wheel drive and you are stuck or have to drive somewhere then put as much weight as you can in the trunk. Seriously, in a semi if your trailer is empty or you have a light load then you spin and slide. In a semi if you attach to a trailer with 46, 500 lbs in it then your truck goes almost like it’s on dry concrete. Ever see 18 wheelers going down the interstate when it’s covered with ice? Those trucks have heavy loads on and know what they’re doing.

[HellFire]

1:55 lmao I thought that Audi got a minigun mounted for the second

[BobbyB]

I have a Subaru and a Cadillac both AWD the caddy has different modes but I absolutely love it

[Sturmgechu]

This should be mentioned. While 4wd does send equal power to all wheels when engaged, the front and rear differential do not apply to this (unless they electrically lock with the 4wd engagement). If a rear or a front wheel is off the ground, the opposing wheel on that axle will not move while the one in the air keeps spinning. So even if your 4wd is pushing though some slippery or unbalanced terrain, don’t expect all wheels to move at the same speed

[andresukhoo]

now i know when i save up for a ram TRX what I'm actually buying...saved up so far... $4

[draco]

tires can make a huge difference, whether you have a 2 or 4 (awd) wheel drive. it just adds to traction and stopping power.

[Dazlidorne]

The thing I love about my AWD system is that it is "on demand". Normally, it is FWD, but if you hit patch of snow or water, it will instantly adjust the power to the front and rear wheels. My car also has trace control which will apply the brakes to certain wheels if you are going too fast into a corner.

[larryfire]

Baja 100 racers are surprisingly mostly RWD vehicles. I think the reason is they require a lot of suspension travel which is difficult to achieve in the front.

[jimbomendoza]

I wonder which is more effective in 7 inches of snow? I wish they could make a video having almost the same vehicle with winter tires and see which system is most effective to tackle deep snow. Thank you in advance. God Bless you all in this channel.:)

[rtablesaw]

The first half of this video was pointless