• Fri. Apr 19th, 2024

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4WD or 2WD: What’s the Difference?

One of the most ubiquitous things in life are cars. And even though they play a very important part in everyone’s everyday life, a lot of people have no idea how they work – not until something goes wrong with their car, at least. One of the most important and must-know aspects of the car is it’s driving power. For those who don’t know, the driving power of cars can be either 4 wheel or 2 wheel. What this basically means is that the engine can be either sending horsepower to the front or rear 2 wheels, or all 4.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the 4 wheel-drivers are better than the 2 wheeled ones. For example, if an engine can produce 100 horsepower, in a 2 wheel-drive the 100 horsepower will be evenly distributed between the 2 wheels at 50 horsepower each. On the other hand, in a 4 wheel-drive it will be distributed between all the wheels at 25 horsepower each.

However, this does make a huge difference in off-road driving, for example. You generally want your car or truck to have a 4 wheel-drive system for this type of driving. Deep water fording, climbing over boulders and tackling steep hills with low-traction, loose surfaces. The 4 wheel-drive systems is best if you’re looking for max grip.

Some models, like the 4WD Snorkel, are especially designed to provide access to cooler and cleaner air while driving on dirt and sand surfaces, and prevent water from entering the engine when crossing rivers. This is extremely beneficial for the engine, and will be of much help when it comes to gas consumption. So if you are frequently doing these types of drives with your vehicle, the 4WD Snorkel is a great 4 wheel-drive system option.

Even though the 4 wheel-drive shows superiority in most cases, you still shouldn’t remove the 2 wheel models out of the game. If you’re using your car for around town exclusively, a 2 wheel-drive will work just fine. However, there are some things to keep in mind – front wheel or rear wheel systems.

4wd-snorkel

The front wheel systems are the preferred option in most cases. In fact, the majority of today’s cars use the front wheel system. They are usually cheaper to manufacture and are more space efficient than the rear-drive systems.

To conclude, both the 2-wheel and 4-wheel drive systems are going to work fine for you if you’re driving in the city. However, when it comes to off-road driving, the 4-wheel system is far better. Not only will you get more performance out of your car, but you will also be protecting your engine from dust and moisture, given you’ve purchased a quality system like the 4WD Snorkel.

By Anthony Hendriks

The life of the party, Anthony is always up for spending some time with family and friends, when not blogging of course! Ever since a child, his love for books of mystery, race cars and travelling keeps on growing so it's difficult for him to single out that one all-time favourite hobby. If there's one thing he hates, though, it's having pictures taken but you already guessed that from his choice of plant photo for the blog.