2000 blazer, 4WD question

I've noticed with my 2000 blazer (bought 7/2005) that when in 4WD and I turn a tight corner, I feel a resistence, like the wheels dont want to turn. I have also felt this when backing up into a parking spot in 4.

Thoughts?

Reply to
Beth M.
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Read the part of the owners manual that tells you not to use 4WD on dry pavement.

Whitelightning

Reply to
Whitelightning

"Whitelightning"

So driving on the highway going 60mph with 4WD drive on "just in case" it might be slippery isn't a good idea? I am just deathly afraid of driving at night in the winter. Our road crew stops at 4PM and often the highways have "intermittent" snowed over or icy spots that can surprise you.

Reply to
Beth M.

There in lies the biggest miss-conception of 4 wheel drive. A 4 wheel drive takes just as long to stop on slick roads as a 2 wheel drive. It is just as prone to sliding off the road as a two wheel drive. If the roads are as bad as you say, than 60mph is too fast. If I had a dime for every 4X4 I've seen in a ditch in the winter because they were going to fast I would be able to retire.

There is also a miss-understanding of the difference between and AWD and a 4WD. The transfer case is different, the way they transmit power to the wheels is different. As you turn the axles follow different tracks, and as such the wheels are all turning at different rpms. An AWD system can compensate for these variables, a 4WD transfer case is not designed to do so when locked in to 4WD. That said, when it really gets nasty, the mud hole, etc, the 4WD will do better than the AWD.

Whitelightning

Reply to
Whitelightning

"Whitelightning" wrote

True, but just driving and not actually stopping, surely driving in 4WD has to add some added general traction than driving in 2. Maybe you would disagree, however I know from experience my truck is better on the highway in 4 if there is a possibility of some slick spots. However, it is damaging to the truck to ride in 4WD at highway speeds?

Reply to
Beth M.

"Beth M." wrote in message news:NldCf.1900$ snipped-for-privacy@news02.roc.ny...

Your mind is made up. The owners manual answers the question you are asking. It tells you not to use the thing in 4WD on dry pavement. Whither in 4WD or not your truck will slide off the road just as easily if she gets a bit sideways at high speeds. If one wheel hits a slick spot and breaks traction it can cause a skid, if its patchy you hit another before recovered going to fast and your in for a .wild ride. But what do I know, Everything I drove in the service for 8 years was all wheel drive, almost 5 of them in Germany where black ice is a normal state of being in the winter. I've owned a Jeep J-20 3/4 ton pickup, 4WD, a couple of CJ-7s, Chevy 1/2 short bed step side 4X4, and S-10 Blazer 4X4 as well as one of its predecessors, a 4X4 LUV truck. I was raised in the Adirondacks of NY. If the roads are slick the only solution is to slow down. 4X4 will get you through when the snow is a bit deep, but it has nothing to do with how well your vehicle will stay on the road. The fancy scientific mumbo jumbo is about the rules of Resistive Force of Friction and the Coefficient of Friction, nether of which give a dang about how many wheels are powered when it comes to staying on the road. Your truck being better in 4WD is all in your mind. That is not to say that is a bad thing. Psyching ones self up, or someone else out is all in the mind. The danger is when one over estimates one's abilities based on false assumptions, sadly assumptions fortified by some very bad advertising by all manufactures of AWD and 4WD vehicles. Watch a rally race on TV sometime, you will see that the Subaru's, which are AWD are just as prone as the FWD and RWD vehicles to ending up in a ditch. I usually root for the Subarus, why cant Chevy build something like that Impreza WRX STI.

Whitelightning

Reply to
Whitelightning

That is the DUMBEST statement I have seen in a while - "True, but just driving and not actually stopping, surely driving in 4WD has to add some added general traction than driving in 2." How do you plan on stopping? How about if a deer or a person happens to wander out in front of you?

4X4 DOES NOT give you better stopping power on slick roads. Oh and WL is wrong on one account, it takes LONGER to stop a 4X4 on slick roads because of the way the ABS is programmed to work when in 4X4. It WILL make you one of those people who complains that "But officer I had it in 4wheel drive, why did I go off the road and get stuck 75 feet off the road" or more likely the one we will get to hear about on the news as "Another death involving an SUV". If you are so deathly afraid of driving at night in the winter DON'T DRIVE, and if you are driving at 60mph on slick roads you are STUPID AS HELL, you are a hazard being on the road. If you already know they don't maintain the roads very well SLOW DOWN.

Oh and to answer the last question YES it is damaging to drive the vehicle at ANY speed on a high traction surface. It destroys the front differential and the transfer case through a process called torque wrap.

99% of current 4 wheel drives use slightly different gear ratios from the front to the rear, on a surface with low friction (snow,sand,loose gravel, wet grass) this isn't a problem since the lack of traction allows the parts to slip a little and unwrap. On a high traction surface it doesn't allow this to happen. The amount of friction caused by the torque wrap increase as the forward speed of the vehicle increases. Just a fact. if you look in the owners manual it will even tell you NOT to use 4 wheel drive over about 40 because of the added problems it can cause.

Here is the routine scenario I get to see as a firefighter/EMT. Vehicle being driven by someone who does NOT understand how to use 4 wheel drive properly. They decide to keep it engaged "just in case". They then hit a small patch of ice with the vehicle and start to slide a bit. They do the correct thing and steer into the skid. Front tires and pull them around as they regain traction, which slingshots the rear end around and they lose control and end up in the ditch on the opposite side of the road facing the other way. This is when they are lucky. Unlucky ones still steer into the skid, but the rear tires grab traction first and this shoves them forward until the front end gets traction and the do a nice pirouette onto the roof at high speed. Usual resulting in the roof crushing down on them and if they are lucky they die then, if they are unlucky they get to feel their legs break, spine break and get to find out how fun it is to bleed out internally while laying upside down in the ditch.

Steve W.

Reply to
Steve W.

I guess I'm just a stupid broad.

Reply to
Beth M.

You dragged sex into, no one else did. Ignorance of something isn't confined to any sex, race, creed or age. Nor is asking a question six ways to Sunday hoping for the answer you want to hear instead of the actual answer.

Whitelightning

Reply to
Whitelightning

Whatever.

Reply to
Beth M.

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