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Awd vs 4x4
Awd if far better in the snow than 4×4 and here’s why. I have seen 4×4 in the snow and every time up a hill only 1 front wheel and one opposite rear wheel works not all four and I have seen this many times on 4×4′s getting stuck. A truly good awd system can get all wheels moving and spinning. Part time shift in 4wd really sucks. It’s only for light snow or heavy mud. Put both on a 4 wheel dyno you’ll see the truth. Subaru is proof of this with their awd system.
RE: Awd vs 4x4 by Occams
Awd if far better in the snow than 4×4 and here’s why.
No. That’s not why. The reason is traction control. The thread is about AWD without traction control (or LSD) being useless because it puts all the engine power into a wheel that is spinning, and none into wheels that have grip.
This is so because that is the way normal diffs are are designed. Limited slip diffs are designed to overcome this problem but they can cause loss of grip in cornering.
The AWD cars you are familiar with must have LSD, or traction control on all of the time. The owners probably don’t know that they have it because there is no on/off switch. There is no need to ever turn traction control off.
The reason why 4×4 behave like that is because they have no diff locker between front and rear and no traction control – or they have them and the driver does not understand when they should be engaged.
You only have to apply the brake to a spinning wheel to have the power transfer to the other wheels. That is how traction control works. If you apply the brakes momentarily and accelerate at the same time you can sometimes get moving on an AWD that is stuck with one spinning wheel.