So.....
Terrain-here in Colorado, probably a lot of dirt roads/trails....I would love to be able to drive the few hours to Moab and do a few trails....I am not a huge fan of Rock Crawling....But if I would rather have too much than too little
I figured the drivability and comfort level of the 4runner will destroy the jeep...I took my wife to drive a jeep and she hated it.
How exactly does the part time 4 wheel drive work...is it similar to an all wheel drive? Do you have to change your 4 wheel drive settings or just be extra careful in 2H? I will have to research that a little.
thanks for the help
Yeah the terrain here is a good mix of rocks and dirt roads. The biggest thing I find is that the ruts in the trails here can lead to situations where your suspension is totally flexed out. When this happens and you lift a wheel off the ground all the power goes to that wheel (Open Differentials) and you stop going forward. That's where the rear locker and ATRAC/Crawl Control can be immensely helpful.
I also recently went to Moab and again the locker came in handy for many of the trails up there. You'll be going up a steep rock, one of the back tires drops into a rut and you lose traction. Without the locker you're going to have to use more momentum or pick a different line. With the locker you can just continue crawling up.
My father has a JK so I can directly compare drivability. There's no comparison. The 4runner is definitely the car I'd rather be in for longer trips. That said the Jeep has a 'fun' factor while driving it that the 4runner lacks.
As far as part time 4wd goes... because the center differential is locked when you engage 4wd the front and back wheels need to turn at the same speed. This is a problem on dry pavement while taking a turn. The front wheels want to spin at different speeds in comparison to the back wheels, and because the front and back wheels are locked together, this causes binding in the differentials. On dirt or a slick surface 4wd isn't an issue because the tires can just "skid" to help relieve any built up binding. On dry pavement there's typically too much traction to allow this to happen.
With that out of the way, in snowy conditions you can engage 4wd while moving at speeds up to 50mph. Faster than that and the transfer case syncro won't be able to handle the shift. In conditions where it's slushy with a mix of dry pavement this can quickly become a hassle due to constantly having to shift into and out 4wd depending on the conditions. Basically it's not as simple as just set it and go. This will be the case for any true part time 4wd system.
Granted I may be a bit anal about not wanting to bind up my transfer case or put extra wear on my tires but the above is the rule of thumb for 4wd operation.
The difference with AWD or fulltime 4x4 systems is that all the differentials are open so that wheel slip can happen. Again, the 4runner limited and the new JK Sahara have this AWD type system but with the added benefit of being able to Lock the center diff for more serious off-roading and a locked 50/50 power split.
Alright so before I write a novel I highly recommend doing a youtube search for how 4x4 systems work and how locking differentials work. I think that'll give you a good basis to help you understand how everything fits together.
