4x4, how necessary is it?

I put my truck in 4wd immediately, it usually needs exercise and there's nothing but pavement where I live The truck handles much better on loose surfaces in 4wd. It's also easier to not get stuck than to get stuck in 2wd then belatedly engage 4wd.

4wds have low range which gives them a big advantage over any 2wd without a low range (Prerunners).

 

To which I'd suggest, have you ever ridden a Rokon?

 

I wonder how open/open 4wd compares to 2wd with a LSD like the TRD Sports have?

 

BTDT, tried all sorts of configurations of 2wd and 4wd over 45 years of driving In cases where extra traction is hard to come by and yo NEED extra traction, 4wd wins 999 out of 1000 times.....in any configuration.

 

How much of a difference though? Because open/open 4wd has two wheels powered, just as an LSD axle has both wheels powered.

I would go into 4wd only in a last case scenario...normally I'd be in 2wd open, then 2wd locked, then 4wd open, and then 4wd locked as a last resort. A decent LSD would be just as good as 4wd is in most scenarios.

 

I don't know so much theory......I just know a zillion time I didn't get stuck in places I SHOULD have got stuck. Although virtually impossible to quantify, it's not even a fair comparison.....4wd by light years.

 

One drive wheel in the front is better than two slipping wheels in the back and I don't feel like driving around with 500lbs of shit in the rear end for traction weight when I can pay less than a few grand up front to have the convenience of a push of a button or turn of a knob to get that front wheel turning. In the TRD OR 4x4 I get both.

 

From what I've seen, like the video @Nitori posted, prerunners usually have to gun it if they want to keep up with 4wd. Maybe not always the case, but pretty common. That being said, that is one sick taco!

 

How much you wanna bet the one doing the pulling has 4wd?

 

Go wheeling where I do, and you might be waiting days for a "pull out"

 

If you wheel by yourself you're an idiot.

 

No,I just drive a proper truck

 

You take a convoy to work too?

 

yeah momentum (and great suspension) is a 2wd truck's best friend off-road. When I had my Prerunner (open diff), I got stuck left and right in areas I couldn't get enough speed on. I ended up putting a lunchbox locker in it (lockrite) and it was a night/day difference, a locked 2wd is very capable but there's just no substitute for the low gearing of 4lo. Really steep declines especially, in 2wd you're stuck riding your brakes and that's not something you want to rely on doing for very long especially on loose/rocky inclines/declines.

Wheeling in a Prerunner was fun but it definitely taught me pretty quick that I needed a 4x4 to get to where I wanted to go safely and without breaking something. I love my 4x4 first gen

 

I like the sound of that. Of course, I don't even want to think about how much this would cost. The eternal optimist in me wishes it would be as easy as "unbolt driveshaft & axles, unbolt carrier out of rear axle, bolt in new, wire up and gogogo!" but I know that's probably quite unrealistic.

My argument was never that it was easier in a 4x2, especially since you've got to hit that sweet spot of momentum vs not just flooring it so hard you sink up to the axle immediately. Also for features where a front wheel steering as well as pulling is good, well that's a big advantage. People tend to be very alarmist though and act like the moment a 4x2 touches a speck of dirt it's going to catch on fire and flip over. Sometimes these people also own 4x4 mall crawlers with cobwebs growing in their front diff.

 

Locker motor is internal now, which means the third is a different shape between the open and locked axles....you'd likely have to buy a complete third in order to get a factory elocker.

Just buy an ARB air locker. Although in my opinion the ideal setup for a daily driver that gets wheeled is a selectable locker up front with a helical (think Detroit Truetrac) LSD in the rear.

 

No, you're a man. Misguided maybe but still a man. What you own however is a POSER truck. It is made to look like something it is not. It is essentially a tranvestite. It is dressed up to look like a 4x4 but it lacks certain "parts" (like a tranny does) that make all the difference. When you NEED 4wd, all the cost savings, helpful advice, and well meaning "desert race trucks don't need it" quotes will ring hollow in the wind.

Do you understand where the PreRunner name came from? It originated with the trucks used to "pre-run" or scout out off road race courses, like the Baja 1000. Those races were run in the desert, in dry, mostly hard packed roads. Those conditions don't exist down here in LA (lower Alabama) where I live. I can't blast through something at 50mph to make up for not having a drive mechanism for all 4 of my wheels. As a matter of fact I can get MOST of the places I go in 2wd, BUT.... in 4wd I can ease through, not tearing up our roads OR my truck.

I'll get ALL the money difference 4wd costs on the back end in resale, as well as it moving quicker. So I put the question to you, give me some good reasons why I WOULDN'T buy 4wd? Most of the reasoning given is people trying to justify their own purchases.

 

I've been there and done that. I got stuck in my own sloped back yard after it rained hard, with a trailer behind me. It was pretty embarassing to get stuck in my own yard and have to call a friend to pull me out ... with his 4x4 Tacoma. Needless to say, I'll probably never own another 2WD.

 

I owned one 2wd truck, and I would never buy another. Life's too short to spend a day miles from nowhere digging out a truck when you should be hunting/ fishing.

 

Negative. There is a big difference with having 4wd vs rwd with a rear locker. My Titan that I just sold a couple weeks ago came with the factory e-locker. I modded it to lock whenever I wanted. Its fun to use in the dirt/gravel in 2wd, but in the end you're still "pushing" the truck with rwd. Sand was easy to get through in 4hi w/ the diff locked also. Plus, do not forget about 4lo, where the real (to me) offroading is done. This is just my experience, and to be fair, where I live many of the roads are not flat. In the end, it's your decision and I'm sure you'll love your new truck