Drive with 2 wheel drive in canadian winter ?

We have a lot of snow in Manitoba, and one snow storm was enough to make me glad to have a 4x4. 2WD rear wheel drive on a pick-up is never good in the winter unless you intend only to drive behind a snow plow.

 

X2!!

Couldn't have said it better myself. 4WD has saved my life so many times it's not even funny.

 

Interesting talk, I just bought my first Tacoma a 2002 dual cab. I have owned a 4x4 for years ( a Bronco 2 and 2 explorers) I would never go back to 2wd. I live in Ontario Canada and winters can get pretty nasty. I work in long te care and am always on call, nothing gives u better piece of mind at 2am driving into work in a blizzard than 4x4.
Be interesting to see how a pickup Jansens it haven't driven one of them in like 17 years, and it was 2wd.

 

Seeing as it's required in Quebece during certain months to have winter tires, I think you should be just fine with a 2 wheel drive. Just throw some weight in the box. I havn't used my 4 wheel drive in the snow in Edmonton yet.

 

This is my experience...

Last winter I had a 2000 durango 4x4 that I put a auburn limited slip in the rear. I travel a lot for work, and spent a pretty decent amount of time in Minnesota during the winter. The combination of 4x4 and limited slip made a huge difference.

This year I have the 2wd taco. I just came back from Montana... Moral of the story, if I could afford it, I would be trading in the 2wd taco for a 4x4 taco tomorrow.

There are two big things 4x4 gets you...

First is steering. In 4x4 when the front starts to slide you use the gas to pull the front in the direction you have the wheels pointed. In a 2wd... well you shouldn't have been driving that fast anyway, and your just along for the ride.

Second is braking. In 4x4 the front and rear wheels are locked together, so when you step on the brake, you have all four wheels stopping you equally. In 2wd, when you step on the brake, the front wheels lock first... this means you lose steering because your front wheels are sliding, and your rear wheels haven't even applied enough braking to really slow you down.

On ice/snow, trust me, having four wheels stopping you is MUCH better than having two steering wheels sliding and two rear wheels trying to stop you.

Funny story, last year we got a few inches on snow in North Texas. I went out driving around for the hell of it. Everybody was sliding around, stuck at intersections... the usual.

In the durango in 4high, I could literally drive around at the same pace, accelerating and stopping, as I would on hot summer day... I was just laughing at everyone when I would romp on it from a intersection and shoot up to 35mph without any tire spin, look in my mirror and see all the front wheel cars still spinning trying take off.

On a serious note, its also very comforting to know that when that idiot driving to fast came sliding at me out of control, I could reach down, throw it in 4high and get out of his way before he lowered my resale value.

 

With VSC I drove in 2wd 99.9% of the time during the snow and ice debacle we had last week. The only time I used 4wd was to get moving at an intersection that was a sheet of ice.

 

Even AWD can get hairy at times...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsJLVub50Aw