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| Know Your Car : 4 Wheel Drive |
The benefit of four-wheel drive is easy to understand : If you are driving four wheels instead of two, you've got the potential to double the amount of longitudinal force (the force that makes you go) that the tires apply to the ground.
This can help in a variety of situations. For instance :
- In snow : It takes a lot of force to push a car through the snow. The amount of force available is limited by the available traction. Most two-wheel-drive cars can't move if there is more than a few inches of snow on the road, because in the snow, each tire has only a small amount of traction. A four-wheel-drive car can utilize the traction of all four tires.
- Off road : In off-road conditions, it is fairly common for at least one set of tires to be in a low-traction situation, such as when crossing a stream or mud puddle. With four-wheel drive, the other set of tires still have traction, so they can pull you out.
- Climbing slippery hills : This task requires a lot of traction. A four-wheel-drive car can utilize the traction of all four tires to pull the car up the hill.
There are also some situations in which four-wheel drive provides no advantage over two-wheel drive. Most notably, four-wheel-drive systems won't help you stop on slippery surfaces. It's all up to the brakes and the anti-lock braking system (ABS).
In the next section, we'll take a look at the parts that make up a four-wheel-drive system.
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