All wheel drive - options are possible

Driving a car with four-wheel drive creates the illusion of omnipotence and the ability to conquer any off-road. However, if you are a realist, then this is just an illusion. And often based on completely false assumptions. If the seller in the store said that the proposed car - SUV and is able to drive anywhere you want, then this, to put it mildly, little corresponds to reality.

Today, the car uses four basic all-wheel drive systems. One of them is a Part Time drive, which can be translated as "short-term". When driving on a hard surface, the car is a normal rear-wheel drive car, and only if necessary, on a slippery, wet road, for a short time you can connect the front axle. This mode of motion with such a transmission should be short-lived. Otherwise, its damage is unavoidable.

Another option that allows you to implement a full-drive car is called On demand, which can be translated as "on demand." In fact, this is an automated Part Time. If on the road the usual hard coating, then the car with this drive will be a normal car with the leading rear wheels. But when the wheels begin to slip, the front axle is automatically connected. There are options when the car is front-wheel drive, and the rear drive is additionally automatically connected .

However, this does not change the general picture. This approach is considered good when driving on snow. The disadvantage of such a system is the absence of a differential between the axes. When driving around the city, this transmission can be quite an acceptable option, but off-road driving is highly undesirable.

Another all-wheel drive system is called Full Time. With this approach, the front and rear axles are permanently connected , but there are still problems with the distribution of power from the engine between the bridges. Although the car has an inter-axle differential, but because of the lack of locking in it, this transmission can be considered suitable for city conditions, and not for off-road conditions.

This all-wheel drive is the same Full Time, permanently on, but only having an additional inter-axle differential lock. In this case, when the wheel slips, the entire torque will not go to the slipping wheel, but due to the blocking, it will be distributed between the rear and front axles. Thanks to this, the car can successfully overcome road obstacles.

Above are described the classic types of all-wheel drive. Now in many cases, electronics is used in attempts to realize the possibility of traveling on roads with poor coverage or complete absence. To do this, various methods of braking the wheels, a cunning distribution of power from the engine to each wheel, control the movement of each wheel. This approach, maybe, makes sense, but there is also a cost. And a car with a decent price, somehow it is not customary to drive voluntarily into the swamp or to the tracks accessible to caterpillar tractors.

And any other options assume the targeted use of the full drive capabilities. In the event that the car is intended for traffic in the city, then it does not need a full drive with all possible locks. With them, and the consumption of gasoline is more, and the cost of the car is higher. Therefore, it is necessary to determine when the car will be bought, under what conditions the most part of its movement will occur.

Do not choose a car with a four-wheel drive, just in case. The result will be increased fuel consumption, reduced speed and greater maintenance costs. Existing variants of transmission allow to find the most suitable variant for real operating conditions.