Four wheel drive or all vehicles have become more popular over the last few years as they hold certain advantages over a conventional two wheel drive vehicle.
A four wheel drive vehicle is mechanically designed to make full use of the vehicles engine power at all four wheels. This also allows the vehicle more control on surfaces that are not optimal for the use of a vehicle or under normal driving conditions. Even thought four systems are most commonly found on larger off road vehicles, the system is being seen more and more in standard passenger cars.
In the most simple terms, a vehicle with four will be able to deliver more overall power simply because you have four driving the vehicle instead of the conventional two. The force created by this turns into motion and is naturally greater allowing the vehicle to transverse road conditions that are not well suited for the standard two drive vehicles. This comes of particular use when conditions are slippery or rugged where a standard two drive vehicle might falter.
The types of terrain or driving conditions particularly well suited for four drive systems would be anywhere that a standard two drive vehicle might lose traction. With a four drive system, even if two lose traction, the other two can continue to keep traction allowing them to compensate for the two slipping wheels. Snowy or slippery conditions lend themselves well to four drive vehicles. Even in cases where a two vehicle may find itself utterly useless and unable to move, a four drive system would still be able to operate and get the vehicle moving.
If you are being technical, there are differences between standard four drive and what is known as all drive. The standard four wheel drive normally has the option of turning off the system to two of the while an all system has consistent power to all four wheels at all times with no option to turn two of them off.
A normal four drive system is commonly found on SUV type vehicles or pickup trucks as they generally benefit from being able to turn the four drive system off when being used on normal commuter roads and then activating them again once they move off-road. This is in contrast to the smaller passenger vehicles fitted with all wheel drive where the all drive is active constantly as it allows more grip on the road and better performance for daily driving.
Overall advancements in four wheel or all drive systems over the years do make them quite popular for many modern vehicles in today's market. Whether it is a performance vehicle using all to obtain more traction and giving more power to the road or it is a off road vehicle using the four wheel drive to transverse terrain that could not otherwise be passed by a two wheel drive conventional vehicle.
