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Old 08-24-2018, 04:03 PM   #21
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It's hard to find a new truck in South Texas that isn't a 4WD. There also isn't really any winter here, and most truck owners don't go off road with their trucks either. My guess is that the majority of 4WD owners around here don't even use it. I don't know why they almost universally expect it, but they do.

I had to order my truck as 2WD. If I intended to go offroad, boondock on rougher terrain, or if we actually had a winter season, my choice would have been different.
That's pretty much the situation here. The average person never muddies the tires. We do have a winter season here, I do boondock and I've certainly done some rough roads, all with a 4 x 2.

It was frustrating to go to the dealers and see acres of F-150's and hardly any of them a 4 x 2. The ones that were 4 x 2 were Crew Cabs and we were shopping for a 4 x 2 SuperCab. Oh well, the wait's not a big deal and I'm looking forward to a much more comfortable towing experience.

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Old 08-24-2018, 04:05 PM   #22
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And you will LOVE towing with the 4x2 Ron. Smooth as silk.
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Old 08-24-2018, 04:06 PM   #23
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Welcome Ronn.

A dealer would never bring one in on the lot as he could get stuck with it.
Stuck with it...
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Old 08-24-2018, 04:07 PM   #24
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[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
LOL. Good catch on the unintended pun, Ed.
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Old 08-24-2018, 04:12 PM   #25
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To get a 2 wheel drive truck it would have to be special ordered from the factory . The price of ordering a new 2 wheel drive truck was several thousand dollars more than buying a 4 wheel drive truck off the lot .
Maybe it's different in the US but that wasn't our experience here. We crunched numbers on all sorts of situations and a 4 x4 off the lot, with the options we wanted, still cost more.

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Old 08-24-2018, 04:12 PM   #26
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Stuck with it...
My nomination for post of the day!!!!!!
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Old 08-24-2018, 04:22 PM   #27
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Maybe it's different in the US but that wasn't our experience here. We crunched numbers on all sorts of situations and a 4 x4 off the lot, with the options we wanted, still cost more.

Ron
I didn’t want a two wheel drive truck anyway . Been stuck too many times and spent too many hours trying to winch my self out . There is tons of garbage on my truck mostly electronic that I will never use , don’t understand and could live without but 4WD drive is not one of them
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Old 08-24-2018, 04:46 PM   #28
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I too fall into the category of almost never needing or using 4WD. But we are fond of exploring The Path Less Taken, and every once in awhile 4WD saves our bacon. For that peace of mind we are all in for the extra expense up front plus higher maintenance costs, etc.

That said, I find the AWD setup on our Subaru to be vastly superior to the 4WD on our F150. Unfortunately, the Forester is pathetic at towing, not for lack of HP (230 turbocharged), but because the suspension is just not up to the weight or loads, nor rated for much.
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Old 08-24-2018, 04:54 PM   #29
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I bought my 4WD Tacoma a few years ago as my tow vehicle because I thought I might want to go into the back country out West to take landscape photographs. I have no need for 4WD at home. Given that, I have used it a few times while traveling:

- I had to drive through a few inches of snow after a snowstorm in New Mexico last year. It turns out that the 4WD Tacoma drives really well in snow.

- At the Oshkosh airshow last month there were so many campers that the field we were camped in turned muddy along the trails, and I had to use 4WD just to tow my trailer to my spot. A locking rear differential would have worked as well in that case.

- I ended up on a sixty-mile gravel road from Minnesota's Northwest Angle to the Trans Canada Highway east of Winnepeg several days ago. I put the truck into 4WD, thinking it would give me more traction on the gravel. It did seem to help me steer, and reduced the level of terror I felt when meeting large semis zooming down the gravel road.
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Old 08-24-2018, 05:04 PM   #30
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I wondered if perhaps there were 2WD trucks in some area which has neither significant winter conditions nor a cultural attachment to trucks.

Autotrader.ca (for Canada) lists 9,439 new Ford F-150 trucks at dealerships, of which 9,266 are listed as 4WD, only 69 as 2WD... and 104 "unknown". Even if all the unknowns are actually 2WD, that's only 2% of stock: there is clearly no area of Canada in which a 2WD F-150 is common. That doesn't mean it's a bad choice, just that finding a one on a dealer lot is unlikely, and selling one is likely difficult.

But maybe it's different south of the border? The same search in Autotrader.com (so the U.S.) shows 76,381 F-150s, with 20,179 2WD. That's 20%, so perhaps in some areas where trucks are less popular and more commonly used for actual work, 2WD is more marketable.

I took a wild guess at the east coast, but within 500 miles of Washington D.C. there are 22,749 F-150s, of which 2,397 are 2WD... only 10%, so that's not where these things are hiding. So I tried with 500 miles of Los Angeles: 3,224 2WD of 6,836 trucks. Ah, that's where the 2WD buyers must be... warm west coast, maybe some of the southern interior as well.

In a pickup, the easiest approach is certainly to just take the 4WD and carry around the system as deadweight most of the time.
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Old 08-24-2018, 05:26 PM   #31
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Have 4 wheel drive for years. Explorer, Forester, Outback and now F150. New England winters and broke snow removal budgets make it a desirable but not necessary option. I was the guy who showed up at work no matter the weather. So far in the last year camping 4 wheel drive saved my butt twice. My thinking is better to have and not need than to need and not have 😎
If you do go with 2wheel drive the electronic locking rear axle would be a worthwhile option. The single 2 wheel drive I test drove had it. By the way it sat pretty much the same as my 4 wheel drive and just test driving can’t say the ride was much different. It did have a higher payload.
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Old 08-24-2018, 05:34 PM   #32
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Whenever White Hell hit Vancouver, we Vancouver Sun photographers got sent out to find the worst of it, driving our Chrysler Neons ( or was it Dodge? ). I wouldn't recommend it, but I never got stuck.

Of course, we didn't care if the cars made it back to the office or not. I retired in 2012 and turned in my 2000 Neon. To my knowledge, the guys who remain are still driving those 18-year-old cars.
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Old 08-24-2018, 05:47 PM   #33
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We traveled all over the U.S. for 15 years with a 2WD pickup and camper and never had a problem. However, we live in Texas and generally planned our travel to avoid winter precipitation. We've been on plenty of unpaved back roads, some pretty sketchy, without the trailer and again never had an issue. As we prepare for our upcoming 5.0TA we just bought a new truck - also 2WD. That being said, though, if we lived in a northern climate with lots of winter precipitation we would have gone with a 4WD. For our location and style of travel 2WD is adequate, and we get a higher payload and lower purchase and ongoing costs by skipping 4WD.
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Old 08-24-2018, 06:08 PM   #34
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I use 4wd more and more, I keep pushing the envelope I guess.

For camping, I like it as it allows me to go places, without the trailer, I wouldn't if I had 2wd. Driving some of the dirt roads around Sedona, Bryce, Monument Valley, come to mind. Granted I wouldn't need 4wd if I stuck to tamer roads. I have used it towing a couple times when slipping on sand.

I fish, I like going where I'm less likely to run into others. Needed it just yesterday on loose gravel.

As far as snow, I'm retired, if it snows I don't go out.
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Old 08-24-2018, 06:19 PM   #35
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That doesn't mean it's a bad choice, just that finding a one on a dealer lot is unlikely, and selling one is likely difficult.


In a pickup, the easiest approach is certainly to just take the 4WD and carry around the system as deadweight most of the time.
Thanks for the research, the results are a bit of a surprise, even having viewed the car lots. I talked socially to a car dealer from Vancouver Island. He said that he'd never bring in a 4x2 on spec. This despite the capital city being an area where it's Spring when the rest of Canada has Winter.

Don't know about resale for 4x2's, I got $3,000 more for my 4x2 Ranger than I was expecting. And that's after the other prices were negotiated.

Carry around the 4x4 extra weight as deadweight, no thanks , but I did get the locking diff.

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Old 08-24-2018, 07:15 PM   #36
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Bringing the 21 home from Chilliwack we were on highway 20 in Oregon when encountered a construction zone. The detour was a steep gravel lane and I had it in 2 wheel drive. I spun out, switched to 4 wheel drive, and walked out of there. Good thing too as there was a pretty long line of traffic behind me. Only time I used it but l consider it payed for itself. Loren
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Old 08-24-2018, 07:32 PM   #37
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I live in Colorado and have been in the market for a F 150 Super Cab 4 X 2 and none exist in this state. I started out wanting a Lariat also but every Lariat in Colorado is a Super Crew Cab and 4 X 4. I did internet searches of dealers in Texas and there are Super Cab 4 X 2 available in XL and XLT versions with the 2.7L Ecoboost but not Lariat or 3.5 Ecoboost. I'll probably end up ordering a 2019 sometime this winter for early spring delivery and in the meantime decide if the 2.7 will suit my needs also.
My current 2010 is a 4 X 2 Super Crew and the 5,4L V8 specs are pretty close to the 2,7L specs (torque and HP anyway) but a 4 X 2 Super Cab with the aluminum body is much lighter than my steel truck. Also with the 10 speed transmission I assume the towing specs will be better than my current 6 speed. The trailer backup assist and BLIS system don't seem to work with a fifth wheel trailer so I no longer am interested requiring myself to have a lariat or higher version truck, I like the idea of the adaptive cruise control and lane assist monitoring though. I've driven my current 4 X 2 in snow, ice and into the mountains with and without the trailer and never felt the need for a 4 X 4. With a 700 Lb. pin weight on the trailer the back wheels get enough traction.
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Old 08-24-2018, 07:33 PM   #38
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Some 4 wheel drive is really 2 wheel, left front and right rear, while others lock all the wheels and can only be used on wet surfaces.
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Old 08-24-2018, 08:22 PM   #39
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Some 4 wheel drive is really 2 wheel, left front and right rear, while others lock all the wheels and can only be used on wet surfaces.
No. Really... no. There is no four-wheeled vehicle in production for road use which drives just one wheel of an axle. There are lesser vehicles which do... commonly a child's battery-powered riding toy will drive only one rear wheel.

This is similar to the somewhat common 2WD myth that only one wheel is driven unless you have a limited-slip differential. In fact, an open differential delivers the same torque to left and right wheels, and is incapable of doing anything else.

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... while others lock all the wheels and can only be used on wet surfaces.
Also mostly no.
Part-time 4WD systems lock the shafts to the front and the rear together (with no centre differential) so that the average speed of the two front wheels equals the average speed of the two rear wheels. Individual wheels can still spin, but the interconnection tends to mean that one on the front and one one the rear spin. Since individual tire loss of traction often results from uneven load distribution, it is common for one front and the diagonally opposite rear to spin (whichever diagonal pair are carrying less load, or even hanging in the air), but they're all being driven and either diagonal combination could spin together.

To help this situation in low-traction situations, serious off-road systems often allow the driver to lock the rear (and sometimes even the front) differential so that both wheels on that axle are forced to turn at the same speed.

It is true that part-time systems like this (even without locking axle diffs) cannot be used where there is good traction, because in any turn the front and rear tires will fight each other and cause high stress in driveline shafts and joints. It doesn't matter whether traction is low due to wet pavement, snow, ice, gravel, or whatever... it just has to be possible for at least one tire to slip without high torque. Many pickup truck 4WD systems - even now - are still just part-time; I can't see saying for that.
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Old 08-24-2018, 08:33 PM   #40
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I use 4x4 in the middle of summer for fast launches on wet roads. I also use it full time when on gravel because it provides much better control. There is also better control gearing down on steep gravel slopes. All that washboard on gravel roads are from the 2WD's hopping all over the place.
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