Explaining the Difference Between 4-Wheel Drive and All-Wheel Drive

When you begin researching vehicles online to find your next dream model, you may notice that there are many different features to choose between. From safety to handling, each model brings its own unique combination of capabilities to create a distinct driving experience. One of the main differences between models is the type of wheel drive that it comes with. It could have a front-wheel drive (FWD), rear-wheel drive (RWD), all-wheel drive (AWD), or four-wheel drive (4WD).

Despite what many people seem to think, 4WD and AWD are not actually the same thing. At first glance, it would seem ridiculous to think that. After all, there are only four wheels on a vehicle, so if it uses all of them at once, then it must also be a 4WD. But there are actually several key distinctions between what these systems are like.

How Wheel Drives Work

Understanding the basics of a wheel drive and what each does is key to being able to fully understand the difference between 4WD and AWD. How a wheel drive works is that the engine transfers power to the vehicle’s axles, which in turn make the wheels rotate. 

When traveling on a flat and straight road, our axles and wheels do not have to be adjusted because the conditions for all four wheels are the exact same. However, once the vehicle begins to turn, the wheels require power and speed fluctuations in order to allow to keep up with each other.

The differential is what allows the wheels to start spinning at different speeds from one another. It does this by diverting specific amounts of torque and power to each wheel and can even lock both of the wheels on one end of the vehicle so that they spin at the same rate.

Explaining All-Wheel Drive

If you are looking at getting a Ford Flex in Costa Mesa, you might notice that it says that it has an AWD system. What this means is that the drivetrain is capable of altering the amount of power given to each wheel. In standard FWD and RWD systems, the vehicle is only equipped with a differential system that is able to direct power to one end of the vehicle. So in FWD, the vehicle has power going to its front two tires, while in RWD, the power is being directed to the back two tires.

This is not the case with an AWD system. The differentials that it comes with allows power to be directed to all four of the wheels at the same time. So this means that when one of your tires is beginning to lose traction or has to travel a shorter distance because it is going around the inside of a corner, the other tires are able to make up for it.

How the system determines which tires need more power and which ones need less is by using a series of sensors that are part of each of the wheels. These sensors are constantly monitoring the traction and speed that your wheels are getting and send this information back to the main computer system known as the Engine Control Unit. This process of adjusting the power inputs to each wheel is done automatically and is known as torque vectoring. 

The way in which the power adjustments are made is by adding power rather than taking it away. If one wheel is spinning really fast because it is failing to get traction, then the differential system will not slow it down. It will instead increase the power to the other three wheels so that they match the speed of the one that does not have traction.

This makes the AWD system incredibly useful for more everyday road conditions that require differences in wheel speed and torque. Driving on wet roads, gravel roads, or snow-covered roads becomes a lot easier thanks to the AWD system that is constantly activated.

Explaining 4-Wheel Drive 

When you go to look at getting a Ford F-150 from Costa Mesa, you will notice that it comes with a 4WD system. Understanding exactly how that system works is an important part of knowing what that vehicle is and is not equipped to handle.

 How a 4WD system works is that it uses the differentials to deliver an equal amount of torque and power to all four of the wheels. This might sound very similar to an AWD system, but there is a big difference. An AWD system allows a wheel with no traction to start spinning at a higher rate of speed than the other three before increasing the power of the three wheels to the same level. Whereas a 4WD system never lets one wheel to start spinning faster than the rest, regardless of whether it has traction or not. All four of the vehicle’s wheels are permanently locked in at a matching amount of speed and torque.

What this means is that an extremely uneven terrain, like a mountainside, will be much easier to handle with a 4WD system. This is because the differential system will not have to constantly be diverting separate amounts of power to each of the wheels to match each other as they repeatedly lift on and off the ground. Instead, the 4WD system will keep them going at a consistent speed and provide a much smoother drive.

Unlike an AWD system, 4WD tends to be something that is only used for selective conditions and is not activated all of the time. This is because having all of the wheels spinning at the exact same speed can pose a bit of a danger when driving on flat and smooth roads. Going around a flat corner with four wheels that are locked in at the same speed can often cause the vehicle to lose control. That is why the vast majority of 4WD vehicles are naturally operated as either a FWD or RWD with the option to switch to 4WD when needed.

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