Quote:
Originally Posted by russell.huffer
We do not get much snow in Hertfordshire but last year we had two days where the roads where quite bad, first day the roads had a couple of inch of compacted snow/ice the Patrol coped really well with this although I noticed it fighting on tight corners due to no centre dif, the next day was patches on snow on the road so as no centre dif I could not use 4 wheel drive. Basically rear wheel drive with an open dif, turning out of junctions the height of the vehicle means it leans easily taking the weight off the inner wheel and the 80% of torque Availible at 2000rpm means it spins very easy and pushes the back end out, it does this to easy in the wet let alone patchy snow. Conclusion my Patrol was one of the worst cars to be in when It snowed and I decided to never buy another vehicle that does not have a centre dif. My Land Cruiser has stability control that will brake the wheels if they spin and failing all else has centre and rear dif locks so all-round a much more sensible snow vehicle in my opinion.
Loved the Patrol but Land Cruiser does out perform it.
Kind regards
Russell.
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I can totally relate to every word of that. The 4wd system can be a total faff having to change in and out of 4wd as you are driving along trying to read the road. My wife hates that aspect of the nissans. When she has the kids in the car she doesn't want to worry about all that, she just wants to drive knowing she has the stability of 4wd underneath her.
I remember watching an episode with Andrew st Pierre white and he hit the nail in the head though.
The 4wd system is a safety device, there to keep you and your family safe. If you feel unsafe on tricky conditions, stick it in 4 without thinking. These drivelines are much stronger than people think, and in those conditions you are driving quite slow anyway and with it being wet with slippy patches it won't bind up and cause issues. Once home you can reverse to try and unwind anything just in case.
If you do that in the bone dry and turn sharp corners then yeah, that will cause damage, but in those conditions like you talked about, I wouldn't risk anything.
P.S When I got my first 4wd, my Terrano, I briefly heard about all this can't use 4wd but was unsure how to properly drive them. I think it was 2010 I got it. Very bad conditions, I drove it away from the garage in 2wd, got 5 mins down the road and the weather was awful. Coming up to a roundabout I started braking really early but when I downshifted from 4th to 3rd as soon as I took my foot of the clutch it just locked up the back wheels on black ice and went spinning down the road. I was very lucky to get away with it.
4wd was engaged all the way home and that was driving on some dry bits. Never caused any issues at all.
But yeah, it's a faff
