The Sunday Mail
Augustine Moyo Motoring
DO you drive a 4×4 or a four-wheel-drive (4WD)? Do you drive an SUV with off-road capabilities? How well do you know the off-road functions of your vehicle? Owning a 4WD or a 4X4 is one thing and knowing how to engage the vehicle into 4WD is something different altogether.
A lot of the “big boys” in town driving around in the latest Land Rover Discovery 4s, the latest Range Rovers, Toyota Prados, Mercedes-Benz ML, Mercedes-Benz GLs, Jeep Cherokees, Nissan Patrols and Toyota Land Cruisers have no clue on how to engage their vehicles into four-wheel-drive when the situation demands that.
However, most people enjoy driving them only on surfaced roads and have never taken them off road. Now those vehicles were never built for prestige but were inspired by nature and built for the ultimate challenging off-road terrain.
Vehicles with off-road capabilities are also usually more expensive to buy than those without. Truth be told, in any vehicle that you buy, what you pay for, the most, is the technology that is fused into that particular vehicle more than anything else. Be it body design, engine, suspension, interior or braking systems, there is an element of technological advancement involved. Whether 4×4, 4WD or All Wheel Drive (AWD), the bottom line is, these vehicles receive torque from the engine to all four wheels.
From the Range Rover model line-up to the Toyota Land Cruiser VX, from the Land Rover Discovery 4 to the Chevrolet Trailblazer, these vehicles have off-road capabilities and at the same time are luxury vehicles.
However, the owners do not, even in their wildest imagination, ever think of taking their vehicles out to rough terrains that demand four-wheel-drive engagement. Some people have owned 4WDs or 4x4s and they have never, during the lifetime of the vehicle, ever engaged the off-road driving features.
Here in Zimbabwe, a 4WD SUV or 4×4 bakkie is more of a status symbol. Vehicles generally “pull” with two wheels, either Front Wheel Drive (FWD) or Rear Wheel Drive (RWD). To break down the motoring jargon a little bit further, RWD offers the best acceleration on take-off than a front wheel drive because the weight of a vehicle is transferred to the rear of the car upon accelerating, in the process significantly boosting traction, something that a FWD can’t do.
FWDs are said to be more economic than RWDs because they carry all the weight of the engine and tend to be lighter than RWDs. Again, most performance cars are RWDs with Dynamic Stability and Traction Control systems. This will answer you as to why at drag races most cars spin the rear wheels before taking off due to torque applied to RWDs exceeding available traction.
Have you ever noticed that your RWD truck is a joy to drive when it has a load at the back, in terms of traction?
When considering buying a vehicle, it is important to know if it is a RWD, FWD, permanent or all-wheel-drive.
German car maker Audi has branded its permanent 4WD technology — Quattro, 4 Motion in VW models and 4MATIC technology in Mercedes-Benz models. These technologies are not only confined to SUVs alone but also to sedans built by the various carmakers. However, with part time 4x4s, four wheel drive can only be engaged when one really needs it, otherwise they are driven on 2WD (two wheel drive).
Modern technology has made four wheel driving in the most challenging road conditions a pleasure. In trucks like the new Ford Ranger T6 Limited, which is a 4×4, engagement into 4WD is now just by the turn of a knob. Thanks to technology that Ford calls “Electronic Shift On the Fly” (ESOF) whereby you can engage the Ford Ranger T6 into full time 4WD without necessarily having to first stop the car. With the ESOF technology, four wheel drive can be engaged while the vehicle is in motion, up to a maximum speed of 120 kilometres per hour. Wow! Gone are the days when you had the main gear lever and a mini stick next to gear lever for engaging a vehicle manually into 4×4 mode. The beauty of technology is that you can’t tame it to wait for you if you are not ready to embrace it but you advance with it.
Technologies like Hill Descent Control or Crawl Control in Toyota, Hill Start Assist, Stability and Traction Control have been pioneered and perfected in recent years to simplify the off-road driving experience. Features like Hill Start Assist will help in preventing your vehicle from rolling back steep gradients while the Hill Descent Control aids in steadily maintaining low speed without the driver having to bother about applying his foot on the brake pedal, leaving the driver to concentrate on steering.
I will never forget the 4×4 driving experience in Wales, United Kingdom, in 2011 when I was among the first group of motoring journalists from Africa to put the new Range Rover Evoque under the ultimate test, driving it through mud and under some of the oldest tunnels in the world. I asked myself if owners of these vehicle would put them through what we put them through. Mind you, a Range Rover Evoque is “not a lady’s car”. It has basically the same off-road features as your humongous Range Rover or Land Rover Discovery 4.
Driving an off-roader is not child’s play. It takes higher levels of concentration and experience. No wonder companies like General Motors have an Off Road Academy in Nelspruit, South Africa, where buyers of the Isuzu or Chevrolet Trailblazer vehicles are taken through the paces as to how to drive the vehicles in real challenging off-road situations. In Zimbabwe, where 70 percent of the total road network is gravel roads, knowing how to drive an off-roader and how to engage it into 4×4 mode and disengage it thereafter is a must. Have you ever been hungry and just looked at food because you have no clue how to cook it? Same with 4x4s.
You can get stuck in the mud during the rainy season and spend the whole day sitting in your car waiting for the rains to subside before you can go out there and look for help while you are sitting in your 4×4.
Always remember that if your vehicle is a truck or SUV with off-road capabilities, do not worry too much about water getting into your vehicle even if you are forced to drive through water. The manufacturer was not stupid to brand it 4×4 if it would let water in. If you will soon be taking delivery of a 4×4 vehicle or any SUV with off-road capabilities, ask your dealership to take you through the off-road features. Don’t buy a Samsung S5 or Samsung Note 3 if you will need it just for receiving sms and phone calls — just buy a basic Nokia 3310. Same applies with off-roader vehicles, don’t buy it if you won’t use it for what it was built for — OFF ROAD!
