AWD Conversion How-To

[408.Luke]

Lol my truck out handeled my friends mustang that had some suspension stuff done i love the awd wouldent ever trade it

[TATERNATOR]

I want to do AWD

[PitchBlackC3]

maybe a dumb question... but why?? whats the advantage of AWD over 4WD

Says the guy with the Sierra Denali.....

Very cool conversion.... nice job!

[ms38w]

Is that a custom paint jobor do you just spend all week polishing?????

Looks awesome!

[zeake]

Is that a custom paint jobor do you just spend all week polishing?????

Looks awesome!

Thanks but thats photoshop.

[Jake Harsha]

4wd is 4*4 but it is selectable meaning you can change to 2 wheel drive for the street. AWD is a nice transfer case and different front diff. The awd is smoother and doesnt completely lock the rear wheels to the front. The lock makes turns on pavement in 4wd harsh and jerky. I always thought something was going to break using it this way. The awd is so much smoother on the street. My truck very rarely sees any track use. It is my daily driver also.

The only fundamental difference between a 4-wheel drive transfer case and an AWD transfer case is the presence of a center differential in an AWD case. This allows differentiation of front and rear driveshaft speeds which is necessary avoid binding in high-traction situations because when the vehicle is turning, the track that the front wheels are following has a slightly smaller radius than the rear wheels' turning circle. Smaller radius = less distance traveled = a slower spinning front drive shaft = binding during sharp turns on dry pavement as the wheels catch and slip to absorb the difference (since the transfer case can't).

Because of this center differential, an AWD vehical can theoretically have three tires on dry pavement and still be stuck spinning the fourth. A part time 4WD transfer case (with open axle differentials) needs to lose traction on one tire on each axle before it becomes stuck. All other things being equal, a 4WD truck with the transfer case in 2WD will get better mileage than an AWD truck because it only suffers parasitic losses from a single axle differential instead of two. (This is especially true if the front axle has old school hub lock-outs, because then the front differential doesn't have to turn at all.)

Generally speaking, an AWD will do bettter on wet roads, but a 4WD will do better in snow, ice, and mud. (Unless the AWD has brake-modulated traction control... then it'll do better on the snow and ice, but not so much in the mud, as the brakes suck power and limit wheelspeed which doesn't allow the tires to clear the mud from between the lugs.)

Many Transfer cases (seems like most nowadays) employ a lockable center differential that offers selectable 2WD to AWD to part time 4WD and these are fine for most people but offer no low range and are generally easier to break due to increased complexity.


We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming,
Jake

[GasGuzzler]

Sounds feasible.

Depends on the AWD transfer case as mine is the sucky kind that does nothing and requires the brakes/traction/ABS as mentioned above.

The Esky/SSS/C3/Sierra Denali case make more sense....works more like the Syclone/Typhoon/Astro case of days of yore.

To reiterate, my transfer case SUCKS.

[Mang213]

Does yours only function with the stabilitrak system, more as a safety feature, as opposed to the performance aspects?

[GasGuzzler]

Yep. Useless.

[fastlt1]

I like pacos setup. Autotrac. 4wd at launch then 2wd 2 seconds into the run. You get all the traction and none of the parasitic loss.