>
> Try eyeballing the maintenance schedule sometime. Do you guys ever
> swap out the front and/or rear axle fluid? (Specified for 12K interval
> on Schedule B.) 4x4 parts also tend to be a bit more expensive than their
> 2x counterparts; at least that was the case on my old S-10 and presumably
> true for the Dakota.
>
> Granted, that may not be a big deal to you guys, but I've found that the
> vast majority of people who buy the 4x4 option around here almost never
> really need it. The only times I'd need it would be our occasional snow
> or ice storm (once or twice a year), or a trip to the beach or mountains.
> I've gotten stuck twice, where 4x4 would have been a real help, but a come-
> along solved my problem and was a heck of a lot cheaper than the 4x option.
>
> Ron
>
I know people who have 2 and 300K miles on 4X's who've never changed the
fluid in either axle or the transfer case, and wo've never had to do any
work on the 4X system, and their 4WD still works like new. Well I live on
a farm in the South where we have rainy springs, and rainy winters, and
a couple of good snow showers evry year, we have so much rain during the
winter/spring that without 4X you can get stuck just pulling over on the
side of the road, and you better have 4WD if you go out in the fields to
check on things or you'll be buried in mud up to your waist in no
time.....I also like the fact that a 4X sits level, every 2X I've ever
seen the front always sits lower than the back, looks like the rear has
been jacked or something, you don't have that problem with a 4X due to the
stiffer springs up front, and it also seems to me that 4X's can corner
better than 2x's maybe it's the torsion bars, I don't know, all I know is
that theirs a really bad curve near my house, the fastest I can take it in
a 2x without sliding is about 40, I can take it in a 4x at about 50...
Bruce
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:08:35 EDT