>It's a waste of money for all but the most serious of off road conditions
Really? Why don't you come drive around Potsdam NY for a while after
about five minutes you'll wish you had 4wheel drive, especially in a Dakota
with a V8. I've used my 4wheel drive about everyday for the past two months
did I need it every time? no but it sure is nice to have it. Some of the
time it was to get my truck out of a damm parking spot after it was plowed
in with 8 feet of snow and ice, sure a 2wd truck could have gotten out but I
would have had to dig for about an hour. There seems to always be at least
a few inches of snow on the roads since they do such a great job of plowing
and its a hell of allot safer to drive around with 4wheel engaged for things
like cornering and pulling out into traffic with all the snow on the roads.
>The steepest thing they'll climb is their driveway (at least around here).
Actually the one of the steepest things I climb IS my driveway. I need
4wheel drive just to get up my driveway (I'm talking dry pavement here) my
truck will not go up it in 2wheel drive (and I do have a LSD). It's just so
steep and there's a 90 degree turn at the steepest part, so as soon as you
try to make the turn the rear wheels start spinning and you wont get
anywhere unless the fronts are pulling along with it.
>I still say it's an image thing
Also my truck does have a lift in it, a body lift which isn't the best
kind of lift but it'll help me clear bigger tires and it also gave me some
ride height which I was after. I'm glad I had a body lift the as of a few
weeks ago, I got T-boned by a Pontiac at about 5MPH (his fault he couldn't
control his car in the snow) and it scratched the paint below the plastic
trim on the side of the truck that says DAKOTA 4x4 whereas his grill,
headlights and hood were either broken dented or scratched. If my truck
hadn't been up that high I would be looking in around 1500 dollars or more
worth of damage to my truck but since it's lifted the estimate was 400 bucks
which I think is a little high. The guy mostly hit the frame of my truck and
missed the body almost completely. This is one of the reasons my truck is
lifted I didn't think it would happen from another car, I figured I'd be a
rock when I was offroading but its still the same type of thing I've already
saved the cost of the lift.
So I really wouldn't go around saying that 4wheel drive is a waste of
money at least where I live in the Northcountry its a necessity, since these
are everyday conditions I'm talking about and this isn't very serious
offroading either.
ok that's enough for me...
Chris Lang
93 V8 CC 4x4 3" Body Lift
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:13:06 EDT