That means it's AWD, not 4WD. If it was 4WD, Natalie would have locked the system by pressing a button or pulling a lever or whatever and then Jerry would have seen the two wheels on his side of the vehicle spinning at the same speed, not at varying speeds.

That's really the biggest difference between the two: AWD systems allow a continous and variable amount of power to be fed to the secondary drive end of the vehicle (most often the rear) if the primary drive (most often the front) wheels slip. As Jerry did, you can stand outside and watch it varying. The front will slip a bit, then the rear will either grab or begin to slip a split-second later. The pattern will repeat, F-R and L-R.

 

Jerry&Natalie,

Did Natalie mention if the 4x4 light illuminated on the dash (or was she too busy driving )?

 

There's no light in the 2008. I checked my neighbor's 2007 and he said he's never seen one. But he added that he's never had a reason to look, although he takes it up to the mountains in the winter almost every weekend so he'd probably have seen it by now if it was there. Not sure.

If it exists, it should be pictured in the manual.

 

Not wanting to wait for winter and wondering how Ford's "intelligent 4WD" worked, I experimented on a steep hill of long grass where I knew I could get some slip. I got the system to engage everytime....but never saw any indicator lights.

I believe the 4WD indicator light(s) mentioned in the manual are actually in the dashboard of the non-hybrid ['01 to '07] Escapes.

I have attached a description from the shop manual. I believe the FEH system actually falls into the AWD category per the technical dictionary.

 

AWD 4WD... All I know is I had to drive in 10" of snow this morning to get to the airport and it worked great. Fun getting around others stuck on the uphills.

When the plane was leaving (start of the push-back), we could hear the snow crunch under the airplane tires. We moved a few feet and stopped. About 2 minutes later the pilot came on the speakers to say that they had to stop the push-back because the tractor was a 2WD and was slipping. 10 minutes later a 4WD tractor arrived and pushed us back without a problem!

Cheers,

rcomeau

 

It's still not AWD just because the wheels spin at different speed. If the system in question only transfers 25% power to the rear on detection of front wheel slipage and disengages once traction is back. It's still a fixed amount of power going to the rear. I guess we are arguing over symantics.

A real AWD system blows away your typical 4WD system in sophistication. I believe Honda/Acura have the SH-AWD system which not only transfers power to the rear it can vary the amount of power to either rear wheel (very clever). You will not find this in a 4WD system on a truck.

Most AWD system have power however minute going to all wheels all the time (and in some cases have no power going to a set wheels in ideal situations), nothing to engage. Most 4WD system have to be engaged, otherwise they are operating as 2WD systems.

The system in question is a hybrid of sorts. ;-) It's a 4WD system acting like an AWD system.

 

Call it what you wish. it's not a true 4WD system. you say tomato.

 

And most of us should be glad its not... in the sense that if it were, then on dry pavement (where most of us are driving all the time) we'd be tearing up our tires as I understand it.

Thats the benefit of an AWD... Most of us will never have the thing off-road to see any benefit from a "true" 4WD.

 

Yes. my 4wd Dak is a beast. as i said, call it what you will. it is a good system. not as good as an audi or subaru system but works nonetheless. symantics really. We take our FEH offroad and tear it up, we have many good trails here. i prefer the FEH over the Dak except in deep muddy ruts or stream crossings and that is only because of clearance.

 

All cool. I'm just answering the original poster's question. 4WD or AWD? That's all. Anyway, I agree these CRV like systems are a bit hard to classify one way or the other. I was just pointing out what to expect when you buy something labeled as AWD. It's a lot more than 4WD. In fact I doubt anybody sells an AWD system that is labeled as 4WD. And to sell something as AWD but in reality is 4WD, imo, amounts to fraud.