Depending upon how old you are you just might remember the early days of the automotive industry and how you used to have to engage functions on your vehicle. Today we only need to push a button or flip a switch and the electronic devices we have installed on or vehicles can spring to life in order to give us the power and performance we want to enjoy. If you happen to have forgotten some of the work it took to engage systems in the early days, let me remind you.
When it came to engaging the 4WD of your vehicle, whether it be a Jeep CJ-5 or a pickup truck it took a lot of work to put the vehicle in the right setting. When you needed to engage the 4WD Low system of your vehicle you had to step outside and lock the hubs on the front axle and then step back inside the vehicle to pull a lever that is by your feet which actually took some strength to get the vehicle completely in the low gear. Driving was difficult as well as you used to need to work the steering and throttle to find the best grip on the rocks or debris you are traveling over.
In the world we live in now all you have to do in order to engage the 4WD is push a button and it comes standard in the Jeep lineup starting from the top with the off-roading king, Jeep Wrangler, and all the way down to the family-oriented Grand Cherokee. When you push the button for the 4WD function in your vehicle everything is engaged electronically, including the traction control you will enjoy the fact you never have to leave the cab of your 4WD vehicle. If you need more traction than you have with this system set up as normal you only have to push another button which will engage the locking differentials and disconnect the front sway bar.
If you don’t think it’s important for you to be able to enjoy engaging these features from the comfort of the cab think about driving around during a hurricane or during a flood and having the need to engage this system and you will certainly appreciate the fact that you can now do this from the comfort of the cab. Instead of an analog and mechanical version of 4WD now we have systems that are electronically controlled through the computers that are installed in the vehicles we enjoy today. This changes the way we need to be able to drive our vehicles so that we can know when and how the technology we have in our vehicles need to be used.
The move from the 1970s of having to get out and lock the hubs to the 1980s when we had the automatic locking hubs that could be locked from the cab to the fully electronic systems that we enjoy today has been one of continued advancement. The true leap of technology came when 4WD began managing the traction controls to ensure the right power is sent to the wheels that need it.
In order to engage the traction control system you only need to use the ABS system that has a wheel speed sensor for each wheel. This helps to keep your vehicle under control under normal driving, but improves the power management when the traction needs to be optimized for your 4WD vehicle. As much as you might want to enjoy the systems that were in place in the world forty years ago in order to have a throwback style of driving, the advancements made on 4WD vehicles gives you the ability to enjoy the fun with an electronic system of driving that is easy to enjoy on the market today.
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