We Don't Need 4-Wheel Drive!

[BigBoy99]

So you went out and spent $40k - 70k on a new 4-wheel drive truck and put big off-road tires on it so you could get to work out in the oilfields. You could have just bought a 1920's era 2 wheel drive Dodge sedan.

As this video demonstrates, our roads have come a long way in 94 years. One must wonder if many of our 4 wheel drive and ATVs could do as well as this old Dodge sedan did. This is amazing old footage!


www.youtube.com/embed/nq2jY1trxqg?rel=0

 

[PA Reb]

Thanks OP - neat video BUT, what was its price in today's dollars? I doubt the average worker could have ever afforded a vehicle like that or any other vehicle for that matter back in the Great Depression era.

 

[da gimp]

This is really stinking neat BB. I am amazed at what that driver & that neat old Dodge got through. Thanks for posting it. I especially liked where they had the foresight to roll down the windows before they turned it back over onto its wheels.

Even when I was young my grandpa kept his old team of Belgium draft horses, despite having a tractor/machinery to farm with & family that owned the John Deere Dealership. Part of it was they were his good & true friends, who had helped him pay for his farm & feed his family, and part of it was he enjoyed using them to pull stuck cars/trucks out of the mud & snow even in the late 1950's. Sometimes the roads were so bad that wreckers/big trucks couldn't get back to where the stuck vehicle was. He always got a grin out of pulling a stuck vehicle out with his team, until they, like him, got too old to do it any longer...........

 

[85V65Sabre]

LOL
The problem with the cars now days is that they only have 4" of ground clearance. Im also not a big fan of the front wheel drive.

In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.

 

[hardluk1]

Good video . Thanks . I have seen some old archive footage of my old home county for the 20's and 30's. Surveyors had to stake out the dirt roads borders during rainly season to keep you on the "upgraded " road area and out of the ditch's. Looked like your video still.

 

[Rintimtin]

I thought it was neat, like watching tnn on Saturday but only from the 30s. I think the biggest factor was its weight and tall skinny tires, that and a driver who knows how to push his machine.

 

[DeadAye]

My BIL had an AMC Matador with snow tires on it that went EVERYWHERE.
Seriously! He's a country boy and would go deer hunting in that car in places that I KNEW we were gonna need a tractor to get out of. That car was amazing.
The old VW Bugs with the right tires would leave Jeeps stuck in the mud too.
And I really like Jeeps....

 

[arjay]

Long ago,I had a vw bus and I left studded snow tires on it year round,That thing would go anywhere,slowly and half frozen lol.

 

[SLT223]

It helps that it only weighs about 2k#....but those are some skinny tires....

 

[islamoradamark]

i wonder if that was the start of 4 wheelin great video

 

[Knigge]

i Guess i dont need a 4 wheel drive...but i got one anyway

 

[Knigge]

A friend of mine got one to

 

[mtgianni]

I spent $28K on a Forester as we live in snow country, cross the Continental Divide every day and often beat the plows out. If you don't need it keep your money in your pocket.

 

[NCW Ray]

Here's an old NON-4-Wheel Drive 1930 Ford Model A mail car!

 

[snubbyfan]

Cool video.
Our 4wd's a base model Tacoma with a 4 cylinder and 5 speed. I do gotta admit that we don't often need to use the 4wd but it does come in handy at times.
Since we have a gravel driveway that's down a dirt and gravel road, sometimes we need the 4wd just to get to the main road.

 

[galena]

The problem with a 4X4 over a 2X4 is that you can get in twice as much trouble.

An old guy I worked with on the State Forest Service in my college days always said the way to use a 4X4 was to go as far as you can in 2WD, then put it in 4WD, turn around and come back out.

 

[arjay]

Yup,that first 4x4 had a bit of a learning curve [emoji1]That Toyota was my favorite jeep.

 

[David LaPell]

One of the big reasons cars aren't what they were is creature comforts. They were a tool plain and simple. Eventually the drives got longer, the safety features added up, the cars got heavier and somewhere of course the cars became more about creature comforts than function. I had a 71 Dodge Dart that with the right snow tires would go through any snow storm period. Another thing I see few people know how to use these days, snow chains. I have a 02 Mercury Grand Marquis I have had for a couple of years. I sold my Jeep and wasn't able to afford anything else either 4wd or Awd and this thing fits the bill. I have driven it in every snow storm including the one we're getting right now. It goes where few trucks tend to go, even without chains which have only been on the car once. Sadly it has started to develop a few quirks and with 192,000 miles its beginning to become more trouble than its worth and since I spotted a little rust starting to take hold on the frame, it will be going bye bye this year I think. Have no idea what I will replace it with, I am thinking of getting an older Crown Vic (late 80's early 90's). I had an 86 once and that thing would go anywhere as well and it rode nicer than the Merc I have now.

 

[chief38]

WOW! Awesome video!

 

[pawngal]

So you went out and spent $40k - 70k on a new 4-wheel drive truck and put big off-road tires on it so you could get to work out in the oilfields. You could have just bought a 1920's era 2 wheel drive Dodge sedan.

As this video demonstrates, our roads have come a long way in 94 years. One must wonder if many of our 4 wheel drive and ATVs could do as well as this old Dodge sedan did. This is amazing old footage!


www.youtube.com/embed/nq2jY1trxqg?rel=0

In an old photo album I have still pictures of my Dad and his brothers driving his 20's Chevy(?) in similar conditions on a road trip from IA to CA sometime in the 1920's. But they didn't tip over, at least no picture.

I don't think my Tundra could do it. Maybe the older F-350 dually diesel.