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See you on the beach!Reading your adventure on the beach, has encouraged me to drive my Badlands on the same refuge. I will soon be out on the same beach. See you soon. Tony
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See you on the beach!Reading your adventure on the beach, has encouraged me to drive my Badlands on the same refuge. I will soon be out on the same beach. See you soon. Tony
This is an excellent real-world example of what I've written elsewhere about "AWD" systems. They are not created equal.Four Wheel Drive - To get a permit to drive on the beach and trails the vehicle must have locking 4 wheel drive. Newer vehicles must have this indicated on the dash by a light, while older ones can be by practical demonstration. Up until last year AWD vehicles could get a permit if they had the ground clearance, but with the many types of AWD they are now all banned because they get stuck too often. Right or wrong, only FE or BS trim levels are permitted on the refuge.
To clarify -- she was not actually in 4WD? Or she was in 4WD but when you put it in gear it went back into 2WD/RWD?Interesting follow up… today we had a Ford Explorer on the beach with a 4WD emblem. The owner said she had done this trail twice before but today she tried to go up a 3’ incline on an angle and sank to her frame. As my partner started to pull with the winch I dropped it in gear and the two rear wheels immediately started spinning. I put it in neutral, we added winch pressure and then drove/winched it out.
My conclusion is that not having a way of locking the front and rear wheels together was the problem.
There is no option for 2WD vs 4WD. Her statement was "My husband said the 4WD is fully automatic".To clarify -- she was not actually in 4WD? Or she was in 4WD but when you put it in gear it went back 2WD/RWD?
I just scanned Ford's info about the Explorer and it's not clear that it has traditional "4WD":
https://www.ford.com/suvs/explorer/models/explorer-xlt/
There is no mention of a locking transfer case, no mention of low range. I just took a quick look, so it may have those things, but if not, I'm not surprised by what you experienced.
I see. That makes sense.There is no option for 2WD vs 4WD. Her statement was "My husband said the 4WD is fully automatic".
Interestingly enough, my wife has the same 4WD-badged model but a year or two newer. She has a selector just like our G.O.A.T. mode. Once when she was completely stuck in mud at our local brush dump I had her switch it to Mud Mode and she drove out. My wife has a Sand Mode selection but I don't see any evidence it would lock the front and back wheels as the Lock Button on my BS BL does.
Looking forward to a dry deep soft sand report.I don’t know if anyone is still following this thread but I had made a comment about never using Sand Mode again and I need to take that back. My BS tracked flawlessly in Normal but I could feel the engine wanting to downshift but lugging instead, so I switched to Sand Mode. Once I figured out that it would upshift at 16 mph it made things much nicer.
I tried manual but in Sand Mode it won’t leave 1st gear until I hit the right RPMs and I hate driving these manual/auto setups. I think I might try Sport Mode for fun and see if the different shift points make me comfortable, but if not I’ll stick to Sand Mode.
Two notes…. First I love watching the dash Intelligent FWD display when in 4 wheel lock, and two, I couldn’t be more pleased with how confident my BS is in deep sand. Next trip is through the really dry deep soft sand chasing clams in a place few go without a boat under them.
Models that don't have the button can change the setting using the menus in the Information Display.I asked him if he had the locking 4WD and he didn’t (of course based on the trim level). I’m pretty sure that would have made a difference. I didn’t even see a button to turn off the traction control, which is a big concern because a friend with a Wrangler just ruined his brakes because he was clueless about turning off traction control when in soft sand. Hopefully it can be shut off, although usually this is a 4WD option.