4 ms·

The weight of your vehicle and heat in your tires (plus the heat generated by friction) causes slush, snow and light ice to melt. If your tires have aggressive

The weight of your vehicle and heat in your tires (plus the heat generated by friction) causes slush, snow and light ice to melt. If your tires have aggressive enough treads they are just pushing the water away and making contact with the road surface. If conditions are bad enough to cause a FWD or RWD car to hydroplane then there’s nothing AWD can do to help it given the same tires. Grip is all that matters when it comes to staying put on the road, and that comes entirely from your tires on normal road cars (most road cars aerodynamic profiles generate lift rather than downforce, so you aren’t getting any aero grip unless you are driving a sports/supercar with aero elements).

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
>If conditions are bad enough to cause a FWD or RWD car to hydroplane then there’s nothing AWD can do to help it given the same tires. How can anyone say this with a straight face? Spreading the motive power out over twice as many tires does a ton to help.
- snuxoll 6y ago
  Hydroplaning means you have a layer of water between your tires and the road surface. Regardless of whether you have two driven wheels or four, if they aren't making contact with the road you aren't putting any power down and your wheels are just spinning. The only thing that can help you is better tires that can move more water out from under them, hopefully giving you a contact patch with the surface.
  - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
    Imagine you're driving highway speed and crossing some slush to change lanes. As you drive through that slush would your rather be trying to put all the vehicle's motive power through two tires or four? Do you dispute that doubling the number of tires moving the vehicle forward will drastically reduce the ease with which the vehicle breaks traction crossing over the slush?
    - snuxoll 6y ago
      > Do you dispute that doubling the number of tires moving the vehicle forward will drastically reduce the ease with which the vehicle breaks traction crossing over the slush? Grip and traction are two words for the same thing, the only thing that determines grip are the tires plus the weight (and distribution thereof) they are carrying. So, yes, having AWD does nothing to help grip - that's a mechanical force between your tires and the road. AWD helps utilize grip, by distributing torque to all four wheels. It helps acceleration by avoiding wheelspin where two driven wheels don't have the grip, but nothing else. Edit: Clearance is more important when trying to cross over piles of shit on the road anyway. It doesn’t matter how many wheels are driven on your car if you bottom out.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago

>If conditions are bad enough to cause a FWD or RWD car to hydroplane then there’s nothing AWD can do to help it given the same tires. How can anyone say this with a straight face? Spreading the motive power out over twice as many tires does a ton to help.

snuxoll 6y ago
Hydroplaning means you have a layer of water between your tires and the road surface. Regardless of whether you have two driven wheels or four, if they aren't making contact with the road you aren't putting any power down and your wheels are just spinning. The only thing that can help you is better tires that can move more water out from under them, hopefully giving you a contact patch with the surface.
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  Imagine you're driving highway speed and crossing some slush to change lanes. As you drive through that slush would your rather be trying to put all the vehicle's motive power through two tires or four? Do you dispute that doubling the number of tires moving the vehicle forward will drastically reduce the ease with which the vehicle breaks traction crossing over the slush?
  - snuxoll 6y ago
    > Do you dispute that doubling the number of tires moving the vehicle forward will drastically reduce the ease with which the vehicle breaks traction crossing over the slush? Grip and traction are two words for the same thing, the only thing that determines grip are the tires plus the weight (and distribution thereof) they are carrying. So, yes, having AWD does nothing to help grip - that's a mechanical force between your tires and the road. AWD helps utilize grip, by distributing torque to all four wheels. It helps acceleration by avoiding wheelspin where two driven wheels don't have the grip, but nothing else. Edit: Clearance is more important when trying to cross over piles of shit on the road anyway. It doesn’t matter how many wheels are driven on your car if you bottom out.