I think most of us have seen the new Telluride commercial on TV. My question is, would you drive your Sportage like they do in the commercial? Off the top of my head our manual says not to turn quickly and some other warnings about driving in AWD Lock. I have never needed it yet but have tried it a couple of times for a real short time and driving straight forward.
Just bought a 2019 Sportage EX the other night, with AWD. I'm new to this allwheel drive stuff, I just presumed it was full-time AWD. I need to read the owners manual because I should know if it needs to be engaged/disengaged, or what ….
Of course I know it was a closed course etc. but that was not my question.
I also know how it disengages etc. but that was not my question.
There are many places in Colorado where I could safely drive like the commercial.
I was asking more about driving that aggressively in AWD Lock. Of course the normal
way I would use this is to get unstuck or starting slowing in straight line in adverse conditions. I'm assuming the Telluride has the same AWD drive system as my SX and my question was
would driving like in the commercial damage the system?
It is not a transfer case lock, like in a truck with 4WD. It’s a differential lock.
If there are conditions for the tires to slip, there would be no risk to the system. If you read the manual, it warns against running AWD lock on solid, dry pavement. I have run in lock on snow covered roads, with curves. That is what it is made for. Low traction situations where you know you want power distributed without waiting for the computer to figure out that there is slipping
No, I would not drive my $32 K vehicle in that pig slop unless trying to escape from
the zombie apocalypse! Joke aside, no. I don't think you could ever get all the mud off
of the undercarriage. All that mud and slop may migrate into seals or bearings creating issues
down the road. I wonder if a dealership could deny warranty based on this type of customer abuse.
Your fine in the snow. But don't expect miracles. This is not a F250 AWD Offroad truck. Easy to get this vehicle hung up. Not a lot of ground clearance.
The ground clearance is the main thing holding you back. Mine got saddled (half in a steep ditch and half on the road) on a back country road over the winter. With AWD lock on I could go forward or back without too much issue but it took a lot of heaving (enough to dent the front right fender a bunch) to turn the car so it could climb back on the road.
The AWD system has worked very well over the winter but I don’t think I would take it off roading any time soon.
As with all 4WD systems, you cannot use it on dry/non-slip surfaces where sharp turns will set up great torsion between the axles and can break the transfer case. 4WD Lock in the KIA is fine for doing basically anything like you see in the Telluride 'muddy field' commercial because the wheels can slip to relieve the torsion build-up. AWD does not lock the axles together so this is obviously never a problem. I like the 4WD Lock feature and actually used it in a very wet and slippery sloped lawn area at somebody's house when I was turning around on it.
AWD-Lock was not good enough, to get my car up my long driveway this winter.
Day after day ... I had a layer of rain, that froze into ice and then was covered with a layer of snow.
The mud on the side of my car, from spinning the tires, looked exactly like that commercial.
I soon realized that "tire traction" was my issue.
So I got studded snow tires.
I've never had studded snow tires before.
Wow, what a difference!
With the new tires and AWD-Lock, the car went right up my very long driveway, at a normal RPM.
No more spinning wheels ...
No more flying mud ...
This is exactly how we were able to use rear wheel drive cars for many decades quite effectively, I will take good snow tires or studded tires for snow and ice driving over all seasons and 4x4 or AWD every time.
I have done some off-roading in my 17 LX with slightly bigger AT tires. I slammed it into some mud ruts (on accident) and was able to get out with a bit of gas. It also would have been helpful to know if you hold the traction control button it disables stability/traction control vs if you press it only traction control is suspended. But yes, diff lock does disable over 20-25mph but came in handy in that situation.
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I have done some off-roading in my 17 LX with slightly bigger AT tires. I slammed it into some mud ruts (on accident) and was able to get out with a bit of gas. It also would have been helpful to know if you hold the traction control button it disables stability/traction control vs if you press it only traction control is suspended. But yes, diff lock does disable over 20-25mph but came in handy in that situation.
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