There’s a familiar button in our long-term Kia EV9 test car that’s seemingly out of place in the three-row electric family SUV: 4WD Lock. That’s a button we’re used to seeing in off-road ...

I had a friend who used to have a late-70s Jeep Cherokee that was all-wheel-drive (so, 4WD Auto) and the only time he needed to lock the 4-wheel-drive system was when he tried to drive through a ...

It's generally not quite as powerful and effective as proper 4WD, which evenly splits power between each wheel, but it does still help in certain situations. AWD Lock is not intended for use on ...

In typical light-duty AWD systems, this button doesn’t lock the front and rear axles together as solidly as an old-school 4WD system does; it merely preactivates the same clutches that would ...

As for the main difference between it and its predecessor, that would be the 4WD Low mode's mechanical differential lock. Quadra-Trac II followed suit in 1999 with either NV247 or NV246 transfer ...

On 4WD vehicles, the transfer case can be manually ... Sport mode splits the power 65-35 percent between front and back. Lock mode delivers power evenly to all four wheels.” ...

and a 4WD Low or Lock mode for low range gearing and off-roading. These permanent systems send power to all wheels at all time, typically with a fixed power split ratio between front and rear wheels.

The real game-changer is the trail turn feature, which can lock the inside rear wheel so it ... of course, Jeep's proven 4WD ...

With some systems, the driver can also lock the differentials for extra traction in difficult off-road situations. Vehicles with 4WD inspire confidence in even the most adverse driving conditions.