Skip Navigation
Jump
National Park Service Will Cite Drivers Of AWD Cars For Driving On 4WD-Only Trails
  • I didn't down vote you, but you've got some misconceptions.

    X-mode isn't actually different gearing in the mechanical sense. It's an electronic system that optimizes the existing drivetrain components.

    It doesn't provide additional gear reduction like a low-range gearbox, it adjusts the CVT's (continuously variable transmission, which doesn't even have "gears" in the traditional sense, but is a set of chains and pulleys) behavior, traction control, and power distribution, but doesn't change the fundamental gear ratios. Hill descent control is a braking function, not a gearing one.

    True 4WD systems have a physically separate low range gearbox that allows the driver to physically engage different gears to vastly reduce the gear ratio to allow the vehicle to make much more efficient use of the available engine power.

    You would waste far more energy trying to get an AWD Crosstrek over a boulder with X-mode than an actual 4WD vehicle with a lever to put the vehicle into 4 Wheel Low gear.

    While excellent for many things, Subaru's AWD system is essentially a fancy electronic traction control system. It cannot reduce gearing to the level of a 4WD low range gear box. And that's fine! But the incorrect assumptions of people who overestimate the capabilities of their vehicles is the precise reason for the rules the NPS has in place; Subaru Crosstreks with X-Mode are gonna need to be rescued by NPS staff far more often than 4Runners with a low range gearbox.

    Subaru marketing is great, but NPS roads with AWD restrictions are not rally stages in a Finland forest, they are roads with boulders or mud or deep water or sand or many other things that a 4WD vehicle will probably be able to handle, but an AWD vehicle will probably not be able to handle. And on these roads, if you get stuck, a park ranger is going to have to rescue you, at tax payer expense, because you thought your vehicle could do something that it could not.

    2
  • Jump
    National Park Service Will Cite Drivers Of AWD Cars For Driving On 4WD-Only Trails
  • And neither AWD system has a low range gearbox like a 4WD system, which is the point of the NPS rule.

    6
  • Jump
    National Park Service Will Cite Drivers Of AWD Cars For Driving On 4WD-Only Trails
  • The main difference is the additional physical gearing for 4 high and 4 low gears, both of which have different gearing than "regular" drive.

    I have an older Audi with a Torsen Quattro AWD system, and an ancient Toyota 4Runner with 4WD. The 4Runner can be switched into either 4 wheel high or 4 wheel low gears to deal with different conditions. The Audi always has the same gearing, it cannot be switched.

    It's like the gears on a bicycle - 4 low is the one where you barely move while standing on the pedals - maximum torque per revolution.

    You can go rock crawling in a 4Runner in 4 low. You really should not go rock crawling in an Audi or Subaru without 4 low, no matter how much ground clearance the vehicle has.

    The National Park Service has this rule because it doesn't want to spent time and taxpayer money rescuing people who think AWD is the same as 4WD with a low range gearbox.

    20
  • Jump
    Bacon
  • Others have covered the definition of a corn dog.

    A "cron dog" however, is when you use cron to schedule a dog command, which is an updated version of the cat command installed via the moreutils package that provides additional features such as colorized output and line numbering, making it more versatile.

    THIS HAS BEEN A DUMB LINUX FACT

    18
  • Jump
    Starbucks is reeling as customers go elsewhere, sales decline
  • Starbucks does not directly support the RNC. But that doesn't mean that Starbucks' lobbying money doesn't primarily support Republicans. Per the PDF you linked, the majority of Starbucks' contributions to lobbying organizations went to those that donate at least 75% of their lobbying to Republicans.

    From your link: National Restaurant Association: 75% of all donations to Republicans; 50% of Starbucks' donations to this organization went to lobbying Business Roundtable: "75 percent of donations from the median chief executive were directed to Republicans"; 40% of Starbucks' donations to this organization went to lobbying

    Edit: Added the word "lobbying" before "money" in the first paragraph. Should have been in the original.

    -2
  • Jump
    Brace Style
  • That would be a very satisfying ticket closure

    22
  • Jump
    Microsoft looking to restrict kernel level access after CrowdStrike incident might help us with our current Anti-Cheat dilemma
  • My understanding is that EU regulators had an issue because Windows Defender rolled out kernel mode/kernel data protection, which gave Microsoft a de-facto monopoly in that market segment if no one else was allowed to use the same technology in their products.

    Microsoft complaining that the Crowdstrike incident was the EU's fault is an argument in favor of a Microsoft monopoly, which the EU has been pretty consistently against, and EU opposition to this should not have been a surprise to Microsoft.

    29
  • Jump
    GOP Rep. Introduces Articles Of Impeachment Against Kamala Harris —Though Political Stunt Is Bound To Fail
  • That would be awesome, but I'm pretty sure the Chief Justice would preside over that trial

    18
  • Jump
    Anon Meets Love
  • _> Luv used to date a girl named Mi-do. _> They broke up when he was still fat, but he still cared for her _> He heard that her new boyfriend was verbally abusing her _> Luv confronted him and said _> Don't hurt Mi - no more!

    5
  • Jump
    uh oh
  • Sounds like a job for Triangle Man

    3
  • Jump
    LAPD warns residents after spike in burglaries using Wi-Fi jammers that disable security cameras, smart doorbells
  • I'm not saying this is what the backup batteries on my modem and in my rack are specifically for, but it would definitely prevent downtime from a Droney McTinFoil von Transformer scenario

    4
  • Jump
    Growing up is knowing Ursula was THE best girl
  • Unfortunately, the hammer was Joss Whedon's attitude toward women all along

    7
  • Jump
    Me when I see the youths posting online [Rule]
  • Copacetic, one might even say

    5
  • Jump
    Pope Excommunicates Trump-Loving Ultra-Conservative
  • Funny, how just when you think life can't possibly get any worse it suddenly does.

    7
  • Jump
    Doom Dark Ages be looking good
  • Be the Chang you wish to see

    21
  • Jump
    IRS plans to make its free tax filing program permanent
  • So the libertarian solution to eliminate taxes is essentially GoFundMe, where the burden of support for those in need falls only on those who possess both empathy and the financial means to engage in philanthropy?

    7
  • Jump
    Cognizant descent
  • If you can't build yourself up without tearing others down, you're an ass.

    4
  • Jump
    Ruletube ads
  • Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are call-

    NEW! MR BEAST BURGERS AVAILABLE AT STORES NEAR YOU!! -ing,

    From glen to glen and down-

    MOUNTAIN DEW!!! DO THE DEW!! DEW IT NOW!!-the mountainside,

    The summer's gone and all the flowers are-

    ARE THESE YOUR CHIPS?!? NO!! THEY ARE NACHO CHIPS!! PUT THE NEW NACHO PRINGLES IN YOUR MOUTH!! -dying

    48