Back when 4x4 was a big deal

[i82much]

Anybody else remember back in the day when having a 4x4 was kind of a big deal? I remember all of my uncles and such having trucks, and my one uncle having a 4x4. It was kind of a big deal, everybody wanted one but they were fairly scarce and expensive. This was even among folks that lived out in the country.

These days it seems like everyone has a 4x4 truck, even the guys that don't go any further than the local mall!

[duallyjams]

14 of my friends and myself all bought 4x4 at the same time, what a great time we all had.

[dbash]

Its still a big deal in my opinion, of my five rigs four are 4x4. But in todays times if you want to "get away" from it all and actually camp alone with family and friends in the wilderness it takes these rigs here in CA. This pic is me in the sluice box on the Rubicon Trail.

The point you make about "everyone" having a 4x4 these days is true, the number of people that have no idea how to safely and wisely operate them off road is astounding. I have come across some very sketchy situations where these type of folks get off the beaten path and put themselves and their rigs in great risk. One family had been "stuck" for two days on a snow covered road when I stumbled upon them.... Dad said the 4X4 was malfunctioning in his 2008 Dodge Ram "because the light just blinks when I turn the dial"..... I finally asked him if I could give it a go and when I put it in neutral to let it shift into low 4x4 he said, "why did you do that?" his truck came right out under its own power but I pulled out his owners manual and had him and his wife read a few pertinent pages of it before moving out of their way so they could go home..... his kids were two and four..... no cell coverage, they drove up there on a whim without telling anyone at all, and I was that far up just for the fun of it.

[flashed]

My Kubota tractor is the only 4x4 I have ever owned ,never needed a 4x4 truck .

[Redcap]

Everyone has a 4x4 around here and it has been that way as long as I've been alive. It has never been a big deal.

[hotstuff]

I have always had a 4x4 truck and wouldn't be with out at lease one .

[lowrollin70gmc]

I know they didn't use to be popular, just look at how long it took for GM to have a factory 4wd. Talking to my dad, very few farms had a 4wd back when he started working (1970s) and if they did they were strickly used for work and not cruising around town. Heck, I don't even use my K20 unless there is more than 6-9" of snow to save it from the salt. It did idle through 18" of snow last week in 2wd, showing that good tires make the difference as I didn't feel like locking my hubs.

Even those that have it don't always know how to use it: we did have a temporary employee get a work truck "stuck" in our lot; he didn't know how to engage the transfer case so it could back over the drift blocking it in. We all got a good laugh at his expense.

A front wheel drive car will get most people through any bad weather they encounter if it has good tires and a smart driver. But then again, I commute on two wheels year round so I'm not the most sane person in the world.

[Dieselwrencher]

I have 4x4s because I don't like being stuck. I don't use it until I need it. Usually it has to be pretty bad before I even lock the hubs in. But I wouldn't be without at least one 4x4 truck.

[i82much]

Originally Posted by Redcap

Everyone has a 4x4 around here and it has been that way as long as I've been alive. It has never been a big deal.

Huh. I guess you are a young guy then? I live in Spokane, and a good 80% of the vintage trucks I see on craigslist are 2wd.

I don't think it was until at least the square bodies that the 4x4's became really popular.

[hotstuff]

As the saying goes , the only difference between 2WD and 4WD is about 100 feet

[Kurt L]

around here where i live everyone has 4x4s because most everyone hunts. some people use them for off roading but mainly for hunting.

[SilverMiner]

Originally Posted by i82much

Anybody else remember back in the day when having a 4x4 was kind of a big deal? I remember all of my uncles and such having trucks, and my one uncle having a 4x4. It was kind of a big deal, everybody wanted one but they were fairly scarce and expensive. This was even among folks that lived out in the country...

My dad was the "one" of his brothers to first buy a 4x4, a 74 Chevy, and boy did he catch a lot of flack from the rest of the family. There were a lot of jokes about how a 4x4 just got you four times as stuck. There just wasn't a tradition of owning or regularly driving four wheel drives. The one they did have on the farm (a mid 60's GMC if I recall) was slow and not really highway worthy, uncomfortable to drive, and prone to breaking down. It was almost unthinkable in the early 70's to buy a 4x4 and actually plan to use it for family use - that was what the four door Impala, Delta 88, or Electra was for dang it!

I even remember hearing remarks about how stupid it was to buy a 4x4 because the transfer case lever meant you could never have three guys in the cab. Even at 8 years old I thought that was a stupid argument, because at least the t-case lever rarely got used, unlike the 4-speed that kept getting jammed into my kneecaps because of course I got stuck in the middle.

There was definitely a massive change of attitude towards 4x4's in the early 70's. I'm not sure what triggered the change, but it would be fascinating to read a book written by Detroit designers back then.

[OrrieG]

I don't know about a big deal but growing up in the 60's I lived in Oregon in an area that had lots of loggers, hunters and other people that lived and worked in the woods so they were pretty common. We always had a couple of CJ3, CJ5 and M38 jeeps around for driving powerline roads and Oregon dunes. Main recreational rig was a 65 C20 Camper Special. I always had a 2wd truck until I moved to Idaho and found a lot of the places I wanted to go required 4wd, especially in winter. I got my wife a Honda CRV AWD 10 years ago and she loves it, its the most stable rig in snow and ice we have every had.

[waco]

I own 4x4's for 1 reason, after 40 years of putting chains on graders to plow snow, if I can not get there without chains I do not need to go there that bad.

[special-K]

Yes,I remember when very few people had a 4wd truck and it was a big deal to know someone with one. The old timers always said they didn't need it. And they did what they had to do without it. Most of them did better than half the people out here with 4wds do. I remember once I had one in the mid-70s I could go around with a chain and pull people out of the snow,mud,etc. when there was no one else. I remember being the only guy on the construction jobs with a 4wd. I got called on for all sorts of things. I knew about every 4wd truck within a large are. I remember when hospitals would call for volunteers to transport nurses. These days most nurses have a 4wd or can get a ride. Even in 1990 it was a bit unusual that we bought a Blazer for a family vehicle. My wife was a nurse and I remember her being the only one who didn't call in when it snowed,and other mothers referring to it as "such a big truck". I had my wife saying,"Actually,it's a passenger vehicle and no harder to park than a mini-van" . I'm sure all those moms ended up with SUVs.

[61K10]

I grew up in a little logging town in N calif, had a sawmill in the middle of town. a couple of the loggers and ranchers had a 4x4 during the 50's and 60's that i can remember. one rancher had a jeep forward control, one a jeep willys pu. one guy had a army jeep, but the best one was restaurant owner had a 57 chevy Napco sb step with the 17.5 rims. we tried as kids (60's) to buy it many times, with no luck. now all still in the business of logging have 4x4's there.

[special-K]

My dad had Land Rovers since the '60s and we knew people with a Scouts,Jeeps,etc. But,the 4wd truck love really hit me when I went west and saw Rockies,Sierra Nevada,Cascade,and NW logging country 4wds...Power Wagons,NAPCOs,Willys,and early factory GM,Ford,Dodge,and IH. I love the old utility-only vibe of the early 4wds. Mostly Stepsides owned by Power companies,utiliities,logging,park service,bush fire,mountain ranch,third world countries with little to no road system...Alaska
Off road racing was run what you brung,with the very first signs of innovations. Same with 4wd adventuring. The after market was coming out with all sorts of PTO attachments to use the truck like a tractor. It was a big deal to have a 4wd years ago

[Redcap]

Originally Posted by i82much

Huh. I guess you are a young guy then? I live in Spokane, and a good 80% of the vintage trucks I see on craigslist are 2wd.

I don't think it was until at least the square bodies that the 4x4's became really popular.

Nope. Logging family. We owned mostly Dodge and IH with a few Chevys thrown in, but Fords have always been real popular around the local area for some reason.

[ryanroo]

My green K20 was the first 4x4 the family had. my grandpa traded his '70 c10 in on the '72 K20. from there on it was 4x4 or a car. so for my whole life i was around them. the only 2wds i've every owned were parts trucks. so they are not unusual to me. My dad still remembers when grandpa got the 72. he was scared to death of busting the front end because he was sure it was the weak link... but it survived until i got a hold of it and started swapping!

[Big Tex]

I do know what you mean. Here in North Texas we don't really need them, but if you look in nearly any parking lot that's a huge percentage of what you see. I know I'm guilty. I remember as a kid only one of my dad's friends had one, and he was a big hunter.

A guy at work recently bought a new powerstroke, I asked him if it was 4x4, and he said yes he only got 4x4 because that's almost all the dealers had, and he was afraid when he went to sell it, no one would want a 2wd.

It does seem like once you get one, you never go back.

[whitedog76]

When I bought my last truck, I had a hard time finding trucks that weren't 4x4. I was looking all over for a 2WD Crew Cab. I did finally find a couple, but the wife insisted that she wanted a 4WD. Well, you know who won. Honestly, this is my first daily driver that is 4WD. To tell you the truth, I could live without it. When conditions are bad on the roads, I don't go out anyway.

The truck I had before was a stipped down 2WD regular cab. That's about the only way you get 2WD anymore. My dad wanted a "Mega Cab" Dodge. He had to custom order it from the factory. No dealers in about 500 miles had a 2WD version. To tell you the truth, his is the only 2 wheeler I've ever seen.

[Zoomad75]

4Wd wasn't a huge deal in my family growing up. We had a 68 Cj5 with the odd fire Buick v6. It was only used when snow in the Denver area got deep. Dad usually had a 4wd Suburban or International Travelall for a state truck as a highway engineer. Our automotive passion was/is '57 Chevies so we never were really hooked on the 4wd thing. The Jeep was a poor weather ride that the 5 of us in the family would pile in to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house in. Needless to say 2 adults and 3 kids in a Cj5 was more than tight. Plus it had a soft top and the heater royally sucked. We froze in the back of that thing. Dad ended up selling it to a local "Jeeper" that at the time had a really tricked out flat fender Willys that was more "show" than "go". He wanted one to actually go wheeling in. He ended up doing a mild lift, cage and 33's and wheeled the snot out of it.

It wasn't until College that I got the 4wd bug. Most of my classmates and a couple of my automotive professors were into wheeling. We'd go wheeling in places around town and made runs up to the mountains too. My first driving off road was in a buddy's 84 Toyota solid axle regular cab short box. We went as a group over Medano pass to the Great Sand dunes outside of Alamosa. That trail is pretty tame, but there are a few rocky areas to navigate. Learned the hard way NOT to lock my hands on the wheel as I bounced the front tires off a rock and it kicked the steering wheel back which slammed my elbow down onto the door. OUCH! The 4wd bug bit me on that run. I didn't end up getting a 4wd until almost 10 years later between being a broke college student and moving to Detroit.

Having one now, it's not my primary driver due to crappy fuel mileage. I commute about 90 miles a day round trip and if it snows, I still end up taking the 2wd S10. Main reason being is unless there is 6 inches or more of snow on the roads, the S10 is just as effective as my K5. I grew up driving my 69 Nova and that included snow duties so driving the S10 in snow is no big deal. Still, I like having it for that "what if" factor besides it's main purpose to go wheeling.

The funny thing is now that I've been working at a dealership I've noticed more have bought 4wd trucks that rarely if ever actually use it. Some might engage 4wd 3-5 times in the winter with the low amount of snow we get. That being said, we don't order anything but 4wd trucks or SUV's. We've got a couple of 2wd work trucks but that's rare. The perception is since we are so close to the mountains you must have a 4wd, which makes 2wd's worth so much less. It's odd, because up until 20-30 years ago all anybody had was 2wd and did just fine with it.

[vectorit]

I distinctly remember growing up in my SoCal suburb town, 4x4 trucks/owners were looked at with a hairy eye ball. There was even a short lived city ordnance made, requiring all trucks be kept out of sight while parked. So for many years the Suburban had to be parked in the back yard, out of sight from the street as one would drive by the house.

I think it wasn't until the early 1980's where 4x4's became popular in my area, and believe it or not I think it was the popularity of "Big Foot" the truck that kicked off the whole scene as being "cool" to own and customize a 4x4.

[flashed]

There is a subdivision somewhere in the metro Atlanta area that does not allow any pickup truck be parked in any driveway ,2 wheel or 4 wheel drive ,I remember it being in the news here several years back. They dont have to worry about me living there .

[special-K]

Yeah,this thread is about 4wds,but I also remember there being a stigma about pickup trucks. Like people would be embarrassed by them. Funny how things change. But that mentality remains with many older folks...city slicker & suburbanites of course.

It seems I see mostly 2wd trucks for sale out of Texas. I figured you didn't see that many there. In the south in general,you see less 4wd trucks. SUVs are another story. They're everywhere ever since they became a yuppy prize