this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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There are tons of vehicles vehicles than can drive off road without 4WD. Most of Rally racing has been done with rear wheel drive vehicles, and they're actually racing, not just casually driving. The reason a truck might not be able to handle it is because trucks are actually not set up well for it, unless they're loaded. Like the comment above says, the weight distribution is bad for it, until you load the bed. This isn't true for an EV truck. The weight is further back, so the rear wheels won't lose traction as easily.
Anyone who thinks they need 4WD to off-road doesn't know what they're talking about. Can it help? Sure. Is it required? Far from it.
Saying 4WD helps offroad is the understatement of the century.
I've extensively offroaded in vehicles that aren't really built for going offroad - a Subaru Loyale 4x4 with/without a rear locker, a lifted Crown Vic, and a lifted P2 Volvo XC70. The crown vic was so much less capable than the stock Subaru Loyale or the Volvo, even with the trunk full of weight, due to it being RWD. It was all about speed and momentum to get up hills, whereas the Volvo can just crawl up stuff. The Subaru can't crawl up stuff, as it's a manual and doesn't have the low range gearbox, but as long as you stay in the power band of 1st gear it's unstoppable in places the crown vic would be totally spinning out. I always called the crown vic the hammer of offroading, since you kinda were just forced to send it up every steep hill.