I own a '91 Mazda Navajo, twin of the Explorer Sport. It handles much more poorly in the snow than my Highlander -- I tested it one time when we had a lot of snow in Seattle. The main reason is that the 4WD involves locking front hubs. AWD vehicles do not do that, and so do not lose steering control nearly so easily when on snow or ice. And 4WD on downhill can lose steering control simply from engine compression, hence all the 4x4's you see in the ditch when descending snowy passes.
The 'low' range, which my Navajo also has, is just a super low gear range, e.g. pulling a heavy load up a steep hill, etc.
Note that when you press 4WD on your Explorer, the hubs lock, and if it an older model like mine at least, they do NOT unlock when you disengage 4WD. I have to drive mine backwards for about 10' to unlock the hubs. That means when e.g. descending on snow, you can lose steering control much more easily when you have disengaged 4WD but have not unlocked the hubs.
That method of unlocking hubs was an innovation. I remember my brother always had to get out of his 80s pickup to manually lock, or unlock, his hubs.
Newer 4x4s may be able to do so automatically... anyway, AWD is the way to go, imo, unless you have a need for 3x the traction instead of 2x, e.g. on muddy back roads, or pulling a big boat out of water. |
