Hi. New guy here. Car guy who needs to pull a boat (4-5,000 lbs loaded). As I see it the difference between the two vehicals is the Merc is ALWAYS in 4wd? Does that cause any problems/wear anything out faster/or effect my MPG much? I probably will tow 2-3k miles/year. No hills. I'm looking at new or 2-3 years old. Thanx in advance.

 

4wd will be worse in MPG for sure, in anything if you are comparing apples to apples - In other words, same engine in the same year XLT, etc - Even if you never use the 4wd, it still will be, because of the added moving parts and weight...

But, for me? I love having it when I need it - if for nothing else, New England winters - and they don't always plow everywhere in a storm for days, so that is a plus - yeah, I take a hit on MPG year round, but it's nice to have it there when you need it.

If you live in a southern state, and never drive on wet or snowy roads, towing or not, then even awd to me seems like a waste of money... but that's just me...

I guess if you are towing on hilly dirt roads, it would be helpfull too... I don't know - I guess it's all what you need really, but I don't think you need 4wd for towing - I've towed a lot of stuff with 2wd trucks for years, and never wished I had 4wd

Get a good cooler for the tranny though... and I wouldn't tow anything of any weight with the 4.0L - if I was going to buy that truck for any amount of towing, I'd look for the V8 (5.0) - will just be easier on everything, but again, MPG - a v8 is more $$ to run than a V6 usually....

my 2 pennies

 

my 2002 EXP has 3 buttons for 4 x 4 HI, 4 x 4 LOW, and 4 x 4 AUTO. i assume you are saying you think it is driving 4 x 4 auto constantly. what is acutally happening is the rear wheels are driving and the transmission is "monitoring" the driving to see if the wheels in the rear start to slip compared to the speed of the front. if that happens, the front will then start to pull. they are not in lockup all the time, ---if that is the question.

 

Yeah, sorry - that is what he was asking... I was tired :-) - Right - AWD is just like that, or 4auto - whatever - 4LO is the only time the 4 hubs all lock together...

it's amazing to me how well that system actually works too - Ford seemed to get AWD right... I make it a habbit of going out in the big snow storms to see if I can get stuck, and never have yet :-)