Front Wheel Drive

I've heard that there is a tease mod that will give you front wheel drive. have any of you done this, or know about it? seems that lots of on road handling problems would be solved by this, fwd cars are much more stable in slick roads that rwd

 

Look up "twin stick" on this site. You will find lots of info.

 

I have driven my Jeep on the highway for short distances (50 miles or so, mountain roads and highways) in front-wheel-drive only. It's ok - I didn't crash. But I removed the rear driveshaft (u-joint failure).

Nick's right - FWD cars are designed to be stable with the front wheels driven. I believe the main issue will be torque steer... especially in slick conditions, the Jeep may respond strangely. You can remove the rear driveshaft and try FWD out ... but don't depend on it until you've tested it and are confident you can handle the response.

On a loose surface, the Jeep is much more stable in 4WD than 2WD ... I'd assume that's true whether you drive the front or rear wheels. You can go ahead and run in 4WD in slick conditions, ie in a snowstorm. It'll be fine. If you want the best performance in snow and ice, run it in 4WD high with open differentials. This is the great advantage of selectable lockers over locking differentials (like a Detroit locker) - street manners will be best in 4WD with open differentials, and you can lock front or rear or both on the trail.

With conventional 4WD, I really don't see a big role for FWD in any driving situation. RWD will have better handling on pavement because of the sub-optimal suspension geometry, and 4WD is there when you have slick conditions. Maybe in conditions with dry pavement and ice patches, FWD will be more controllable - but that is treacherous regardless.

 

Drove my old Jeep in front wheel for almost 200 miles once. Oh man that that was terrifying. It did have a front detroit though which made the handling even worse.
Jeep addressed the handling of the cj5 by adding wide track axles, sway bars, longer wheel base, by doing all sorts of non cj5 kind of things.
For your Jeep, Check you alignment and make sure your steering components are in good shape. Make sure you're running radial tires. And when it snows, for really good on road handling, leave the cj5 at home.

 

I've driven both my Jeep and my F250 on just the front axle, and "squirrely" is the right description.
It's hard to describe, they just drive weird. The Ford was worse, but it's got 450 lb of torque.

 

I drove with no rear drive shaft in one of my Cj7's before due to u joint failure. I know it was awkward but it worked and I kept the speed down.

 

Just parked mine in the garage using front wheel only, (number of issues with studs and flanges and ujoints, rear driveshaft pulled) worked fine.

 

Front wheel drive cars already have an issue called torque steer, when applying power it wants to pull the steering wheel to one side, and that’s on cars that are set up to handle it.
Jeeps already have an issue due to the leaf spring suspension called spring wrap, where the axle wants to rotate in the opposite direction from what the wheels are turning which bends the springs into an “s” shape. When spring wrap happens on the rear it’s not that big of a deal but when it happens on the front it’s not only rotating the axle but also the steering knuckles changing their geometry which directly effects steering. “Squirrely” is putting it mildly. Add a traction device like a locker or LSD and it compounds the issue.

 

I would be very interested in how you’re decoupling the rear output to get front wheel drive only. Being able to go front end only would be handing for doing front digs.

 

thanks for all of the responses, I'll leave it alone and get some sway bars and snow tires.