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.
Lol rally racing is done on dirt roads. It's not off road untill it isn't a road, in which case u need 4x4! Also handy for when there's a foot of snow on the roads, or during mud season around here where u find Subarus bellied out on dirt roads that are now mud pits. Bonus points if you have lockers or limited slips.
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.
U know what they say, with enough velocity you don't need traction! And with a enough traction u don't need velocity! Mind if I ask what Subaru u are off roading? The old loyale could be had with low range iirc, would kill for one of those bad boys
Yeah, its a 1993 Loyale with the push button 4WD. You could get them with a low range gearbox, but this one does not have that :/
That's awesome lol id love to own one of the older Subarus. My first car was a Forester and it was pretty impressive where I could get in that lol. Many years later my "daily" is a 12 Impreza 5 speed with sti sway bars and karthoy end links. It's a great winter beater and the Subaru bug is biting again...
Haha, they're great cars! My Loyale was the first car I ever took the engine out of. It's such a fun car to work on, most things are so easy, if you can get parts.
I don't like self promo, but I do make videos about it on YouTube and PeerTube if you're more interested, here's links to the playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3bEYn02Mtba9lNiSu-KRcnIQieU6-RYP
https://joeltube.com/w/p/vyS65ydhaGKys2Jp8S9wmo
Of course no pressure to watch if you aren't!