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I have been looking at new motorhome for a while and I am starting to get a short list, but I was wondering what is better on wet grass, Front or Read drive?
I have been looking at a Transit based M/H which had twin rear wheels and was rear drive. Will this be better than Front drive? As I live in the North of england and want to use the M/H in the winter it might make a difference to my final choice of M/H.
Thanks Richard
Last edited by RichardnGill on Wed Nov 15, 2006 11:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
Hi, in my experience rear wheel drive gives better traction on loose surfaces as long as there is sufficiant weight over the wheels.
Other people may have a different opinion, but that's mine.
I've had both and would say rear but you're biggest problem will be finding the layout that suits with rear wheel drive, most are front.
You'll find lots of tips on here about managing with front wheel drive on grass and provided you're careful you won't have a problem. Bread trays are the thing to carry about and park your wheels on, that and reversing up ramps so you can charge off them, do a few searches.....
How many trucks do you know that have rear wheel drive?
What has the best turning circle?
What has the least wear on tyres?
What is less likely to get stuck in wet grass/mud/snow?
What tows best?
Why have MB moved their Vito from front to rear?
How many propshafts do RWD go through compared to FWD driveshafts?
RWD do not suffer from Torque Steer
RWD rarely kicks in traction control as opposed to FWD
Do BMW cars have FWD?
How Many Range topping Mercedes cars have FWD?
Why do Audi who Predominately provide FWD cars have Quattro and now Q7?
Propultion is better than traction.
Very few FWD vehicles come with Auto option fewer with True Auto
Yes FWD owners may tell you different and they may have a better layout (we like the Swift Fiat 630L) but overall with the exception of Ford Transit RWD vehicles, FWD is cheaper, more common, and has a much wider choice of layouts.
If your only worry is getting stuck consider fitting M+S tyres (mud and snow (decent M+S some are bad see www.tyretest.com)) for all year use. or if you go down the road of FWD consider a set of true winter tyres for central Europe use. You could get a set of spare wheels & tyres and change them in October/November and back again March/April to summer tyres. Cost for a full set of winters for a Fiat Ducato with 16" wheels is aoround Ģ240. Made up of 4 x Roadstone Eurowin Winters C rated from www.mytyres.co.uk @ Ģ160 and a set of steel wheels from ebay @ Ģ80
Happy hunting
Hope this helps
Trev
Last edited by teemyob on Wed Nov 15, 2006 11:43 pm; edited 3 times in total
The clever reply is that a front wheel drive vehicle is a rear wheel drive vehicle when in reverse so it doesn't make any difference ....but.....
What causes the problem is the first onset of slipping, from there on you are digging a hole. What causes the slip is lack of friction but if you can control the torque to the wheels then you can move even with very little friction. So low revs, slip the clutch and be prepared to stall the engine rather than start to slip the wheels. The problem with moving off in reverse is that it is often your lowest gear and if so potentially that gives you the highest torque.
One other important factor is weight distribution. Front wheeel drive vehicles with large rear overhangs can easily have too much of the weight over the non-driven wheels.
Me - I've got a wheel at each corner so my driving skills on wet grass don't have to be very good.
Regards Frank
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we have a FWD Autotrail (2.8 Ducato),it's our 1st m/home so I have nothing to compare with,however on a recent day out I was surprised how little traction there was and how easily the drive wheels spun on wet grass.
It wasn't really that wet but on going very steadily up a small gradient we got stuck,managed to reverse and go sideways a little bit to get out so not much of a problem.
In future I will look for hardstanding in winter or when it's very wet,we have always been used to towing a caravan with a Shogun,which will pull it out of a quagmire,so have been a bit spoilt really.
I did think the FWD would be fairly good in the wet with the weight of the engine over the drive wheels and was slighty disappointed with it's performance.A little bit more caution is adviseable when choosing a pitch in winter or very wet conditions.
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Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray 
