What Is Rear Wheel Drive? – The Pros And Cons

“Rear-wheel drive” refers to a power distribution setup that provides rotational movement of the rear wheels only.

This was once the dominant configuration until the late 20th century but today most cars are either front wheel drive, four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

What is Rear Wheel Drive?

“Rear wheel drive” (RWD) means the engine provides power to the rear wheels, that in turn push the car forward. The front wheels did not receive any power. Since RWDs have a more equal distribution of weight than most front wheel drive cars, you get a more balanced weight ratio.

That is also why most sports cars like the “Corvette” and “Camaro” are RWD and more fun to drive.

In addition, rear wheel drive vehicles have better handling and are more of a workhorse compared to most FWD cars. The RWD wheels redistribute the weight in the back to balance the weight of the engine that’s in front. The simple RWD can also overcome obstacles better than the FWD complex design of a FWD vehicle.

High-performance vehicles, such as the Mustang Shelby GT500, are designed to take advantage of these characteristic. Rear wheel drive makes it easier to both enhance traction and handling for powerful sports cars. Both traction and handling are essential for high-performance vehicles.

When it comes to towing, rear wheel drive is also better because the front steering wheel has less weight on it, so it steers better.

RWD would also help with traction of a vehicle when it has a trailer on it because when the trailer sinks down, and not only moves weight to the back of the vehicle, splitting its weight, the rear of the vehicle to squat too sustaining more weight pressing on the rear wheels. If you happen to get into trouble, adding weight to the rear wheels will help get you out.

The problem with RWD vehicles is that they don’t do well in the rain or snow; they don’t connect with the road as well as FWD vehicles because they are more prone to losing traction.

Some RWD vehicles have a 4×4 option, and when you put your vehicle into 4×4, it gets power to all four wheels when needed.

How Does a Rear-Wheel Drive Work?

Regardless of configuration, rear-wheel drive operates in the same way. The power produced by the engine goes to a transmission and then to the rear wheels. The rear differential is responsible for distributing enough torque to each wheel to handle actions such as turning.

The drive train is commonly configured with the engine and transmission mounted longitudinally (or north-south), where the power from the engine is applied to the input shaft of the transmission and goes through torque multiplication.

In a manual transmission, the clutch is connected to the input shaft of the transmission and in an automatic transmission the torque converter uses an impeller and a turbine connected to the input shaft of the transmission.

The engine torque in low gear provides the power to begin accelerating the vehicle. As the vehicle accelerates, the gearing will change so that the engine is turning slower while the vehicle is traveling faster.

The torque exits the output shaft of the transmission and utilizes a propeller shaft or driveshaft which then connects to a pinion gear in the rear end.

The pinion gear then drives a ring gear. Under normal circumstances, it takes approximately 3 to 4 turns of the shaft-driven pinion gear for the ring gear, which drives the wheels, to make one complete turn.

For instance, a rear end with 3.20 gears may have 10 teeth on the pinion and 32 teeth on the ring gear to multiply the torque produced by the engine.

Inside the ring gear carrier is an axle with gear splines for each side. These two gears have smaller gears riding on a shaft between the two drive axle gears that passes through the ring gear carrier.

These smaller gears are called spider gears and provide differential action for when the outer wheel in a turn needs to spin a little faster than the inner wheel in the same turn. This works no matter in which direction the vehicle is being turned. The gears only rotate with each other only during a turn.

What Types of Cars Have Rear-Wheel Drive?

The most common use of rear-wheel drive will be found in pickup trucks, performance cars, and luxury vehicles. Pickup trucks with a traditional body-on-frame construction like the Ford F-150 and Ram 1500 come standard as rear-wheel drive vehicles, and often come with 4-wheel drive as well.

Rear-wheel drive is desirable for sports cars such as the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette because it enhances weight distribution and performance. With the front wheels steering and rear wheels accelerating, the overall driving experience offers more sport than front-wheel drive cars.

Likewise, rear-wheel drive is also seen in luxury vehicles such as the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, primarily for the same reasons as performance cars. Luxury manufacturers try to provide engaging driving dynamics, with either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive being the best option for engaging driving dynamics.

Advantages of Rear-Wheel Drive

• RWD distributes weight in the drivetrain evenly across the whole vehicle compared to FWD, which has weight spread over the front half of the vehicle only.
• RWD is durable. RWD can typically handle a lot of abuse without costing a lot to repair.
• RWD is fast! Has lots of power. Lots of speed.
• RWD vehicles typically do better at stopping than FWD or AWD vehicles because the weight on the rear wheels allows for a more secure grip to the road surface.
• There won’t be the “torque steer” (the tendency of a car that is FWD to drive to the right or left during acceleration) that you get with a front-wheel driven (FWD) vehicle.
• Towing a big load is easier in RWD. The wheels that are doing all the pulling are closer to the load that is being pulled. Steering is much easier since the rear wheels are pulling the weight and the front wheels are doing all the steering.
• While drifting is not a typical (or safe) activity for most drivers, RWD makes it easier to drift than a FWD or 4WD/AWD vehicle.

Disadvantages of Rear-Wheel Drive

Reduced traction is a drawback of rear-wheel drive vehicles; this is particularly true in colder climates with heavy rain or snow. With rear-wheel drive, the ability of driver to control the vehicle is limited due to the loss of traction under these specific circumstances.

The loss of traction also affects the ability to navigate steep climbs as well as muddy or rutted roads.

Due to the greater complexity of rear-wheel drive systems the cost of production is greater. This means a bigger price tag for the end user.

While rear-wheel drive may provide a more entertaining driving experience, it can also prove to be more challenging to drive. Not to mention, the impact of both stability and traction controls has diminished the driving differences of RWD so the differences are not an issue for the vast majority of drivers.

There is less interior space due to more room needed for the transmission tunnel and driveshaft.

Is An RWD Vehicle Difficult To Control?

Rear wheel drive vehicles are more vulnerable to power oversteer. When you add torque to the rear wheels while steering, also called cornering, you can lose traction, which results in the back end of the vehicle stepping out. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and is a positive experience for countless enthusiastic drivers.

Modern traction and stability control systems can also reduce the distress of operating an RWD vehicle even under sub-optimal conditions. And, rear-drive allows for drifting, which should only be done in a closed course environment.

A common belief is that RWD already provides an instant disadvantage to FWD in slick or snow conditions, based on the knowledge that when it snows, an FWD car is ‘pulling’ itself through snow, while the RWD car is ‘pushing’ itself through snow.

There’s some truth to this. But with common sense, a good set of winter tires, and electronic driver aids, there’s a good chance a rear-drive car will be safe and controllable in winter conditions.

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