this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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There is no such thing as a Stupid Question!

Don't be embarrassed of your curiosity; everyone has questions that they may feel uncomfortable asking certain people, so this place gives you a nice area not to be judged about asking it. Everyone here is willing to help.


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[โ€“] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Not really, but there are some tricks one can do in a pinch when it's snowy, such as using the parking brake while doing a wheelspin at full turn.

Other than that, they're the same. FWD in general has a limited turn radius, since the drive mechanism need to accommodate varying angles, and this becomes rather complex at high angles.

If you really need tight turn radius, a RWD is your best bet. And doing some custom modifications to make it even tighter is relatively simple.

[โ€“] tal@lemmy.today 7 points 1 week ago

There are also some vehicles that permit turning the rear wheels a bit as well to get the turning radius down a bit more. My impression is that it's kind of a luxury feature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steering#Active_four-wheel_steering

And, of course, a short wheelbase helps.

[โ€“] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

The late 80s early 90s Civic had an incredible lock to lock angle, and this supertight turning radius. They dropped that setup when they wanted to enlarge the cabin space in the future models

[โ€“] GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

No, but in fact you're on the right track to a deeper understanding of the nature of powertrains. AWD vehicles have a differential gear between the front and rear axles, allowing them to rotate at different rates - this is as opposed to 4WD vehicles, which do not have a center differential and have the front and rear axles locked together (when 4WD is engaged).

Being locked together is better for off-road conditions, but on hard surfaces while turning, having the front and rear axles locked together means the tires will scrub - since the front and rear wheels inscribe a different turning radius, they want to turn at different speeds, but if they're stuck rotating at the same speed, a given wheel's rotational speed doesn't match the speed at which it's moving over the road, and the wheel drags/scrubs. This does harm the turning radius a bit, but more importantly driving around like that damages the tires and powertrain.

Thus, you were on the right track. Namaste.