In the rain, I put the Montero Sport into 4WD 'cause it gets skitterish on wet roads. Better traction . As for going down the highway at 70MPH, well, my manual says to never exceed 60 MPH in 4WD.
Personally, I hate trucks; if I want to be safe in the rain, I drive my Volvo. (The Sport is the wife’s. Notice how many women drive these things?)
Then we’ll turn our tommy guns
on the screaming ravaged nuns
and the peoples voice will be the only sound.
-P. Sky
I’ve only owned 2 4wds a 76 Bronco and a 84Dodge ram 3/4 ton. Both were skitterish on pavement but improved when i put standard snow tires on them.The bronco I felt was too lite and it seemed to float. It came with sandgrabber tires a mistake for Iowa.
I still have the dodge and only use it occasionally for farm use.It will haul 250 bu wagon of corn right down the road.I drive it in 2wd until I get in trouble and then switch to 4wd.
If you are driving in 4wd because you think you have better traction on slippery surfaces then you are driving too damn fast.
If you are driving on dry surfaces in 4wd because you think you have better traction you are driving too fast,
you are using too much fuel and you are wearing out tires.
Drive for road conditions people :cool
Thrift shops usually have plenty of used chains for sale. Use those for snow & mud. Because of how they are made, you get much better traction.
4x4’s also, are very expensive to maintain.
The used parts aren’t redily(spell) available because of all the turkeys who think that it is a toy and ought to go anywhere.
I can’t believe how many irresponsible drivers there are out there. It makes it expensive for those who have a legit need for one.
Maybe too much TV. The TV show Dukes of Hazzard started it. I wish they would tell everyone how much they spent on repairing that heap.Also how much beefing up was done on it in the first place.
Not many people use chains any more I don’t recall seeing any advertised for many years now.
It is best to put your brain in gear before getting into trouble. The voice of experience speaking here.
I just took the Cherokee out to the OHV area north of L.A. It’s nice’n’muddy. 
How come in 4x4 commericals they are riding thru rocks, mud, snow, nukear blasts, volcanoes but when you see one on the street they slow down to a crawl for a little 4" speed bump?
Because the people in the SUVs in the commercials know how to drive. People who actually buy them are left-seat passengers who have no idea of how to operate a vehicle.
So I’m driving my Cherokee on ridgelines and washes, splashing through mud puddles, sliding occasionally (because I still have the Goodyear Wrangler tires it came with on), bouncing over rocks and ruts and what we used to call “whoop-de-doos” when I had a dirt bike, and generally having a good time on a rainy Sunday morning. Wanna guess how many 4WD vehicles were out there with me? None. When I got home I saw my neighbour getting into her new Grand Cherokee. She said she didn’t think she’d ever take it off-road.
The original OP question the advantage of 4X4 for stopping and hydroplaning on wet roads. I think there IS a small advantage. On my 4X4s (S10 Blazers and GMC Safari), I definitely experience that say, the right front wheel hits a puddle and begins to feel like its going to hydroplane, the rest of the wheels keep that wheel rolling and minimize the potential hydroplane due to the 4X4 system. This could be while I am light braking or just going around the corner.
If I think that it is so slick that I may loose control I personally would rather be in a 2wd. I think that if you get all 4 wheels sliding on your 4X4 you are done. Not necessarily so with 2wd. If you steer correctly the front wheels, because they aren’t driven, will begin rolling again allowing you to control the vehicle. Even if you are headed towards an object you can sometimes determine what part of the vehicle is struck or does the striking.
“I think that if you get all 4 wheels sliding on your
4X4 you are done.”
You can still get out, run to those wheels & turn it back onto 2 wd, then jump back in while its still sliding & get back control.
Some 4x4’s you have to get out & turn the thingy on each wheel. sigh
“If I think that it is so slick that I may loose control I personally would rather be in a 2wd. I think that if you get all 4 wheels sliding on your 4X4 you are done. Not necessarily so with 2wd. If you steer correctly the front wheels, because they aren’t driven, will begin rolling again allowing you to control the vehicle…”
I guess you are thinking that without the 4X4 mechanism, the wheel is “ligher” with no drive shafts, transfer case, etc. hanging onto it. But suppose you ARE on a skid with all 4 wheels. The idea is that there is rarely equal amounts of loss of friction on all 4 wheels simultaneously. The 4X4 mechanism potentially help equalize the spin on the 4 wheels so that you can maintain better control. The only time there is truly equal loss would be a complete sheet of ice. But frankly, in that situation, the ability to spin up a “lighter” wheel rather than a wheel with weightier drive shafts is a hair I’d rather not split.
I had a 74 Bronco once. We had just gotten a freezing rain and everything was covered. I was trapping back then and had to check my traps. I was in 4 wheel creeping down the middle of the road. All of a sudden she broke loose and I began to slide. This all happened at about 10 mph. There was nothing I could do. I tried evervthing my 20 years of driving experience told me to. NOTHING worked. I slid to the side of the road. both right wheels dropped off the side of the road and in slow motion the Bronco tripped and turned over on its side. It was a deep ditch about 10’and full of snow. I never even broke a outside mirror off. NO DAMAGE. I often run that trip through my mind and I’m convinced that if I had had it in 2WD I could have spun the rear end around and not tipped over.
That accident sounded like mine way back when in a '68 Firebird. It broke loose as you say crawling along and skidded into a snow bank. It was, of course, a 2 wheel drive car. The moral seems to be: don’t get caught in ice/freezing anything. We should not have been out there without studs or chains. But we all do what we gotta do!