Back in the 1970s, there used to be a lot of talk about motor vehicles with slang terms like “four on the floor.”
I remember hearing motor enthusiasts being asked what it meant and they would answer, Nobody really knows, it just sounds cool to say it.
Does it have any meaning?
Also, there are trucks called “4x4”. Does that have any relation?
Or does “four on the floor” refer to coitus in the back seat in what sounds like an uncomfortable position?
Four on the floor means simply, a four-speed manual transmission with the shift lever mounted on the floor rather than on the steering column. You may have heard the term “three on the tree,” also. That’d be a three-speed manual transmission with the shift lever on the steering column.
4x4 merely means 4-wheel drive.
The reason that “four on the floor” was cool was that the standard family sedan and station wagon had the “three on the tree” that Unc mentioned. (Provided it didn’t have just two speeds, the normal layout for the earlier automatic transmissions.) Some time in the late 70’s, the standard manual transmission moved to a floor-positioned five-speed, and “four on the floor” stopped being exciting. The move from the steering column to the floor occurred at about the same time that bench front seats were abandoned in the wave of late-60’/mid-70’s safety features. Since the seats were now divided and there was no reason to worry about suggestive shifting motions when a lady was seated in the middle of the bench seat, they just moved the shift lever to the spot between the seats.
In fact, the only steering-column-mounted manual transmissions that I have seen in the last fifteen or twenty years have been in large pickup trucks with bench seats. (I’m not saying those are the only ones there, but they are the only ones I’ve encountered.)
Purely a WAG, but I would guess that five-speed transmissions replaced four-speed transmissions when the auto manufacturers began putting the overdrive controls onto the gear shift instead of making them a separate dashboard control. (I never understood why the overdrive was a separate lever or toggle from the gearshift, anyway.)
Just for a little more clarity, “4x4” means that there are four wheels that are powered. That is, “four wheel drive”. Europeans tend to use the phrase “all wheel drive”, perhaps because some of the earlier vehicles had six of more powered wheels. “All wheel drive” is becoming popular in America to denote a car that has four wheel drive, but is not designed to be an off-road vehicle (as your Lexus SUV ostensibly is).
I’ve only had one encounter with “three on the tree”. The other vehicles I drove were “four on the floor” – except the bikes, which were “one down, four up” or “one down five up”. I understood that the old El Camino was manual, and that the shifter was on the steering column. But I didn’t know what the pattern was! It took me a while to catch up with my dad and my uncle, and they told me it was the same as my old Willy’s CJ-2A; Just on the column.
I drove a three-on-the-tree pickup once, didn’t take too long to get used to.
I have never driven a 4-speed manual transmission, though. Only 5-speeds.
Actually, I think All Wheel Drive is different than 4X4.
On a 4X4, they bolt on a gear box that takes power to the front axle with its own wheel-to-wheel differential, but there is no separate differential to handle the disparity of rotation between front and back wheels on some curves.
I believe the All Wheel Drive has an extra differential between the axles so that the wheels are better able to adjust to any variety of curve.
I’m open to correction from actual mechanics on this point.
Yeah, I gotta get me a 6x6 deuce-and-a-half 
Actually, and it’s probably not that important, 4x4 means 4 wheels, 4 wheels powered. That’s why you will also see 4 X 2, 4 wheels, 2 wheels powered.
The manual locking hubs on our Trooper have two positions, “4x4” and “4x2”.
Johnny,
Here in Europe, we sort of make the same distinction though. An Audi A6 Quattro would be an All Wheel Drive, and a Land Rover would be a Four Wheel Drive - or more commonly, the generic term jeep (from the brand Jeep, naturally) is used to describe any 4X4 that is an all-terrain vehicle (which an Audi A6 is not, obviously).
Cultural Anthropology is interesting, isn’t it 
To throw even more uncertainty into the mix, my 1999 Chevy 1500 has an electronic transfer case with four settings. I get the normal 2WD, 4 High, and 4 Low, plus an additional 4 Auto. IIRC, the documentation on this indicates that the Auto setting directs power to the front wheels as needed when there is sufficent slippage. I am not sure about the internal mechanics of this box, but it sounds like the “All Wheel Drive” some cars have.
Perhaps we need to summon Anthracite…
OK. I found a site that discusses 4X4 and AWD (and enough variations to take it back to being confusing, again).
Transfer case maintenance: clearing up the confusion over the four-wheel-drive systems.
I had a flashback to an Archie comic where he explained that his jalopy had four on the floor, his feet and Jughead’s.
Jalopy isn’t a term you see much anymore. I haven’t picked up an Archie comic in years. Is he still driving that '30s vintage eyesore with the duct taped tires and constantly boiling radiator?
My Jeep has a limited-slip center dif, so it can be driven on dry pavement in 4hi (4lo is locked). It’s a 4x4, according to the badges on the side.
From the owner’s manual (emphasis mine):
Which was true, before Chrysler took over (mine’s an AMC).
Just a sidenote - I’ve also seen 3 speeds on the floor and 4’s on the column. The “three on the tree” was indeed the normal manual transmission found in cars forty years ago.
Back when dimmer switches were on the floor near the emergency/parking brake, which was a pedal.
Errr…sorry, I missed this thread.
I will add that it’s distressing that most all car dealers don’t understand what exactly they are selling. Our recent purchase of a Toyota RAV4 fell into this category:
Dealer: “It’s all wheel drive, so all wheels get power at the same time. And you don’t have to do anything.”
Me: “Really? So it uses viscous couplings on all wheels?”
Dealer: “Uh…yeah.”
Me: “Well, if it has viscous couplings, why do you sell an optional limited slip differential as an option?”
Dealer: “Oh that’s for better traction.”
Me: “Why does it need a limited slip differential if it has viscous couplings? Shouldn’t that be the same as having a limited slip differential on both axles?”
Dealer: “No, this gives you better traction.”
Me: “Which axle is the limited slip for - the front, or the rear?”
Dealer: “I think it’s on the front, or both.” (it’s on the rear)
Me: “And what is this little button on the dash for that looks like a differential?”
Dealer: “Oh, that locks your differential.”
Me: “Which one?”
Dealer: “All of them.”
Me: “ALL of them?”
Dealer: “Yes, but you’re not supposed to use it except in emergencies.”
Me: “Like when?”
Dealer: “Like when it snows, or rains really hard.”
Me: “What if you have the limited slip? Does it lock it too?”
Dealer: “Yes.”
Me: “Ahhh…so if there are two limited slip differentials, it will lock both of them?”
At this point, the dealer was very uncomfortable, and then tried to sell us the “extended maintenance program du jour”.
I had a great time leading him around though. I wish I could have recorded it.
Anthracite - You don’t suffer foolish salespeple lightly, I salute you for that. I’ve mellowed but in my prime I could make a stereo salesman cry.
I got the same thing when I was truck shopping. I noticed the V8 engines in the Dakota trucks had distinctly different valve covers and asked if the engines were overhead cam. They were but the salesman told me no. I knew then I couldn’t count on much useful information from him.
Okay, another 4WD question. Anthracite, you seem pretty knowlegable about it…
I only use my part-time 4WD on my Cherokee when I’m offroad, or on dirt or gravel. The manual said (and I was told this when I was tooling around the desert in my old Willy’s CJ-2A) that 4WD is not to be used except on a slippery surface. But what is a “slippery surface”? Dirt and gravel are obvious. A light rain on asphalt? A hard rain on asphalt? Never on asphalt?
Johnny:
A hard rain on asphalt would be slick enough, methinks. BTW, what engine/ t-case d’ya have?
I personally would never drive with the differential locked (which is the situation you are referring to) on asphalt with just rain - unless maybe you were in a monsoon or something. I would reserve it strictly for snow, ice, mud, gravel, dirt, etc. Of course, if you were on a steep asphalt hill in the wet (and that can be slippery), and the wheels are slipping, then by all means you ought to use it.
Your car will tell you to some extent if it’s not happy driving with a locked differential. You can feel it in very difficult and shuddering turns, esp. low-speed sharp turns. Or in a general feeling of roughness and things not being very smooth or “right”, so to speak.