Most of us wish to have or do have a 4x4 as a BOV. However, in an emergency it is very possible that you find yourself in a sedan and face a few decisions to make.

Just to bring the scenario closer to reality, lets assume you have a monster truck with four jumbo monster mudders, but it was in the shop for general checkup and a big disaster hits while you are using the other vehcile you ( or your spouse) has which is a sedan, coupe, station wagon or such type of 2WD. The first question is : How will this affect your bugout or general survival plan ?

Second thought that inspired me to write this is : when do you decide to abandon the vehicle ? A sedan will get stuck or face some obstacles in the way. Sometimes its easy to clear some obstacles and sometimes you may have to turn around and take another road. Then there are times when you may decide to leave the car and go on foot ( or other means).

A car, even a 2WD sedan is a very valuable survival asset. If roads are clear and it has a full tank, it can take you a few 100 miles aways from disaster zone in a few hours. Even when it is stuck or roads are blocked it can become a shelter or a signal .

So, leaving the car isnt a sure thing in all cases.

But in the other hand, you may decide it is not worth it to spend so much energy getting it unstuck every once in a while , or claring so much debris from its path to keep it moving.

The big question in this case: when it is time to give up on a 2WD sedan and decide to abndaon it while bugging out ??

I'd be willing to bet that 95% of the places you will be going in a 4WD could be safely navigated in a 2WD, especially if you bring along chains. The only thing I would be worried about in a sedan is ground clearance--in my truck I think I have about 3X what the GF's car has, for example.

If you are worried about getting stuck, make sure you pack a fullsize shovel (two are better), the aforementioned chains, a highlift jack, and a come-along. Better yet woiuld be a winch--a nice $300 investment. When you have all of the above and still can't get unstuck, then maybe that would be the time to hoof it.

One obvious advantage of a 4x4 is that if you are stuck in a traffic jam of a million cars bugging out you can leave the pavement and go off road. You can't always do that in a sedan. However, I think the one factor that we have to keep in mind using a sedan is be more ALERT. At the first sign of trouble dont wait till you make sure. Slam on the gas pedal and move out to a safe distance before the crowds. Then you could stop and listen while you are far and safe from the immediate disaster area. If you do that you'd be OK in most cases. Just be sure that your sedan has a BOB and other stuff at all times. That is my plan at least since I drive a sedan about 75% of the time.

An oooold issue of FOUR WHEELER ( or perhaps a similar off-road magazine ) featured a road test in which a sedan was driven through a rough road and the test team had a SUV as a backup. The sedan went through without breaking any major part. It was stuck a few times but it wasnt too stuck to pull through. So, I think a sedan can do in many cases if you remember its limits. And I agree with norad that ground clearance is a big problem.

Another problem with most sedans is that they are not the least prepared for off road unless you have been thinking of such scenario. Not only they have low ground clearance and limited traction capabilities, but also they arent equipped with wiches or anything that can help getting unstuck.

I think it would be nice to put a sedan in our survival or bugging out plan. While we are driving through cities .. etc. we should take note of all possible routes and especially the ones that will remain clear and smooth during a disaster. While a 4x4 will give more options like taking a low-traffic dirt road I think in certian cases a small old sedan is OK because it looks more civil and less threatening to others as well as less valuable for predators who may think of taking your truck at gun point to use as a BOV for themselves. Not to mention that it is generally faster when you manage to leave the immediate damaged/congested area and want to get away ASAP to another town .

Bring a saw along also! We prowl around on forest service roads a lot, usually in our little 4wd, but most of the roads can be easliy driven by a 2wd. I can't count the times, 'specially in the spring, when we have found a road blocked by a downed tree. If you have a decent bow saw (and an axe would be nice also) you can, with a little bit of time, clear the road. Without it, you turn around...

Good point. I carry both an axe and a saw, but I would hate to have to use either one on a tree big enough to stop my truck. Maybe I need to carry a chainsaw...

I also carry a rather large block and tackle. I don't know the weight rating but it came with about 50' of 1" rope. If that and my truck won't move a fallen tree then I will turn around. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hey, I remember that article. It was in Four Wheeler and I think they took the 2wd to the tip of Baja. They did resort to some interesting tricks to make it . It wasn't a cake walk but it was doable.

I really like the idea of using the forest service roads. Living in a large metroplex I also got to thinking that driving in those area cleared for the high power lines might be an option.

I dont have a sedan, but my 2wd truck has plenty of clearance.

Any one know if or where maps that mark such things would be available?

-- what the other posters said --

plus a fuel efficient sedan is likely to be able to travel further. So when your 4x4 bogs down after 250 miles because you ran out of gas, your neighbor is thumbin' his nose at you as he drives past you. Better hope you have all your gear in a good tote bag or backpack because you're now walking to the next town and you still might not be out of range of the next hurricane.

You can do a lot in a 2wd with careful driving, I used to pass lost of vehicles just sitting and spinning with my little 2wd s10. The Only reason I needed 4x4 is for the low gear in the transfer case because a non 4x4 is just geared too high for off road driving.
Ground clearance is a consideration, you can get high centered easily in a car. I've been stuck in highway traffic back ups where people started cutting through the center divider and a lot would get stuck when they sunk because that center section is designed to stop you from running head on into the other lane should you fall asleep or be driving drunk or something. The vehicles with good ground clearance and decent tires could get through if you were careful but a lot got stuck and probably a ticket when the police came later. I noticed recently one of the main highways going out of town here has a steel rope divider down the center to prevent you from making U turns now.
Also remember most modern sedans are unibody front wheel drive so one minor fender bender or curb hop can cause major damage. I know I'm getting off the scenario topic but I will never buy a front wheel drive again, the cost of ownership is too high when you do anything but basic driving to and from work.
I've noticed that most fuel efficient vehicles have smaller gas tanks so you still get the same range as a less efficient vehicle.

A lot of basis for the decision depends on what area you live in. In a large city, if a route is drivable, then 99% of the times its drivable for car or SUV. Conversely, if a car can't make it, most likely a stock or even modified SUV probably won't be making it either. There are only a very few places around my area where I think having an 4x4 SUV will get you to places where a sedan won't. I think having a 4wd gives you more of an advantage mainly in the rural areas.

In either case, unless i had a definite destination that was reachable on foot, or I was in immediate danger, or the car was unmovable, then I probably couldn't see myself abandoning the car. You're probably better of staying with it. Of course, I probably wouldn't go far enough to get my sedan stuck in the first place, I'd probably turn around and try a different route before that happened.



You might want to look at Google Maps (satellite view) or check out google earth. It's not the best way of scouting a road or route, but you can get some idea of where it leads and whether there are major obstacles along the way. I use it to check out a lot of the fire roads in my area.

"...Any one know if or where maps that mark such things would be available..."

You can get maps of every national forest from the USFS. Easiest is just to go into one of the offices at each forest and buy one. You can go to their website store (http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/nationalforeststore/) and order them, or you can usually pick them up in outdoor type stores in cities near a national forest. And of course there are the regular old topo maps, which are not as good (in my opinion) as the USFS maps for this, but they are better than nothing.

Also, if you have a GPS that can display maps (mine is a Magellan Meridian) you can get software that has many, if not all of the roads already in it. I have found in some locations that my GPS shows roads that the paper maps do not...

"...Maybe I need to carry a chainsaw..."

Mucho better, without a doubt. But I rarely carry mine unless I plan on cutting some wood, it is larger, messier, and you have to carry fuel and oil. On the other hand, I ALWAYS have a bow saw and axe in my vehicles. Many of the trees that I have encountered are not all that large, maybe eight to ten inches in diameter, but they were across the road at headlight height. Too big to drag (the ends are always entertwined with other still standing trees), might be a long way to go around (if you can even find another route), but not too big to cut out with a saw and/or axe...

This discussion got me thinking about the state of the roads elswhere in the world...
http://fishki.net/comment.php?id=13808
These pictures are from the main federal road to Yakuts in easter Siberia.
One of the captions says: "The most valuable items around that area are: fuel, food, weapons and towing chains."
Another caption:" Repair crews were not able to reach the road because drivers were severely beating them up."
Another caption: "People were camped out here for more then two weeks, one woman gave birth in a bus."

I've owned 4wd and 2wd vehicles . Although 4wd vehicles come in handy sometimes , they are not the go anywhere do anything vehicles most people think they are . I got stuck in heavy snow in a 4wd once . I 've also plowed through some pretty heavy stuff in a little 4cyl. 2wd pickup . I've driven down some pretty rough roads in 2wd vehicles . Let's say you had to B.O. and you ran into a major traffic jamb . You are in your big 4wd vehicle and think , no problem , I'll just go off raod and go around everyone else . Have you noticed how many vehicles on the road these days are 4wd ? I think you'd just run right into another jamb .

If a disaster is predicted and you don't get out of the way immediately, you're probably going to get stuck, one way or another, 4WD or not.

One think that tends to irritate me here (sorry, guys) is that so many seem to think that if there's a major disaster, THEY will be practically the only ones heading for the hills, mountains, woods, etc.

GET REAL, FOLKS! This isn't the America of the 1880s or even the 1940s. This is America of 2006: we have 300 MILLION people here. We have an average of 80 people per square mile. Does this sound like wide-open Davy Crockett country to you???

If you're headed up the forest service roads, exactly where is it you're heading? Are you aiming for the same patch of timber that a few hundred other people are aiming for? Do you think that everyone else is so dumb that they're just going to sit in their cars on the freeway or turnpike until they turn into mummies?

And how long do you intend to stay there? How much food and water did you manage to pack into the Bronco with your wife and three kids and everything they felt they had to bring along? Do you plan on living off the land with all the other people up there? There isn't going to be a deer or elk or rabbit there within three days.

Planning ahead? Okay.... where do you plan on going from THERE???

Sue, who is in a really pi$$y mood right now

It is truely amazing sometimes the places you can go with front wheel drive. I used to go camping with some friends in the mountains in Pennsylvania (sp?) in Febuary because we all had a long weekend on Presidents day. We would caravan in with 3 vehicles, regardless of the weather. The 4 wheel drive pickup with chains kept getting stuck. I had a front wheel drive Voyager mini van, regular length, with the larger 3L engine. Lots of ground clearance and a lot of weight over the front tires. I pulled through 12" of snow, up hills. Yes I did get stuck, just 1//3 as much as the truck, much to the truck owners anoyance. A group of 6-8 men can pretty much unstick anything though.

As long as you were relatively smart about it, a front wheel drive with decent ground clearance can get through a lot. Having friends with you helps a lot also.