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MFWD, FWA, and 4wd

J

Jubal

New User
Excuse my ignorance, but new to the tractor world and thought I could get a straight answer here. While looking for tractors to purchase, I come across tractors that are seemingly four wheel drive but are listed as "FWA", "MFWD", and just plain 4wd. What are the differences, if any, between the three?
 
4WD usually means an articulate tractor or a tractor that pivots in the middle

FWA stands for Front Wheel Assist which can be mechanical or hydraulic

MFWD means Mechanical front wheel drive.
HFWD means hydraulic front wheel drive.

People use the terms interchangibly with different tractors.
 
Anybody can call anything what they want. But in most cases, "FWA" is front wheel assist. Some systems just spin the front wheels at a random speed to get you unstuck and that speed has no relationship with rear wheel speed. For temporary use. Many are run by hydraulic motors.

MFWD and 4WD are often the same thing. "MFWD" simply means mechanical four wheel drive. Not all systems are the same , but usually the MFWD means it's all mechanical and no hydraulics involved.

Same confusion exists with cars and trucks. 4WD used to imply all mechanical with no differential between front and rear drive. AWD used to mean just systems that DO have a differential between front and rear and therefore can be used "full time." For that reason, some makes call it "full time 4WD."
 
4WD is usually a big articulated tractor with all wheels the same size. There are a few old Fords from the late 60's or early 70's that were converted by a British outfit called Country that had a mechanical axle mounted on the front with the same size tires as the back, so I guess those would be 4WD also. Worked well as long as you had a lot of room to turn them.
Also back in the 70's or so, Deere offered hydraulic front wheel assist, where you had hydraulic motors mounted in the front hubs.
 
Pretty safe to assume that any "assist" system is not meant for full-time use, but MFWD is. Deere"s hydraulic drive was less than a roaring success, thus they went mechanical.
 
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