Key:4wd only

4wd_only

Description

A road signed as only suitable for 4WD Only vehicles

Group: Highways

Used on these elements

Useful combination

name=*
operator=*
highway=*
ohv=*

Preface

It is worth defining what is meant by 4WD for the purposes of this tag.

In the context of this tag, a 4WD is taken to mean a vehicle designed for both on road and off road use, generally with:

High clearance
Some sort of centre differential lock capability (for the "soft roader" type vehicles)
Low range gearbox
Tyres that would be regarded as either "all terrain" or "mud terrain"

Examples of 4WD vehicles (these are the Australian names for them at least):

Toyota Land Cruiser, Hilux or Tacoma, Nissan Patrol, Terrano and Navara, Gaz and Kamaz trucks, Land Rovers Defender or Discovery or Range Rover, Mitsubishi Pajero, Maruti Gypsy, Mercedes-Benz G Wagon.

Examples of "soft roader" 4WD vehicles:

Toyota Rav4 and Kluger, Volvo XC series, Nissan X-Trail, Tata Safari

What's not a 4WD for the purposes of this tag:

Lamborghini Murcielago, Audi A4, Nissan GTR etc. If you look at the vehicle and think "there's no way that car could cross a 1.5 foot deep river", then it probably doesn't count as a 4WD off road vehicle.

Usage

While the highway=track and tracktype=gradeX tags can be used to determine this, this approach forces all 4WD only roads to be classed as a track irrespective of their actual classification. In Australia, there are a number of major roads which are classed as either primary or secondary that are also 4WD only roads (eg: the Peninsula Developmental Road between Daintree and Weipa in far north Queensland, and the Buntine Highway in Western Australia)

Rendering

Any road tagged 4wd_only=yes can be rendered with (4WD Only) after the name of the way.

Controversy

While this tag was a little controversial with people claiming we should just use the smoothness=* tag, this doesn't cover the situation of instructions on signs.