One of my clients who has been happily married for a long time is fond of saying "Happy wife, happy life".
4WD on Dry Pavement
- Thread starter adamsanders
- Start date
One of my clients who has been happily married for a long time is fond of saying "Happy wife, happy life".
Pardon my ignorance, but I'm only used to my Jeep in regards to four wheel drive vehicles. The new F250 with four wheel drive is a whole different ball of wax. I'm wanting to use the four-wheel drive low range to pull our RV up a steep and twisty mountain drive. The drive is gravel, how will my steering be in 4 low with the hubs unlocked?
No problem on grave. The wheels will slip when they need to. This is not a big deal whether or not on gravel or pavement. You don't want to apply full power with a heavy load in a twisty environment. This will cause axle breakage.
austin92
Full Access Member
Also coming from a jeep to 4x4 fords, why is this bad?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
With the shafts spinning at a different speed than the wheels there is a chance you could damage them. When their locked in everything is going at the same speed not free wheeling.
I've been 4 wheeling since I was 20 years old, back in 1969. I have always had a Jeep and/or a Ford 4 x 4 truck, F-250 and F-350. I have broken almost everything that can break. Never had a problem using 4 wheel Lo on pavement. Just think about what you are doing. If it feels wrong, STOP!
Along the same lines as Dave said.... if you are in 4x4, hi or low, the big issue is trying to turn. I was in a parking lot with the Excursion, and had run inside. Momma and the kids were in the truck and one of the kids hopped in the drivers seat while I was inside. They switched the knob to 4x4 (hi) and I didn't notice when I started to leave. I had to do an "on the lock" turn to leave the spot, and due to the binding, it felt like at had run over a parking curb. The torque on the "inside" (in this case I was making a left, so the drivers side front) made it feel like a hop. Soon as this happened, I knew why, and saw the 4x4 light on the cluster. Popped it back in 2 hi and went on about my way. No damage, but, it you are feeling something like this, then you are "pushing it"...... Lo will feel like it binds more, due to the torque multiplication of the transfer case.
@saburai, If you are in conditions that you NEED 4x4 (snow, dirt, gravel, mud) running in 4x4 will not be an issue. The wheel that is in a bind will just slip and relieve the bind, rather than hop like I descried above. If the road surface is slippery, it doesn't matter what the road is paved with. Living here in the North, I've driven my various 4x4's to work and home ~30 miles, in 4hi. These roads are all hard paved (concrete or asphalt), but since they were slick, it was fine. If you are doing something wrong, the truck will normally "tell" you, just pay attention to what it's doing, and you will be fine. Now, on a side note, a new experience for me this past winter was an AWD vehicle (See the Infiniti in my sig). That is really nice when the roads get sloppy. Just drive and it takes care of itself, no needing to worry when to shift or not.......
@saburai, If you are in conditions that you NEED 4x4 (snow, dirt, gravel, mud) running in 4x4 will not be an issue. The wheel that is in a bind will just slip and relieve the bind, rather than hop like I descried above. If the road surface is slippery, it doesn't matter what the road is paved with. Living here in the North, I've driven my various 4x4's to work and home ~30 miles, in 4hi. These roads are all hard paved (concrete or asphalt), but since they were slick, it was fine. If you are doing something wrong, the truck will normally "tell" you, just pay attention to what it's doing, and you will be fine. Now, on a side note, a new experience for me this past winter was an AWD vehicle (See the Infiniti in my sig). That is really nice when the roads get sloppy. Just drive and it takes care of itself, no needing to worry when to shift or not.......
Sorry my ignorance in not reading fully (lack of sleep). Missed the part about being locked in at the hubs!!!
Won't be an issue, the steering will probably feel a little tighter, at least mine does in hi or low. Still wouldn't do sharp turns but like snicklas said it'll tell you when you start to get into trouble and will make some real scary noises...
I'd suggest taking it out in a field if you can and run both hi and low just to get the feel of things before tackling the hills with you're camper. Maybe even hitch up and do the same. Hate to hear a horrer story afterwards...
One of my first trucks was an old k5 blazer, full time 4wd but unlocked hubs, had some issues with the lockers for awhile and you would know it when you were turning, it would just understeer real bad, luckily never broke anything, but probably wasn’t making enough power to do so...
I'm pretty familiar with what "wrong" feels like. I've got ARB lockers front and rear in the XJ and we've been through some hairy stuff over the years with out breaking anything. I'm mainly asking about running 4 low until locked to use the mechanical advantage climbing steep and slow. It'd be nice to keep the revs up and the converter locked.
Black dawg
Registered User
It really wont hurt anything, if the rears aren't slipping, then the axles aren't turning faster than the hubs. Even if they did, that's what lockouts do.....can you imagine the speed difference axle to lockout at highway speed.
Macrobb
Full Access Member
Exactly! At highway speed, the hubs are spinning quite fast; shafts are (not supposed) to spin when unlocked. So there's a massive speed difference there.
On gravel, you can be in 2x4, 4x4 with hubs locked or unlocked. It doesn't matter - except that if you need the traction, lock the hubs!
Similar threads
