When should I be in 4wd? I'm know this is probably a REALLY stupid question, but I'm curious to see what people have to say. I tend to put it on whenever I'm off of paved roads, and always in the snow and ice. My logic is that with the improved traction of 4wd, the wheels are less likely to lose traction and therefore, the entire vehicle will stay on-line and stable. I was looking at someone's 4wheeling page (can't recall who or where) and they said you should only engage 4wd to get out of something you can't get out of in 2. In other words: always stay in 2 unless you get stuck. That sounds kind of bunk to me. What do you guys have to say?

 

Use it when 1 wheel drive won't cut it.

 

like bike4miles and his offroad unicycle?

 

I have to agree w/ what you read.. I never put it in 4WD unless it is stuck or I anticipate it will get stuck. I had an 03 LandCruiser with Full time 4WD, didn't drive much differently than my 4Runner running in 2WD most of the time. We don't have snow and Ice here but even then I'd probably still run 'er in 2WD unless there just was some ungroomed roads ahead.. like a Mountain Pass in Colorado or something, not cruising through downtown after the plows have all passed through.

 

i like to put it in 4 wheel right before i would get stuck in two.

 

You should not use 4WD in high traction situations. The wheels need to be able to slip while turning. One wheel will be going faster than the other in a turn and it will bind with high traction surfaces. This will cause damage to your drivetrain eventually. Other than burning more gas there is no reason that you cant use it on low traction surfaces.

 

Strangely, everything but main drags (and even then...) is pretty poorly groomed here in Boulder.

Am I to conclude that 4wd is less for improved driving traction, and more for not getting stuck (or getting out of being stuck)? I appreciate the help. I will fully admit to being a complete n00b here...

 

They are more likely to lose traction when coupled to the drive-train in 4WD mode.

 

Man... you are soooo lucky! I want to live in Boulder! I went to school @ Colorado State but a lot of my HS buds went to Boulder so we'd alter which place to party at. (I went to HS in Pueblo.)

I can see in Boulder you might want to use 4WD, but growing up around 4WD's my whole life it's just always been engraved in my brain that vehicles that are 4x4's generally aren't driving in 4 HI unless the conditions dictate, I am not saying snow and ice in Boulder does dictate that, I was just thinking more along the lines of pulling it up the side of a mountain or through a gully or something.

 

4wd is less for 'improved traction' and more for 'not getting stuck,' in my opinion. And it is not a substitute for common sense or driving skill.
Until you develop more feel for it, the advice above is good - don't use 4wd where the surface offers good traction, wait until you are feeling slippery or somehow less sure of your footing, then go ahead and use 4wd freely. Gradually a number of things will happen - you'll learn when you really need it, you'll learn offroad skills and won't need it as much anyway, and you'll want to go deeper offroad cuz it's fun!

Waiting until you are already stuck is just plain stupid. (Sorry, but that's my opinion based on 25 years of 4 wheeling and watching countless chowderheads get whopping stuck in 2wd then use 4wd to make matters worse...) You are almost always gonna be better off using 4wd to NOT GET stuck in the first place... the trick is to take some time to develop a feel for when it's likely to need 4wd. You'll discover you need it less than you think. We went out yesterday for the afternoon, the truck is absolutely covered in mud. The girlfriend was shocked to realise that I never once put it in 4wd, even in the mudholes. I came close up higher in the snow a couple times, but there was gravel peeking through and traction was good, so I didn't need it. Years ago I wouldn't thought it was totally necessary in most of the places we went.

On road in ice and snow, 4wd is a mixed blessing. Yes, it offers much improved traction. But you can't stop any faster... And when you push too hard and lose traction, a lot of times it's worse than 2wd. I tend to change back and forth a lot.

 

yeah, given how well they take care of the streets in boulder i generally run 4wd all the time. the only time i put it in 2 is when i'm in a parking lot and will be making a bunch of really tight turns.

i generally disagree with "use 4wd to only get unstuck". i say use it to keep from getting stuck. but as everyone else said, high traction situations are a big no-no for 4wd you'll break something. also, as i said earlier, it's not a great idea to be in 4wd when making sharp turns. i've personally seen two separate vehicles (jeeps) break tie rods when trying to park in 4wd. they were even on snow (at a ski resort parking lot), it was just too much binding.

 

I tend not to engage 4WD until/unless I feel I am loosing traction, so I guess I agree with much of what was written above. And, 4WD LOW is fantastic when it's time to pull the boat and trailer up a slick ramp!

 

Must be a jeep thing.
Personally, I stay in 2wd until I get stuck or am about to get stuck. The exception being snow. I use 4wd in the snow almost all of the time for safety's sake.

 

Good question with the roads getting worse for the remainder of the winter. I usually lock my hubs when the snow starts to fly so I can shift into and out of 4HI as needed, mostly because the Mountain Loop Highway out side of Granite Falls becomes a road of choice for a lot of drunken idiots driving (barreling) along looking to get into the deep stuff, also for the ignorant SUV driver's whose attitude seams to be 'I have 4WD I can go where I want as fast as I want, same thing in Summer when I plan to go off highway, shifting into 4HI I can use more of the road to get out of their way.
I use low range (both with and without the hubs engaged) when I feel I need better low speed vehicle control

Chris

 

On trails I go in 2 until I can't go anymore, then 4-hi until I can't go anymore, then 4-lo until I can't go anymore, then rear locker utnil I can't go anymore, then scream on CB until someone helps me.

If you feel like you're going to get stuck on an upcoming obstacle or road condition it's not going to hurt to switch into 4-hi as long as it's not pavement. The longer you drive the vehicle the more you will be aware of it's capabilities in 2 and 4 wheel drive.

 

Had to laugh at that one. A guy flagged me down (an Explorer) and asked for a pull back onto the road - he was 100 feet off into the deep snow! I asked him how he managed that, he was totally pi**ed off - his brand new (still had the temporary in the window) 4x4 was supposed to give him all this snow traction... Idiot had passed me going probably 60 on the icy pass, everyone else doing maybe 30. When he got to his turnoff (the ski resort) he nailed the brakes and turned right. Didn't quite make the turn.... He was lucky, if he had lost it a few miles back they'da found him in the spring at the bottom of the cliffs... I did not pull him out...

 

Ditto, sometimes after I get stuck aswell

If I don't feel like risking my backend kicking out, I'll pop it in aswell, just to be safe.

Brings me to a semi-funny story:

I was getting firewood with my dad yesterday in his F-150, he turned off the highway onto the wood road into hub-deep snow. I said "Aren't you going to use 4x4?". He replied with "this isn't a sissy jap truck, you don't need 4wheel-drive for everything you do".

About 10 seconds after he said that, we slid into a bank and got stuck. I laughed long and hard over that one.

 

Which model 4runner do you have? some have an awd function that allows you to drive in 4hi without binding (open center diff).
However I have noticed that with my tires and snow/ice conditions I can barely go uphill in 2wd and I find that being in 4wd will help me to gain traction on not have the tail spin out. But in 4wd if you loose traction on ice you can be worse off as all tires are "locked in" to the drivetrain.
On dirtroads you can go quite far in 2wd and don't really need 4wd that often.

 

I have an '01...

 

Glad to hear it. I wouldn't have either. Every time someone blows by me on an icy road I find myself hoping to see him in a ditch up the road. You actually got to see that... Lucky bastard.