Run in 4wd once a month?

Touché

 

Try a long gravel driveway or dirt road.

 

Is that a rhetorical question?

I ask because (1) you’re posting in the third gen forum and (2) your sarcasm detector seems to be on the fritz.

XOXO

Skip

 

Oh fuck, now you’ve done it!

 

10-4... checking sarcasm detector. What’s up with the 3rd gen forum?

 

The third gen forum is the Tacoma World equivalent of the Short Bus.

 

lol... 2016 - 2019... limited collective experience. That’s my take anyway.

 

I am in the habit of putting it in 4HI when the rain returns on a straight road. The longest dry spell in my area is 2 months (normally, it rains at least once a month). I figure that's a good routine to keep it lubed.

 

Dig through the people getting all wound up and damn if there isn’t some good information presented!

As many of us seem to be, I’m new to 4 wheel drive trucks. I think I have a reasonable understanding of mechanical thingamabobs and yet I worried about this same topic. I could feel the system wind up while in 4hi in my driveway. I figure that exercising the actuators is most of the battle and that can be done pulling in to the driveway. I have been to the slick rock trail and rode the whole thing on a motorcycle. I like that analogy regarding the traction levels and it put my mind at rest. New expensive truck with fancy widgets we are not accustomed to along with what seems a dire warning in the manual with out really explaining why.

We have enough dirt and gravel roads around here there won’t be a problem. The question seems like one that is OK to discuss now and again.

 

Since I only put on about 3000kms a year this would apply to me. Still driving a 95 F150 with 77000kms(48000mls).

 

Again, it’s still an arbitrary number though. If it’s raining and you can pop it in 4hi, go for it. If this happens once a year, you’ll still be alright.

 

Can we just stop with the “you can’t you 4x4 on a dry road/pavement” crap

Unless your trying to drive in circles with the wheel turned all the way, you won’t have problems. Roads don’t have that tight of turns where your truck is gonna bind up taking a curve.

 

4x4 on dry pavement puts undue stress on driveline components, there's no question about it. Now the severity is what gets discussed from time to time. Some people think your truck will instantly explode and others think there will be no issues.

Since 4x4 on dry pavement is almost certainly never necessary, why add the undue stress, regardless of how much? Some arbitrary 10 mile rule in the manual? Just my .02.

 

It's amazing how difficult people make things. Don't over think it. All you need is a mile. Any weather. Just do it

 

This is why you should use caution with internet advice and not buy used 4X4's. The trucks owners manual is serious when it says NOT to operate in 4X4 on hard dry surfaces. It would be rare for parts to break just because you drove a short distance on pavement. And driving in a perfectly straight line won't harm anything. Keeping the turns gradual does LESS damage and it takes longer for parts to break. But you ARE over stressing components beyond what they were designed for. And while slow gradual turns do less damage you run the risk of forgetting you're in 4X4 and making a sharp turn off the highway into a business and doing serious, and expensive damage immediately.

It just ain't that hard to find a dirt or gravel road to do this right. The owners manual "suggests" about 10 miles/month. You don't have to do all 10 miles at once. The local sportsman club and firing range that I belong to has gravel roads. It is about 1/2 mile from pavement to the firing range. I get in about 1 mile in 4X4 every time I go to the range. Some months I may not get into 4X4 at all, but I won't skip 2 months. Some months I may only get in 2-3 miles, other months 200-300 miles. The key is to use it regularly.

You need to operate in 4X4 to keep things lubricated as well as to keep condensation out of electrical components. Even the owner manual for my winch says most problems are from non-use. Pull the winch cable out once a month and reel it back in under a load. If you don't do so from time to time there is a good chance you're truck won't shift into 4X4 when needed. I've had to pull 2-3 guys out of jams because their 4X4 wouldn't engage due to this.

Here is WHY you don't do this on hard dry surfaces. And BTW wet rainy roads don't count either. The transfer case uses a chain to transfer the power to the front axle. When you operate in 4X4 on hard dry surfaces you put undue stress on the chain as well as U-Joints. Over time the chain will stretch. Once it gets loose enough it will start slipping on the gears. Most of us have had this happen when riding a bicycle. When that happens you will hear a chattering sound when you press on the gas pedal and the truck stops moving because the chain is slipping.

It ain't cheap to get fixed. And unlike the guy who I quoted I've actually paid for the repairs due to driving on pavement in 4X4. I don't want to do it again and the solution is pretty simple. It is even spelled out in the owners manual.

Photo of transfer case internals.

 

i have anxiety so i usually just flip it in the driveway and as soon as the light stops flashing flip it back real quick. then i change my oil just in case.

 

Pretty sure the manual says to drive in 4lo as much as possible off pavement.

 

There is no stress unless your binding. No harm will be done even if slipping or traction loss occurs on 1 axle. The issue is the front and rear forced to make turns at the same speed when locked. Small turns won’t have much of any effect. When you get into the point of binding then yes, you will cause adding stress and depending on speed and how much bind, will probably damage or grenade a component.

 

In your own words “won’t have much of any effect”. This implies you agree that it causes more stress to run in 4wd in dry pavement vs remaining in 2wd. I think @Marshall R post a couple above sums it up nicely and explains it well.

 

Damage isn’t occurring just because you are driving in 4wd. Any time there is added resistance on any component, it’s creating heat. Just you driving around in 2wd you still have movement and friction in your transfer case. There just isn’t a load. I live in an area where most people drive their trucks on dry pavement in winter months. Even after the roads are clear of snow. Trucks/suv’s out number cars here probably 3 to 1. You don’t see trucks on the side of the road blown up or broken. You don’t see them in the service shops. I worked 10 years for service departments and I could probably count on 1 hand how many transfer cases or blown diffs I’ve seen getting repaired. The only common issue you see is bad actuators, usually caused by the weather.

Most truck owners today never take their trucks off pavement. Toyota wants you to run 10 miles to help lubricate the system. How is this possible if your not going off-road. Of course they have warnings not to use 4wd on dry and hard surfaces. It’s for liability. There are warning labels on everything now a days.

I’ve seen a few women who have brought their trucks in for service. Claim they have a hard time parking and turning. Go outside and they are simply in 4wd. Come back in and tell them the truck was in 4wd and explain why it does that. Then they will tell you they have been driving around like that for the past several days or longer. So every parking spot they pulled into at the mall, grocery store, their home, kids school, and every other spot plus the dealership, hasn’t done any damage.


For everyone that claims you can’t do this please show the thousands of trucks that have had damage due to normal driving in 4wd. I’ll bet you couldn’t produce 10