Four-Wheel drive usage frequency

Hey gang,

I'm working my way through the Owner's Manual on my new 2022 TRD Sport 6MT and noticed the following two directives in the PDF version of the manual:

• Page 302:
  • Summary of functions:
  • Use the front-wheel drive control switch to select the following transfer
    modes:
    • 2) "4H" (High speed position, four-wheel drive)
      • Use this for driving only on tracks that permit the tires slide, like off-road, icy or snow-covered roads. This position provides greater traction than two-wheel drive.
      • The four-wheel drive indicator will come on.
• Page 305:
  • Four-Wheel drive usage frequency
    • You should drive in four-wheel drive for at least 10 miles (16 km) each month. This will assure that the front drive components are lubricated.

So here's my question, during non-winter months I really don't have a place to drive 10 miles on dirt, grass, sand, or anything else slippery; how do y'all keep your front drive components lubricated?

 

Straight on a paved road for 1 mile. Even if there's turns it won't hurt it. 10 miles doesn't really make any sense. But it does need to be used.

The diff is spinning even in 2WD, the transfer case not as much, but it just needs to be used.

 

Don't worry about getting 10 miles. Shift into 4HI on straight or straight'ish sections of road.

Amazed how often this comes up on this forum.

 

Just the spider gears and side gears.

 

Yup, but its far from stationary.

 

Just check that it, in fact, goes into 4 wheel drive.

I never check mine monthly. It worked 7 months ago, and I check again when the temp drops to sub freezing the next winter season.

I've run these trucks since 1998. That monthly chech is ridiculous .

Just check before the snow flies.

It's a solid system. Any weak link will be electrical.

 

We actually do see the transfer case actuators stick, its rare, and you're right. But it doesn't hurt.

 

I’ve never read my manual…this is news to me. Good thing I use my 4wd regularly

 

For 4 high I have a convenient 3 mile paved stretch that is just about straight as an airfield, the speed limit is 40. The transfer case will shift in/out silently.
When I engage 4 high on the pavement I change the center screen to something different than normal as a reminder.

For 4 low I occasionally engage it in my dirt drive which is about 200 feet.

I don't feel the actual 10 miles is as important as making sure it gets engaged every month or so to exercise/lubricate the actuators and sling the oil around the transfer case a bit.

 

“When I engage 4 high on the pavement I change the center screen to something different than normal as a reminder.”

This is great advice. A few times when I have put the truck in 4hi I’ve forgotten and driven the highway home. I’ll do this next time.

 

I’ve never forgotten I was in 4 anything. Typically I have to turn onto the pavement when I’m coming off a trail and the truck will remind me real quick

 

I've always run 4hi monthly at the beginning of the month, same time as I zero my trip meter #2... This is on top of any time I actually use fourwheel on the real... Which sadly isn't as often as it's like these past couple of years

 

^Guy I bought mybtruck from had a baby and said he hadn't used 4wd in over a year. It was slow and make a noticeable clunk the first few times i had it into 4hi or lo. One of the only times a vehicular problem solved went away by itself. I flip it on a few times a month, as much to make sure there are no problems should i really need it.

 

Thanks folks!

 

Living in SoCal provides endless hours in freeway stop and go traffic. Perfect time to exercise that button for a couple miles a day!

 

Yeah, I used to live in SoCal in the late 1970s and in the Bay area in the early 1980s; I remember hours on cruise control without hardly moving the steering wheel at all.

Here in New Hampshire, I'm hard pressed to think of a road within 20 miles of me with a straight stretch which exceeds even a mile.

 

It's less about the distance traveled and more to get those actuators working. On my Tacoma it's a non-issue but in my Tundra, when it's raining and I remember, I'll just switch back and forth between 2HI and 4HI a few times over the span of a mile or so. Then when I get on my neighborhood street I'll jump in and out of 4lo once or twice.

 

Hit some gravel roads or trails in the summer. I do enough 4WD driving year around I've never needed to worry about this.

 

It is the emergency fire started stored in the glove compartment. Most automotive savvy folks know more than what is in the manual.