4x4 4hi question

Hey guys first time with a true 4x4 ( my last one was an AWD vehicle) and have a general question.

Yesterday it was raining hard due to the Hurricane, so I switched to 4hi on my drive home, no problems/issues, get home to pull into my driveway and slow down and my truck basically braked itself to a stop and the 4hi light on the dash began to flash and kept flashing. I then freaked a bit, tried to turn the dial to 2hi, 4hi, etc, and nothing changed except 4hi flashing on the dash. I put it in gear and gave it some gas and it would go, but it was obviously braking itself and only drove it long enough to get it on my driveway and off the main road. Then I turned it off, left the dial at 2hi and gave it a min before I cranked it up again. It started normally and drove into its parking spot like normal.

This morning on the way to work, I did 4hi again to test and it drove fine, no warning or errors or anything on the dash, until I pulled into work's parking lot. Slowing down to turn into a spot I again experienced the braking down of the truck. Is this normal 4x4 function? Am I supposed to turn 4x4 as I need it while starting out and turn it off before I slow down and ready to park? thanks in advance!

 

You were doing a hard turn in 4wd on dry hard pavement. Here it is explained, as well as other things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Wy5ENm_lM

 

4X4 shouldn't be used on pavement. Even wet pavement, it's not AWD. In a pinch if you need to engage the front axle to get moving on a slippery incline that's OK, but switch back to 2wd as soon as you no longer need it.

Avoid any cornering when in 4x4. Your AWD vehicle would send power independently to each of the 4 wheels allowing them to get power and turn at different speeds.

When you turn a corner all 4 wheels need to either be able to rotate at different speeds. AWD lets that happen. True 4X4 locks the front and rear axles together trying to make all 4 wheels turn at the same speed. The inside wheels in a turn have far less distance to travel and need to either turn slower, or spin slightly on the ground. If traction is good and the wheels can't spin slightly it puts the whole drivetrain in a bind.

It happens occasionally and what you did probably didn't break anything. But don't make a habit of it. It will cause excessive wear to the transfer case, U-joints and the front axles. They will wear out sooner, and under the right conditions could catastrophically fail.

AWD is really the better system for dry or wet pavement, light snow or even light mud. But when things get really tough offroad true 4X4 that locks everything together is much better.

 

Perfect thank you both! That fully explains it. I've been a hawk on these forums and of course when all you see/read are what goes wrong, every hiccup on my truck, I halfway expect to turn into a problem. In this case ignorance was the culprit.

 

Be sure and put you truck in 4 hi each month for 10 miles. It’s ok to do it on pavement, but stay in a straight line and mild corners. Keeps things lubed properly.

I assume that is still valid for the 4th gen.

 

Engaging 4h on dry pavement is fine as long as u don’t make any sharp turns basically a straight line . Turning can cause axle binding .

 

It's a really good excuse to go find some dirt at least once a month.