4 Wheel drive in rain

For the purpose of this thread I will give you an ojective opinion, any turn in 4W drive for a dry street intersection or parking space is a sharp curve. On a highway ramp, I use the ramp parallel to the highway to slow down and turn off 4W drive. If you forget and the roads are dry it will not take much to hear the driver side tires racing the passenger side tires (or vice versa) on virtually any type of turn.

The speed issue, in my opinion, is a real concern issue. Once you have either the driver or passenger tires talking to you, the faster you are going the most damage you could potentially cause.

 

Excellent description of the driver side versus passenger side tires talking to you...

 

4x4 allows you to put more power to the ground in low traction situations and can provide more stability/control as well.

Wet roads have way more traction than most snow covered roads, mud or ice.

My opinion, if 4x4 actually helps you maintain control at any point in the rain, you fucked up and created that scenario. Whether that is bad tires, going too fast or too much throttle.

I don't think using 4x4 in the rain is likely to cause issues, but I do think it's totally pointless at best.

 

Is this true on standard garden variety dirt / gravel roads? I live in a metro-area and don't get out into the 'wild' like I want to,
but do want to engage the system. Truck is stock as are the tires so I'm a bit limited anyway. Don't really have the jack to just
go buy a set of AT tires gonna wait until the stocks run down for that.

 

It's front vs rear that is the problem in 4x4. There is a front and rear differential but no center. In a turn, the front will be going faster than the rear.

 

Reading that section explains a lot, I thought I was turning the traction control off, however, I was engaging the LSD. With the LSD engaged the truck is tricky to drive at high speed on the sandy roads. Only use the LSD when the truck is stuck in the ditch of something, but I don't know why you wouldn't just use 4WD in that case? Anyhow, I learned something by reading about that feature.

 

Solid definition based on an opinion......hmmmmmm..

Each month, I will engage 4WD for a 10+ mile run. The typical path involves highway curves, intersection turns and highway speeds. Truck has 115,xxx miles, no driveline issues.

I purchased the truck used with 105,xxx miles. During the test drive still in the dealer's dry lot, I engaged 4WD, rolled down the windows, cranked the steering to both RH and LH locks, made complete low speed circles. The salesman asked, "Why did you do that?" My answer, "I'm listening for driveline issues. Please be quiet for a few moments." Sure, I could feel the truck binding and hear the tires complaining. I was listening for grinding, crunching, jerking in the drive train.

Now, I do not recommend that as a continuous practice. Nor do I recommend consistent 4WD on dry pavement. I also don't recommend 4WD in rain. The drive train is robust and its not made of dried pasta noodles. I would suggest for the driver to listen to the drive line and feel the behavior of the truck. If the driver is feeling binding or hearing tires barking while in 4WD, then the driver needs to shift out of 4WD.

Yes, 4WD is not recommended on dry pavement or high traction conditions. But the drive line will not disintegrate with the occasional excursions onto dry pavement in 4WD. The truck will provide feedback to the driver of a problem.

 

Nobody cares if you engage your 4x4 on dry flat non curvy stuff.

Don't engage it for rain in city driving. It is useless and stupid. If you feel more ¨secure¨, just know it's a feeling and it's probably less secure as if you have issue with too much throttle or bad tire, you'll have issue stopping.

 

Your correct, what I should have said is based on the facts as I see/interpret them. There are some very experienced and informed people on this site but unfortunatley it is sometimes hard to recognize because most every fucking body talks like an expert. If you noticed, at least I stated I'm not an expert on the topic.

 

I know people who run the 1/4 mile in 4wd ofcourse they are not making any turns.

 

I've driven my old 2001 tundra in 4wd on roads that were very slushy and somewhat slick with no problems. I wouldn't recommend it if just wet roads.

 

I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Mostly in 2wd.

 

Not trying to start an argument, but the 79' Dodge Powerwagon I once owned would disagree. It was
full-time 4WD.

 

If I’m understanding you correctly you want to drive all the time in the rain in 4WD? That would be OK on the highway etc, but tight turns on city streets you are gonna bind up your drivetrain. No questions about that. You may not break it, but it will hop all over the place.

I guess I misinterpreted the original question. I thought you were just wanting to exercise the 4WD system periodically.

I would not recommend full time 4WDing around town on rainy streets. You’ll have too much traction and the driving will be unpleasant.

 

My 71 FJ had a large open area in the floorboard where the 4x4 shifter was. If I was in 4x4 in the snow or slush the debris would often shoot right into the front of the cruiser. Sometimes I would spin the front wheels and splatter the passenger. I had to get out and lock the hubs to go into 4x4. Sometimes I had to put the land cruiser in neutral and push it back and forth a little before the hubs would lock in. I never raced the land cruiser in the 1/4 mile during the rain while in 4x4 drive.

 

Nothing else matters!


I think they refer to it as Hillbilly launch control.

 

End of discussion...

Seriously though, this topic is not to be stressed about. Know what this feels like, know you should switch back to 2wd, and don't worry about it...


If you need some confidence that the driveline is robust enough to handle a lot of stress just watch some rock crawling videos on youtube.

 

Is that because it was designed to work that way or another reason?

 

Dirt/gravel roads are fine. They'll allow your wheels to break traction and release any built-up tension in the drivetrain. In fact you can try it yourself by engaging 4wd and slowly turning at full lock on those roads. You'll hear/feel the wheels skip as they break traction.

On pavement, the traction is better so the drivetrain can build up more tension before forcing a tire skip. Can you safely do it? Yes. Is it unnecessary wear on your truck? Also yes.

 

I can only assume it was designed that way. There was zero way to disengage the front drive-line (Short of dropping the driveshaft) ... I don't know the time line of other mfg's, say Chevy or Fords, but the Powerwagons were full-time 4WD for at least a couple decades. Wasn't till the early 80's when they designed them to be able to disengage the front drive train. And I'm pretty sure they only did that to be able to squeeze a couple extra mpg out of them.