4x4 vibration on turns

Rarely turn on the 4x4H setting unless it snows or off road. Today I turned it on on ice and noticed around turns I felt a vibration. Couldn't tell if it was sliding on the turn or the 4x4 was making a weird vibration. Other thing I noticed is that in 4x4 mode with the wheel turned at stop, it is hard to get the truck to move, I have to gas enough to make it jerk forward. Is this all normal?

 

Depends how sharp the turn is

 

Yes that's normal. Don't do that

 

http://www.4x4abc.com/4WD101/def_turnpart.html

 

The previous posters have the right idea if you were just in patchy ice and hitting spots of dry or even wet pavement in the turn. Were you on 100% ice?

 

Thank you. The roads were iced, but salt was on the road so the ice was patchy. Is this not a good environment to have 4x4H on?

 

oh wow... so on pavement we shouldn't be on 4x4H unless it is snow covered? what if it is patchy snow or ice?

 

Turn it on and off accordingly. That's the whole point of part time four wheel drive. I drove 350 miles in the snow yesterday. For several miles I would be in 4wd and when I got to clearer roads I would turn it off. I probably engaged and disengaged 4wd a dozen times on that trip. No big deal.

 

It's fine on pavement if you're driving in a straight line. If you will be turning, it can bind depending on how sharp the turn is. This is because the wheels on the same axle will rotate at different rates. If you turn on non-slippery surfaces in 4x4 enough, you will have some major problems.

 

Oops I had an amateur moment. Didn’t know i could turn it on or off while driving... I would always turn it on off while stopped.

 

Your owners manual as an upper speed at which it is safe to switch into and out of 4H. I prefer to be well under that speed, not under load (ie. off the gas), and be driving in a staight line when switching in and out of 4 wheel drive.

 

This is really just a technicality but I like to point it out because I too was unaware of this at one point. It's not actually that the outside wheel is rotating faster than the inside wheel. We have open differentials across the front and rear. What we do not have is an open center differential. So the front and rear driveshafts are locked to the same speed. So it's really the combination of the front wheels attempting to rotate at a different speed than the combination of the rear wheels that causes the binding.

 

I switch in and out of 4hi up to about 40mph. I just make sure I am going a steady speed. For 4lo I am stopped, in neutral, foot off the brake (hopefully). In patchy snow and stuff, I just keep it in 2WD unless I start slipping. Four wheel drive is for snow covered roads or getting unstuck.

 

Pretty much. It is a bit of a pain in mixed conditions, but just turn it on and off accordingly. If you are going straight though, it's not as much of a concern.

One thing I could see in future iterations of the Taco though is a 4WD auto setting. More and more vehicles are adding this in along with 4Hi and 4Lo (Raptor, ZR2, 2018 Wrangler etc.)

 

Thanks, this definitely helps. I was noticing it bind and did not know what was going on. On off it will be and will stay off the 4x4 on sharp turns. Hopefully no harm was done with 3-4 sharp turns in 4x4 mode.

 

You're fine!

I usually go back to 2hi to do sharp turn arounds. If it's too slick that you can't turn around in 2hi then it's slick enough to avoid binding in 4hi!

 

Not sure why it isn't more common. My 2002 Pathfinder had it and it was fantastic, as soon as the snow flew you could switch to auto and leave it for the winter (in the city). But even the Frontier (can't speak for resembling Pathfinder or Xterra) didn't have it, almost as if they went away from it and I've always wondered why?

 

$$ is my guess