Driving in 4WD

[crepitus]

So i lend my wife my truck for a few days amd she drove for 1 day in 4WD. How bad is it for the truck? I know its not good but is it going to do anything to it? Probably went about 80-100 miles.

[redvett]

If it was in auto trac nothing but in 4 hi its hard on the drive line.

[mini1]

It shouldn't have done any real harm unless she was doing donuts in the parking lot all day. If it was in 4WD AUTO, then no hard was done at all. If she put it in 4WD LO, then you have big trouble. She could have done some serious damage. The 4WD HI on the newer truck (the GMT 800 and 900's) is basically made to work full time if you need it. I wouldn't recommend having it on all the time, but you can if you need to.

[crepitus]

it wasnt in auto. 4WD hi. I tell her to use auto all the time since she has no idea. but who listens to there husbands.

[Bish]

it wasnt in auto. 4WD hi. I tell her to use auto all the time since she has no idea. but who listens to there husbands.

 

I doubt any damage was done. Maybe a little tire wear. I'm not a big fan of 4xauto mode all the time. When I use it, I still get a little binding when turning a tight circle on dry pavement. Not as bad as in 4x4 but I can still feel the front end binding. I do use auto any time it is slick including rain and snow. It is particularly nice when you are at highway speed and your right side hits a puddle. You can feel the difference when that happens in 2x and 4xauto. Much less of a pull to the puddle side with Auto on.

[Arctic Cat F7]

As long as she was not driving on dry pavement with it then your fine. I use my 4 hi when the hiway is snow covered with like 3 inches or more and its bad weather conditions. Thats what 4 hi is for. But driving around town and driving on dry pavement is bad for the tranny. I doubt any damage was done but something you don't want to make a habbit of.

[scarpi]

The way I understang it is that 4WD should not be used on dry pavement. To me that includes auto 4wd also. I learned from experience. I have a 02 Yukon and a "car guy" told me that I should put it in 4wd hi and go on the freeway just to "keep it lubed". I had major problems that the dealer had to fix . I won't list them here. Bottom line is that 4wd is only meant for slippery conditions and NOT DRY PAVEMENT (per my dealer) !

[ZZ327]

the auto 4wd is fine any time

 

4 hi on dry roads can cause tire wear, front end binding and transfer case or U joint damage. Especially if she was doing a lot of turning changing lanes. Straight line driving probably didnt hurt much.

[Koinz]

I agree with the majority here and use Auto 4 wheel drive when slippery. I don't go off-roading often, but if I did, I would probably want 4x4 high. I tried 4x4Low once, I think I can pull tree stumps out with that, very cool!

[Rolandd]

If you look at the wheel tracks left in light snow, dust, or dirt, you can see that the rear end follows a shorter path than the front end. The same as an axle differential working with the wheels in a turn, the front and rear axles need to be able to spin at different speeds (lets not get involved with 4-wheel steering here please) because the front axle travels further in a turn. If you lock the front and rear axles through the transfer case, the rear axle will want to travel the same distance as the front axle, which leads to tire scrubbing in corners and heavy loads on the transfer case, axles, and drive shafts. The tranny and engine are unaffected.

 

There has probably been no damage from driving 100 miles unless your wife did a lot of tight maneovering. If there was damage, you would most likely know about it as chipped gear teeth and damaged u-joints are very obvious. The impact on your tires is negligable--most of the driving is almost straight-line, where having both axles travel the same distance is normal. Hard braking will put as much strain on the tires as a locked transfer case.

 

While one can travel in 4-auto on hard surfaces , you are still fighting a viscous coupling between the axles when you corner. For normal dry driving I would put it in 2-hi.

[ThorsHD]

to answer your orig quetion. as long as all the tire sizes and R&P are the same you should be fine. I've done that myself.