H4 on wet pavement? (1 Viewer)

[EsbenDenmark]

I have been searching a bit but want to ask your opinion?

I have a 75series, no center diff.
Is it safe to use H4 on wet pavement or will it put too much stress on the transfer case?

I was reading in the owners manual and it says:
"4h high range 4wd.
Use this for normal driving on wet, icy pr snow covered roads."

 

[RHINO]

I use 4h often during winter, never known it to be hard on xfer case

 

[coldtaco]

I only have used it with snow/ice roads. Never tried on wet roads

 

[AirheadNut]

I haven't ever used H4 on wet roads. My thought is I only engage H4 when conditions are such that I could spin a rear wheel if I accelerate hard from a stop.

 

[Felde]

Hi
Wet pavement is a task for tires. If your tires are good, they should handle the wet, displace the water and provide good traction. Permanent good traction however will lead to twisting in the drivetrain in H4 (with no center diff), resulting in increased stress and tire wear.
To limit the stress, the tires need a chance to free spin at times to release the twisting. That's the tire wear, though.
Conclusion: H4 (with no center diff) rather not on wet pavement.
If your rig has poor grip on wet roads, rather consider better tires (I know: Simple to say but hard to do: Tires on a 4x4 are always a compromise between onroad and offroad performance).
Slick roads, e.g from silt, ice, snow, are a different matter. Tires can't displace those media. When tire performance has reached its limits, H4 comes in.
Cheers Ralf

 

[Eurasiaoverland]

If you are losing grip on wet roads you need to check your tyres, or your driving style.

You can check while driving if the road surface is slippery enough to need H4 - drive in H4 for a minute and then try to move the lever back to H2. If it is stiff, or makes a clunk, you are getting wind-up in the transmission, and don't need to be in H4.

 

[pawnthatdude]

People seem to be dismissing this, but there's a legitimate use case to ask this question.

If you're driving on snow in winter, but there are patches of road that are just wet, the question is should you stay in H4, or switch back and forth (and when).

 

[coldtaco]

People seem to be dismissing this, but there's a legitimate use case to ask this question.

If you're driving on snow in winter, but there are patches of road that are just wet, the question is should you stay in H4, or switch back and forth (and when).

I would switch, I would think that tires on wet surfaces would get too much traction, of course if the wet is like a really short distance then I wouldn’t worry about it. Here if the road is wet it is because of deice fluid

 

[AirheadNut]

People seem to be dismissing this, but there's a legitimate use case to ask this question.

If you're driving on snow in winter, but there are patches of road that are just wet, the question is should you stay in H4, or switch back and forth (and when).

I would agree. I keep my hubs locked pretty much all winter, and use the pushbutton H4 switch as needed while driving. If the snow is just patchy I will engage H4 just for the snowy/icy bits. Works with a manual transfer case too, shifting in and out of 4wd on the fly became almost automatic the winter I daily drove my Mercedes 300GD.

 

[Felde]

Works with a manual transfer case too, shifting in and out of 4wd on the fly became almost automatic the winter I daily drove my Mercedes 300GD.

Well, the T-Case of G-wagons are synchronized. Many Toyota LC T-cases are not... But yes: Go 4, if . Cheers Ralf