When to use 4 low? (1 Viewer)

[Tex68w]

We run the 23 miles of beach here in Matagorda often and I assure you it is much deeper and softer sand than you will find in the desert or on some forest fire road. The 200 can struggle without the CDL in the soft stuff, I have seen/felt it myself many times and more often than not I will engage the CDL prior to hitting the beach. I have never once felt the "need" for 4LO on the beach but I have played around with it so that I can mess with the CRAWL settings. I can see how 4LO would be useful in the deep sand if one were towing a trailer through it as well. I really should engage 4LO more often but I simply don't run into scenarios here where it is needed so I'll have to continue to do my bi-annual neighborhood 4LO engagement exercise drive lol.

 

[MCtree]

I didn’t need to turn on 4-low on the drive up Last Dollar road here in Telluride. The LC would have made it up fine in 4-high, I think.
But I do think the transmission temp would have gotten above the 220 and thus it would have started to break down the transmission fluid.

Have you ever checked your transmission temp when crawling in the deep sand?

Though I should also say that the 220 temp I found was off of a quick google search. So don’t take it as anything written in stone.

 

[Tex68w]

I didn’t need to turn on 4-low on the drive up Last Dollar road here in Telluride. The LC would have made it up fine in 4-high, I think.
But I do think the transmission temp would have gotten above the 220 and thus it would have started to break down the transmission fluid.

Have you ever checked your transmission temp when crawling in the deep sand?

Though I should also say that the 220 temp I found was off of a quick google search. So don’t take it as anything written in stone.

I don’t have a habit of monitoring that stuff in the Cruiser, I’ll be sure to check it next time I’m on the beach in both Lo and Hi.

 

[RT Cruiser]

Problem was, I did 4-high first and the temp got all the way up to 214. If the fluid starts to break down at 220, I felt this was pushing the limit so I switched to 4-low. The transmission temp very quickly dropped to 180 and hovered around there for the rest of the climb.

Not to say I didn’t trust all you guys who are much more knowledgeable than me, but this evidence further convinced the use 4-low in most off-roading situations. Certainly when climbing.

The use of 4-low depends upon the trail, weather, tires, how much weight is in/on your rig, and your experience. I don't use it unless I need to. On a few steep trails I've been on in Colorado, I'll use 4-low to save my brakes when descending. And on some trails where the top layer is fine silt, sand, and small rocks. 4-low helps ensure an easy move down through a tight and high-inclined switchback whereas going to fast can influence the rig to slide.

35k miles ago I replaced the tranny fluid with Valvoline MaxLife Sythentic. If I'm correct, the high operating temp threshold is about 280f with the flashpoint around 350-380f. I've been on lots of trails from that time including city/highway/snow/dirt/etc. The tranny still shifts great and has normal operating temps.