Hello,

I purchased my '03 Durango back in August but has been in for maintenance until this week, woo-hoo finally got it!

Anyway, I've been testing everything extensively, to make sure I don't have any problems, and here is what I noticed.

The D switches to 4-Lo and 4-Hi without a hitch, and even drives fine. No hard shifts or bucking.

However, in both 4-Lo and 4-Hi at very low speeds, it almost feels like the rear is being dragged, almost like the rear wheels are locked. Is this normal, or something I should look into?

Thanks,

 

when you have 4wd engaged there is extra friction on the driveline, you decelerate slower, this is compounded when making turns since the front and rear axles want to spin at different speeds, it is normal and not something to be concerned about.

 

If I'm reading and understand correctly it sounds like the front and rear diff have two different size gears. Mine only does that when i turn. I'm under the impression he is driving straight?


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if the road is perfectly smooth and he is going 100% straight then it should be a very small amount, but it will still be noticeable, if he had different sized gears he would eventually hear tires chirping as one axle tried to spin faster than the other something would have to slip in order for the truck to keep moving.

also there is no such thing as a perfectly smooth road, even a brand new road has high/low spots in it and it really does not take much to create drag on the system when you have this much mass on it

 

Not to mention the areodynamics of a brick. I did a lab for my physics class using my D for the vehicle to figure out how much air drag and it came to about 3200 newtons at 80mph, or around 720 lbs of air resistance pushing on the D. Now that doesn't included the friction from the axels, it was in neutral, and there was 0 wind . But still its a large number.

 

Huh. Never noticed. Then again i very.. Very rarely drive in drive on dry pavement in 4wd. Like 3 times in 14 years


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This is what I was hoping. I only noticed it at very low speeds, and turning sharply. When I accelerate its less noticeable.

Thanks for the responses everyone.