No, I don't think so. I have many years driving 4wd trucks in Canadian winters. I have always been taught to use 4wd HI(lock) only when the road conditions allow the tires to slip.

The confusion here, is not that 4wd AUTO allows the tires to "free wheel", but rather allows the 4 wheels to turn at different rates, and different combinations. this making it possible to run at any speed, any turn radius without "RISKING" damage. (risking being the key word, which is why my fellow Canadian has managed to go without any).

4wd LOCK does not lock the wheels together, they can still spin in different combos (depending on your axles), HOWEVER, all wheels will turn at the same rate. THIS is what makes it a risk to go at higher speeds, and make sharp turns. It doesn't guarantee damage will happen, but does increase the risk of it.

For my preference, I use 4wd AUTO (with ESP on the highway, without ESP in town) until I can feel the 4wd engaging and disengaging to the point of annoyance. AT that time, I will lock in 4wd.

 

Well then you guys are beating up your trucks 4 WD should be used when you want it to be used or if you have to use it! I live in Pittsburgh this has been a SNOWY start to this winter ****! I have used my Auto 4wd all the way home and back to work man does this truck stick to the snow now! No fish tailing unless i want to! You in my 04 truck i used 4wd going down the road at 60 mph in the snow that truck had 100 k on it. but i got it used so the rear end had shavings in the gear box i didnt want to spend 3k on that so i bought a new truck! this is the best thing that dodge did AUTO 4WD awesome!

 

Again, just because someone hasn't had any issues running 4wd LOCK at highway speeds, or on dry roads, doesn't mean there is no risk in doing so. There is, to some degree.

Sure the AUTO is nice for Dodge, but they are just playing catch up on that one. Jeeps had part/full time 4wd many years ago, as did my 02 GMC Sierra.

For the record, part time 4wd = LOCK
full time 4wd = AUTO

In case any one didn't know the terms.

 

This could help....http://www.rubicon-trail.com/4WD101/driveline-bind.html

There IS a major difference betweeen AWD and 4WD. One is designed to work on dry pavement. The other, well take your chances.

 

 

I'm getting "This video is private"

 

^^ same here

 

Well - not really.

Auto is part time 4wd with a an automatic enable/disable.

Real full time 4wd is powering all 4 wheels all the time but with the required center differential to keep stuff from exploding. This is the reason that I swapped NP242's into my kids street jeeps in place of the NP231's. It allows them to put the tcase in a full time mode and leave it there without fear of grenading the tcase or front axles.

 

Sort of, but no. It is what I said it was. There is a difference, it is not "part time" and "part time with automatic enable/disable" it is part time, and full time.

The guy in post 2 of this thread has it exactly right.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f28/f...ime-4wd-14281/

 

Playing catch-up? Rams had AWD back back in '04, I drove one.

Also, to me a full-time 4wd system refers to the truck meaning it is engaged all the time with no ability to have 2wd selected. All of ours, regardless of xfer case are part-time. A Jeep Quadratrac is a Full-time because you cannot disengage 4wd. I don't how our xfer case in 4wd Lock can be called part-time because it is on full-time when engaged.

All semantics aside, it's still dangerous to the system to drive in 4wd lock or 4wd Hi on any hard, dry surface.