Does anyone know which wheels are the drive wheels when going forward ( locking diff. off). I was wondering this because in addition to my spare 315x75x16 tire I also carry an extra factory 285x75x16 and did not want to stress out the transfer case if I had to use the 285 with the 315's. If I used it on the non drive wheel this would not happen. I think the front left and rear right are the drive wheels in forward mode?

 

All of the wheels are drive wheels even with the locking diff turned off.
In normal conditions both wheels on an axel will receive equal
power, but when one wheel loses traction the other wheel will stop spining.
When you engage the locking diff the axel will send power to the oposite wheel.
So to answer your question it does not matter which side you use it on. But as far as to
damaging your transfer case I don't know about that.

 

frount driver' rear passanger????????

 

The "in a nutshell answer" is all of them. Even though it is full time 4wd, it's not the same as being in high lock .. but the transfer case does act like a differential and allow for traction variances to be applied to various wheels in the case of slippage. High lock will send dedicated power to all wheels, but transfer of power still applies via the front and rear diffs, provided the rear locker is not activated. If the rear locker is activated, then there is no "transfer" in the rear, and both wheels will turn equal with throttle input. In that case there will still be variances up front, based on traction, but those variances only apply to the front wheels, and their traction at the time. These variances would not occure if the front axle also had a locker, .. in that case they too would turn all the time when engaged.

Ditch your smaller tire, you don't need the added weight, and it won't do you any good. You can cause damage by running it. When in high 4wd (street mode) if slippage causes the t-case to send power to the wheel that has the smaller tire, then you can put stress in the form of binding, on the t-case. The same way you should never run different axle ratio gears front to rear, you shouldn't run larger or smaller tires front to rear, or different sized tires on a locker equipped axle. If the smaller tire is the "driver" at that time, then you t-case is trying to turn on axle at one speed, and the other at another speed. Chances are it will just bind and click and pop.. without breaking anything.. but it's best to just avoid it all together. All 4wd vehicles need to run equal sized tires, especially full time 4wd.

 

Question:

I know the 4Wheel Hi lock distributes the power 50/50 as apposed to 60/40 without the lock on...Also it will only engage to the Hi-lock below 45 mph.


My question is; If you are driving in Ice and heavy snow conditions would it be best to have the 4Wheel High lock on?

 

for the snow and ice situation, i would say yes, 4 hi lock is an advantage, albeit a small one. the weight of the engine will help give the front wheels more pressure and hopefully help with steering. although if you're on ice, it's a toss up as to what will help. just don't go into 4 lo lock and back up, unless you're only going straight.

 

I'd say yes to using the high lock as long as the conditions are pretty icey, and with the heavy snow. It's probably safer too since the system won't "hunt" for slippage/traction as much. This way you have the dedicated power and the system will be less likely to slip to start with. I would return to normal high if the road is, or gets, drier though. It may be best, but as you know, I'm sure that normal high would be ok too. I guess it boils down to: is the added safety worth the extra gas. I know in my case it would be.

Being in south Texas, I rarely have to deal with those conditions. On my old full time 4wd truck I ran hi-lock on the road, twice, with ice and snow with no troubles.

 

Thanks..Shorty & Fireman

I'm looking at the same sorta light conditions for winter here too in OKC..But once in a blue moon it dumps a load on us for a few days..

 

One thing I dicovered last winter is to disengage the traction control system when you are on snow and ice on the street. It tries to brake the tire that slips. This brake action doesn't seem to use ABS so the tire locks of a second which causes the vehicle to slide around a bit. It can get kind of scarey when you expext the vehicle to go one way, but the TCS makes it go a different way.

 

Jettech737 - I do not think that all wheels are drive wheels unless you have a posi diff in front and back. I have been on ice several times and in several of my 4 wheel drives. Since the vehicle was only spinning the wheels and not moving forward I Got out and saw only one wheel in the front and one wheel in the rear moving. When I put it in reverse it was the opposite wheels that were spinning. I just forgot if it was the front left and right rear that move in DRIVE.