Whenever I have it in 4x4 and make a sharp turn left or right, the wheels seem to lock up. Probably something wrong with my transfer case eh? anyone ever had this problem before?

 

4 wheel drive is not made for sharp turns anyway...

 

Nothing is wrong.

That is why they say not to use 4wd on dry hard surfaces.

The front wheels have to be able to slip a little.

Your feeling CV bind and Differential bind from not being able to differentiate because of the offset.

 

Interesting, i just never noticed that it did that before, I was testing out the 4wd before the winter an noticed it locked up when i pulled in my driveway...

 

Theres your answer. The ground was dry was it not? On pavement? Do the same thing with snow on the ground, or really wet, or dirt and it wont do it because the tire can slip..

 

Yeah 4x4 on dry pavement will break things very quickly.

 

Yep thats right it was on pavement, I just tried it on dirt and it doesnt the same thing tho but it slipped so Im thinking I am fine :) Thanks for that information.

 

anyone else with a 4x4 can confirm this? rngprerunner said the front wheels need to be able to slide a bit but I beleive that it was my rear wheels that were locking...Anyways my truck is going in to the dealer tomorrow to have this checked out and they will tell me if its normal or not i guess. If not then I might as well get it fixed now since its still under waranty.

 

The replies posted before are correct. 4X4 is not for dry pavement driving at all. Just tears the system up. Don't waste your time at the dealer.

Robin...

 

 

Cool, I will take your guy's word on it :) Just needed a bit more confirmation.

 

my truck does it on dry surfaces

 

Read up on how part time 4WD works.. that's what our trucks are, part time.

Basically this means that the transfer-case does not contain a differential. This means the front and rear drive-shafts turn at the exact same rate.. which is either exactly the same rate as the input shaft from the trans, or slower, if you are in low-range. The key being that both drive-shafts are physically linked together, and turn at the same rate.

You've got differentials on both your front and rear axles. This means that the rate of rotation of either drive-axle will be proportional to the sum of the rates of both wheels. When you turn, the inside wheel forms a tighter arc than the outside.. this means the outside tire needs to turn faster than the inside wheel to cover the same wider arc. The differential let's it do this. But the sum of the two wheel-speeds still proportional to the input drive-shaft's speed.

So now you've got the front and rear axles linked together. That means they spin at the same rate. Then you ask one set of wheels to cover a different arc than the other set. Because the sum of the rates of each set must be equal, you end up w/ a problem. The result is you either have a tire that skids, or something in the drivetrain has to give. On slick surfaces getting a tire to skid is not an issue. But in high traction situations it is, so then something else in the system gives.. and that's usually something expensive!

Moral of the story: part-time 4WD is for slick surfaces ONLY.

Full-tme 4WD and AWD cars and trucks have a system that either uses a differential or a clutch mechanism where our transfer cases are. This lets the front and rear axles spin at different rates, and elminates this problem. Many fancy full-time systems (like high-end Jeep and Range Rovers) have a locking center diff. This gives them the best of both worlds, they have a diff for on-road, and can lock that center diff for off-road use.