driving in 4wd Hi

With the onset of snow seeming immenient I was wondering at what stage transmission windup would be an issue when running in High Ratio 4wd. Can I use it more of a preventative measure rather than one i start losing traction however slight?

Not a good idea to use 4wd on tarmac unless the tarmac is actualy covered in slippery snow/ice.

I did think as much, as will diff lock on LR's. I'm just thinking of how tail happy a Rwd jimny is going to be! Plenty weight in the back'd be a plan i think!....then i notice your pic, what is it like on snow and ice mate? Both in 2 and 4

Can be quite easy to spin on ice in 2wd but if you play it safe and drive to the conditions it is fine. My rule of thumb is once I start to slide apply 4x4 and then keep on taking things easy. you will have twice as much grip as regular cars in forward motion. The thing is though pulling up is the same as any other car. So lots of space in front is still a good idea.

4wheelers wrote: Can be quite easy to spin on ice in 2wd but if you play it safe and drive to the conditions it is fine. My rule of thumb is once I start to slide apply 4x4 and then keep on taking things easy. you will have twice as much grip as regular cars in forward motion. The thing is though pulling up is the same as any other car. So lots of space in front is still a good idea.

exactly what i do but some idiot think 4x4's are amazing and dont slide ie doing silly speeds still then wonder why they crash. keep enough room in front

Where the snow is patchy i drive with care in 2wd, most of the roads i drove on last year were entirely snow covered though so 4 high was fine. The dual carriageways were untouched in the outside lane so i knocked into 4hi and had a lane to myself. It drove better in a good layer of snow in 4wd to be honest than on the patchy bits in 2wd. Once it froze i was in 4lo on some roads where you were reduced to a crawl, the engine braking was useful.

adamjimny wrote:

4wheelers wrote: Can be quite easy to spin on ice in 2wd but if you play it safe and drive to the conditions it is fine. My rule of thumb is once I start to slide apply 4x4 and then keep on taking things easy. you will have twice as much grip as regular cars in forward motion. The thing is though pulling up is the same as any other car. So lots of space in front is still a good idea.

exactly what i do but some idiot think 4x4's are amazing and dont slide ie doing silly speeds still then wonder why they crash. keep enough room in front

Yeah, quite right! Being in a 4wd vehicle doesn't make you invincible, sure you'll fair better than a 2wd car, but hard-packed snow and ice are a great leveller. When those big nobbly tyres are unable to dig in you'll soon know about it

Mick C wrote:

adamjimny wrote:

4wheelers wrote: Can be quite easy to spin on ice in 2wd but if you play it safe and drive to the conditions it is fine. My rule of thumb is once I start to slide apply 4x4 and then keep on taking things easy. you will have twice as much grip as regular cars in forward motion. The thing is though pulling up is the same as any other car. So lots of space in front is still a good idea.

exactly what i do but some idiot think 4x4's are amazing and dont slide ie doing silly speeds still then wonder why they crash. keep enough room in front

Yeah, quite right! Being in a 4wd vehicle doesn't make you invincible, sure you'll fair better than a 2wd car, but hard-packed snow and ice are a great leveller. When those big nobbly tyres are unable to dig in you'll soon know about it

Exactly, doesn't matter how many wheels are driven once its frozen.

As countless Rangie sport/x trail/shogun etc, etc... drivers found out round here! I overheard 2 guys with rangie sports say" i had to press that LO button, dunno what it does, must limit the engine power or something"

Thats not a generalisation towards rangie sport drivers - martin :blush:

We had someone come in the pub saying a car had gone off the road, i went up to see if we could do anything, i was hugging the car to stand up! I moved about 2foot in the jimny touched the brakes and it just slid on the camber of the road, nothing would stop it.

Plenty of people come unstuck round here, primarily from being poorly prepared and not taking their time-if most people left half hour earlier and took their time they'd get on better.

My mate wrote off his ranger on an icy bend BEFORE the snow hit, put it on its roof after losing the tail and it dragging him into the ditch.

mcjimny wrote: As countless Rangie sport/x trail/shogun etc, etc... drivers found out round here! I overheard 2 guys with rangie sports say" i had to press that LO button, dunno what it does, must limit the engine power or something"

Thats not a generalisation towards rangie sport drivers - martin :blush:

You would have laughed at me last year. My house is on a shared drive with 4 other houses. Mine is the first house on a downward sloping drive. Therefore I have to come into the drive and then turn across the sloping drive to access my house.

In all the snow last year I was happily driving in and out of my drive whilst my neighbours 2WD cars were stuck at the bottom of the slope. Until one day when instead of driving in and keeping a bit of forward momentum going I (for some unknown reason) stopped at the drive entrance to look at where I was going to go. Once I stopped the RRS it became 3 tonnes of toboggan. It went sideways down the drive into the bushes at the bottom, very embarrassing in front of my 2WD neighbours and a neighbour with another RRS who had also happily been driving the slope.

So out of the garage came the Jimny and I had to winch my own Range Rover up the drive!. Not only that but it was sideways on so for part of the winch I had to pull the 3 tonnes sideways up-hill. Its a sign of how slippery it was that the small Jimny could pull this without problem (I chained it to a handy lampost).

The only compensation was that my neighbout with the RRS did the same thing a few days later. He had been going up and down the drive ok until one day he stopped to look at his route, at that point it became 3 tonnes of toboggan and off it went down the slope. I had to winch him out as well.

My rule of thumb for 4WD in icy conditions(and I know its only approximate before the 4WD enthusiasts complain) is as follows: