Hard turn in 4H causes “wobble”?!?

[Steph1]

4hi needs a loss of traction otherwise you can damage components. Go do the exact same thing on a gravel road and you won’t feel that. Totally normal and don’t do it again unless you don’t care about wear and tear.

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[Dusty Dude]

Hi Everyone,
This really helped me out. This is my first car and I was wondering what's the best thing to do in snow?

Im here in Canada and we get quite a bit of snow. I was turning sharply with 4H in snow but still felt the steering resist. Should I avoid sharp turns with 4H even in the snow?

No, just do it slowly. It is better to stay in 2H as long as possible because it teaches you to slow down in bad conditions. 4H is great for getting through deep snow, etc. provided you keep your speed down.

 

[mark203]

Here's what is happening.
When you engage 4WD, the transfer case turns both the front and the rear driveshaft at the same speed, they are essentially locked together.

When you are going around a turn, the rear wheels do *not* track behind the front wheels, so the wheels *want* to turn at different speeds... but they can't, so your tires are going to scrub on dry pavement.

When you are on a surface where that wheel slip can happen without a lot of resistance, the tires just slip a bit. But when you are on dry pavement, the tires are essentially being dragged along, so you feel that resistance as it is pushed back up into your drive train.

"AWD"vehicles, like Subarus, have a differential in the transfer, so they allow the front and rear wheel pairs to turn at different speeds, at the cost of having essentially an open differential between them.

 

[abubakar]

@mark203 thanks for the explanation!

So I experienced this when the road was wet so not really dry pavement.

It makes me think that you should avoid 4H unless you're going in a straight line. Any way around that in snowy rainy conditions?

 

[mark203]

@mark203 thanks for the explanation!

So I experienced this when the road was wet so not really dry pavement.

It makes me think that you should avoid 4H unless you're going in a straight line. Any way around that in snowy rainy conditions?

Different vehicles are optimized for different conditions.
The Wrangler is optimized for rough terrain where, for example, one axle loses traction, the other can push/pull you through.

I happen to have the SelecTrac option, so I can put it into "4 Auto" which, as others have pointed out in other threads, isn't the same as "AWD" but rather will send power to the front axle if the rear starts slipping. Given that, I don't worry about it too much - it is great in winter.

If the road is simply wet, I stay in 2WD, there really isn't any advantage with 4WD in those conditions.

On previous 4WD vehicles, like my nearly indestructible Toyota pre-Tacoma pickup, I'd shift into 4WD situationally, like when starting from a stop on a steep hill in wet/slick conditions (hello Seattle), then once I was going, shift back to 2WD. (With a pickup, the back end is essentially unweighted, so loses traction pretty quickly.)

Bottom line - use 4WD when you need it to get moving.
It doesn't help you much for steering like a straight front-wheel-drive vehicle might.

Anyway - that is my view on it, others will likely chime in as well as there really isn't an algorithm to apply here.

I'll add - I think the main thing is understanding how the system works so you can make the best judgement about how various conditions and lever settings will affect things.

 

[mwilk012]

@mark203 thanks for the explanation!

So I experienced this when the road was wet so not really dry pavement.

It makes me think that you should avoid 4H unless you're going in a straight line. Any way around that in snowy rainy conditions?

If you can see asphalt, you should be in 2wd.

 

[J.Ferreira]

Let's just say someone didn't realize this and drove the JL in 4H for a few days - has that hurt anything?

but like...why?

 

[Deleted member 59498]

That is not wobble it is all that expensive stuff binding up and popping and stuff. (Technical Language)

 

[J.Ferreira]

@mark203 thanks for the explanation!

So I experienced this when the road was wet so not really dry pavement.

It makes me think that you should avoid 4H unless you're going in a straight line. Any way around that in snowy rainy conditions?

If you can see asphalt, you should be in 2wd.

Also it should be noted that you can shift the transfer case up to speeds under 55MPH.
I'll regularly on the highway throw it in neutral and switch to 4H for shitty snow or back during a stretch of dry pavement.

 

[J.Ferreira]

That is not wobble it is all that expensive stuff binding up and popping and stuff. (Technical Language)

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff.

 

[Deleted member 59498]

Also it should be noted that you can shift the transfer case up to speeds under 55MPH.
I'll regularly on the highway throw it in neutral and switch to 4H for shitty snow or back during a stretch of dry pavement.

Absolutely that is Alaska especially getting on the highway, the on ramp is packed ice so 4H then the highway is clean and back to 2H. Do it all the time in the winter.

 

[rcadden]

Don't feel bad, you've got to learn some time.

I would highly, highly recommend cracking open a beer or brewing a cup of tea or whatever suits your fancy and reading your manual cover to cover. Wealth of information about how to properly operate your new toy. Not as boring as you probably imagine.

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