Push button 4WD for the Wrangler

[Naylia]

Get one with a Selec-trac transfer case, it's exactly the same amount of effort brand new, old, stopped, moving, in park, whatever. Still has a lever.

Yup, this has been my experience as well. I took the Jeep Academy class and even those guys weren't really used to the idea that it could work smoothly. They came around to check on us at the beinning to make sure every had 4L, disconnects, and lockers if available all properly engaged and he's like "yeah, just yank on it real hard"...i was like you mean like this and smoothly shift between 4Auto, 4PT, 4L with barely a touch. He had this look on his face like...wait a minute...that's not supposed to work that well....

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[sigsegv]

Yup, this has been my experience as well. I took the Jeep Academy class and even those guys weren't really used to the idea that it could work smoothly. They came around to check on us at the beinning to make sure every had 4L, disconnects, and lockers if available all properly engaged and he's like "yeah, just yank on it real hard"...i was like you mean like this and smoothly shift between 4Auto, 4PT, 4L with barely a touch. He had this look on his face like...wait a minute...that's not supposed to work that well....

4H -> N -> 4L still has physical stuff going on - mine doesn't shift easily when stopped, but it's brand new. I'm not sure that pattern is any easier than the regular transfer cases.

 

[txj2go]

As long as there's a manual offering, switching between 2H-4H-N-4L should have a mechanical control so you can try to muscle the vehicle into 4 low while the engine is off. Just as a matter of safety if someone stalls while doing a water crossing.

But I don't think that would shift the front axle.

 

[kbp810]

Had a 3rd gen Tacoma TRDOR that had a button... hated that thing.

Majority of offroading around me can be done in 2wd; but plenty of situations where you realize at the last moment that you need 4wd... in 4Runner or Jeep, pull the lever, and boom, you're in 4.

In the taco... you push the button, it starts blinking at you as if to say "Sir, am I to understand that you are requesting I go into 4wd? Let me just check on a few things really quick and see if I can accommodate you. Well, I don't really care for the current positioning, maybe if you could just slow down, perhaps stop and/or crawl slowly forward? Ah yes, there we go... request granted!" Meanwhile, you're now slowly backing down the sandy gradual incline you failed to climb, or calling over the radio for a pull.

 

[Heimkehr]

...you push the button, it starts blinking at you as if to say "Sir, am I to understand that you are requesting I go into 4wd? Let me just check on a few things really quick and see if I can accommodate you. Well, I don't really care for the current positioning, maybe if you could just slow down, perhaps stop and/or crawl slowly forward? Ah yes, there we go... request granted!"

Mein Gott... That's uncomfortably close to what I hear every time I use the phone or Chat feature for customer service. You know what I mean here.

I appreciate the polite-to-a-fault demeanor...truly, I do...but I also don't want to waste time playing verbal footsie. Can you attend to my request, or not? Ugh.

And so the foregoing informs my preference for maintaining analog controls in the Jeep, where possible and certainly where appropriate.

 

[maddmaxx]

Had a 3rd gen Tacoma TRDOR that had a button... hated that thing.

Majority of offroading around me can be done in 2wd; but plenty of situations where you realize at the last moment that you need 4wd... in 4Runner or Jeep, pull the lever, and boom, you're in 4.

In the taco... you push the button, it starts blinking at you as if to say "Sir, am I to understand that you are requesting I go into 4wd? Let me just check on a few things really quick and see if I can accommodate you. Well, I don't really care for the current positioning, maybe if you could just slow down, perhaps stop and/or crawl slowly forward? Ah yes, there we go... request granted!" Meanwhile, you're now slowly backing down the sandy gradual incline you failed to climb, or calling over the radio for a pull.

 

[maddmaxx]

Leave the damn 4wd lever alone. Don’t tie anymore electronics to the Jeep than necessary. Like was stated earlier….it’s a jeep. The most capable off-road vehicle ever built. leave well enough alone.

 

[Markham]

I love the lever! Even when it’s being a bitch sometimes and doesn’t want to go in to 4hi.

 

[Jeeb]

I love the lever! Even when it’s being a bitch sometimes and doesn’t want to go in to 4hi.

For some reason, I feel like this would make a good Valentine's Day card.

 

[Pinky Tuscadero]

Fine, keep the floor shifters but put in a bench seat somehow anyways please
Not "Jeep-ey" but certainly old school and much more fun than a useless storage bin and "wing" seats designed for a 80 pound woman

 

[Socks]

I got into this debate with someone who was going on and on about push button 4WD functionality appearing in more true off-road capable SUVs, and I thought I'd check with all of you on your thoughts....

I LOVE that I have a lever I can pull back into 4HI or 4LO.

Others I've talked to claim I'm just old, living in the past, and should adopt the new way of the 4WD world.

Would Jeep ever change from a lever to a button in a Wrangler? I really hope they don't.

Thoughts?

Buttons/dials absolutely not. The only reason they were introduced in the first place, and I mean the only reason, was for the female population and the beginning of the SUV craze way back. We built 4X4 systems for Ford and others. Think Explorer. And I was talking to an engineer for those systems at the time. I complained about the transfer case lever leaving on newer vehicles. And he told me that was the reason behind the electric shift transfer cases...women. They were the main drivers of those vehicles.

 

[Chupacabra]

4H -> N -> 4L still has physical stuff going on - mine doesn't shift easily when stopped, but it's brand new. I'm not sure that pattern is any easier than the regular transfer cases.

That's because you're supposed to shift into 4L while moving at 1-3 MPH, not stopped, and do not pause in the N position. Try it that way and it might be easier.

"Shifting into or out of 4WD Low is possible with the vehicle completely stopped; however, difficulty may occur due to the mating teeth not being properly aligned. Several attempts may be required for clutch teeth alignment and shift completion to occur. The preferred method is with the vehicle rolling at 1 to 3 mph"

And only because I did this, if you have an automatic, it needs to be in Neutral too while you do this

 

[At Risk Ute]

Honestly wish I had locking hubs and Ox lockers. Sway bar button drives me nuts too. However, do appreciate the Offroad Plus button going down gnarly shit.

 

[WreckEm711]

I love the tactile feel of the mechanical shifter. My previous vehicles had a button or dial, so it's not nostalgia speaking, it's just better!

 

[roaniecowpony]

I have bought GM pickups for about 25 years now. On my first one, the floorshift Xfer case was still available. So, I made sure I ordered it that way. To my surprise, it was basically a big switch with electrical connections to a servo actuator on the Xfer case. That was the last time I recall a floorshift case available on a GM truck. 1998. My 99 only came with a dashboard button shift.

I sold that 99 to a friend about 10 years ago. Within a month, I get a call that he's up in the Kaibab hunting and said it won't shift out of 4Lo. I ask if he drove over anything that might have snagged any wires underneath. "Well, we drove over a tree stump that hung up...." I told him to crawl under there and check for damage to the wires and actuator. It was. He managed to mouse it good enough to work.

We don't need no stinking electric shift in our Jeeps.

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