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Max speed in 4 hi ???


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I have a 87 GL D/R wagon and was wondering what is the max speed that I can go with it in 4 hi? I know that vehicles with transfer cases can only travel about 50 mph with 4 wheel engaged but being that it does not have a transfer case does this make a difference? I just don't want to cause any damage. Thanks for the help.

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You do have a "transfer like case". It operates the same excpet of re routing power to the front wheels. Dont go more then 50 on dry pavement. You can get torque bind and it will make the car hard to steer.

I have done 60 in 4wd high on 40 miles of snow covered (packed) /slushy highway with no problem (I was the only one on the road dumb enough to go to work).

 

nipper

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You do have a "transfer like case". It operates the same excpet of re routing power to the front wheels. Dont go more then 50 on dry pavement. You can get torque bind and it will make the car hard to steer.

I have done 60 in 4wd high on 40 miles of snow covered (packed) /slushy highway with no problem (I was the only one on the road dumb enough to go to work).

 

nipper

 

You shouldn't be in 4wd on dry pavement no matter what the speed (well, except when the front axle splines strip out, and you have to put it in 4wd to get it to move... ) I often keep mine in 4lo if it's snowy, just because then I don't go faster than 35mph or so. Nothing wrong with 4hi, but it tempts me to drive faster than I should on icy roads sometimes.

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Just don't go super fast on dry pavement in 4WD. You run the risk of torque bind in a straight at higher speeds if there's any discrepancies in tire size difference.

I've driven my brat for well over 1000km onroad in 4WD at speeds around 100km/h. No ill effects that I can see so far. But it does have the best 4sp trans I have seen.

 

I would really like to see how long one of these boxes can last on pavement in 4WD. Just the other day I went for a drive and pulled into a car park forgetting I was in 4WD with a welded rear and axles in, and I was on 215 wide road tires. Was interesting I must say, but nothing broke.

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if you want to get technical...they tell you that if you have a brat and you are going to carry a very heavy load you should use 4wd. i believe I read this in an owners manual once.

 

Less stress on the axles if you use four of them instead of only two. The old landrovers from the 50's had the same issue, that they produced so much torque in low range they would break the rear axles, so you could only put it in low range if you also had it in 4wd.

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Less stress on the axles if you use four of them instead of only two. The old landrovers from the 50's had the same issue, that they produced so much torque in low range they would break the rear axles, so you could only put it in low range if you also had it in 4wd.
i've heard of this dr krazy has a twin stick for his lifted sedan for 2wd low, he blows front axels left and right, since he did it
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This thread brings up an interesting question that I have been meaning to ask.

I listen to the radio program "Car Talk" on NPR. One morning a girl from Alaska called about her 86 4wd Subaru GL wagon. She said that her father and her brothers all put thier trucks in 4wd in October and left them that way until spring. She had been doing the same thing in the Sube. I guess she had heard not to do it and was calling to find out if it was bad for her car. They told her that if she operated the part time 4wd on dry pavement, it could cause the car to flip over. I have heard reasons why you aren't supposed to drive in "real" (not awd) 4wd on dry pavement, but never because you will flip.

Have you guys ever heard this?

 

Oh, and for the record, I used to drive 4 hours home from Harrisonburg in 4wd when it was snowing/sleeting/raining, usurally averaging around 70 mph.

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