The Nissan Path

If I

a) do it for a very long time (hours and hours of driving at moderate speed say 45-50 mph) but the snow is sometimes.. maybe 10% of the time interrupted by free asphalt? Better to switch back to 2WD often? or best to leave it in 4Hi?
and/or
b) do 4H for along time (again as in hours of driving 50 ish mph) on wet gravel/dirt road . I dont strictly need 4x4 on this road to drive but I feel I gain useful stability and less risk of weird traction (or lack thereof) things happening by being in 4x4...

How hard are a) and b) on my drivetrain?

No worries or?

thoughts?

Yes. I have the sane question. How bad is 4x4 when no you hit areas of no snow , rain etc. ?

I assumed not very good when turning and very good traction at all wheels. But maybe limited slip in rear has something to take care of this. And what about transfer case . Maybe wrong terms sorry


But In general. Question I also wonder. At what Point should you turn off 4 High besides going over 55Mph

Thanks

I noticed when I hat MT tires on my old Xterra ( since sold but exact same powertrain) and it was raining nothing ever felt "draggy" in 4 Hi on slick asphalt.

But with Normal tires something felt like it was binding in 4Hi on street whether asphalt was dry or not.

I dindt do this intentional usually only when I came from a snow/dirt area and it took a bit for it to turn off.

I noticed going straight in wet asphalt it felt more stable.. even so i would turn it off anytime i was not on dirt or snow.. even if very wet...

But again the Mud Tires s had such poor onroad traction i never felt anything binding.. but i dont use such extreme tires anymore..

Curious to what smj thinks about all this..

PS: thats a bit advantage of the LEs... they have the "auto" setting too..

Was just going to say leave it in auto but I guess that's only on the LE model

Yes, only the LE trim has the AUTO mode transfer case. You can drive up to 62 MPH in 4-HI. If you are driving between patches of snow covered road and the rest of the road is just wet, staying in 4-HI is fine. If you are driving on rough roads consisting of dirt and gravel, staying in 4-HI is fine. What you don't want to be doing is driving in 4-HI or 4-LO on dry surfaced roads.

In answer to this:

"I assumed not very good when turning and very good traction at all wheels. But maybe limited slip in rear has something to take care of this. And what about transfer case . Maybe wrong terms sorry

There is no mechanical LSD in the R51 differentials, front nor rear. Both are open carriers. The limited slip is electronic, using the ABS system to lock the brake on the free-spinning wheel, which puts the power to the wheel with traction.

So what about snow and dry roads? Is 4 high on dry roads going straight line ok? This happens because side streets have snow and parking lots but main roads are dry. Completely dry

Smj what do you say?

BullDozer wrote:So what about snow and dry roads? Is 4 high on dry roads going straight line ok? This happens because side streets have snow and parking lots but main roads are dry. Completely dry

Smj what do you say?

As I said in the previous post: "What you don't want to be doing is driving in 4-HI or 4-LO on dry surfaced roads."