Do you mostly drive in 2H or 4H?

[kodiakisland]

Perfect. Glad I asked. 2H, unless I need extra traction on trails or wet pavement. No 4A on my OBX.

NO! 4H is not for wet pavement. If you're losing traction on wet pavement, slow down.

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[bloominguez]

Let's not be tooooo harsh here folks.
I worked with a woman, college educated, knew her stuff, had an Isuzu Trooper and she sought my advice at the office. Seems she would put it in 4WD when it was snowy, made no difernece. Sure enough, her hubs were unlocked so I helpfully turned the little knob and voila she has her 4 WD!
Not so fast. Her husband found out what I had done, turned the hubs off, and admonished her that the salesman had told him to never drive around with the hubs locked. We know that the guy meant "not all summer long" but all he heard was "don't"
People have questions, We have the wisdumb. That's why the questions get asked.

Ah, the good old days. I remember my dad had an F-250 Ford Ranger (back when Ranger was just a different full-sized truck variant, just like Explorer) with automatic hubs. And by "automatic" I mean he would tell my brother or me to get out (in really bad weather) and lock the hubs! That truck was a monster.

FWIW, I don't think the advanced transfer case (with 4A mode, automatic as-needed clutch-based engagement of the front wheels, as the computer sees fit) gets enough love. People like the OP, who don't understand 4WD, really need that mode. And people that do understand 4WD who realize they'll drive more in bad weather than off-road also like it.

 

[frdfan]

recommended top speed for 4H in snow?

Depends on where you live and what conditions you learned to drive in...50 mph is usually my top on icy/slush cattle pathed conditions, 50-60 on packed snow.

 

[frdfan]

Been driving Bronco for about a week or so, and usually drive in 2H. But tried 4H and didn't really notice much of a difference (dry normal conditions). Curious if most are driving normally with 4 wheel, or two wheel?

Best advice I can give is, find a beach or gravel backroad and try out all of the options--2H, 4L and 4H so you know what each does. Then try it with lockers on, if you have them..remember to only use 4wd on a surface that will slip, dry hard pack surfaces will tear up the planetary gears if you get them bound up while turning...its not a cheap fix. Read the manual..

 

[Tcarp1]

Interesting. So these transfer cases have a clutch mechanism in them? What does the clutch part do? Does it engage the front output shaft or something? The clutch part I suppose would be the only part that could potentially be damaged. 4h wouldn't matter one bit with just a normal tcase. I have driven well over 100mph in my old ultra4 for many miles with a 609 fromt axle with drive slugs and the atlas in 4h. Like raced 1000s of miles in 4h. The bronco has a balanced front driveline and cv shafts up front. Shouldn't be a problem.

 

[SavSqch]

Baffles me how much people will spend on a vehicle and depend on Forums instead of reading user manual. Bronco even comes literally with a handout on glovebox when to the different modes. Clearly state do not use 4H / 4A on dry pavement…..

 

[BostonSasquatch]

Believe it or not, my instructor at the Gunstock NH Off-Roadeo said we can use 4A all the time. "You can't go wrong with it, and it might help you in problem traction areas." Say what?
I myself use 2H/Eco for my regular drive. Waiting to see what we get in New England snow this year. I'll probably go 4A if there's snow or slush. If I can't see pavement on a city street, 4H. Very serious snow would call for 4L and locked differentials.

Which brings something else to mind: Hope you Bronco buddies are safe and sound in Florida!

 

[Dom]

Questions like this are great. There will be a lot of new people to the off roading community because of the bronco and the OP has the courage to ask a simple question, that for some may not be that simple. Good stuff

 

[Southern Girl]

I think half of y'all need to learn the difference between regular driving and driving with 4 wheel drive. You can drive in 4A all day long. Don't do that with 4H or 4L, especially 4L. There is a big warning for 4L on your screen for a reason. Someone had to teach me this once. Don't learning by tearing up your expensive vehicle.

 

[MadMan4BamaNATL]

I sure as heck hope you noticed you were in 4h when on dry pavement. You should hear your rear tire skipping when doing sharper turns. Stressing your axels. I think we are getting trolled

Think it was just a guy without much knowledge asking a question for help.

He’s in Florida, obviously doesn’t wheel, so it was an innocent question. I’m glad he asked before doing further damage.

Remember fellas, of the 190K orders for a Bronco, over 95% of these people never have and never will go off-road.

Let’s make the space accessible and invite others to join us outside. It’s healthy and fun and good for the state and national parks that we all love and should appriciate. Now the OP knows better and will do better and I’m sure other readers learned some things reading through the more helpful comments as well.

 

[Rspayde]

Think it was just a guy without much knowledge asking a question for help.

He’s in Florida, obviously doesn’t wheel, so it was an innocent question. I’m glad he asked before doing further damage.

Remember fellas, of the 190K orders for a Bronco, over 95% of these people never have and never will go off-road.

Let’s make the space accessible and invite others to join us outside. It’s healthy and fun and good for the state and national parks that we all love and should appriciate. Now the OP knows better and will do better and I’m sure other readers learned some things reading through the more helpful comments as well.

If you have any doubt of the above claim you did not attend an offroadeo event. There were two people in my group that had any offroad experience. I got alot of stickers for answering all the questions though!

 

[JohnnyBronco]

Perfect. Glad I asked. 2H, unless I need extra traction on trails or wet pavement. No 4A on my OBX.

Would have been a no cost option upgrade, at least it was in 2020-2021

 

[JohnnyBronco]

Think it was just a guy without much knowledge asking a question for help.

He’s in Florida, obviously doesn’t wheel, so it was an innocent question. I’m glad he asked before doing further damage.

Remember fellas, of the 190K orders for a Bronco, over 95% of these people never have and never will go off-road.

Let’s make the space accessible and invite others to join us outside. It’s healthy and fun and good for the state and national parks that we all love and should appriciate. Now the OP knows better and will do better and I’m sure other readers learned some things reading through the more helpful comments as well.

Spot on.

That being said, occasional use of 4H on dry pavement IN A STRAIGHT LINE will not immediately toast your vehicle (as some suggest). If that were so, then Ford would not allow you to engage 4H at speed but would instead make you stop to shift - or lets go back to the original Bronco 1g (and its mentors, the IH Scout 80/800) and manual locking hubs. With manual hubs disengaged you can run all day and night in 4H and cause only a little more internal wear on the transfer case and front diff but only internal wear as there is no external resistance input in that situatino

 

[BroncocnorB]

4H is only if no one bogarts the joint. Otherwise 2H is pretty good.

 

[Mikey D]

Think it was just a guy without much knowledge asking a question for help.

He’s in Florida, obviously doesn’t wheel, so it was an innocent question. I’m glad he asked before doing further damage.

Remember fellas, of the 190K orders for a Bronco, over 95% of these people never have and never will go off-road.

Let’s make the space accessible and invite others to join us outside. It’s healthy and fun and good for the state and national parks that we all love and should appriciate. Now the OP knows better and will do better and I’m sure other readers learned some things reading through the more helpful comments as well.

Definitely new to trail riding and off road. Looking forward to learning, enjoying and putting up with a few (insert your choice) along the way.

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