2002 Ford Explorer 4 Wheel Drive Question

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 01:52:26 -0500, ComStat rearranged some electrons to form:

Do not drive in 4WD on dry pavement, you will break something rapidly.

True, not the mention that at speed in 4wd drive if you get into a skid your kinda screwed because you will not be able to steering out of it and given that explorers tendancy to roll over at times I would avoid all high speed 4x4 operation that could put you in a skid.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

Care to explain this?

...

What are all the settings you have on your control for 4wd? A 2002 Explorer should have the Control Trac system. That should give you

4Auto, 4High, and 4Low. In 4 auto, you can leave that on all the time and drive anywhere you want. 4High should only be used in slippery conditions at normal speeds. 4low should only be used in slippery conditions when you need to pull something heavy, or try to get out of a stuck situation.

In 4Auto, the system monitors speeds between the front and rear of the truck and will electronically actuate a clutch pack in the transfer case to move power to the front wheels if it sees slip occurring between the front and rear. So most of the time the system is in 2wd mode, but will switch to 4wd as necessary to keep the wheel speeds equivalent.

the other 4wd modes lock in the transfer case effectively using gearing to force the front and rear wheels to spin at the same rate. If you drive in 4HI on dry ground, at best you'll experience very odd steering behaviors, at worst you'll blow up the transfer case.

Thanks Mike H,

You gave me the answer I was looking for. I just experimented with the 4 wheel drive. It does have 3 buttons, 4 wheel auto, high, and then low. I keep it in 4 wheel drive auto. I have been looking for more information than the ford manual gives. I think it would be a good idea for the ford manual to explain this a little better.

Thank you,

Marco

Most of the 'owners manuals' these days are just boilerplate cut-and- paste from the legal deparment. if you are lucky you get about three pages at the end to show part numbers for light bulbs and fluid type and capacity. I looked up Snow Plowing in the Bronco manual, went to the page indicated in the index and found this:

Snow Plowing

*Do not plow with this vehicle*

(next heading)

Yeah, sure. Tell that to all the Broncos you see with plows on the front. Usenet and web forums will always be here for you, though.

Yeah, and just about every ford truck owners manual ever made says this truck not equipped for a slide in camper.