A few 4x4 questions

[YountExplr]

Alrighty then, I got stuck this past weekend and I have a couple of questions about my 4wd. So I have the open diffs and I now know that once I get a tire off the ground I am going nowhere:thumbdwn:
questions:

1. so once I get that front tire off the ground(or absolutely no traction) only the opposite rear tire will spin along with it right?
2. With the open diffs, it wont matter if it is in 4wd because of the loss of traction the other 2 tires wont move right?
3. Lastly when in 4wd the two tires that have lost traction will just spin there even w/out any pedal action due to that crawl thing that vehicles do...but when I switched back into auto, the front tire was still spinning. I am guessing that this is because of the loss of traction in the back wheel, which then kicked in the auto 4wd. Do you understand what I am saying? Now the question is that the auto or is it stuck in 4HI?

 

[IZwack]

1. so once I get that front tire off the ground(or absolutely no traction) only the opposite rear tire will spin along with it right?

The back and the front are independent as to which side will will spin or not. So it wont always be the tire at the opposite corner. However, this is often the case because on normal ground, once say the front driver's wheel is off the ground (like in a ditch), it takes weight with it and unloads the opposite side, which is the rear passenger's side -- which of course will spin since it has the least resistance. However, change the situation and lets say the vehicle is in a sever off camber and the vehicle is leaning heavily towards the driver's side. In this situation both of the tires on the passenger's side will spin away and the vehicle will not move -- because the gripping tires (which are both on the driver's side) will not get any of the power.

2. With the open diffs, it wont matter if it is in 4wd because of the loss of traction the other 2 tires wont move right?

That's correct, with two tires spinning away, the other two that do have traction are going to sit still. However, you can apply some brake pedal to put some resistance on the freely spinning tires -- which means some of that torque will go to the tires that do have grip. You won't get too much of the power to the gripping tires this way but it may just be enough to get you out of trouble.

3. Lastly when in 4wd the two tires that have lost traction will just spin there even w/out any pedal action due to that crawl thing that vehicles do...but when I switched back into auto, the front tire was still spinning. I am guessing that this is because of the loss of traction in the back wheel, which then kicked in the auto 4wd. Do you understand what I am saying? Now the question is that the auto or is it stuck in 4HI?

It could be both the AUTO kicking in and the natural "drag" in the transfer case. See even if the vehicle is in AUTO or even if you disconnect the transfer case so it can never go into 4wd again, there is still a very tiny amount of power going to the front driveshaft because of the transfer case's internal drag.

 

[YountExplr]

yeah I tried putting on some brake but I wasn't going anywhere, I found out this weekend that really soft sand and running water while in reverse make for a really easy time to dig in...especially in auto. Kinda like quicksand...