Posted by Mike on December 12, 00 at 09:28:07:
In Reply to: Re: Locking Diff posted by Lee Correll on December 12, 00 at 08:52:30:
: I was driving on snow and ice. The parking lot had some dry spots in it here and there. When I hit the dry spots it bucked like mad, when it hit the snow again it didn't even turn at all - it just pushed the front end. Keep in mind this is all while going very slow (don't want to hit any pedestrians). On the road everything is fine even if there was a dry spot on a curve. Of course a slow turn in a parking lot is much sharper than a curve while doing 30mph. It sounds like I need to take it out of 4x4 when I get to a parking lot. Does everyone else do this? I've been driving 4x4's for years and never had one buck so bad I had to put it in 2x just to park! I guess I just expected the newer truck to be smoother than my old trucks - I must have expected too much. Now I've got to figure out how to keep my wife from finding this out or I'll be trading the Suburban for one of those junky all wheel drive minivans.
Heavens no! Not a minivan!
Your owner's manual covers this ad nauseum. Yes, you can drive with small steering angles, like on the highway, in mixed high and low traction conditions in 4HI. However, regardless of the situation, if you experience any binding, shift to 2HI immediately and drive for at least a few hundred feet to relieve the stress on the transfer case. Yes, we all stick it in 2HI in dry parking lots. My wife deals with it just fine, I'm sure yours will as well.