When in 2wd you will not be able to tell that you have a front locker besides the clicking noise when turning at slow speeds. You will how ever get torque steer and the feeling the truck wants to go straight when you are in 4wd.

It sounds like your 4wd was not engaged is why your are getting stuck. I would take it into the dealer and have them check the 4wd motor to make sure it is engaging properly.

 

I can't be sure if it engaged but I am 99% sure it did, the light came on and after I was unstuck I put in 4hi and 4low and it worked perfectly fine.



Well while I was stuck, I put it in 4low and let out the clutch slowly and got out of the truck and walked around, it stayed running and didn't stall out and I saw for myself the 2 back tires spinning and nothing else spinning.

Then when they were towing me out, I was still in 4low and I hammered it in reverse and I saw snow shoot up from the right front tire also so that also makes me think I was in 4wd.

Maybe I will go to the stealership and have them check it out. I just hate going there because it's always a big waste of time and so expensive

Oh yeah, I had a 07 Mazda 3 with winters and traded it in for the 08 Mazda B4000. Best thing I did to date in term of a form of wheels, I love the truck

 

its a 2008 you shouldnt have to pay for them to check the transfer case, should be under warranty

 

Still have my MT/R's, my truck doesn't move very much since I have a work truck so I don't know if I want to spend money on some type of swamper, but I'm thinking my next tire will be LTB's. who knows

 

I am sure I was using enough throttle, I had it in 4hi and low hitting atleast 6000 rpm and I ws just making a bigger whole at the back. I know I am suppose to go fast over snow but I hit the snow and just stopped. The snow wasn't even up to the bottom of the axles, it was 1 foot of hard snow and then like 3-4 inches of soft snow so I know for sure I wasn't hung up.

Thanks all for your suggestions and words of wisdom, it does help

 

oops hey yall i did some major editing to my previous post.

 

i agree, sounds like a faulty shift motor.

one of the front tires should have been turning when you got out.

 

Oops. The genius behind this keyboard got confused. I meant to ask 'cereal' what he had for tires..

..Although I just saw some photos from another of his posts.. he has Wrangler RT/S tires. I've never owned a set of these myself, but from everything I hear, I stand by my previous post.

 

that makes sense, I was wondering why you were asking me haha

 

That definitely is not right! W/ a part-time 4WD system like we have there is no way you could have the front axle stationary (ie both front tires stationary) while engaged in either 4Hi or 4Lo and putting power to the ground. You should have had at least one front and one rear spinning. ... Or have a broken drive-train!
That definitely verifies you were in 4WD.

I'm going to speculate that something changed between when you were stuck w/ the rears spinning and when you hammered it in 4Lo after being towed out.

Maybe you didn't follow the procedure for shifting into 4WD and the computer did not shift the t-case even though you changed the selector on the dash. I can't remember the procedure for electronic cases (I have a manual case). I do remember that there is some sort of lockout and you have to be in neutral before it will go to 4Lo... 4Hi should be shift on the fly though. .. You have a manual trans, right? Maybe you didn't have the clutch on the floor when selecting 4Lo (and need to) or you still had the trans in gear (and shouldn't have).

I'm lost man.

 

I've done a fair amount of snow wheeling. I can get my truck through some serious white stuff. Not every time I'm stuck I see one front and one rear tire spinning. Last time I was stuck I had one front spinning and the rear wasn't spinning at all. It was because the rear was on ice. There was a nice layer of ice under the snow. It would all spin when under throttle but when I hopped out and left it in gear only the front was spinning. Install for a locker runs around $225-$275 depending on front or rear axle, that is the average from a few local shops.

First go by the dealer and have them check to make sure everyhting is working properly, or check it yourself as mentioned earlier in this thread.
If all is working properly then get new tires.

 

Just go out and get a new set of tires, that will make a huge difference. The stock Goodyears are useless.... especially in snow. A set of winter tires would be best, but if you want something that you can run all year, then look into a set of All-Terrain tires... they are usually fine for snow.
I've been running BFG AT's this winter and they are pretty good in the snow (and man, we got a lot of snow this year!) There's been a couple of times where I was close to being stuck, but I just give it lots of throttle and it works it's way out...

 

Just get a set of tires and go from there. The locker can come at a later time. What's the use in a locker if you have Highway tires?

 

My front locker is completely invisible when the truck is not in 4x4, however when the truck is in 4x4 the turning radius does suck. I'd recommend a new set of tires first and a locker shortly thereafter. The aussie locker only runs $230.

 

They (Torsen) should have one out this summer. Below is there e-mail to me on that question from Feb of this year.

Not as of yet! We have run into several snags along the way but hope to release them this coming summer.
Thanks for the question and interest in Torsen!

Here is the link on the article on their prototype.
http://www.fourwheeler.com/projectbu...all/index.html

 

Seems like you need to practice snowmobiling.

 

Yeeeeees .. The owner of that built up FX4 is on ORR.. what's his name? Sean?

They have that prototype. Given both torsens they are running are higher bias than what I have in my LII's rear or what we are likely to see available for the front. But I still think it's a fantastic thing to have available. I'm keenly interested in what pricing will be like.

Way more street-able than these auto-lockers.

 

Unless you've got some sort of center differential installed in your t-case, there is no way a healthy part-time 4WD drive train can spin just one wheel while in 4WD. No way, I don't care what sort of surface you are on.

And technically I call trucks w/ center diffs full-time 4WD systems. Jeep 'Selec-Trac' and 'Quadra-Trac' products qualify. See here. I think there were F150 strains available here and there w/ full-time 4WD too. But never a Ranger.

Are you sure the opposite rear tire wasn't spinning too? Even w/ my L/S I can get just one rear to spin easily when on ice.

 

6000rpm seems excessive on a truck that isn't even broken in yet. There's no need to beat and smash just because you're playing off road.

A lot of times, you can "finesse" your way through stuff that you may not be able to "hammer" through. Especially with snow, if you can keep your front wheels up on top of it, they'll pack it down enough to get your rear wheels over it.

It doesn't always work but I know I've climbed some serious snow covered hills in 4low, 1st gear, about 1-2 thousand rpm.

 

first of all running 6000 rpm isn't bad for the engine if you don't keep it there for over a minute, in the snow around here you pretty much have to hammer it through the drifts, otherwise you sink down right away.

 

Yeah a drift maybe. I've gone through snow drifts this winter that were up over my bumper, and "hammer down" would've equalled "broken plastic". Finesse got me through, without breaking my toy-truck like front valance.

Now in frozen slushie type snow (you know, all granual like), 4 low and a little tire spin to keep the lugs clean is necessary. But not 6 grand that's just abuse.

 

When I took delivery of my '03 I was specifically told that there was no required engine break-in period.

..Of course they also told me that the service manual was wrong and the required oil-change interval was no more than 3,000 miles.

 

Hey all, sorry I have been away for a few days.

Well I have pretty much decided first to get new tires and go from there. I have lost all joy is going off-roading since I have done is 3-4 times and have been stuck 3 times. Yes maybe it's the driver but I dunno.

I was at 6000 rpm for like 2 seconds max, if that hurts it, well then it's a POS engine since redline is like 7 1/2 or something. I am just trying to find a dealer that sells the tires I want and also have to factor in cost.

Oh well there will come a day that I can drive through 5 inches of snow!

 

Redline isn't 7500. The tach stops at 6000, it will go past it, but it's not safe for the crankshaft if I had to guess.

 

Redline for me is 7500