Driving roads the likes of which I have not driven in years and never in a Jeep, I have a question for more experienced drivers.
I have a 2005 X, automatic with a 4.0L I6, all stock drive train.
The roads I am running now are usually very rocky and have a lot of grades, some quite steep. The automatic transmission won't hold the Jeep back on steep downhill grades, so I find myself shifting from 2wd to 4lo quite a bit, using first gear to crawl down steep rocky declines. I find, however, that quite often just staying in 4lo and shifting to drive or 2nd gear keeps my engine at about the same RPMs as dropping down to first gear in 2wd.
I can't see that there would be any problem with just keeping it in 4lo once in the back country on those steep roads. There might be a slight increase in fuel consumption, but as my RPMs run in 4lo/D or 4Lo/2nd about the same as they would in 2wd first gear, it seems that even that would not be affected much. Not sure if my engine temperature would be affected as I'm using more torque.
So, I just want to make sure that there is no down-side to keeping it in 4lo as I crawl those back country roads, as opposed to shifting back and forth. What would folks with more experience say?
Here's a short video that I took at the highest point of one of the roads I travel. It's not impressive if you do rock climbing or other intentional off-roading for fun, but it's essentially my workshop and I want to be sure I'm using my Jeep in a way that will make it run well and last a long time. That particular stretch does drop from nearly 3,000 feet to less than 500 feet in about 4 miles. so the drop is pretty quick.
I have a 2005 X, automatic with a 4.0L I6, all stock drive train.
The roads I am running now are usually very rocky and have a lot of grades, some quite steep. The automatic transmission won't hold the Jeep back on steep downhill grades, so I find myself shifting from 2wd to 4lo quite a bit, using first gear to crawl down steep rocky declines. I find, however, that quite often just staying in 4lo and shifting to drive or 2nd gear keeps my engine at about the same RPMs as dropping down to first gear in 2wd.
I can't see that there would be any problem with just keeping it in 4lo once in the back country on those steep roads. There might be a slight increase in fuel consumption, but as my RPMs run in 4lo/D or 4Lo/2nd about the same as they would in 2wd first gear, it seems that even that would not be affected much. Not sure if my engine temperature would be affected as I'm using more torque.
So, I just want to make sure that there is no down-side to keeping it in 4lo as I crawl those back country roads, as opposed to shifting back and forth. What would folks with more experience say?
Here's a short video that I took at the highest point of one of the roads I travel. It's not impressive if you do rock climbing or other intentional off-roading for fun, but it's essentially my workshop and I want to be sure I'm using my Jeep in a way that will make it run well and last a long time. That particular stretch does drop from nearly 3,000 feet to less than 500 feet in about 4 miles. so the drop is pretty quick.
