Fuso FG 4-LOW driving

[yabanja]

Up until now, my off road vehiclular expeditions have been conducted in my Jeep Cherokee XJ. It has been a trusty steed, and I have only had one failure in it. I wore out the transfer case. My Jeep is a manual transmission model so it has a very high final drive ratio. What this means is that I put it into four low for even the smallest obstacle. I end up driving quite a bit in four low in fact. So the question is, with the less than desirable gear ratios in the fuso-manual transmission 2000 model-is it ok to drive a lot in four low and use it for a different set of ratios, or should I limit myself to using it when I am in extreme terrain?

Allan

 

[Desert Dan]

It shouldn't matter. Just go easy on the clutch when starting out.
Low range give you more control.

 

[SkiFreak]

It comes down to you, as a driver.
If you are on a surface that "might" turn bad, then being in 4WD can help to avert potentially unwanted scenarios. I am pretty sure that no one would argue with that.
As I see it, being in high or low range does not make a lot of difference, unless you are negotiating steep, or difficult terrain where you want to go slower but still keep up the engine revs, in which case low range is probably desirable.

 

[yabanja]

I wasn't specifically meaning 4WD. I may use the low box with the front hubs unlocked. Of more interest is having the spread of gears be different using low range. Is it ok to tool along at 25 mph in low range and 5th gear all day or am I going to overheat something??

Allan

 

[Aussie Iron]

I wouldn't use low range and in 2WD unless there was little load on the drive of the vehicle, you are supplying a lot of torque to the drive train. If by chance you are using 4th or 5th gear in low then you might as well be in High Range as your gears are overlapping. When we are running on corrugated or pot holed or even loss surface dirt roads we all ways in 4WD (low or high depends on how bad), if the road happens to be hard pack dirt then maybe in 2WD. This is with my 2000 model manual.

Dan.

 

[pugslyyy]

I find that the low range (on my 2007) is perfect for all dirt, since it is good for up to around 30mph. I stay in 4WD (front hubs locked) though. For the rough stuff, second gear low range is just about perfect for ascents/descents and third low for the flatter parts.


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