Shifting into 4WD from Complete Stop

Yup, i'm that old.

 

You'd think so, but then again look at vehicles off-roading in places like Moab. That slickrock is like driving on sandpaper, but you don't hear about people grenading t-cases after a few turns.

Once I'm off-roading, I don't really worry about it too much. I spend more time switching between hi and low.

I frequently shift into 4hi from a dead stop and have never had any issues, once you start moving it engages and works fine.

I remember with my old K10 with manually locking hubs, I'd frequently have to reverse for 20 feet or so before I could shift out of 4wd. That was with a NP205 gear driven case. Unlocking the hubs first and accelerating aggressively enough to spin the rear wheels always did the trick if it was being stubborn.

I used to leave the hubs locked if there was any chance of hitting snow on the road.

 

I have a few anecdotal incidents to cite. I’ve never been to Moab but I once stopped to help a guy on the Rubicon replace the chain in his t-case that had snapped. On the same trail I’ve seen a couple of Jeeps with broken spider gears in one of the differentials. That’s a less severe breakdown than the t-case. With a broken diff, if you remove the prop shaft and the loose bits in the pumpkin you can limp back to the trail head.

Im not particularly paranoid about it, but it does happen.

 

I guess the variable here is if Toyotas suffer a similar rate of failure on the same terrain locked in 4wd, or if it is because the jeeps that failed had other, uh, issues that made them more susceptible to chains and gears sheering from binding, such as transfer case and diff designs, or supplier issues with material metallurgical quality, etc, or do the broken down units have larger and wider tires that put more stress on the components due to higher traction than originally intended.

In 4x4ing there is no free lunch, if as many toyota owners put 35-37 inch tires and leave their lockers in places like Moab, perhaps we would hear about more failures.

 

Yes, this is key. As for the rest, logical. Flawlessly logical. (As Spock said to T’pring).