Educate me on the manual-shift 4WD operation, bunch of questions...

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derekjl

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This is my first Tahoe with the manual-shift 4WD option, all of my others were push-button/auto. I've heard a lot of debate about this, but can 4WD be left engaged for extended periods of time? I don't mean hundreds of miles, but can it be used for say 15-20 miles continuously? We live in the northeast and we have had a ton of snow recently. Sometimes my street is completely covered in snow, but other local streets are dry and plowed. Should I be shifting out of 4WD when there is dry pavement and back into 4WD when needed? The truck has 68k miles on it and I am not sure if/when the gear oil has been changed. Can this particular front differential handle the full synthetic 75W-90 or should I just stick with conventional 80W-90?
 

cmc76

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You can leave it in 4x4. Plow trucks for example leave it in for days on end. My general rule always was shift into 4 wheel under 10 mph. Out, doesn't matter.
 
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derekjl

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They don't like turning on dry pavement and protest loudly.

Lol I noticed. Same with all the 99s we had. I see that there is a “bypass” switch you can put on your steering wheel to temporarily disable the 4WD especially when turning/parking. I think Summit Racing or Jeg’s sells it.


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cmc76

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if everything is in working order, a manual should take it out of 4 wheel pretty quick. I personally never used one of those quick switches. But to me it would seem, if on dry enough pavement to have the truck fighting just while parking. maybe being in 4 wheel isnt required for the situation?
 
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