Starting off in High Range with your 4WD.?

My Toyotas start of in high range with no issue.

Shifting from low to high range on the fly, is something I have played with in the hilux.

This sort of thing is just normal in heavy trucks..admittedly it is a bit easier with the knob mounted range shifts in the modern trucks...but there where trucks in the past that had two sticks..like the macks & diamond rios.

It was driving an R600 with a twin stick box that gave me the idea of trying it in the hilux.....the twin stick in the R600 was easier because it only had a 1 gear underdrive...so low to high picked up the next gear.

the thing with the 4wds is you have to know your gearbox over lap.

In the hilux the transfer case gives you close to a 2 gear under drive..so 1st high range is close to 3rd low.

shifting up is easy and there is no double shuffling required.

proceed in 1st low range, shift like normal to 2nd low range....push down the clutch, shift back to first and push the transfer lever to to high range, clutch up.

Get it timed right and the trasfer will go straight thru......ya don't have to rush, but the shifts need to be reasonably neat

Going back the other way is another story all together....I have not got that one to work

The shifting pattern will work in any gear.....shifting down one gear and from low to high will pick you the next gear.

try it somewhere quiet with a slight uphill slope before you try it loaded.

The trick with using this practically is stratergy..deciding when you will shift from high to low...the message is to do it when it is easiest.

so, you might start off in 1st or 2nd low, it would be quite reasonable to shift normally all the way up to fourth ( same as second high) before you grab high range & third gear.

If you are working some serious hills or in traffic you may not need to shift up to high range till you get some flat ground or some clear flowing road.

I have not found a necessity to use this..but I know it works and I have practiced doing it for when I may need it in the future.

cheers

Axel I would really love to see you do that on a steep hill over and over again you'll spend more time grinding gears and rolling backwards stabbing the brakes on while I do the sensible thing and select the appropriate gear then pull up and change when on more level ground. You might end up the one whining about how much it costs to fix a rover gearbox cost me $3,500 in 2005 not from ridiculous gear changes though, let us know how much when you're goes thanks. Jeez I can't understand why a Toyota or Nissan driver has never mentioned doing this before it's a good tip hey lol.

never had a problem with my eighty series cobb, and still weav in and out of those land rover parts that scatter the country side lol

Hi Axle,
Having been reading the thread here about fitting muddies a couple of sizes bigger than standard on your vehicles , I would just about guarantee that those drivers may be the ones complaining.

Fitting oversize tyres increases the overall gearing and as a result makes the start off hard work. Going from a 31" to a 33" increases the overall gearing by around 6% which would make takeoff a bit more difficult, I would think.

Just my thoughts.

Disco.

Hi Axle,
I have experienced this problem starting off on an incline when towing. My question to you, can something similar be done in late models with push button electronic shift? e.g. RC Colorado. Gear shift must be in neutral, & vehicle stationary then push button to select range. Any speed registered will block out electrical connection. Hoping there a way around this.
Cheers.