I had to go see this customer at his house the other day (I sell office equipment) and im one of them guys who goes rain or shine when called. We had just had between 12 to 18in of new snow here in Western MA. (total snow fall depending on what town you live in) so I drive to this guys place and his driveway is not plowed but the thing I was worried about was the house was down a real steep hill with a nice "S" curve thrown in for good measure. Going in "easy" getting out "not so easy"

Anyway thank the lord for 4 low some great A/T tires that work well in the snow some guts and a heavy right foot I really had to work the runner to get it back to the hiway.

After owning many suv's I must say when equiped right this one is the best one I have ever had for deep snow.

Can't agree more. Chicago just got hit with some heavy snow (heavy for Chicago) and driving around couldnt be any better. While everyone is stuck in traffic, we get to switch into 4lo, lock the differential, and blast on through that unplowed lane... I LOVE IT!!

These are amazing vehicles , they go damn near anywhere. Pretty rare for a modern day SUV. Its basically an enclosed truck.

The 4wd system on these trucks is excellent with the Atrac , center lock/unlock feature , the only draw back is not being able to turn the VSC off.

Im with you with the VSC off switch there is a need sometimes to spin the tires to clear/cleen them out under some conditions.

Lock the center diff and you can spin the tires to chew through snow....

Can the 4Runner operate safely with the center diff locked in 4hi, or only in 4lo?

JP

locked center in 4HI is perfectly fine

can you lock the center in 4HI, i thought you had to be in low...

As ,long as your tires are able to slip while turning , ie: in snow , ice , sand , mud ect......

Basically the only time you should not use it is on dry and wet pavement. Wet raining roads you can have in 4wd for added control , just not with the differential locked.

I'm one to always be testing stuff to see how I can get the optimum performance out of my 4wd. It took me a while coming from american trucks to get used to the 4R system. Now I personally think its one of the best I've driven. Next to having front & rear lockers the Atrac system kicks butt IMO. I works so awesome. It has bailed me out of a many snow off road situations.

My advice to new 4R owners is too read about the system in the manual , read experiences here and do a lot of your own testing to see its limits and benefits. If you live in a snow area the testing is a blast.