How Tight of a Turn Before Binding Occurs

RichinRidgewood

RichinRidgewood

New member
I have a 2020 SR5 Premium 4x4 and I'm supposed to engage 4 wheel drive for several miles each month.

I have been using neighborhood surface roads that are straight with a few slight kinks in them.

I'm guessing that turning into a driveway or making a turn at a stop sign would be too much.

How tight of a turn would it take to start dragging a wheel on dry pavement?
 
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RichinRidgewood said:
I have a 2020 SR5 Premium 4x4 and I'm supposed to engage 4 wheel drive for several miles each month.

I have been using neighborhood surface roads that are straight with a few slight kinks in them.

I'm guessing that turning into a driveway or making a turn at a stop sign would be too much.

How tight of a turn would it take to start dragging a wheel on dry pavement?
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A pretty slight turn will cause it to start dragging. Find a dirt road to exercise your 4WD on.
 
General bends in the road will be fine, just don’t take any sharp turns like at a stop sign/lightg or pulling into your driveway.
 
Bill Z said:
A pretty slight turn will cause it to start dragging. Find a dirt road to exercise your 4WD on.
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You'd be shocked at how hard it is to find dirt roads in NJ anywhere remotely near the NYC area, though Rich might have some luck up there in northern NJ. I certainly haven't found anything close to 5 miles long, much less 10, in and/or around Middlesex County, that's for sure.
 
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euser said:
General bends in the road will be fine, just don’t take any sharp turns like at a stop sign/lightg or pulling into your driveway.
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This is what I've been doing. I'm lucky enough to have a fairly straight route to work, though I do turn it off and back on again for a few sharper turns. 6 months in, and it's okay as far as I can tell. My first service is on Saturday. If they see anything, I'll reconsider my method of exercising the 4WD high.

I did find a big grass/dirt parking lot to exercise 4WD low. Absolutely no pavement for 4WD low for me.

The manual doesn't say anything specifically about damage occurring due to running 4WD on pavement, so I wouldn't be overly concerned about exercising it on pavement when you're avoiding sharper turns that would cause the binding. Of course, you won't really know the feel the binding until you experience it yourself, so you experience it, and nothing breaks in the limited time you used it, so stop your bellyaching.

It's funny how there are so many different schools of thought about 4WD binding and whether or not it causes damage. A manufacturer really should come out and clarify it. If someone has manufacturer information, please share it. Even if it's not from Toyota.
 
Gamma Ray said:
It's funny how there are so many different schools of thought about 4WD binding and whether or not it causes damage. A manufacturer really should come out and clarify it. If someone has manufacturer information, please share it. Even if it's not from Toyota.
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People don’t care what the manufacturer says, they only care what they learned 30+ years ago. It’s why people on here claim Toyota doesn’t know what it’s talking about with 10k mile oil change intervals and you should do it ever xxxx miles, even though it’s the standard nowadays.
 
Gamma Ray said:
You'd be shocked at how hard it is to find dirt roads in NJ anywhere remotely near the NYC area, though Rich might have some luck up there in northern NJ. I certainly haven't found anything close to 5 miles long, much less 10, in and/or around Middlesex County, that's for sure.
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You could just head down one of the NJTransit access roads, and if you get caught blame you're GPS.
"I don't know, It said turn right, so I turned right..."
 
Forgot to put it back in 2Hi one day and drove about 4 miles on curvy paved roads in 4Hi including two 90 degree turns from stop signs.
No binding!
 
It has more to do with traction than anything else, in this case road surface. I imagine engaging it for even a half mile on a straight road is better than nothing, certainly better than a longer distance on pure tarmac that’s windy.
 
I did this too when I first got my 4Runner on the main road in my housing tract with a couple slight turns. Didn’t experience any binding.
 
euser said:
People don’t care what the manufacturer says, they only care what they learned 30+ years ago. It’s why people on here claim Toyota doesn’t know what it’s talking about with 10k mile oil change intervals and you should do it ever xxxx miles, even though it’s the standard nowadays.
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Being careful and cognizant of the physical limitations of systems isn't new.

What's new is manufacturers wanting to sell you a new car every year.

There are 30yr old trucks that are way more sturdy than what they put out now. It's all about the dollar.

Drivetrain tension and windup isn't just going to go away because toyota says so. They just want it to last to beyond warranty.
 
RichinRidgewood said:
...
I'm guessing that turning into a driveway or making a turn at a stop sign would be too much.
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Yes, it will be... 4runner will survive it, but I would not recommend doing that often..

RichinRidgewood said:
...

How tight of a turn would it take to start dragging a wheel on dry pavement?
Click to expand...

IMHO, as a rule that I have and have used for over 30+ years of driving: any turn you can comfortably and safely make going 40 MPH+ will not be too tight and you will not feel wheel dragging.
 
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Gamma Ray said:
You'd be shocked at how hard it is to find dirt roads in NJ anywhere remotely near the NYC area, though Rich might have some luck up there in northern NJ. I certainly haven't found anything close to 5 miles long, much less 10, in and/or around Middlesex County, that's for sure.
Click to expand...

If you can't find a dirt road then at least wait for a rainy day.

Exercising you 4WD isn't a maintenance item that's hugely important. You're more likely to have an issue with your 4WD if you run it on dry pavement than you are by not using it every month.
 
Bill Z said:
If you can't find a dirt road then at least wait for a rainy day.

Exercising you 4WD isn't a maintenance item that's hugely important. You're more likely to have an issue with your 4WD if you run it on dry pavement than you are by not using it every month.
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And yet on this forum (or the other one) I saw at least one person talk about how he didn't use it so he ended up losing it. Plus, the manual says 10 miles every month, so yeah.

Granted, I waited nearly 6 months before engaging low and everything seemed fine, but better safe than sorry.
 
Ok so today is like the 3rd day of this bullshit cloudy rainy 40° weather that I will be so happy to never see again when we finally move the business to Florida.

I took the 4R SR5P out in 4H and the 90 degree turn into the street from our driveway had a very slight hesitation but nothing theatrical and a "normal" person (aka not an engineering manager with 30 years of experience with vehicles etc.) would not have noticed it probably. I drove most of the rest of my 10 mile trip in 4H without issue. Wide turns at normal cross sections are no problem. I went to 2H when I saw the pavement was dry and I had to turn. The streets are grimy here with smashed wet leaves so traction is definitely limited in many places. I kept it in 2H on the highway but I would have no reason to think 4H would have been an issue especially if the rain had continued while I was out.
 
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