Pajero Drive Modes

[Frederic]

Most Pajero owners might have heard about the 4WD Super Select II system, which is the control system on their Pajero 4x4. There are a lot of misconceptions on what mode to use in the desert, and the use of differential locks.

Below i will describe the functionality of the 4WD Super Select II system and how to use if for offroading in the UAE. Also we will talk about the use of differential locks (center and rear) functionality.

Your Pajero equipped with the 4WD Super Select system has 4 modes. Switching between 2H and 4H can be done while driving (max 100km/h). If you need to switch to 4Hlc or 4Llc you will need to stop the vehicle, put it in Neutral, then select the desired gear.

2H

This mode is for dry highway roads only, and will slightly reduce road noise and fuel consumption.

4H

This mode is the one we generally use for offroading in the dunes on most levels. The Viscous Coupling System distributes the power to the front and back based on the condition of the terrain (33% front / 67% rear). 

4Hlc:

Instead of the viscous coupling used in 4H, this mode locks the front and rear wheels together at a 50/50 ratio. (Center Diff lock) This mode can be used for more advanced offroading or soft areas when required. This mode is not for on-road driving !!

4Llc:

This mode is used for self-recovery, steep hill climb, and descending from very steep slopes only. The maximum speed you should use 4Llc is 30km/h. Driving beyond 30km/h in Low gear will damage the gearbox sooner or later and should be avoided at all times.

The well known Omani hack puts the car in limp mode, and can only be used in Low gear, hence is not recommended to be used if you go beyond this maximum speed. 

Rear Differential Lock

Some Pajero models come with the R/D Lock or Rear Differential Lock. This option can be activated during your self recovery. 

How does it work ?

In normal situations, your rear differential is "open". This means the rear left and rear right wheels can turn at different speeds, and this is necessary because of the speed difference when turning your wheels on the road. 

When the rear differential is open, and you are stuck in the sand with one rear wheel free, and one rear wheel stuck, ALL the power will go to the wheel that is free, hence recovery is quite difficult. Engaging your R/D lock will lock both wheels on the rear axle (like it becomes one solid axle). So even when your one wheel is free, it will still send power to the wheel that is stuck. The Rear Differential Lock is very useful, but not a MUST HAVE. It will come standard on the 3.8 Models.

Drive Mode or Tiptronic Mode

As you learn offroading, we generally advise you to keep the car in "D". The reason is that we want you to focus on the terrain and let the car think for you which gear it should take.

Once you start entering higher level drives, you might find that the gearbox is a bit slow in reacting, or that it is upshifting or downshifting at the wrong time. This is not always the fault of your transmission, but could also be yourself who is quite nervous with the throttle pedal, making it hard for the car to decide what you want. As a result during offroading the transmission will be constantly shifting and during hot days this will lead to overheating. 

Tiptronic mode gives you as a driver full control over which gear you want to select. Initially this takes a bit of practice, but soon you will see that you'll be able to keep the car better controlled by choosing the right gear and keeping it in that gear as much as you can. For example during offroading you can keep it in 2nd gear, and shift back to 1st gear whenever you need to tackle a dune.

 

As you can see, the Pajero has a lot of functionalities that might be confusing at the start, but once you start using them it will become clear that the Super Select II 4WD system is one of the best systems for 4WD on the market since a long time.

 

 

[Rizwan Waheed]

@Frederic Thank you for sharing the useful info. Need some refusals to learn about the techniques of self recoveries..  

[Sai Baskaran]

@Frederic thank you , it is very detailed and well explained. 

[MANOJ NAIR]

Thank you, @Frederic for very useful info. Would like know about D1, D2 D... use also

 

[Frederic]

2 hours ago, manoj nair said:

Thank you, @Frederic for very useful info. Would like know about D1, D2 D... use also

 

Hi @manoj nair D1 and D2 in a Pajero are the first two gears in tiptronic. You can toggle between them while off-roading.

[sri ganesh]

Thank you @Frederic, just the question I had and got the answer however there seems to be some opinions to drive in HLc.

Also, in some drives when the we stop because the convoy has stopped for  a reason, we may find ourselves in softer sand and trying to move slower feels like we are going to dig ourselves in-not sure if others have experienced this. Whats the approach to be take to avoid digging ourselves when we try to move as the convoy moves? Do we choose HLc here as we need to start moving in convoy ? or is it okay to always use HLc? If HLc is not always recommended, why not?

[Frederic]

5 minutes ago, sri ganesh said:

Thank you @Frederic, just the question I had and got the answer however there seems to be some opinions to drive in HLc.

Also, in some drives when the we stop because the convoy has stopped for  a reason, we may find ourselves in softer sand and trying to move slower feels like we are going to dig ourselves in-not sure if others have experienced this. Whats the approach to be take to avoid digging ourselves when we try to move as the convoy moves? Do we choose HLc here as we need to start moving in convoy ? or is it okay to always use HLc? If HLc is not always recommended, why not?

Driving in HLc will change the power ratio from 70/30 (front/back) to 50/50. 

Whenever you start moving you should do it gently. 4H or 4HLc will not make any difference at that point. More important would be to find your ideal tyre pressure as that would avoid your car from sinking in. If you have normal road Tyres don’t go lower than 12-13 psi. With off-road tyres you’ll be able to deflate further down to 10psi which will improve flotation.

Also avoid stopping abruptly, as that makes the tyres sink in. Try coasting to a stop and dont stop the car on an incline, but at a decline or flat level. 
 

There are people who swear by driving in 4HLc and notice improvement. Myself I’m a big fan of the viscous coupling that works extremely well in sending the right amount of power to the right wheels at the right time (4H).

[Mehmet Volga]

As some of you already know, I have been suffering from the performance of my 3.5 L - LWB pajero in recent drives. It is well-enough on small technical dunes and most of the times I am able to make self-recoveries. However, I think the HP of new-gen pajeros are not enough (190 HP only) to drive on long-track taller dunes. My car is not able to reach at the top of Al Faya or iftar bowl dunes and I always have to steer down at the half of the way since it is losing its momentum. I have tried with 2nd gear, first gear, high speed and pushing maximum; but none of those ever worked... As far as I see during my drives, even 3.8 L versions are not able to do it... Don't know the others, but I am a bit bored to watch all xterras, FJs, wranglers easily reaching up...

My question is about 4HLc gear mode whether it can be used for such long climbing tracks. I circled it on the photo below.

This one is high-gear mode with locked-center. I know that the locked differential is not advised on paved roads and also not safe if you need to make turns. However, does it work on sand (soft ground) and on a straight direction? For example, climbing straight up to al faya without making sharp turns? Do not have any idea whether this mode would increase the performance so your comments are appreciated, if any one has used this mode before. @Frederic @Vanessa8580 @Gaurav @Wrangeld @Anish S @Veedooshee @Yousef Alimadadi

 

[Srikumar]

Like you correctly said 4HLc should not be used on paved roads as it has the central diff locked. But it's perfectly fine to drive it while on the sand.

However having said that despite putting 4HLc you will not be able to climb Faya straight up. You could probably do IFB from the left side depending on the condition of the track, momentum, and model year of your Pajero. 2008-2011 years have the upshifting problem. But in one of my earlier drives we had a 3.5 Pajero 2015 model reach the top of IFB as he had the right approach and momentum.

Long hill climb will be a limitation of a Pajero but if you see, we do hill climbs less than 10% in our drives. So this is a small limitation in the bigger picture. 

[Gaurav]

Climbing Faya from front with so many cross track is not easy and not many stock can do that incl. Xterra, Wranglers and FJC. And those who make it up again some day they make it and others they cant, due to sheer difficulty, angle and height

Such long hill climb, do need serious power mod or change or car or change of attitude as @Srikumar trying to point in last line.

One less dune is better than 10-20K AED mods + RTA violations + every week mechanic visits + lack of reliability + low resale vale.

Once you are completely done with your Pajero, buy another desert toy having good power to weight ratio which is above 120 hp/ton and you will be enjoying lot more.