Jeep Wrangler 4High vs 4Low

[Josh S]

Hi All,

My brain is about to explode regarding the 4H and 4L debate. Two of the clubs I drive with (Carnity one of them) swear by 4H, and the other two swear by 4L. Specifically, the senior Marshalls (200+ drives)  on these other drives state that whilst 4H is absolutely fine for junior/newbie drives, once you get onto much more challenging dunes, 4H will struggle to get up the steep soft dunes, and the 4L extra torque is really important when you need to correct yourself, as you need instant torque. Ultimately, by all means drive in 4L but you may just keep having to re attempt obstacles. 

As it so happens I have a wrangler rubicon where the transfer case isn’t really geared right to get any speed, however I drove in 4L today and it was absolutely fine in 4-6th gear.

Why are there strong advocates for either. If one technique was right and the other one way was wrong, this argument would never exist. I’m an indecisive individual at the best of times so this really isn’t helping. 

Are there any Carnity drivers that swear by 4L?. Why wouldn’t you drive in 4L? It offers more torque to the wheels which is surely what you want…

[Frederic]

49 minutes ago, Josh S said:

Hi All,

My brain is about to explode regarding the 4H and 4L debate. Two of the clubs I drive with (Carnity one of them) swear by 4H, and the other two swear by 4L. Specifically, the senior Marshalls (200+ drives)  on these other drives state that whilst 4H is absolutely fine for junior/newbie drives, once you get onto much more challenging dunes, 4H will struggle to get up the steep soft dunes, and the 4L extra torque is really important when you need to correct yourself, as you need instant torque. Ultimately, by all means drive in 4L but you may just keep having to re attempt obstacles. 

As it so happens I have a wrangler rubicon where the transfer case isn’t really geared right to get any speed, however I drove in 4L today and it was absolutely fine in 4-6th gear.

Why are there strong advocates for either. If one technique was right and the other one way was wrong, this argument would never exist. I’m an indecisive individual at the best of times so this really isn’t helping. 

Are there any Carnity drivers that swear by 4L?. Why wouldn’t you drive in 4L? It offers more torque to the wheels which is surely what you want…

@Josh S

From what i see you have now completed a handful of drives, and i understand that you might seem confused about this topic. From a Carnity Club perspective there is a couple of reasons why we advise everyone to drive in 4H:

1. We cater to all sorts of different 4x4's. When going through most of the vehicle manuals we noticed it's clearly mentioned you should not drive it in 4L beyond 30km/h. Take note: this depends on the vehicle. A Jeep Wrangler JL can drive in 4L at higher speeds, but we have experienced plenty of issues over the years from people driving low gear for extended periods and the damaged they sustained (drive-line, axles, transfer case). (not necessarily JL models, just 4x4's in general)

2. During your learning experience, driving in 4H will give you a much better driving feedback and smoother approach to off-roading. Your vehicle has MORE than enough power to easily go through all the levels in our club. Our leads also drive in 4H (at least the ones i know  )

3. There are other clubs who drive on extreme levels and probably of them drive in 4L with heavy modified vehicles. If you are keen to drive on that level eventually, be prepared to send off your Jeep to the workshop EVERY week, and every time something breaks, that 200+drives senior marshal will tell you to modify it even further.... further down the rabbit-hole. Our Intermediate level drives are fast and thrilling, but you will notice that most of our leads achieve this with stock 4x4's (or minor mods). At the end of the day we want to go home safely and in one piece (the car as well).

 

Pertaining to your specific case:

* Rubicon has the 4:1 transfer case, so if i am not mistaken you'd have to be in 7th or 8th gear in 4L. Limited to 70km/h in 8th gear i think. @Zed might have the gear calculator handy.

I would advise to stay in 4H for as long as you can and learn the art of offroading thoroughly first. After 50-60 drives you can start experimenting in various terrain and see if you find improvements. If you decide to drive on extreme/advance levels in the clubs where heavily modded cars with 4L are leading the pack, then you might gonna have to do the same. But in Carnity you'll never need it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Srikumar]

To reiterate what Fred says, driving on 4L for extended periods of time at high speeds around 60-70 kmph is definitely not advised from a car manufacturer itself.

If you regularly drive at 4H, you will learn how to build the momentum to scale any level of dunes. It will be a different driving style compared to the guys driving at 4L but there is nothing that you can't achieve in 4H compared to 4L. If anything your planning and dune approach will be far better if you practice in 4H.

Plus the clubs that strongly recommend driving in 4L are backed by garages that are more interested in repairing the car that you have damaged.

[Naveen Raj]

1 hour ago, Frederic said:

@Josh S

From what i see you have now completed a handful of drives, and i understand that you might seem confused about this topic. From a Carnity Club perspective there is a couple of reasons why we advise everyone to drive in 4H:

1. We cater to all sorts of different 4x4's. When going through most of the vehicle manuals we noticed it's clearly mentioned you should not drive it in 4L beyond 30km/h. Take note: this depends on the vehicle. A Jeep Wrangler JL can drive in 4L at higher speeds, but we have experienced plenty of issues over the years from people driving low gear for extended periods and the damaged they sustained (drive-line, axles, transfer case). (not necessarily JL models, just 4x4's in general)

2. During your learning experience, driving in 4H will give you a much better driving feedback and smoother approach to off-roading. Your vehicle has MORE than enough power to easily go through all the levels in our club. Our leads also drive in 4H (at least the ones i know  )

3. There are other clubs who drive on extreme levels and probably of them drive in 4L with heavy modified vehicles. If you are keen to drive on that level eventually, be prepared to send off your Jeep to the workshop EVERY week, and every time something breaks, that 200+drives senior marshal will tell you to modify it even further.... further down the rabbit-hole. Our Intermediate level drives are fast and thrilling, but you will notice that most of our leads achieve this with stock 4x4's (or minor mods). At the end of the day we want to go home safely and in one piece (the car as well).

 

Pertaining to your specific case:

* Rubicon has the 4:1 transfer case, so if i am not mistaken you'd have to be in 7th or 8th gear in 4L. Limited to 70km/h in 8th gear i think. @Zed might have the gear calculator handy.

I would advise to stay in 4H for as long as you can and learn the art of offroading thoroughly first. After 50-60 drives you can start experimenting in various terrain and see if you find improvements. If you decide to drive on extreme/advance levels in the clubs where heavily modded cars with 4L are leading the pack, then you might gonna have to do the same. But in Carnity you'll never need it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know some of our Carnity friends  who broke their JL transmission for their love to do extreme  drives in 4L with other clubs..😃

[Josh S]

@Frederic would the Rubicon put even more stress on the car in 4L when compared to the Sport/Sahara given the ratios?  Ie. More likely to damage with excessive speed. 

[Frederic]

1 hour ago, Josh S said:

@Frederic would the Rubicon put even more stress on the car in 4L when compared to the Sport/Sahara given the ratios?  Ie. More likely to damage with excessive speed. 

The Rubicon model with its specific gear ratio was made to excel in rock crawling. When it comes to damage to either the Sport/Sahara or the Rubicon trim because of the different ratio is hard to tell. 

[Gaurav]

As far as I remember, the Wrangler states a maximum speed of 40 kmph in Low Gear. (Please double-check with your owner's manual).

Recently last year @Pavel Pashkovskiy enlightened me that the "Sand Runner" owner manual says up to 90 kmph in Low gear as they have some Mohave edition or gearing that allows such high speed in Lo.

As Fredy and Sri mentioned, most clubs that back 4 Low driving are backed by garages or off-road product sponsors, so they are pressed to break a minimum number of cars every week, like a sales target.

Even the many owners of such garages car sit in workshops for 5 days every week to come out and play 1 day as a show car doing top climbs and defying gravity at extreme angles.

@Josh S read your owner's manual, which will help you not let your head explode.

https://www.jeep.com.eg/content/dam/jeep/eg/other-pdfs/owners-manual/Jeep_Wrangler_Owners_Manual.pdf

Page 234

[Gaurav]

1 hour ago, Josh S said:

@Frederic would the Rubicon put even more stress on the car in 4L when compared to the Sport/Sahara given the ratios?  Ie. More likely to damage with excessive speed. 

This 2023 owner's manual explains the logic to some extent: 3-4 times the engine speed in Low gearing.

Page 143

https://cdn.dealereprocess.org/cdn/servicemanuals/jeep/2023-wrangler.pdf

[Josh S]

And if I do get to a large dune that I just can’t get up in 4H, then I guess I have no choice but to engage 4L.. (for example today on a climb I almost didn’t make it in 4L - any higher I would have needed to turn down, whilst others were okay in 4L). 
 

Also, totally understand the argument for sponsored clubs and there being an incentive to damage cars, but confident this isn’t the case with those I drove with). 

Finally, any thoughts on additional throttle control in 4L. Being able to blip the throttle if in a drifting situation or some soft sand to help correct yourself? I find I’m usually very high up the rev range in 1st, but if I’m in second probably won’t have enough torque. 

Edited January 7 by Josh S

[Pavel Pashkovskiy]

52 minutes ago, Gaurav said:

As far as I remember, the Wrangler states a maximum speed of 40 kmph in Low Gear. (Please double-check with your owner's manual).

Recently last year @Pavel Pashkovskiy enlightened me that the "Sand Runner" owner manual says up to 90 kmph in Low gear as they have some Mohave edition or gearing that allows such high speed in Lo.

As Fredy and Sri mentioned, most clubs that back 4 Low driving are backed by garages or off-road product sponsors, so they are pressed to break a minimum number of cars every week, like a sales target.

Even the many owners of such garages car sit in workshops for 5 days every week to come out and play 1 day as a show car doing top climbs and defying gravity at extreme angles.

@Josh S read your owner's manual, which will help you not let your head explode.

https://www.jeep.com.eg/content/dam/jeep/eg/other-pdfs/owners-manual/Jeep_Wrangler_Owners_Manual.pdf

Page 234

Hello Gaurav,

Gladiator "Sand Runner" was electronically re-programmed to allow to drive with engaged diff-lock on the speed up to 90 km/h on 4H. In 4L it have more or less same limitation like any other Jeep. JL or JT can definitely run faster in 4L than any other offroad cars, thanks to 8 speed automatic transmission. Rubicon except 392 usually slower due to high gear ratio of the transfer case. All other trims like Sport, Sahara, Mojave, Sand Runner and Rubicon 392 sharing same 2.71:1 transfer case gear ratio, which is giving you enough high speed even in 4L with 8 speed automatic transmission.