Scrabbling tyres

[Theshed]

When I reverse to park outside my house I have to negotiate what is basically an 'S' shape avoiding the neighbours cars.
Today I had a lightbulb moment and thought using low range may save my left leg some work.
It did tickover nicely as I went back with clutch foot all the way up, but on the last tight turn in, front wheels where scrabbling.
Yellow lever was up and I tried going in and out of low range.
Is this normal

[Robin]

Yes, perfectly normal - one of the reasons you shouldn't really use 4WD on hard surfaces.

It's also the reason I fit free wheeling hubs to mine, for manoevering in tight spaces in low ratio (3.54 diffs fitted so sometimes need low range on tarmac!).

Robin.

[Twomokes]

Low range automatically uses 4WD unless you have freewheeling hubs irrespective of whether you try any push the yellow knob down, which would pop up immediately in that situation.

[Theshed]

Well blow me down ! I never realised Low Range automatically engaged 4Wd. After all these years ?
I removed the FWH when one side broke.
So am I best not using low range for such a manoeuvre ?
Thanks.

[Alan Drover]

It's not a good idea. The 2.5 petrol in my Series 3 allows me to manoeuvre slowly on tickover in high ratio. That avoids broken halfshafts and maybe diffs.

[Dormy]

It's not just low range that locks in 4x4. The best way to think of it is anything other than high range = 4x4

Neutral in the transfer box engages 4x4 too. So, as soon as you move the red lever from high range the transfer box immeadiately engages 4x4.

So;
High range = 2x4 or 4x4
Neutral    = 4x4
Low range  = 4x4

IIRC the purpose is to ensure the handbrake works on all four wheels when the vehicle is being used in a stationery position.