With the Patriot, you can engage the 4WD Lock at any speed. All that does is engage the rear axle. Without the switch engaged, power is sent to the front, unless wheel slip is detected at the front wheels, in which case some power is sent to the rear. With the switch engaged, power is split 50/50 front and rear. There is no low range and you can leave the 4WD Lock engaged for as long as you want.

Sometimes in the winter here, I'll need to lock it in just to get down my street due to all of the snow, but then I'll forget and leave it locked in all the way to work, 25 miles on the highway. No problem.

 

Wicked, thanks for your response man, really interesting and it's good to know all that!

Would you say the 4WD lock makes a lot of difference when you're in the snow/mud?

I can't really say it's something I've hugely tried and tested....I mean I have been in the snow a few times and in the mud dozens of times, but usually I set it to 4WD straight off so I didn't get to compare it in mud without 4WD engaged.

There is one soaking grass/tarmac track to a gate at a particular forestry site I'm working at at the moment....and on the right there's mud ruts and I often drive into the rut to avoid a huge pothole further left....I always notice a bit of movement but so far with my new Pirellis I have noticed slightly less and havent even driven over that bit in 4WD yet so fingers crossed these tyres perform well enough in proper mud when I next go off road legit.

 

Whenever I go off road I engage the 4WD lock, so I can't comment on how it is without while off road. But I can speak on how it differs while in snow and ice. Without 4WD lock engaged on snow/ice when starting out, sometimes a wheel or 2 will spin, sometimes one front wheel will spin, then it stops and a rear wheel will spin, then it'll lock up and the Jeep will start moving forward. When 4WD lock is engaged, that doesn't happen, it just goes.

 

Wow that's cool to know, and good to hear too! I've always hit the 4WD lock when I've driven in snow. There's been a fair bit of snow in the UK recently actually, but it's all been Northern England and Scotland as per usual. The midlands and Wales have had a bit too. But none down here in the boring and mild South-East. Think I should move north, they had all the big thunderstorms last summer while down here it was bone dry and up to 95F.