TAHOE wrote:
You are basically always "fulltime" when you put it in 4x4. The "part time" light basically means you use the 4x4 part of the time when weather conditions allow for slippage such as snow or ice as drivetrain is all locked up together. My wife hates it in the winter when those conditions require 4x4, but yet roads go from maybe ice to slush to dry back to snow, she has to pull it in and out or it will bind up on dry pavement say pullin ginto a drive or her parking place @ work. 4lo is locked up but for much lower gearing for pulling in snow or something like that.
^^ FAIL ^^
tjkj2002 explained it correctly.
for the OP, you have the 231 (which is a great Tcase that will last forever) and it does not have full-time 4x4. Full-time 4x4 is basically all-wheel drive, which means you can use it on the dry pavement and not have binding issues. Because when you turn the front and rear axles travel on different arcs, the average speed of the front and rear axles is slightly different. When you're in part-time 4x4, you don't want to be on dry pavement....unless you're just in a straight line pulling something, because when you turn, there will be binding and something has to give, usually the tires scuff a bit more but it puts undue stress on the Tcase chain. It won't kill it if you forget to take it out of 4, but it's not good.
If there is moderate snow on the road and it's dry here and wet/snowy there, don't be afraide to be in 4 part-time, it's fine. Just be aware that you are in part-time 4x4. You'll want to pop it out real quick if you're in a parking lot going slow taking a sharp turn. You can shift on the fly as long as you're not spinning tires (and ideally going straight).
Now to your question about mud, you generally will want to be in regular drive and in 4hi to get the most wheel spin in the mud. That being said, I recommend being in 4low more of the time while offroad. You can get wheelspin in 4low but it takes a little longer. if you're in rough terrain or going up hills offroad, 4low is a must. If you see a mud hole ahead, keep it in 4low and just go a little faster (as long as you know that the mud hole isn't that deep, haha). Or just get lockers and crawl through it like it's not even there.
The time you'd want to use the 3-2-1 settings is generally offroad when you're going downhill...4low will slow you down and then keeping it in one of those gears will keep you at or near your desired speed without needing to heat up your brakes too much and wear them too quickly.
If you're on the road in mountainous terrain (steep roads) then you may want to throw it in 3, which takes it out of overdrive, just driving around in 2wd.
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