Travelling through remote areas certainly warrants some caution, but around here I refuse to baby my truck.

I've done the "stuck in the snow" thing, but this was with a trailer and 1,000 lbs in the bed. So I had repeated full-throttle runs going back and fourth to get the entire thing aligned to back up. Got stuck several times and had to rock it out with the trailer. Never expected a problem, and I didn't have one.

During our OH truck meet I did powerbraked full-throttle 4-hi launches up the hill with the trailer, as launching in 2WD would have simply caused us to sit there and spin.

I do not consider my usage abuse, this is what these things were designed to do. Fleet customers such as oil field workers operate in rough conditions off-road, far from civilization every day. And every one I've heard of still prefers Ford trucks because they hold up well.

 

Amen! The better half keeps up with the "stop worrying, the thing is a tank...have you seen these rigs next to an F-150? Godzilla truck, built Ford tough" ....thanks Mrs. Mike Rowe ha!

I've driven everything to ensure I have chosen the right next vehicle, and I'm certain I have.

 

I would guess that there would be some failures - as with any product out there. I can understand the frustration of the guys that have had these failures - especially cummins because his blew in a remote location.
I have the gasser - so I do not have the torque that the 6.7 does - But I have "punished" my transfer case/truck in some very tough off road situations pulling heavy trailers. The worst case was pulling up a steep grade in 4x4 low pulling about 15k trailer & had the truck actually hopping off the ground before I stopped/ backed down a hill & took another run at it..
Was it abuse? Probably - but that is what we needed to do at the time...

I have driven Ford 4x4's for the last 30 yrs & feel like the 2011 does a heck of a job of locking in when in 4x4. I some cases it feels like it just doesn't want to slip a tire ( which is a good thing) so at some point something has to give..

Thinking back on the earlier example - I have often thought that if I had been doing the same hill with the torque of the 6.7 - I probably would have twisted a driveshaft, busted a u-joint, or fried the transfer..

Hopefully - this kind of a failure is just a few "bad apples" & not a chronic problem. In my case - if mine had blown - Ford's tow truck would have had to be 4x4 & I was 30 miles from the nearest pavement..

 

That's not abuse.

The driveline is designed to handle the maximum output of the engine under ALL circumstances, be it the 6.7L PSD or 6.2L gasser. Nowhere in the operator's manual does it say you shouldn't use 4x4 when towing or climbing a hill.

I yanked a loaded tractor-trailer out of the snow once in my '08. It was on slightly wet pavement in 4-lo...and I had to spin and jerk several times to get it moving. This was with a 6.4L PSD.

Running tuned, oversized tires, or other aftermarket performance equipment

 

Pictures by psd2011 - Photobucket

photos

 

Holy cow! It looks like the chain is still in place! Were you able to get any of the pieces that came off? Curious if they show signs on the inside if they got whacked really hard. Were you snowplowing when this happened? I am just about to install a Fisher ExtremeV on my truck.

 

Parts are in the snow. Will find them in the spring..I was just driving not plowing. The dealer has not even looked at it yet....

 

wow I wonder what could have caused that, the chain is still connected so does the 4x4 still work?? the 4wd on my truck flat out quit working. my tcase wasn't in anywhere near as bad a shape as that. with it being broken in 2 places that to me precludes them saying something hit it.

 

After the bang the 4x4 stopped working. Got pulled out and drove it a 1/2 mile to the house. I think the chain may of broke.. not really sure what is going on in there...

 

WHAT?????? i dont not think they were ever designed for this.

when you go off road, the drivetrain has no were near the stress it has when on pavement because tires can break loose easier in soil. when tires cannot spin or break loose, the drivetrain comes under tremendous amount of stress and chain is usually the weak like.

also the sudden shifts in inertia from rocking a truck never helps but IMO should be built to hold up to that. but with 400hp pulling one way then all a sudden pulling it the other, its asking a chain to hold alot of power..

dodge cant build a tranny to hold up, and i will never tow anything off road with a IFS.

 

I have only seen or heard of one chain failure before, and that was CumminsCowboy.

If the transfer case wasn't designed to handle the stress of all tires breaking loose at once, the minute someone turned the wheels on dry pavement while accidentally leaving it in 4WD you'd have parts everywhere. Such a system would be incredibly failure prone because lots of people would accidentally break it. Hardly "built Ford tough".

Make no mistake, that T-case sees just as much stress turning on dry pavement as it does simply turning the front wheels in 4-hi on drive pavement. The end result is the same, the chain and gears have to transmit the necessary torque to break loose either the front or rear tires.

It's asking the chain to hold a lot of power no matter what you do, these things weigh a LOT! Switching from one direction or another is going to make no difference to the chain unless there is a LOT of slop in the chain to begin with. In this event the chain is toast anyway...

 

seriously, how many people accidentally leave it in 4wd, then break 4 tires loose on pavement? thats some serious over power

i was just say you were saying that power-braking with a trailer going up hill in 4wd was not abuse, cuz oil filed workers go off roading in 4wd and their trucks have no problems. there is not comparison there and they are not made for that. yes it can withstand it, but being made for it is completely different ball game.

yes the t-case see no difference IF in 2 wd wether powering the front or the rear. but see huge difference when powering all 4.

the entire drivetrain has inertia( wheels, shafts, gears, rotors, etc...) and switching that inertias direction in a short period of time creates huge stresses on the weakest link in the system which is the chain in 4wd(slop or no slop energy has to be absorbed). if your rocking truck, your wheels are spinning pretty fast, and switching direction in a short period of time creates stress, there is no debating that. ask any engineer, mechanic, athlete.

in 2wd the friction between tires are ground are weakest link, thats why you spin out. it take less force to break static friction than it does to accelerate truck. different ball game in 4wd.

you ever here that its not the fall that kills you, its the sudden stop. same thing here.. its the sudden acceleration and inertia change..

 

The problem with your argument here is what's causing the inertia change.

First of all, if you are switching from drive to reverse with the tires spinning, the T-case chain isn't the weakest link. The transmission is! That is one of THE WORST things you can do for the transmission. I like to assume people know that, and that most people use the brakes to stop the wheels from spinning before shifting gears.

Therefore neither the T-case, chain, transmission, nor driveshaft is responsible for the change in inertia. they are simply along for the ride as soon as power is reduced and the brakes are applied. There is no additional stress here.

Secondly you are attempting to differentiate breaking four tires loose on pavement with making a sharp turn. As if there is a large difference between the two of them.

There isn't. Either way the driveshafts, u-joints, axles, and T-case have to transmit enough torque to break tires loose. In hard turns on snow I've had either my front or rear tires slip, which can also happen on dry pavement. Either way you have that much torque being transferred by the T-case.

If this was enough to do damage we would see a LOT of t-case failures. We don't.

BTW, my powerbraked launches were in 4-hi, and didn't break loose any tires. Therefore the t-case was transmitting LESS torque than if it were turning on dry pavement.

 

one thing to realize when you are doing the rocking is if you are not careful even though you let off the throttle the tires are still spinning for a moment then if you switch back the other way and don't wait a second your engaging a gear while the tires are spinning another direction. not good, if I get stuck I always apply the brake when I let off the throttle then switch gears, even at that often times it even takes the brake a moment to slow the wheel spin.

that is how I know when my tcase let go I was not abusing it.

 

Thats why I had turnd off the TC. I was sure that the wheels had stopped before shifing.