My 2019 shifts in pretty quick. During the summer the lake I constantly visit starts to drop and everyone ends up driving down the rocky dirt bank, boat ramp is high and dry. When heading out you need 4WD I routinely shift from 2WD to 4WD and can honestly feel the hubs engage within 5-10 sec, a few feet, and can see/feel the front tires instantly turn to pull the truck and boat out of the water and up the long lake bank. I would never even get the boat out of the water if it took 100yds to engage the hubs. My son has a 2012 SD and a boat. I have pulled his boat out which acts identical to mine in regards to hub engagement.
To the OP I would do some checking into your hub engagement if it were me.

Good luck….

Mike

 

I've had five or six Ford trucks from 1995 to 2019 and every single one of them locked the hubs immediately when I turned the dial in the cab. Winter, summer, doesn't matter. They worked correctly. Again, if my hubs took that long to engage my service department would be fixing it.

As far as confirmation, when my rear tires are spinning and I stop, twist the ****, then take off again easily all within 4 seconds that's all the confirmation that I need. I've been off-roading for a hobby for three decades. I'm pretty sure I know when my hubs are locked or not.

 

LOL, just turn the dial to 4wd 100 yards before the water........................

 

My truck has the manual transfer case, so my experience comes from 6 years of riding in my work buddy's 2014 and 2016 F250s w/the electrically operated t case. They always reacted immediately. But like all systems where you're trying to engage splined shafts, having the time/sense to back off on the go pedal makes things happen a bit quicker. To travel a 100' while waiting for engagement likely means that hasn't totally happened. Heck, even my John Deere tractor doesn't like to engage the front wheels while under drive pressure, and I know that's not a one of a kind behavior.

 

FWIW... on ALL my trucks, the front hubs are locked 90% of the time, and unless I think about it before a trip down the mtn, they stay locked, I have never had to drive more than a foot or 2 before they engaged, which, as stated, is WHEN you need it, not 100 yards further... by then you're already stuck. Granted, I don't trust the auto-locking hubs which is why I manually lock them and leave them locked, but even when they haven't been locked, once I turn the ****, within a foot of rolling forward they are pulling/locked/engaged. There's times when driving where you don't know you'll need 4wd 1 mile ahead of time, so to have to wait 100 yds BEFORE it works is wrong, I would have it checked out.

As a side note, on my '02 F350, I have found if I have a code thrown, (I have an older Hypertech that will throw a code if I'm on it and let off, overboost) but not CEL, it will not engage 4wd till it is cleared, luckily I found this out on my property and not out in the wilds, maybe look into that as a possibility, I just locked my hubs manually and all was good, this was shortly after a trip to TX when I remembered to unlock the front hubs after the first fill on the trip, and didn't lock them back when I got home.

Bottom line, if everything is working correctly, when you turn the ****, you should be in 4wd within a foot or 3.... not 100 yds.

 

Maybe it is time to open the hubs up and clean out the old grease and relube. This should be done about every 50,000 miles. The heat from the disc brakes can dry out and cause the grease to cake up. This can block and stop the locking of that hub. Use a hi temp light grease, replace the hub ring, I used quad orings I got from the local hydraulic shop. They are better at sealing than standard orings. Never had a problem with hubs locking in ever, auto is manual.

Smokeploe

 

Add me to the list of the exceptions where my hubs lock with the vacuum almost instantly, maybe a 5 seconds in the winter.

And yes I'm sure they are locked in and front wheels being powered.

 

I keep reading this and I cannot see how you feel this is normal. If this is true when your truck engages 4wd, its worse than the OP's

 

My hubs egage almost immediatly as well.

Keep in mind that for the hubs to engage smoothly the axle and wheel have to be turning the same rpm. With the truck in my driveway in park I can turn the dial to 4hi and without moving an inch the hubs lock. Easily verified by reaching behind the wheel and trying to turn the axle. If the hubs were not locked the axle shafts would turn in opposite directions.

What you don't want to do is shift into 4hi while you're stuck and spinning the back tires as the splines in the front hubs cannot line up to compete the shift without grinding. I don't like to use the "shift on the fly" either athough I'm sure it's fine since the transfer case is supposed to engage first so the front end is all at the same speed when the hubs get the signal to engage. I prefer to shift into 4x4 with the truck stationary or manually lock the hubs before going out if I think I'll need 4x4.

 

So on the way home I tried several times to engage in 4 high while the hubs were in auto.
no dice each time.
truck has 133k on it and hubs have never been serviced? Might look into the how to on that and see?

the defroster didn’t come on either so maybe not a vacuum leak ?

so confused and sorry to have started a quagmire debate on hubs locking speed

 

FWIW,
On my 2022, I let off the throttle completely, twist the **** and wait a couple seconds for the message that shift is complete......sometimes I've been impatient and got on the throttle too quickly and it clunked when it went in under load. I'd say time is usually a second or two, distance depends on whether I'm at a stop or cruising down the highway at 60mph.

Dave

 

Don't worry about the debate, always good to have a wide degree of input

There is a good possibility that the po never/rarely used 4wd and they are just gummed up and need a service, I would def do that and see what you get.

 

OP, this might help you if your mechanically up to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61AU-qDozwA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu6Y_SbAHKw

 

I simply do not trust the system, it has screwed me several times. Take that truck to the dealer, bets on them telling you they didn't find anything wrong???? Just today I had the dump trailer on delivering firewood. When I got to the approach to the county road it was uphill and snowy. I stopped in 2wd, realized I wasn't going anywhere, backed up 30 feet, turned the **** and proceeded. The hubs didn't engage until the back tires spun a little and then a harsh engagement. I have had it bang them in a few times when they should have locked if it actually works like you guys say. Every Ford I have owned was like this, that is at least half a dozen trucks. You all must be better at this than me... lol

 

when colder temps arise, manually lock the hubs in and the all that is needed to to switch to 4hi inside the cab.