Drove '06 2500 CTD on dry pavement in 4WD Hi at 55 mph for about 12 miles before realizing it was still in 4WD after coming off gravel road. Other than being stupid, did I do any damage?

 

No - the front ends are pretty tough. If you ran a soloum circuit maybe a different story. I am assuming the designers design for that situation you did and for many, many miles.

 

every summer- i'll lock the front hubs and run the truck down the road for a couple of miles to lube the front end. i have doen this with all of my trucks over the years- no problems.

 

nah..mine is just fine after multiple 95+ mph passes down the strip

 

Agree with solostyle1... Have made a couple of passes with the 4x4 engaged at the track, way rough on the truck but holding up so far. Should probably run in 4 wheel drive every so often to lube the front end, though you should due it on dirt roads...

 

You'll end up streching the chain at most. And yes I know this for a fact. As for "lubing up the front end" If your front end is stock (without manual locking hubs)the only thing you do by putting it in 4x4 is locking the t-case in. Your gears are always slinging the lube around.

 

going straight down the road is not bad, its the tight turning that is the real killer.
was fun plowing this past snow storm, 12" of heavy wet snow with the roads cleared down to pavement already. every time i had to go into the road to turn around i had to quickly put into 2wd without loosing my momentum, otherwise i would just spin in 2wd.

 

Thanks all for the comments... feeling better, but still stupid. Need to pay closer attention next time.

 

driving in a straight line at those speeds aint that bad. its making tight turns on pavement that puts strain on parts.

 

I can tell you I'm the first one to switch to 4hi during bad rain storms... I've driven 70mph for a 100 miles in the rain before...

never had a problem yet...

 

The chain streching is gonna happen anyway.

 

If you think 4 wheel drive is o'k on pavement, do this. Put in FWD and drive straight ahead for a couple hundred feet. Then put tranny in neutral and try hand pushing unit. Many will be difficult to push because of driveline binding. Eventually this leads to chain streching and other dramatic failures
Full time FWD and AWD are designed to be driven on any surface.

 

And you don't need to engage in 4WD to lube things up......It is turnin anyway!

 

I agree with dozer12216 about the driveshaft binding, mine does it too, so does my 75 ford. As far as the front end spinning all the time, the 2nd gens don't spin the gears, just the spider gears so locking it in 4 will lube the gears, in my opinion its not a good idea to do it on dry hard surfaces, my ford popped a front end (heavy 44, 3600 lb) and it is a royal pain in the but to fix something like that!!

 

You guys that say the driveline binds up just might need to check your tire pressures. If you run the same pressures in the front and rear the front tires will be slightly shorter due to the heavy front end. That could cause a slight binding. There's no other reason you should be experiencing binding when going in a straight line.

As far as high speeds, mines been up to 106.5mph in 4wd and hasn't had any problems yet.