The Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 and the mystery of '4WD off':
. It's called The Ledge, and if your truck can't make it up and over, it really has no business getting into the stuff higher up. The only time I've gone up over The Ledge was in an American Expedition Vehicles Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon with a lift and 35-inch tires.The ZR2 has 33-inch tires, tame by current standards. But, by virtue of its slimmer front bumper, it has excellent approach angles.
Thus began a long back-and-forth with GM in which Chevy shipped the truck back to its Milford proving grounds to figure out what happened. Which, as it transpires, means "figuring out what I did." Because GM would know why "4WD Off" happens, right? It put it there. But the engineers wanted to know how I inadvertently discovered it. Of course, the truck logged the whole incident on its black box.
It's a tradeoff, I suppose. Full-time four-wheel drive is mighty nice in a pickup, especially when you're driving in the rain with nothing in the bed. It's a boon on the street. If it's a liability in narrowly defined off-road situations, that's a compromise that probably makes sense. But if you've got something like a ZR2, or a GMC Sierra AT4, just mind the transfer case during your off-road adventures.
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