Stuck in 4 wheel drive, anyone else ?

[oneal]

Our last two rides I experienced our 1500 getting stuck in 4wd near the end of the ride. There is a low pitch howl and you can hardly steer (just like my old Dodges with posi done if you didn't unlock the hubs. Our woods have enough steep inclines and rocks that we ALWAYS ride in what they call " ultra turf " which of course means the rear end remains driving one wheel and both fronts kick in when the rear spins.
To get it to unlock is just like the early models (2005), when they got stuck in 4WD, turn off the front end engagement and back up a few feet.
Difference being in the old Rangers, most of us had thousands of miles under our belts before the hillard style clutches had enough wear to let them stick. A magnet pulls the rollers in and when the magnet is depowered and you let off the throttle they release. Ours 1500 has maybe 500 miles so no way should anything have much wear.
Just in case this smells like a situation where the machine is being driven hard you should know our special needs son and my wife are always onboard, we never bounce hard and rarely see more than 45 mph.
I have not read this happening to others but wanted to check

 

[Clubin]

I had it happen once rite after a front diff oil change. But never again. Only that one time. I put it in reverse. It unlocked and has worked perfectly ever since.

 

[Chaz]

Our last two rides I experienced our 1500 getting stuck in 4wd near the end of the ride. There is a low pitch howl and you can hardly steer (just like my old Dodges with posi done if you didn't unlock the hubs. Our woods have enough steep inclines and rocks that we ALWAYS ride in what they call " ultra turf " which of course means the rear end remains driving one wheel and both fronts kick in when the rear spins.
To get it to unlock is just like the early models (2005), when they got stuck in 4WD, turn off the front end engagement and back up a few feet.
Difference being in the old Rangers, most of us had thousands of miles under our belts before the hillard style clutches had enough wear to let them stick. A magnet pulls the rollers in and when the magnet is depowered and you let off the throttle they release. Ours 1500 has maybe 500 miles so no way should anything have much wear.
Just in case this smells like a situation where the machine is being driven hard you should know our special needs son and my wife are always onboard, we never bounce hard and rarely see more than 45 mph.
I have not read this happening to others but wanted to check

ok i know i`m in the xd forum , nobody on plain ranger forum seems to talk about this problem ,but my 2023 ranger xp 1000 did the same thing, weird howl and pulled hard right. put it in reverse and backed up quite aways, to see if noise etc. cotinued and it didn`t and was fine going forward ,ok problem solved, not, a week or 2 later i had been in 4wd and had went back to turf mode . and made sure to back up a bit, quite a while later, hour? maybe ,i get a very loud smack noise like you hit abranch hard under passenger side. but nothing around on road. then a few weeks later after no 4x engagement , again with loud smack ,again nothing on road. i`m getting pretty concerned, don`t want to destroy some thing. did yours ever do the random smack sound like something was trying to engage and popping back out? if so did you ever figure it out? thanks chaz

 

[DrNautica]

I have experienced the "SMACK" sound... once. Very loud and pronounced like something hitting the skid pan on the front passenger side but it was once so I shrugged it off... until you posted this. I have just 450 miles on the odometer.

 

[Chaz]

if you ever hear of somebody figure it out please let me know. i have 3500 mi. i think i`ll post on a ranger forum too if i hear of anyone there i`ll post here too . thanks