Suzuki escudo 4wd help

Hey Team looking for some advice.

I have a 2009 Escudo with the 4wd selector, 4H, 4H lock and 4L lock. My understanding is 4H for every day driving. 4H lock for gravel etc and 4L lock for soft slow stuff. I am aware this is is more of a soft roader, but thought they were decently capable off-road.

I got stuck yesterday in some soft sand. Fun times. I got out ok with some help, but while I was there managed to bottom myself out. Humble pie eaten, and lessons learned.

What I noticed while I was stuck was that only the front right and back left wheels were spinning. If I gave it heaps I got all four wheels going, but only past the point of being helpful (too fast to help crawl out)

Was I asking too much of the 4wd system? Am I incorrect in thinking that the lock in 4L and 4H actually lock the wheels? Or should they have? I recently had the trans replaced under insurance with a second hand trans. Just wondering if that could be at fault if the wheels do not in fact lock when they are supposed to?

Pic for a laugh


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that is working perfectly

easiest explained like this
4h 1 wheel spinning= stuck
4h or 4l = 1 front and 1 rear spinning =stuck

you dont have diff lock /cross lock so only 1 wheel per axel needs to spin

you arent the first to get stuck down there and wont be the last...the line of clay is safer driving but dont go off wheel marks,its slightly firmer,and do not stop...

Sounds like everything was ooerating correctly. To have all 4 wheels going at once you need to have diff locks or a limited slip diff. I have the same Zuk but a bit older. Lots of utes will have a limited slip diff at the back and s few will have a rear diff lock. A front locker is just about always an aftermarket job. Cheers and congratulations on getting stuck. There are only two sorts of 4wd people, those who have been stuck and liars!

you have no less traction/wheels spinning than landrovers or early hiluxs cruisers etc SOME have a slippery arse end diff so it spins one side and slowly turns the other..much better but not all have it.

Very capable off road man did our one take us on some adventures. Your getting one wheel spinning per axle as it doesnt have a lsd in it

Ok awesome great to know. I have not owned one of these before so was not 100% on how the system worked :)

I plan on getting a 2” lift into it, and add diff breathers but will otherwise leave it standard. Most of my “off roading” is gravel road with the occasional low stream getting into public blocks :)

a set of snow chains on one end,or just decent rubber will make a huge difference...

Thats all i did to ours and some a/t tyres and light bar something a bit more aggresive would of been good but it spent most of its time on the road

A couple of those traction boards are a good investment for the soft stuff. Just make sure you wash the absolute shit out of the truck, especially underneath or you'll be dealing with rust in no time. Maybe consider getting it sprayed with fish oil, penetrol, or lanolin if you are going to be doing beach work and hose it down after each trip. Keep it out of salt water at all costs.

I got an 08 as a runnaround goes well going to do a 50mm lift as just a bit low for rocks etc if you blow a low beam $120 each at repco so ali is your friend $20 for a pair and get led highs for 25 . they are a permanent 4wd with centre diff lock for loose gravel sand etc like the old rangerover system so quite versatile .

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Originally Posted by m101a1

I got an 08 as a runnaround goes well going to do a 50mm lift as just a bit low for rocks etc if you blow a low beam $120 each at repco so ali is your friend $20 for a pair and get led highs for 25 . they are a permanent 4wd with centre diff lock for loose gravel sand etc like the old rangerover system so quite versatile .

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they are a permanent ALL WHEEL DRIVE with centre diff lock for off road work...same as the Lada nivas and boy did they have shit thrown at them as people didnt understand the difference between all wheel drive and four wheel drive.....its one wheel spin=stuck Vs 2 wheels spin = stuck

I wouldn't bother using 4H lock for normal gravel road driving, just slippery places where there is a chance of getting stuck.

You can slightly apply the handbrake when you're stuck and it works a bit like a poor mans locker, can do the same with the foot brake as well its just a bit trickier to control

What is actually happening in this scenario, is one wheel on one end of the diff has good traction and it's opposite number doesn't so spins happily while it's mate that still has some bite, bites and doesn't spin. In a basic open differential gearcase there isn't anything to send the drive to both sides despite the fact that one side has grip and the other doesn't, so power being power goes in the direction of least resistance.

Next time try adding some load to the wheels on that diff to make them both spin - i.e. a couple of clicks of park brake to balance the load through the diff or a little bit of foot brake to do that same. This is what the modern electronic locking differentials are trying to do when you are in 4L or electronic lock modes, except they do this by tricking the ABS system to think that the wheels are slipping and trying to cause the ABS system to pulse and slow the spin down. It works surprisingly well, I've driven past some guys with fully kitted out locked diffs all around just by going quietly in the electronic locked mode and not digging a giant hole for myself.

Ha, @makka tag...

Great info @makka and @No.3. I'll have to remember the handbrake trick if I get into trouble in the hills.

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Originally Posted by makka

I wouldn't bother using 4H lock for normal gravel road driving, just slippery places where there is a chance of getting stuck.

You can slightly apply the handbrake when you're stuck and it works a bit like a poor mans locker, can do the same with the foot brake as well its just a bit trickier to control

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but 4h will feel less bouncy over corrugation's than 2h.....by significant amount

A rear locker or limited slip diff running Redline Heavy duty Shockproof gear oil (isuzus) will lock up rear end and significantly improve traction. Huge improvement - had this on all my club trucks, plus front locker at times.

The other key thing to do for easier travel over sand is lower your tyre pressures to widen tyre footprint. Whereas you might normally run tyres on road at 32-40lbs, lower them on sand to 20. Big difference. Some boys even run them down to 12-15lbs but then you must be careful not to spin tyre off rim. For this option you need a little plug-in tyre inflator pump..pretty cheap.

Lowering tyre pressures to say 25 something we oalso often do say for lumpy terrain/river work - gives you a softer more rolling ride. Leave tyres fully inflated for snow/ice/slippery condition.

As for getting stuck up to the sills like that - this is called learning!

And this is all a very true set of statements too...

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Originally Posted by mudgripz

A rear locker or limited slip diff running Redline Heavy duty Shockproof gear oil (isuzus) will lock up rear end and significantly improve traction. Huge improvement - had this on all my club trucks, plus front locker at times.

The other key thing to do for easier travel over sand is lower your tyre pressures to widen tyre footprint. Whereas you might normally run tyres on road at 32-40lbs, lower them on sand to 20. Big difference. Some boys even run them down to 12-15lbs but then you must be careful not to spin tyre off rim. For this option you need a little plug-in tyre inflator pump..pretty cheap.

Lowering tyre pressures to say 25 something we oalso often do say for lumpy terrain/river work - gives you a softer more rolling ride. Leave tyres fully inflated for snow/ice/slippery condition.

As for getting stuck up to the sills like that - this is called learning!

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Yeah this, not just for sand for everything off road bag the tyre out.
We run 10 psi in the bush trucks with beadlocks and 2 psi in the trials truck you want that tyre bagging out for maximum traction.
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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

but 4h will feel less bouncy over corrugation's than 2h.....by significant amount

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It doesnt have 2H though, it's full time so has 4H and 4H lock

I used to have one of these with muddies. It was a bit of a weapon and surprised a few mates in the mud. I didn’t do much sand work with it. Could have just been a soft spot of sand, getting stuck happens to everyone.

Without front and rear lockers, 2H only gives you 1 wheel drive in soft ground, 4H locks the centre diff and gives you 2 (1 front and 1 rear) in soft ground. You need to lock the front, centre and rear diffs to get real, actual, genuine 4WD.

Mate has a new Jimny and that has all the tricky gear fitted (traction control) as factory standard now. Climbing up a steep slippery slope the little sod was happily feeding power to what ever wheels could handle it. Very little slipping. It knew what wheel was slipping and reduced power to it (or maybe it was sending that to a wheel that had better grip). Bloody clever stuff anyway.
For the Escudo you could fit wheel locks to each wheel and have a dash mounted switch to control what wheel gets power, what wheel is locked. It just bungs the brake on for the wheel/s you select. I've seen that system fitted to a Terios and it worked well...but no idea of costs, and it was all a manual thing. Your fingers would be dancing all over those switches in a real slippery situation. But just saying...there are things that can be done. How deep is your wallet and your time available?
Edit: Does your Escudo not have a traction control lurking on the dash somewhere? If it's there maybe it's not working?

[QUOTE=Grey Kiwi;1487429]Very little slipping. It knew what wheel was slipping and reduced power to it (or maybe it was sending that to a wheel that had better grip). Bloody clever stuff anyway. /QUOTE]

It uses the ABS brakes to grip the spinning wheel, which it senses is spinning faster than the others, which in turn will transfer the power to the other wheel on that axle.

The last generation of NZ Army Land Rovers had early Range Rover drive train (less of course the useful disc brakes and coil suspension) so were also running AWD like your Escudo. Which when you get in the poo and don't know what you are doing is one wheel drive(as others have said).

Because the Landys had leaf suspension they were prone to pig jumping if you had not remembered much from your drivers course, and had not locked the centre diff. This killed a couple of drivers, as they attempted to negotiate steep lumpy terrain in low box without engaging the diff lock. Massive pig jumping results, driver loses control and the Rovers rolled off the feature into a gully with resultant fatalities.

When driven by experienced off roaders they were capable of scaring the pants off the more road orientated passengers, even with open diffs. Low tyre pressure and triple tractions helped a lot. That, and a very forgiving engine at low revs.

The Escudo can be a bit of a sleeper. Very capable in the right hands:thumbsup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19BNRvuNLWE

Crawl control!

Yeh sand and pea gravel just keep dropping air pressure if there's no chance of getting a tow until you have enough contact tyre width to float back above it. Having a 12V pump for when you're back on the hard stuff. I've even used a stand up bike tyre pump. That takes a while though but definitely doable. Pays to stay above the high tide/wave mark. Don't ask me how I know.

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Used to carry a 12v little air compressor slow but handy

Yep some good info and advice in here. I havent previously done much beach work, and I dont have any intention to do much again in the future haha. I have learned some great lessons from this though, and will go forth more prepared.

At least hopefully. The car crapped out yesterday on the way back from the mountain. Looks like a blown head gasket at the very least, possibly a cracked head fml :pissed off: :pissed off: :pissed off:

What engine is it

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Originally Posted by blip

What engine is it

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It’s a 2.4 petrol.
I have mechanical breakdown insurance though so they should hopefully be taking care of it.

yip those suzukis are rather well known for that sort of carry on....best of luck.