TRD Pro H2/H4/L4 shift lever. How easy is it to accidentally shift this at the wrong time?

Just wondering. I'd be driving with a clumsy passenger. I understand up to about 50 mph you can shift from H2 to H4. Is there any sort of safeguard to prevent shifting when you're going faster than the upper limit?

 

The best preventative thing you can do is slap your passenger upside the head, point to the 4wd shift level and yell out "Don't you EVER touch that!"

That's what my dad did to me when I was a kid, and I turned out fine...

 

No safeguard. My friend's wife had accidentally shifted to L4 thinking she is shifting to H2 at highway speed.
At the time it was not in my sight but my friend called me and said the engine reved red line and dash having Christmas lights. Switched back to H2 and was able to drive home. After coming home removed the battery for 30min or so and Christmas lights are gone. So far no signs of damage. May be the front diff didn't really try to engage at highway speed since its electronic even though TRDs have a manual shifter.


Thank make me curios if the electronic 4wd selector (SR5, 4th anniversary, TRD Sport, (new ish)Trail (not the old trail)) has better safeguard system?

 

I've got a Limited - so no manual shift lever to go into High 4 Locked. Before that I had a Tacoma TRD Sport that also had the round selector switch to go from H2 to H4. The 4Runners that have the manual lever - it takes a little effort to shift from H2 to H4, no? Would a passenger have to knowingly grab the shifter and apply some force to move it - or could it be shifted if they inadvertantly hit the shifter with their hand? If so - what Borracho said.

 

I was about to ask how someone could be so silly as to shift it as a passenger, then I remembered that viral video where some lady tried to grab the rotor brake level on a helicopter during a tour of the Grand Canyon

 

The lever is fairly short and takes quite a bit of deliberate effort to shift. It's lower risk than, say, bumping the transmission shifter.

 

It’s a non issue really.

 

No, there is no "safeguard" built into the vehicle to prevent shifting a 4Runner from H2 to H4 above 50 MPH. It's up to the driver to have control of their vehicle and the passengers riding inside.

 

It's fine. The shift is not easy and it isn't hard either and it's a Toyota so an accidental shift isn't going to hurt anything. You also have to pull back for 4wd so they would have to use it as a grab handle.

 

They'd pretty much have to be left handed, and make a concerted effort to pull straight back to get it into 4H. No passenger would successfully be able to shift into 4L by accident. The vehicle needs to be stopped and have the transmission in neutral for that to happen.

 

^This!

The transfer case lever doesn't just easily slip from H2 to H4, the way the transmission gear shift lever does. Gotta apply some force. And no, it will not matter much if you are doing 70 or 80 instead of 50. Not sure why Toyota has that limit in their owner's manuals. Been driving 4x4s for over 60 years now and I've shifted H2 to H4 whenever I felt it was necessary. Main thing is to NOT shift into 4wd if the rear tires are already spinning (rear tires turning faster than front tires) because that will definitely cause damage when the gears try to mesh.

 

Yeah shifting to 4H at speed is not going to hurt anything. I do it just about daily in Wyoming winters.
4L? There is no way you can actually get it to 4L at any kind of speed. You won’t get it in gear if you tried

 

I damn near have to arm wrestle my lever to move it I don't see how one can accidently do it. Now the Ram trucks with the transmission shift dials that look a awful lot like the volume knob is something I can understand lol