Exactly.
This is why I want 4a so bad...
Where I live, they plow the roads pretty well and I hardly ever have to drive on much snow.... however, you always get drifts, black ice, and patches where it isn't plowed as well - especially on the highway.
Having the switch between 2wd and 4h is ridiculous and not safe as you are distracted as you drive.

I RARELY have a need for 4wd, even in the Northeast and heavy snow - they just do a good job of plowing and I don't like in the middle of nowhere.
4a would be about 10,000x more useful for me... but also cost about $10,000 more.
Other than 4a, I absolutely love my 302a XLT.

 

Do you need to make changes or add this in forscan afterword? l'd love to do this mod.
Thanks

 

stay with the standard 4X4.. the auto uses clutches in the transfer. manual says DO NOT use for plowing. that says it all.

 

I am going to do my 2018 STX soon. Transfer case, module, switch, Forscan change. If it ever goes up in smoke, I still have another transfer case, module, and switch as backup. I calculate under $1500 all in. I bet it could be done for $500 with salvage yard connections and your own bloody knuckles on the low side. Find a way to sell your old transfer case and who knows how low you can go. The switch and module are relatively cheap. Main cost is the transfer case. But then the case was a lot cheaper to buy than I expected. I have not heard of any failures of the TOD transfer cases

 

Can you cite anyone that's had a catastrophic failure of the TOD transfer case?

 

OCMike's video and the rest of the successful upgrades to 4A in this thread has me wanting to tackle this before winter is over. I have a 2017 F-150 XLT 3.5 EB, should I be shopping for a transfer case from a 2017 Lariat? I've read several posts about the Raptor t-case being a little longer and that concerns me, so I would likely go to the Lariat transfer case. Unless there's a really good reason to go with the Raptor t-case, then I'm all ears. I should mention that the truck is lifted and has a 4" rear block, and I've seen at least one post of someone using a bigger rear block to counter the effects of the longer Raptor transfer case. I wonder if my bigger rear block would make the longer transfer case a non issue, since the distance from transfer case to rear axle is further than stock with the bigger block?

Anyway, I'm going to make a couple calls this week to salvage yards for pricing. Is there one particular part number of transfer case I should be looking for?

Thanks for the amazing info in this post, and especially to OCMike for the video!

 

It seems like the use case for 4A is variably snowy/icy roads. I have lived in Texas all of my life, so icy roads are a rarity for us. I actually preferred the 2H/4H/4L TC over any other option because I DIDN'T WANT 4A. I had done a mod on my old Explorer (4A/4H/4L) to disengage the TC to allow for a bootleg 2H, and drove in that mode virtually all of the time (so much that it generally did not occur to me to resume 4A in those rare occasions when it was icy). From that limited experience, and given that snow and ice will still be pretty rare in Texas, are there strategies for dealing with variable ice that don't use 4A? I wouldn't turn 4H on for that, but I have very limited experience and the folks on this thread have a ton. If there are ways to make icy driving safer and easier for those of us who see it maybe once/year, I'd love to hear them.

 

So glad I made the decision last summer to convert to 4A . 230 Mile trip today from Michigan City In to Traverse City Mi. Blowing snow/ 45 Mph wind. Never missed a beat!

 

I know I'm responding to some old posts but as usual with 4WD modes there are lots of misconceptions and bad info.

Tuned EcoBoosts at the drag strip will run through the clutch and spin the rears.

https://www.f150forum.com/f129/laria...4/#post7697819

Based on some numbers that may be a little bit made up, the TOD clutch is probably right on the edge of power handing capability for some fairly extreme offroading.

https://www.f150forum.com/f34/4wd-qu...2/#post7260334

And Ford explicitly stated that they developed the Raptor's HiLoc case because the TOD clutch would overheat in extended sand operation.

https://www.sae.org/articles/ford-ra...g-sae-ma-00054
Ford's warning against plowing with the TOD case is likely related - extended low traction operation where the tires are frequently slipping and the TOD has to modulate power overheats the clutch.

Depends on the driver and conditions, but I also frequently use it in rainy conditions. Trying to pull out onto a wet 55mph road and merge with traffic always leads to wheelspin with the stock open diff. And now that my truck is tuned, even on dry pavement it will spin tires in 1st and 2nd with even just a moderately aggressive launch.

Love 4A in the winter, makes the truck a snow monster.

 

I just did this swap and am in need of help. I got all the components installed and programmed I believe, but when switching the Tcase modes, I still don't have 4A. When in the 4A position, it says it says 4H, the next position 4H shifts it into 4L and when moved to 4L, I get a "check 4x4" warning on the screen.

I have a 2018 (May/18) F150 xlt.10 speed screw, 3.5L, and an 8” cluster from Livnitup. I bought a used transfercase, GL34-7A195-BF, described and labeled as a 4 mode TOD for 2015 to 2020. I bought a new switch from Ford, FL3Z-14B166-DA (it has e locker mode which I don't have, but have read that usually isn't a problem) since I couldn't find a 4A one without the e-locker. The transfercase module for my year, JL3Z-7E453-F, was ordered from Tasca, but I received a TM345 (which is labeled as JL3A-7H417-BD on the module but came in a box labeled JL3Z-7E453-F ). I think they are actually the same part if I'm not mistaken, engineering vs catalog numbers? I then programmed the BCM with Forscan, changing line 726-13-01 from the 4 to 8. Had a write error first time regarding the checksum and then it wrote successfully on the next try. I have verified that it indeed shows the "8" in the Asbuilt mode as well as looked at it in easymode and it shows “4x4 auto” now. I have also done a reboot of the BCM and PCM, and tried PCM: reset all adaptations. No luck. Added the one line in the TCCM section 761-01-01: 0014 0000 7E (as recently mentioned), rebooted the BCM and PCM again and still no change.

Not sure where to go from here, new switch or different control module, more programming? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.