How Fast Can You Drive A Jeep Wrangler In 4 High?

4 high (or 4-wheel drive high range) is a setting on the Jeep Wrangler meant to give your tires more traction on slippery surfaces where the tires can’t properly grip the ground. But how fast can you drive with the 4 high feature activated?

Putting your Jeep Wrangler in 4-wheel drive high range doesn’t limit your maximum speed, but it does make your brakes less sensitive. This, combined with any slippery conditions you might face, means that it’s best not to drive faster than 55 mph while using the 4 high feature.

When using 4-wheel drive on your Jeep Wrangler, there are actually three different options to choose from. Let’s take a closer look at the options so that you can traverse any terrain as safely as possible.

How Fast Can You Drive a Jeep Wrangle in 4 High?

For some reason, there are some people that believe that putting your Jeep Wrangler into 4-wheel drive (4WD) high range will actually make your vehicle faster. Contrary to this popular belief, 4WD high range won’t make your Jeep any faster.

To answer the question above more precisely, 4WD high range doesn’t really affect your Jeep’s maximum speed. This means that you can go as fast as your Jeep will allow. Typically, a Jeep Wrangler’s maximum speed is somewhere between 100 and 125 mph.

This 100 to 125 mph value will fluctuate based on a number of different factors including the trim, engine type, and road conditions.

The fact that road conditions are a factor that can affect speed means that your maximum speed won’t be a constant number, and your Jeep’s maximum speed will fluctuate from road to road.

The main thing to consider when thinking about how fast you can go in 4WD high range is the conditions that the road will be in when you use the feature. 4WD high range is typically used when road conditions are slick or slippery. This means that you likely won’t really want to push your Jeep to the limit while in this range.

So, what speed should you go while in 4WD high range? It is generally recommended that you maintain a maximum speed of around 45 to 55 mph (about 88 km/h). Since these are maximum speeds, it’s actually recommended that you travel below these due to slippery road conditions.

When Should 4WD High Range Be Used?

Generally speaking, a Jeep with 4WD has three different settings: auto, high, and low. Each of these settings is best in different circumstances. Let’s go through them to make your driving more efficient.

Auto

Auto is the default setting that attempts to make the decision of switching from 2-wheel drive to 4-wheel drive for you.

It does this automatically whenever it senses that one of the wheels has lost traction. This setting is most useful when you’re driving in an area where you might want to frequently switch between 2- and 4-wheel drive.

High

As we said previously, 4WD high range should be used when the road’s traction is low, giving your Jeep a better grip on the road.

These low traction conditions include overly rainy freeways, muddy paths, or even snowy hills. Once again, you’ll want to limit your speed while using this setting or you may cause damage to your vehicle.

Low

The low setting maximizes traction so that your wheels can get a grip on the road even in the worst conditions. The suggested conditions for this setting include driving over rocks, driving through deep sand, fording through creeks, and going through steep off-road terrain.

This setting causes your wheels to spin more slowly than in high mode, meaning that you should drive at a slower speed using this setting (around 40 mph).

The most important thing to consider with any of these three settings is that you don’t want to use four-wheel drive on terrain where your wheels have good traction (like standard roads).

Four-wheel drive engages all of your wheels, making it harder to come to a complete stop. This means that having four-wheel drive on normal roads can be potentially dangerous.

It’s also worth noting that four-wheel drive increases your gas mileage when it’s used for long periods of time. All of this combined leads to the conclusion that you should use 2-wheel drive for your regular day-to-day drives.