Driving with transfer box in "N"

Just picked up a Discovery at the week end and drove it home with out any problems at all, on cleaning it found that the transfer box was in "N" and not in High ratio as to what the manual said for normal road driving, "N" is for use when towing the vehicle.
The question is as follows, does this damage the transfer box or have any adverse effect on the engine not being in the different "H" or "L" ratio?

Interesting one, if it was in neutral you should not have been going anywhere!

As for towing, it it strongly recomended that you do not tow a 4X4 as all the wheels are still connected to each other. You should find if you were to ever break down the AA etc should call for a low loader to take you'r vehicle home.

what difference does it make if the wheels are still connected?????
it make a difference if its an autobox but not a manual.
as for being in 'n' i think you may have moved it when cleaning it

on the disco and the rangey, if the H/L range lever is in N, then u aint going anywhere.
also useful as an anti theft device.


you must have knocked the lever into H or L.

Most modern gearboxes are no longer splash lubricated but have an oil pump which is driven off the input shaft. Therefore if you are being towed the gearbox is being driven but the oil pump isn't. You either remove propshafts or halfshafts or suspend the driving axle, which is why a Land Rover will always be recovered on a transporter.

i'm not convinced about that. i seen modern 44 cars getting towed for miles on the 'dakar' or the 'atlas' rallies. maybe some are and they recover them all that way just top be on the safe side

Just ask any recovery driver.

well, actually, i used to be a recovery driver for the aa and the only reason we used to get a "full lift" for a 4wd was to stop clains for gearboxes it it safe to tow a 4wd if the transafer box is in N as this means none of the shafts are turning

If it is safe why would anybody be able to claim against you ?

its the same as the autobox technique, now, seen as you have a recovery truck in your avatar i can only assume you are in the business.ask anyone of you can tow an auto and they will say no. but if you are a recovery man then you will know that you can as long as you stick to basic principles. as is the same with a 4wd. but everyone assumes the easier to just say no line of answer. the breakdown organisations have claims for all sorts of things and normally just pay out to keep the member happy and save bad publicity. hence the no towing policy.

stanleymann said:

If it is safe why would anybody be able to claim against you ?

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i had an arsehole tow a car. he dropped it off at me house and quickly disappeared. about two days later i noticed the damage underneath, about 200 quids worth. when i phoned him he said "**** off!! wasn't me" when the lawyer wrote to him he said that he had towed hundreds of cars and never caused any damage. he also said "that in his experience people spot that sort of thing much quicker." when questioned about how he had any experience of this when it he had never cause any damage before, he was stumped for an answer. guess who had to cough up? . .$ . . point is, if he had used a recovery truck he wouldn't have been able to do the same kind of damage that he done so it is in the interests of the company doing the recovery to lift the things to avoid problems with ****s that can't tow. not to mention its a safer way to do it.

If you tow with the Hi-Low lever in N all the shafts and diffs and axles DO turn, but the rotation doesn't make its way to the auto gearbox. Technically it is free wheeling in the transfer case and should be safe to tow.

In the same token, as mentioned earlier, if the lever is in N and you're trying to drive, you shouldnt be going anywhere, because the physical link from rotating gearbox to wheels has been broken.

I dont know enough about centre diff locks on these things to comment whether they play a part in towing on all four wheels process or not. Seeing as I have a D2 with automatic electronic centre diff selection, the answer to that little snippet would be much appreciated as we dont have flat bed recovery out here in the middle of nowhere.

thank you outback and slob this is exactly what i was saying

Not sure on towing with all four wheels on ground but if the front end is raised to tow then you have to be very careful (auto or manual).

Regardless of the state of the transfer box selector (HNL), I think the centre diff is still working.

The back wheels are happily spinning away but the front wheels are off the road and locked in a tow bracket thing. The poor centre diff is having to cope with a 0%-100% split and gets upset. Normally when cornering, the speeds of the two axles is within a few percent of each other and the centre diff is happy.

Had an old Defender that had a warning plate bolted to the fusebox warning of this sort of towing. The plate actually told you to remove the rear prop shaft in order to save the centre diff.

Regardless of the state of the transfer box selector (HNL), I think the centre diff is still working.

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What if you have a viscous coupling?!

The plate actually told you to remove the rear prop shaft in order to save the centre diff.

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My hand book (P38) clearly says that you shouldn't tow the vehicle for anything other than a short distance, and (as above) you should remove the rear prop-shaft if towing with the front wheels off the ground.

Having said that, as long as the transfer-box is in N, then personally I can't see the problem with towing on all four wheels.

Matt.