I drove 50 miles home, towing my boat, in 4WD Hi, how much damage did I do?

Long story but pulled my boat out of the lake and had to use 4WD Hi because the tires were slipping on the ramp

Completely forgot to disengage after wiping down the boat and drove home for 50 miles without realizing I was still in 4WD Hi. I could tell something was slightly off with some of the driving characteristics but didn't look close enough at the dash and I completely forgot about what I'd done.

Finally realized driving up my hill but by then I was almost home and it was too late.

How much damage did I do?
What can/shoudl I do to make things rights (if anything)?

 

Not all straight, some straight. We had to wind through a canyon and I had to do some tight turning in a parking lot to get gas.

I felt some binding but it didn't occur to me until I started wondering why I was having such a hard time going over 65 mph.

 

Weakest link are the CV axles. If you didn’t break ‘them then you’re fine.

 

This here. If it drove home and nothing broke, you're good to go.

 

Should’ve had enough weight on the tongue that the front didn’t take too much abuse. Should be fine. Drive around the block in 2wd and see if you hear anything odd. Chances are you won’t.

 

Probably none. Certainly none while going straight or mostly straight.

 

Previous comments are pretty much covering it. If you're super worried do a fluid change in the transfer case for peace of mind.

A tip to avoid it in the future: when pulling the boat up the ramp, or using 4WD for any low speed stuff, pop it into 4Lo. It'll drag it out way easy, and there's no way you can forget with it in Lo.

Another thing, if you are backing into the water you may want to do the rear diff breather mod if you haven't already.

 

I did it once when I had my boat parked on wet grass. I put in I 4lo to avoid tearing up my yard. I could not believe that I did not notice when making a sharp turn out of my driveway. My boat weighs 5000lbs so I figure there was some weight off the front end. Probably 30k miles ago and no problems.

 

My friend in high school drove their Ford Ranger around in 4LO for a week or so. It wasn’t until I hopped in a noticed we were bouncing off the rev limiter at 50 MPH that they left it in low range.

“What’s going on with your truck?”
“I dunno, it’s been doing this for a week.”
“You’re in 4LO, put it back to 2HI.”

Truck was fine, it was funny. It was a good lesson for both of us on part time 4x4.

 

This sounds like something my son would do......" I dunno but I kept driv8ng it because......independence "

 

I appreciate the shared experiences and the re-assurances that I'm probably OK. You're all probably right. I drove it this morning, 2WD, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong and no strange noises or differences in driving behavior than before I made my stupid mistake.

Lesson learned! Thanks again!

 

You aren't the first person to ever do this, and you certainly won't be the last. I'm sure your truck is fine. You would know by now if you damaged something.

 

Wouldn't worry me at all.

Mike

 

Change the fluid

 

Wouldn't be remotely worried.

 

Maybe just change your gear oil if worried