When it comes to offroading, do I want the XTERRA in overdrive or not?

Most of the time I find myself driving in 4Lo and with my automatic transmission in 2. Is this correct?

Dependent upon the terrain of course, in what gear do you mostly 4x4 in? Does being in Hi or Lo have anything to with turning off overdrive or switching from drive to 2 or 1?

Throw me a bone here.........

most of the times i am in 4 lo 1st gear

if you are anywhere exsept D, over drive will never kick in , so dont wory about it

Xterra computer is smart enough to figure this shit out for its self

Overdrive is 4th gear, period. If you go fast enough for the system to feel that 4th gear is appropriate, it will use it, but that shouldn't happen short of a fairly smooth dirt or gravel road. Turning O/D off is probably a good idea in those conditions though.

As for manually selecting a gear, that's usually wise. I'd rather be in a lower gear (2 or 1) on the trail at low speed and take advantage of readily available engine braking. Keep the RPMs under 2500 or so for the most part, shift up if you spend much time at 2000 or better unless you're engine braking.

Brent

Like the other board guys said, overdrive is 4th gear... about .68 (third is 1:1).

The Xs have really low rear ends (490's) and without 4th gear your mileage would be single digit.

Off road, if you are in 4th gear... good luck and have a pleasant trip.

Don't worry about too much about manually selecting gears on an automatic... Just keep your foot in it to keep the rpm's up and the X will select the right gear most of the time.

Downhills and special cases (crawling) you may want to select a gear to slow you down or hold a gear (no surprises).

See ya on the trail,
Doc