4 Wheel Drive & Caravan Electrics

What's your manual say? Depends if there's a diff front to back as well as on each axle. My 4 wheel drive doesn't have the option of not being in 4 wheel drive.

Without seeing your 12 volt switch I couldn't say, but my fridge & charging do so when I connect my 13 pin plug ..... I just need to remember to switch the fridge on. On site on 240 I just select mains on the fridge and the charger just does so without the need to switch anything. When on just the battery, I have a switch that's labelled car/off/caravan and select caravan to power the caravan.  The car position is for when the caravan is plugged into the car and the caravan's battery is flat ..... so not often used. My caravan is a 2002 Lunar Delta 520/2 

Mitsubishi recommend selecting 4wd for towing irrespective of conditions. Reasons for this include evening out the stresses on the chassis and suspension joints and to increase stability. We always used 4wd when we towed and no harm was done to anything. The Shogun has an intermediate differential and there is no danger of locking the transmission whatever the conditions. As MM says, check your handbook.

....as long as it is a full Shogun and not the Shogun Sport (I had one before the last 2 disco's, loverly car, 3l V6 petrol, it drifted like a dream in 2WD) which does noty have a centre diff.

Hi all. Please allow for my basic questions. We are complete Newbies to Caravanning albeit we have been planning this for about 5 years but we have bought our first van only on Friday (Easter) and want to go out on our first experience mid April. Although experienced with 4x4's and own my thrid Mitsubishi Shogun, am I right in saying that unless the road conditions are wet or slippery, there is no need to engage 4 wheel drive when towing as you can suffer diff wind up if used un-neccesarily which can be extremely costly if not checked. Secondly, what switch positions should your van be set at when travelling using the grey plug, hooked up on site or just using the van battery. I have a 2003 Swift Conqueror 645 Lux and the rocker switch above the door only has two positions. Up appears to be 12v as it says so but down doesnt actually tell me what Im set to. Again, I apologise for sounding like a child but I really want this to work for me and my family.    

It depends how old your vehicle is, you must check your handbook as it would be unwise to select four wheel drive on tarmac in an older Shogun

http://www.swiftgroup.co.uk/help-and-advice/more-information/handbooks

You can download a caravan handbook here, which may help if you have any problems.

Click on archive and select the year .

Thanks all of you for the responses. Ive only just seen them, lol.

I use a Mitsubishi Shogun 2007 model for towing my Bailey Unicorn Cartagena 2015 model. I always use 4 wheel drive for towing as recommended in the instructions. I switch to two wheel drive when solo.

Before becoming a vicar I spent 30 years in the motor industry and this is a bit of a hobby-horse for me so please skip it if you've read similar from me before. 4x4 only needs to be engaged in slippery conditions, otherwise you're simply using more fuel and wearing more tyres. The larger tugs like Discos and Shoguns have a central diff as well as one on each axle.  Some of the "part-time" systems don't have this and there can be a chance of "wind-up" but it mostly just wears the tyres. Don't be fooled by the "part-time" title by the way, it's all still revolving down there whether you're driving the second axle or dragging it along. Short answer - stay in 2-wheel drive unless absolutely necessary!

Before becoming a vicar I spent 30 years in the motor industry and  ...

blimey ... that was a change in direction! 

from one "service industry" to another!