re: I have a rather simple question about 4x4 trucks

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Can you switch it on the fly or do you have to be stopped?

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I bought my (used) Jeep XJ (Cherokee) back in the early 90's when I was in Grad School. I remember the salesman saying during the test drive, "Son, you can engage 4H at any legal speed".

Well, I was driving in the NC mountains on a twisty mountain road, in the rain, and took a corner a little too fast (45 mph?). My jeep started to push over a little into the opposite lane. No big deal. The Mountain roads are always considered "1 lane with leeway." Then the back end started to step around and at this point I was (what would later be called) drifting it around the corner. All was fine until a car came around the next corner. It was an "Oh $#!+" moment. So I'm sitting there thinking for a (milli)second and thought, 4WD! So I reach down, grab the lever by the transmission, engage 4High and stand on the gas. The front differential gives a little "clunk!", the front wheels engage and pull me back in to my lane. Best save I ever made in a vehicle.

The look on the faces of the old folks from Florida when I went by was priceless.

So, 4 high you can generally be moving. 4L, you've got to stop. And when you disengage from 4L back up a little bit to make sure the from differential disengages (It's really just the act of putting the tranny in neutral twice).

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Everybody has to do what they think is right, when they are driving their own vehicle. It had to be proven to me that "slow" works as well as it does. You don't have to sling the mud out of your tread, if you are easing through, you will continue to squeeze old mud out with new mud. Once you spin, you have changed things though, and don't have the same forward push.

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This is true, but stuff like getting stuck in mud is so context/vehicle specific. In reality, the driver, and their experience, makes the biggest difference. Never hurts to clear the lugs out though once you're stuck.

One more thing, if you get a 4wd, you may end up rarely ever having to use it but you prolly want to engage it every few months just to make sure and keep all the parts in the habit of working. I've always heard its not good to go years without engaging it as sometimes these vehicles are creatures of habit. They can be expensive to work on as well.

Yeah, the hubs on my 4x4 trucks stay locked in.

I would not recommend a sunroof. If you like the windows down get a Tundra. Rolling Down the Back Window is much better than a sunroof