.... I have put 4WD systems through so much worse, for long periods of time and never had anything break. On every truck I've had, I've eventually forgotten to take my truck out of 4W High before leaving the farm, and I drove 75 miles home at highway speeds on dry pavement, only to realize my mistake when I went to turn into my driveway and felt it binding. Nothing ever broke, not on any of them.....
You are not alone on this. I've seen some 4wd systems ABUSED and not have that happen. Visit a Jeep forum some time, and you'll see people flat out flogging their vehicles. Yet their differentials aren't exploding in a driveway. Something very abnormal happened here, and I find it highly unlikely that it was operational.
Every time I see one of these threads I feel so grateful that my local dealer is apparently magically not like this.
Amen to that. My dealership has been great about any issues I've ever had and I've taken them Rams, Chargers and Jeeps (and the Rams/Jeeps have all been lifted or leveled). There's been no push back from the dealership. I don't understand why some dealers act like the repair is coming out of their budget. FCA covers it not them. Why not try to work with the customer? I guess the moral of the story is once you find a good dealership and/or service department, stick with them.
@22Rebel_USCG , I have no idea where all the comments in the beginning of this thread are coming from. Your truck is meant to use 4 low with lockers. If you are sitting on snow all the more reason to use it. It is an electronic shift. It will only shift when it is able......
I don't think anyone was accusing the OP of doing anything wrong. It was more a matter of pointing out how the system is supposed to be used.
As others have noted, if you select a 4wd setting at the wrong time, the truck typically won't engage it. So even if it was done wrong it shouldn't engage and then detonate.
The early posts were "FYI" and/or "don't give them an excuse to deny warranty on an unrelated issue" comments. I don't think anyone was trying to imply that shifting into 4LO improperly would cause the front diff to break.
OP, did you take any photos of the truck where it broke? Not just the close ups you posted, but something like a wider shot of the truck in the driveway? If so, those may be helpful to show Ram so they can see you weren't out rock crawling or something.