Just under 3000 miles and according to the dealer, the electronic controller within the encoder motor has failed.
The encoder motor shifts the transfer case from high range to low.
The symptom was as you were driving it shifted into low on its own and could not manually be put back into high. It put itself back into high after the ignition was turned off while setting awhile.
Of course the part is ten days away. They did provide us with a Cadillac SRX which drives like a stationwagon..

Just under 3000 miles and according to the dealer, the electronic controller within the encoder motor has failed.
The encoder motor shifts the transfer case from high range to low.
The symptom was as you were driving it shifted into low on its own and could not manually be put back into high. It put itself back into high after the ignition was turned off while setting awhile.
Of course the part is ten days away. They did provide us with a Cadillac SRX which drives like a stationwagon..

Coming home in low range would be a slow trip.
That would suck

Cadillac SRX ain't too shabby. Is it an AWD?

You must have been going awfully slow, because anything over 15 mph would probably lock the tires, spin the truck, and strip gears in the transfer case, going from high to low range. I saw a Trooper manually crunched from high to low range offroad once and he threw pieces of transfer casing and a few gears.

Yes, I believe it is AWD. It's really nice but we prefer the H3's drive over the SRX.. Oh yes very low speeds thank goodness!

Happened to me as well. I ended up turning off traction control, turning it off, and pulled the battery cable and 10 minutes later (and some gentle words) she came alive again. Looking back I realize everything I did had nothing to do with the getting stuck in 4 lo, but I was not about to 20 miles to the nearest paved road in 4 lo. My guess is computer glich.