What are good four wheel drive four door cars?

Why wouldn't my four wheel drive engage?

• I own a 2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, it's 100% stock except for a winch and better off road tires. Today I was on an old mining road in the middle of no where desert of Arizona when to my surprise I saw one of those gigantic mining dump trucks heading in my direction. The truck took up the entire road! To my right was a dirt embankment that was slopped on both sides. I drove up and over the embankment to avoid being hit by the truck. After the truck passed I tried to drive back over the embankment to get back onto the road. When I did this the back tire wasn't getting any traction so I tried to put it into four-wheel drive but when I pulled on the lever to engage the four-wheel drive the lever would not move, it was stuck. I tried several times to get it to engage with no luck. I eventually was able to get back on the road in two-wheel drive. When I got back on the road I tried to engage it again and it slipped into four-wheel drive with no problems. I do a lot of off-roading and I've taken my Jeep over a lot of very tough terrain over the years and I've never had this problem. Why was it when I needed four-wheel drive it wouldn't engage and when I didn't need it I had no problems? Has this happened to anybody else? Thanks.

• Answer:

  Either the linkage was binding as somebody mentioned, or the wheel that wasn't getting traction was still spinning. All 4 wheels have to be spinning at the same speed (or close) or stopped in order to shift the transfer case.