With the transfer case in neutral you shouldn't be going anywhere. It will just sit in place.
For driving on the road you always want to be in 2wd high. Running in 4wd in anything other then low traction environments (dirt, snow, ect) you may end up with binding and some of the issues you are mentioning. This is due to the transfer case not having an active clutch system to split the power front and reard like an AWD vehicle.
Do you have a stock transfer case?