COVID19 Compliant - Morning Fewbie PLUS Desert Drive - Area 53 - Sharjah - 02 Oct 2020

[Emmanuel]

Again sorry @Islam Soliman, we missed you this morning, but with the ETA you sent plus time to deflate, it would have delayed our drive too much. 

[Islam Soliman]

Not at all @Emmanuel.. totally my fault.. hope you guys had lots of fun and see you all soon

[Emmanuel]

DRIVE REPORT

Today was a special drive as we had decided to share the lead with my old friend @sertac, with whom I started off-roading when Carnity was still a small club - at that time Sertac was still driving his beloved XJ, before he betrayed the Jeep faith by buying an Xterra...

Everyone arrived on time, except @Islam Soliman who had an unfortunate alarm incident. I had to take a difficult decision: to start without waiting for him so that the convoy won't miss the best part of the day.   

After deflation and a very quick briefing, we were off with @sertac on lead, myself in second and @Biju Abdul in sweep. Sertac managed to cross with the utmost ease the technical area between our entry point and the first high dunes of Badayer, with only one little cresting from @asifk - a good opportunity for @Jun Zamora to work on his recovery skills. I was quite impressed by Sertac's ability to build the pace and difficulty gradually, in order to feel the convoy response, before we reached the first climbs. Unfortunately, at one point, Asif had a refusal and found himself on a soft patch were he had to engage 4 low and deflate more to get out, but with a transmission overheating. In spite of a 10-15 mn break, the transmission light was still on, so we decided together to exit him on the road.
Back out of the track, we enjoyed a nice and smooth drive in middle to high dunes before I took the lead to heading to Iftar bowl, with @Christian Andras as second - very well done and thank you Christian. A few stops for another Pajero overheating, @Mehmet Volga‘s, few refusals and stucks here and there. We reached Iftar Bowl, but unfortunately I was the only one who got a chance to climb it, because in less than one minute, 2 or 3 other convoys arrived. It was so crowded that we decided to leave it for another time. We headed to Superbowl area were we had a little fun... and a little pop out for @Biju Abdul, fixed in 5 minutes by Sertac.
Very well done everyone, and hats off to @Jeandre Bezuidenhout, @Gregory Perkin, @Mehmet Volgaand @Christian Andras who didn’t have a single refusal, I guess.

[Jun Zamora]

Thanks @Emmanuel, @sertac and the  rest of our convoy. Yesterday’s drive was lots of fun and new challenges  that gives me addtional opportunity to learn.... to recover and be recovered. 

[Gregory Perkin]

[Jun Zamora]

Nice detailed drive report.  Thanks @Gregory Perkin

[Mehmet Volga]

Excellent drive! Pumped adrenalin in every second! Thanks to leads @Emmanuel @sertac and @Biju Abdul @Christian Andras for their good coordination. Special thanks to Dr. @Christian Andras for his help to overcome my heating issues... for the both heats; my car's and myself 

With only a few refusals and stucks, everybody enjoyed playing on high dunes in high tempo. The trouble of the day was Pajeros' I think. After the quit of @asifk, my transmission also heated in several times. I managed to cool it down in all but this problem dropped me from playing at the rest of the drive. I do not understand why this happened because the drive was fast and the weather was not that much horrible like in the summer. I think this is a problem specific to Pajeros and no issue for Wranglers, FJs and Xterras.

Sometimes I am switching to manual mode-first gear to overcome challenging climbs since my auto-transmission is a bit slow and causes lose of momentum. Would it be a reason of transmission heat? 

[Emmanuel]

1 hour ago, Mehmet Volga said:

Sometimes I am switching to manual mode-first gear to overcome challenging climbs since my auto-transmission is a bit slow and causes lose of momentum. Would it be a reason of transmission heat? 

Possibly. I called Asif after the drive yesterday to check on him and he told me that someone advised him to use tiptronic at all time. Not sure it’s a good advice as it increases the transmission temperature. Personally I only switch to 1and 2 gear when there’s a very high incline or a very difficult crossing. 

[Biju Abdul]

Thanks a lot to @Emmanuel and @sertac for such a wonderful drive. It was one of the best drives with high pace and adrenaline pump from start to end. 
 

At the end of the drive I found out that I had wrongly deflated (while we had a break) my right hand side tyres to less than 10 and possibly the reason for the pop out. Anyways, I was stunned to see that getting fixed super quickly by @sertac. The tyre pop out was a scary thing in my mind always, but not anymore 😁. 
 

I am still thinking about the Iftar bowl climb we missed with a hope to conquer it soon. See you all soon. 

[asifk]

On 10/2/2020 at 11:29 PM, Emmanuel said:

DRIVE REPORT

Today was a special drive as we had decided to share the lead with my old friend @sertac, with whom I started off-roading when Carnity was still a small club - at that time Sertac was still driving his beloved XJ, before he betrayed the Jeep faith by buying an Xterra...

Everyone arrived on time, except @Islam Soliman who had an unfortunate alarm incident. I had to take a difficult decision: to start without waiting for him so that the convoy won't miss the best part of the day.   

After deflation and a very quick briefing, we were off with @sertac on lead, myself in second and @Biju Abdul in sweep. Sertac managed to cross with the utmost ease the technical area between our entry point and the first high dunes of Badayer, with only one little cresting from @asifk - a good opportunity for @Jun Zamora to work on his recovery skills. I was quite impressed by Sertac's ability to build the pace and difficulty gradually, in order to feel the convoy response, before we reached the first climbs. Unfortunately, at one point, Asif had a refusal and found himself on a soft patch were he had to engage 4 low and deflate more to get out, but with a transmission overheating. In spite of a 10-15 mn break, the transmission light was still on, so we decided together to exit him on the road.
Back out of the track, we enjoyed a nice and smooth drive in middle to high dunes before I took the lead to heading to Iftar bowl, with @Christian Andras as second - very well done and thank you Christian. A few stops for another Pajero overheating, @Mehmet Volga‘s, few refusals and stucks here and there. We reached Iftar Bowl, but unfortunately I was the only one who got a chance to climb it, because in less than one minute, 2 or 3 other convoys arrived. It was so crowded that we decided to leave it for another time. We headed to Superbowl area were we had a little fun... and a little pop out for @Biju Abdul, fixed in 5 minutes by Sertac.
Very well done everyone, and hats off to @Jeandre Bezuidenhout, @Gregory Perkin, @Mehmet Volgaand @Christian Andras who didn’t have a single refusal, I guess.

Great drive report. I really enjoyed the first part of the drive as it was my first time in the area. Very disappointed to have to exit early because of Pajero transmission overheating problems - will try and get this fixed before the next drive. Thanks @Jun Zamora, @Biju Abdul for the recovery when I crested and @Emmanuel for the recovery and guidance towards the end of my very short drive  See you all next time !