COVID 19 Compliant - Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Suwaydan to Faya - Sharjah - 08 Jan 2021

[sri ganesh]

Thank you for leading the nice drive @Vanessa8580, @Nivin  and the entire convoy, it was an amazing drive and many lessons learnt and new insights into what my car (and I) can do. With the attempt to scale Faya on Pajero 3.5 LWB, though did not complete this time, I was happy to the extent the car let me push it, I felt I was galloping on a horse and reminded me of the Liwa drive up the Moreeb. I thoroughly enjoyed driving in the bowls and the technical dunes as well the highways during the commute  Looking forward to my next drive and i also have a  lot of questions  

 

Is it just the Pajeros or others also experienced the galloping effect in the seat when driving up the Faya dune?

is it to be expected and good or does it have  an effect on why the pajero, suspension setup on it perhaps,  could not keep up the momentum to scale the tall dunes?

It did scare me a bit and I may have let go gas pedal for a second and hit on it back when i realised how soon it affected the momentum and i decelerated so quickly when scaling the dune and I "may have felt" a have positive effect of lower resistance when i started accelerating back not sure how, not before i found myself not moving any further and had come back straight down. The second attempt I did not let go the gas and had not better levels. 

 

[M.Seidam]

Hi @sri ganesh 

regarding feya climb . I have seen raptors not able to bring it to top while other less powered vehicle could , regardless , climbing tall dunes like feya entails practice with your own known vehicle so sooner or later you will find the way how to do it . What most important is to do it safely always. I have to admit that I had my own fear first time I did it and let go the gas .trick is you should build up the momentum and keep it either from the beginning or half way. Depends on your vehicle power and your approach ( you can reach it from middle straight up or riding the ridge up , this one slightly comes in later level maybe )

wish you best and safe drive 👍

[Frederic]

Faya is a very bumpy climb, and if you hit one or two nasty ones during the climb, your suspension doesn’t have time to recover from that properly. Take into account that the LWB Pajero is also quite heavy so this amplifies the “galloping” effect even more.

Scaling tall hill climbs is not its speciality given the average hp to weight ratio. Having said that, with the right skills of taking a good line, wiggling the steering wheel a bit, and optimizing your gear to keep it in its sweet spot, it will take you quite far for a stock 4x4.

[sertac]

I never seen a LWB 3.5 Pajero made it to the top. SWB can but LWB max i saw was @Mehmet Volga climbing %85-90 of it. 

[sri ganesh]

Thank you @Mohamed Seidam @Frederic @sertac for the insight.  

So limitations exists in the car and the  driver and I need to work on the latter by doing more drives and then may be the limitation of the car may not exist 😀

[Rizwan Waheed]

@sri ganesh you almost did it bro.   unlike my 2006 LWB pajero baby elephant, after 2 bumps RPM went -ve.   I can see I have to spend alot on my suspensions and tires to be able to drive in advance level, or the ideal choice would be to go for some SWB ride. but meanwhile, I will keep surfing on it and will try to learn from all the experts like you..

Good Luck.✌️

[M.Seidam]

3 hours ago, sri ganesh said:

Thank you @Mohamed Seidam @Frederic @sertac for the insight.  

So limitations exists in the car and the  driver and I need to work on the latter by doing more drives and then may be the limitation of the car may not exist 😀

I think the real limitation specific for feya is the three to 4 nasty bumps in the beginning  and no matter how stiff were your suspension and your vehicle power are , the only way to reach the top is the driver input through his skills as previously @Frederic noted. 
for me I found riding the ridge from either side to top is less bumpy however it needs careful balance and keeping momentum as if you leave the gas paddle once know that you need to exit on either sides and try again.

[sri ganesh]

33 minutes ago, Rizwan Waheed said:

@sri ganesh you almost did it bro.   unlike my 2006 LWB pajero baby elephant, after 2 bumps RPM went -ve.   I can see I have to spend alot on my suspensions and tires to be able to drive in advance level, or the ideal choice would be to go for some SWB ride. but meanwhile, I will keep surfing on it and will try to learn from all the experts like you..

Good Luck.✌️

Thank you for the kind words Rizwan!

Good luck to you!