COVID 19 Compliant - Morning Newbie Desert Drive Murquab to Last Exit - 15 Jan 2021

[Ashok chaturvedi]

I am thankful to @Wrangeld for his sheer patience  on the drive and how he successfully conducted the stuck rescues as  General in the battlefield. My new FJ had a starting scare where the kill switch was not adapted for 2020 model and on engaging 4H it disconnected the power break and become manual plus I had a very irritating beeping that lasted the entire 6 hours of the drive. I have never seen or experienced so many stucks ever on any previous drives where nearly every car got into some trouble or other. I had pull out cars, used spade to dig and participated in 2 difficult popouts. Overall I thank my new FJ it was the smoothest drive I ever and can proudly claim that I never got stuck or refusal even once. The Pajero experience came real handy having a much more powerful car was simply awesome. 

Finally the garage fixed the kill switch today and I am looking to do a another newbie drive before going to F+ then intermediate. 

Thanks also to my other drive mates good team work overall. 

[Lee Wilson]

Thanks for yesterday's drive @Wrangeld a great opportunity to learn. Full credit for getting us all out. Great leadership under challenging circumstances. Thanks to @Mehmet Volga too! 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Lee Wilson

[Dodi Syahdar]

@Wrangled, @Gaurav & All, 

This trip was really fantastic and I would like to share my experience and the lesson learnt that's  made  me really proud to be  a member of  this excellent community. 

In half one trip, I experience smooth trip with no significant issue but  I heard strange knocking noise from the front of my car every time I accelerate but didn't  realized the problem with the front differential  and I only focus to check the suspension.  

In the half three trip, after many car stuck in the dreaded bowl of death, we tried to help each other and after I pulled Mike's car, my car got stuck in the middle of the bowl, I tried to do self recovery but suddenly I heard strong grinding noise from the front side of my car and since then I lost power from both front wheel. After several attempt of recovery throughout great collaboration  from all team, incredible technique by @Mehmet Volga and lead by @Wrangled, we could recover my car but I could not continue the trip as my car  lost  4x4 drive.

To make long story short, @Wrangled made decision the let the team to continue the trip and I should stay and wait for @Wrangled and @Gaurav to  return and help the recovery. To be honest while waiting, I feel not comfortable and guilty with the situation that will put more burden to @Wrangled & @Gaurav to recover my car while they have been busy and tiring since morning guiding us. I made decision to contact someone on my car dealer and as they don't have desert recovery, they only could help by sending third party vendor to do recovery. I accepted the offer and I informed @Wrangled and told him that I found the solution, please take a rest and  no need to come back.

Surprisingly both of @Wrangled and @Gaurav came back to my position and we agreed to wait the recovery team to arrive. After waiting for nearly  2 hours, the recovery team came but unfortunately they are not the expert as what I expected. They  tried to pull the car with many dangerous  method that broke one of my car towing hook  and suggest me  the  call insurance recovery team/mechanic to come in the next day. 

 After the recovery team left, @Gaurav approach me and suggest to try quick recovery before sun down. I was  tasked to deflate the tire to 6 psi while @Gaurav @Wrangled my son shovel  the sand, then @Gauravpulled the car out using his car. With just only few gas power, then the car moved out of the pit and we tow the car further in reverse to the flat ground . @Gaurav then drove  my  car out from the desert using 2H safely next to the main road as I  followed behind  on @Wrangled 's car. @Gaurav & @Wrangled return back to the desert to fetch  @Gaurav's Car as I inflated my tyres. All of us then met up to finish preparing to go back home safely.  

In summary, this was really an excellence customer experience  where two of Carnity leaders has shown : 

1.  Great leadership  by taking full responsibility and  taking care for a member. 

2.  Professional expertise by incorporating  the use of technique and strategy during the recovery.

3.  Passionate, highly motivated and confidence on the difficult situation.

With this experience, I truly believe that  Carnity is an excellent community led by professional leader  and marshals. 

I  also have learnt the following lesson's  from this trip : 

1. Strategy and Technique is the key of off-roading and I have enrolled my self  to  desert driving masterclass as I want to gain deeper understanding  to overcome the challenges I will face in the desert.

2. Every member should wait the instruction from the convoy lead before taking any action. 

3. Checking the Car condition and being  alert with some  abnormal  car behavior is important because  my car issue caused by small leak from  Car front differential seal that trigger  lack of lubrication and worn out some front differential gears. 

Lastly, I would like to express my regards and appreciation to @Wrangled, @Gaurav & @Mehmet Volga as well as the rest of the convoy team for great team work and collaboration and I deeply apologize for  problem  that cause the delay to the convoy  and  consume extra effort and time to @Gaurav & @Wrangled.

 

[Rahimdad]

Thank you @Dodi Syahdar for sharing your experience. We at @Carnity have an unwritten policy not to leave anyone behind, but we all follow this from our inception to date. Excellent efforts by @Gaurav bhai and @Wrangeld, both went that extra mile to make sure you and your son reached safely home which is part of our DNA. I am very pleased to read your point of view on the whole incident and this will encourage us to continue helping our brothers and sisters along the way.

[Chaitanya D]

8 hours ago, Dodi Syahdar said:

Checking the Car condition and being  alert with some  abnormal  car behavior is important because  my car issue caused by small leak from  Car front differential seal that trigger  lack of lubrication and worn out some front differential gears. 

@Dodi Syahdar irrespective of what sometimes mechanical issues can happen in the desert as our cars are put to a lot of abuse .What you followed was the right way, but these recoveries can be tricky for the unaware. Well done by you all - @Gaurav, @Wrangeld , @Mehmet Volga and yourself along with your son too.Hope he coped well with longer stay on sand and would.have been a fantastic lesson for him on teamwork.

Once you start driving regularly and progress you have to start doing these checks by yourself than some mechanic telling you - coolant levels, oil levels, diff leaks etc. By  simple visual inspection and checks every week before the drive ( when the engine is cold).

[Wrangeld]

@Dodi Syahdar thanks for sharing. 

The only thing I can add to what has been written is to remind everyone of the importance of listening to the vehicle in a drive. 

A strange noise is a signal. I know, we all want to drive, but if the vehicle started making noises you don't like, you have to consider something is not right. 

As trip lead we always have an escape scenario and we prefer to take sometime to exit a car than have a driver worried about the strange noises. 

[Mehmet Volga]

A fantastic day never to be forgotten! For me, it was an unbelievable return to the newbie era after months!

I think some kind of magnetic field is being formed when we drive together with @Wrangeld which is attracting all sort of desert challenges to design a unique 'epic drive'. Fortunately this one was in a lovely weather just on the contrary of our previous epic show we had in midsummer

The convoy was quite good with excellent drivers, each one did it great! The most impressively, there was a perfect cooperation among the drivers under systematic coordination of @Wrangeld, who dealt with every single issue like managing an orchestra, as always he does! it was amazing to see everyone supporting to another in the recovery of six cars one by one or simultaneously at that nightmare bowl. Without such teamwork, it wouldn't be possible to quit in full number from that pit I believe...

@Dodi Syahdar sacrificed himself by recovering other cars in the bowl, immediately after lost his 4W traction. Hope no any big issue with the car and you can quickly come back on the sand with your beast.

Having said that each driver on this drive was quite lucky! it normally takes weeks or months to experience a ton of different off-road challenges but you faced to all in a single drive!

Thank you all for this experience and see you soon in new adventures!

[Imran Asghar]

Evening all! I finally figured out how to put a video together of this amazing drive!  Link below

https://youtu.be/lW7wNcM5ooA

Let me know what you think! 

@Wrangeld @Sanjay Malik @Jen@Mike Kraher@Ben84 @Nitin @Nitin MohanMohan @Dodi SyahdarSyahdar @Mario CornejoCornejo @Lee WilsonWilson @Ashok chaturvedichaturvedi @Mehmet Volga

Edited January 22, 2021 by imranaasghar81
Tagged

[Lee Wilson]

That’s brilliant! @imranaasghar81 Did you use a GoPro or Insta360? And what did you use for the editing? 

[Imran Asghar]

Hey Lee! 

I use a go pro 360 and I used the standard GoPro software and check this I did all the editing on my mobile phone after hours of staring at the screen!!!! 

 

I'll take you through it next time we meet dude!