Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Big Red - Sharjah - 01 Oct 2021

[Enrico Biscaro]

Looking forward to try the new ABS & traction kill switch plus the larger transmission fluid radiator and fan. 

 

 

[Mohamad Anwer]

4 minutes ago, Enrico Biscaro said:

Looking forward to try the new ABS & traction kill switch plus the larger transmission fluid radiator and fan. 

 

 

😈

[Nafiz]

@Luca Palanca Falsini hi, sorry i will have to backout from todays drive. 

[JamesThorn]

@Luca Palanca Falsini thank you for an eventful drive that was full of incidents but also a great experience for us all. 

@Damien Ranjit hope that your car didn't suffer too much from the rad issues

[Mohamad Anwer]

@Luca Palanca Falsinithank you for the great ride today. 

Next time we will aim to end at Alfaya as planned for today 😀 

[Luca Palanca Falsini]

Hi everyone,
First of all, thank you to everybody for joining yesterday’s trip. I was amazed by the enthusiasm and the patience that everybody showed during our trip.

We started with a froggy morning and from the starting point we went directly to Big Red. Had fun with some really nice climbs even if @Enrico Biscaro had some strange beeps on the car then had to switch the car off and on multiple times.

We played all around the big dune until I decided to continue to the next one. The drive was not smooth  (two nasty stuk, a poput between the others)  but I enjoyed it a lot watching everybody happy. The main issue we had was  during the climb on the dune just next to BR,  @Damien Ranjit damaged the car. During the impact the front skid plate got deformed and broke the radiator. 

In the meanwhile Shaaz led the rest of the convoy down to the dune, I pulled the Pathfinder out with @Aisha S support.

Assured that everything was fine I reached the convoy. At that time it was really too late to continue with the original plan. We decided, then, to keep playing around Big Red and exit from the same place we went.
In 15 minutes @Damien Ranjit assured us that everything was fine.

I Wanna thank @Aisha S for the great support (next time it will be harder I promise ),  @Shaaz Sha for our super sweep, @Archibald Jurdi for the SL  and all of you!

 

Thank you for joining the drive and I hope to see you very soon on the sand! 
 

[Enrico Biscaro]

6 hours ago, Luca Palanca Falsini said:

some strange beeps

Yes very annoying, but not effecting the performance of the car. As for the driver the massive distraction did not help when driving. Car back to the mechanic ...In any case here the pluses of the drive

1. I had the car chip tuned and the observations are
   1. The engine is more silent on the highway 
   2. The Engine revs much more quickly accelerates faster with obvious benefits
   3. Gear shifts are snappier which helps on the dune. A couple of times I felt I'd had a refusal previously because of the slow downshifting 
   4. I was able to climb big red in 1st gear without the car downshifting. (previous week I could not make it half way) 
   5. In all I do feel the HP improvement 
2. I also installed a cold air intake. 
   1. Not sure if that help, but I can decently see the temperature Gause is visibly lower than befroe
   2. Will monitor the consumption now.
3. I installed a larger transmission fluid coolant with a fan.
   1. No problem during the drive even after a refusal where I had to use 4Low and rear diff lock 
   2. Hopefully this is sorted for now
4. I could also see the benefits of the kill switch with the car not trying to manage the wheels and no traction control at all.

In all I believe the car is at its best now the driver must improve a lot! 

I fund the sand very soft at times and I had my refusal always when driving too close to the second lead not leaving me room to gain momentum. I said this last week too so now I definitely need to focus on the distance especially when ridging or climbing. 

Great fun and I hope @Damien Ranjitcar can be fixed without too much trouble 

Grazie Luca!

 

[Damien Ranjit]

On 10/1/2021 at 10:14 PM, JamesThorn said:

@Luca Palanca Falsini thank you for an eventful drive that was full of incidents but also a great experience for us all. 

@Damien Ranjit hope that your car didn't suffer too much from the rad issues

 

On 10/2/2021 at 10:02 AM, Luca Palanca Falsini said:

Hi everyone,
First of all, thank you to everybody for joining yesterday’s trip. I was amazed by the enthusiasm and the patience that everybody showed during our trip.

We started with a froggy morning and from the starting point we went directly to Big Red. Had fun with some really nice climbs even if @Enrico Biscaro had some strange beeps on the car then had to switch the car off and on multiple times.

We played all around the big dune until I decided to continue to the next one. The drive was not smooth  (two nasty stuk, a poput between the others)  but I enjoyed it a lot watching everybody happy. The main issue we had was  during the climb on the dune just next to BR,  @Damien Ranjit damaged the car. During the impact the front skid plate got deformed and broke the radiator. 

In the meanwhile Shaaz led the rest of the convoy down to the dune, I pulled the Pathfinder out with @Aisha S support.

Assured that everything was fine I reached the convoy. At that time it was really too late to continue with the original plan. We decided, then, to keep playing around Big Red and exit from the same place we went.
In 15 minutes @Damien Ranjit assured us that everything was fine.

I Wanna thank @Aisha S for the great support (next time it will be harder I promise ),  @Shaaz Sha for our super sweep, @Archibald Jurdi for the SL  and all of you!

 

Thank you for joining the drive and I hope to see you very soon on the sand! 
 

 

20 hours ago, Enrico Biscaro said:

Yes very annoying, but not effecting the performance of the car. As for the driver the massive distraction did not help when driving. Car back to the mechanic ...In any case here the pluses of the drive

1. I had the car chip tuned and the observations are
   1. The engine is more silent on the highway 
   2. The Engine revs much more quickly accelerates faster with obvious benefits
   3. Gear shifts are snappier which helps on the dune. A couple of times I felt I'd had a refusal previously because of the slow downshifting 
   4. I was able to climb big red in 1st gear without the car downshifting. (previous week I could not make it half way) 
   5. In all I do feel the HP improvement 
2. I also installed a cold air intake. 
   1. Not sure if that help, but I can decently see the temperature Gause is visibly lower than befroe
   2. Will monitor the consumption now.
3. I installed a larger transmission fluid coolant with a fan.
   1. No problem during the drive even after a refusal where I had to use 4Low and rear diff lock 
   2. Hopefully this is sorted for now
4. I could also see the benefits of the kill switch with the car not trying to manage the wheels and no traction control at all.

In all I believe the car is at its best now the driver must improve a lot! 

I fund the sand very soft at times and I had my refusal always when driving too close to the second lead not leaving me room to gain momentum. I said this last week too so now I definitely need to focus on the distance especially when ridging or climbing. 

Great fun and I hope @Damien Ranjitcar can be fixed without too much trouble 

Grazie Luca!

 

What an eventful drive. An all in one package. Thank you @Luca Palanca Falsini  for the roller coaster tug. 

Have dropped of the car at the garage. Yet to get an update from them. The radiator will need to be replaced. Will go for a thicker skid plate.

I had gone for 6mm skid plate plus radiator support. But the support was too close to the radiator and instead of saving it killed it. 

Will miss one or two drives. 😔

[Cha]

2 hours ago, Damien Ranjit said:

The radiator will need to be replaced. Will go for a thicker skid plate.

I had gone for 6mm skid plate plus radiator support. But the support was too close to the radiator and instead of saving it killed it. 

@Damien Ranjit

Make sure you replace with GCC original radiator or the aftermarket one with the same/larger thickness, I believe it's 32mm or 36. I had slight overheating issue with the thinner one.

I have been using 10mm aluminum skid plate, so far so good, with no obvious dmg yet. And it's my confidence to drive aggressively

But perhaps You should consider lifting the car a bit. R51 ground clearance is horrible. I spent 500 AED got a full set of suspension spacer on eBay. The lift is obviously helping, and not affecting onroad driving experience, but there is a slight imbalance of tire consumption, as you are not changing arms to match the lifted suspension length

Edited October 3, 2021 by Zixuan Huang - Charlie

[Damien Ranjit]

33 minutes ago, Zixuan Huang - Charlie said:

@Damien Ranjit

Make sure you replace with GCC original radiator or the aftermarket one with the same/larger thickness, I believe it's 32mm or 36. I had slight overheating issue with the thinner one.

I have been using 10mm aluminum skid plate, so far so good, with no obvious dmg yet. And it's my confidence to drive aggressively

But perhaps You should consider lifting the car a bit. R51 ground clearance is horrible. I spent 500 AED got a full set of suspension spacer on eBay. The lift is obviously helping, and not affecting onroad driving experience, but there is a slight imbalance of tire consumption 

Thanks for the feedback. Will definitely consider it.