Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Faqa to Solar Park - Dubai - 29 Apr 2023

[Parliament]

Not many drivers on this one, hopefully @Looper can reward us with some intermediate-level runs as a reward

 

[Looper]

@Mohit Gurnani, @Gautam Banka, @Parliament, @Bravoecho, @Adam James, @Stumpy Paj and @GauravSoni

Here's the plan for the morning.

Meeting time:  6:00 AM

Meeting Point: Faqa

Fuel Station: Emarat- Grayteesah

Radio Channel: 2 (446.031)

Convoy Order:

[Mohit Gurnani]

Apologies couldn’t make it today- shut my alarm instead of snoozing 😬 hope it’s a good one

[Looper]

Drive Report:

We started slightly later than usual, waiting for some later comers. I had planned to enter desert a bit down the line but couldn't sustain the temptation as soon as I could enter the dunes. The early entry meant that we met some very tall but soft dunes.

We played on some long dunes in Faqaa area and then took one of many Sabkha to move towards Little Sweihan. After a brief drive though the large Sabkha, we entered some mildly technical areas and continued though some technical as well as smaller Sabkhas.

Soon we reached Little Sweihan and started discovering all that it has to offer. At about 10 am we were ready to exit but were on the wrong side of Solar Park. The typical thing to do was to exit on E14, but I was not done yet. So, after a quick vote we decided to cross Little Sweihan towards Solar Park and exit. We completed the drive at the Innovation Center about 11:15 am.

I could not have done what I did without the tremendous team I had on the convoy and excellent support from @GauravSoni and @Stumpy Paj

@Gautam Bankaa: You did well for your first Fewbie drive on this kind of terrain.

@Parliament: I know it was a successful drive, when I saw you after the drive. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

@Bravoecho: I guess it is finally time to upgrade the shoes. Just remember to rotate all tires this time. I would recommend you check out Michelin LTX AT2 tires. Have heard good feedback on them.

@Adam James: I hope you had good practice after a long break, and you dusted off your off-road driving skills. I hope you had a good practice with the fabled A Trac system on your FJ.  

@Stumpy Paj: Thank you very much for being at the sweep and making sure we are all in good running order. Your quick instructions on the recoveries at the back were a boon.

 

We did a decent kms in the desert, even excluding about 20-25 kms in the Sabkhas. Most of the stopped time came at the beginning of the drive where we had our first refusal and the pop-out. After that the other refusals were taken care of quite quickly.

 

 

[Bravoecho]

1 hour ago, Looper said:

Drive Report:

We started slightly later than usual, waiting for some later comers. I had planned to enter desert a bit down the line but couldn't sustain the temptation as soon as I could enter the dunes. The early entry meant that we met some very tall but soft dunes.

We played on some long dunes in Faqaa area and then took one of many Sabkha to move towards Little Sweihan. After a brief drive though the large Sabkha, we entered some mildly technical areas and continued though some technical as well as smaller Sabkhas.

Soon we reached Little Sweihan and started discovering all that it has to offer. At about 10 am we were ready to exit but were on the wrong side of Solar Park. The typical thing to do was to exit on E14, but I was not done yet. So, after a quick vote we decided to cross Little Sweihan towards Solar Park and exit. We completed the drive at the Innovation Center about 11:15 am.

I could not have done what I did without the tremendous team I had on the convoy and excellent support from @GauravSoni and @Stumpy Paj

@Gautam Bankaa: You did well for your first Fewbie drive on this kind of terrain.

@Parliament: I know it was a successful drive, when I saw you after the drive. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

@Bravoecho: I guess it is finally time to upgrade the shoes. Just remember to rotate all tires this time. I would recommend you check out Michelin LTX AT2 tires. Have heard good feedback on them.

@Adam James: I hope you had good practice after a long break, and you dusted off your off-road driving skills. I hope you had a good practice with the fabled A Trac system on your FJ.  

@Stumpy Paj: Thank you very much for being at the sweep and making sure we are all in good running order. Your quick instructions on the recoveries at the back were a boon.

 

We did a decent kms in the desert, even excluding about 20-25 kms in the Sabkhas. Most of the stopped time came at the beginning of the drive where we had our first refusal and the pop-out. After that the other refusals were taken care of quite quickly.

 

 

Thanks @Looper and yes disappointed that my drive finished very early. Lots of research on tyres over the weekend but with 16" rims the choices become quite slim.

 

[Frederic]

14 minutes ago, Bravoecho said:

Thanks @Looper and yes disappointed that my drive finished very early. Lots of research on tyres over the weekend but with 16" rims the choices become quite slim.

 

16" rims are in my opinion the best size rims, as they leave plenty of space to go for a tyre with a bigger sidewall. You can easily fit 275/70/16 or 275/75/16 without any issues. On 17 or 18" this is a much bigger issue.

[Bravoecho]

3 minutes ago, Frederic said:

16" rims are in my opinion the best size rims, as they leave plenty of space to go for a tyre with a bigger sidewall. You can easily fit 275/70/16 or 275/75/16 without any issues. On 17 or 18" this is a much bigger issue.

I agree @Frederic however the problem I am facing is not so much choice but availability. So many stores are out of stock.

think I’ve found some G015’s in Deira

[Stumpy]

20 minutes ago, Bravoecho said:

Thanks @Looper and yes disappointed that my drive finished very early. Lots of research on tyres over the weekend but with 16" rims the choices become quite slim.

 

Time for 315/75/16s, no point stuffing around with half measures 👌

 

[Bravoecho]

4 minutes ago, Stumpy Paj said:

Time for 315/75/16s, no point stuffing around with half measures 👌

 

Love where you heads at mate 👌

[Stumpy]

24 minutes ago, Bravoecho said:

Love where you heads at mate 👌

You may need a turbo and a new set of diff gears 😂