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Dear friends Please find final updated the order for today Drive 1. Seidam , lead , Xterra 2. @Looper 2nd Lead , wrangler 3. @Stumpy Paj Pajero 4. @Marketa Dobesova wrangler 5. @DP1011 CF , wrangler 6. @Pranjal Varsani1 Wrangler 7. @Ignacio Quindós wrangler 8. @Ale Vallecchi Sweep , FJC

Doc @M.Seidam - Was nice lovely drive out in middle of the week and the convoy strength speaks about how brilliant everyone drove ! I couldn't differentiate between anyone on the drive irrespective of their experience specially @Stumpy Paj @Marketa Dobesova @Ignacio Quindós !! Zero refusals - Speaks about the drive and No fish tailing- At some technical patches I was waiting to hear refusal but was pleasantly disappointed ! @Looper Perfect SL haha - what more can I say and @Ale Vallecchi As I said- my first drive with you as Lead in reverse order ! Always pleasure to see you! See you all soon in Desert !

Beautiful views today following the lead of @M.Seidam. An impressive set of experienced drivers, with 4 out of 7 being either leaders or support team members. Luckily I drove behind @DP1011 who showed me the way… Many thanks to @M.Seidamfor organizing a drive on a weekday. It gave me the opportunity to unwind a little before my busy weekend. @Looper and @Ale Vallecchi it’s always a pleasure to have you in the convoy. @Marketa Dobesova @Stumpy Paj it was nice to drive with you again. The doctor under the spell of Sauron’s eye… An awesome sunset today… Rest of the images in the gallery. Have a lovely weekend!!

Morning, probably a bit late to join but I have added my self to the waitlist just in case. nathan ps, looks like a Jeep drive so I thought you might need something to practice recovery’s with 😂

Dear friends please find the convoy order for tomorrow’s drive 1. Seidam , lead , Xterra 2. @Looper 2nd Lead , wrangler 3. @Stumpy Paj Pajero 4. @Marketa Dobesova wrangler 5. @DP1011 CF , wrangler 6. @Pranjal Varsani1 Wrangler 7. @Ignacio Quindós wrangler 8. @Ale Vallecchi Sweep , FJC Please don’t forget to put your radios on charge tonight 😅 see you tomorrow at 16:15 inshallah

@Stumpy Paj you are welcome buddy . Added to the RSVP

@Marketa Dobesova So what if its not 🌻 today, I will be following you in this:) 🩵

I like it 💥

Thank you, see you this afternoon

At 120, on the same road at the same time of day I was getting 82-85db today after the insulation I got a average of 71 -74db. definite improvement, can still hear noise from rear wheel wells so that’s on the list next.

It’s pretty much a Wrangler drive.

I changed my front diff & rear diff 4.30 gear ratio to 4.88 and I like it: both the torque and the speedometer correction since my tires are 285/70/17 (33") . Since I like it so much for sand use, for my next project I'm ordering UnderDrive Gear for my Transfer Case. Because my LC100 is Full Time 4WD, after transmission/gearbox it goes to Transfer Case before going to front & rear diffs. By modifying the Transfer Case gear, I'm re-gearing without changing both front & rear diffs (actually should have done this but parts was not available at the time). When I change the Transfer Case Output Gear, the output of front & rear diffs will be increased from 4.88 to 5.29, which will give me more torque. The only downside to regearing is high RPMs and worse fuel mileage, but hey I can tow trucks and mileage for V8 sucks anyways 😂 Link for underdrive gear example: https://cruiserteq.com/sumo-gear-land-cruiser-transfer-case-10-underdrive-gear-set-fits-8x-100-series

Part of the mystery of Lisaili 🤣

Looking forward Doc @M.Seidam ! When we meet , I will ask you the specifics of choosing 4.14 pm

Dear Friends @Marketa Dobesova @Pranjal Varsani1 @Looper@Ignacio Quindós @DP1011 and @Ale Vallecchi its a pleasure and honor to have you all inshallah tomorrow for our work stress escape route to the desert 🌵. Lisaili has always been mysterious in its diversity of terrain and I am still exploring it despite the countless times I surfed along it’s beautiful long range dunes or trapped in between one of its nastiest grid of technical terrain. Our plan for tomorrow will be straight forward running along the pylon track heading south west after which we enter the desert crossing the famous technical stripe to face the long range dunes and some of these are really tall and softy at times crossing these in back and forth in gradual east and west to south till it becomes bit of more technical trying to avoid the “ Bermuda Triangle” leaving the count to @Ale Vallecchi 😅 and across the Baja further toward an area of trees scattered at time approaching the sunset 🌅 to let free your imagination toward the sun while existing hopefully on time . Can’t wait to see you all tomorrow on time please . cheers

As most of you Dakar drivers would know the road noise in the cabin of the Pajero gets up there at times, has anyone put in sound deadening. What areas had the most effect. I have done the floor and will start the rear 1/4 panels next. Plan is to do the doors last. The rear section had no sound proofing at all, that seams to have made the biggest difference so far, with the passenger foot well close behind

In this topic i am trying to go a little bit deeper into the whole concept of tyre sizes for offroading. Often, we start off with the stock 31inch tyres and find ourselves upgrading to a 32-33- or even 35 and more inch tyres, which might give benefits, or not ? First of all, we need to split into two categories: 1. Offroading in sand/dunes aka dune bashing. 2. Offroading in mountains aka rock crawling or wadi bashing. It is important not to confuse both, and they are almost opposite in terms of wheel size and i will explain this further below. We will not be discussing the fuel economy in relation of tyre size in below topic, nor the effects of the odometer reading, but rather focus on the performance aspect Category 1: Offroading in the sand/dunes What are the key parameters that determine the performance for driving in the dunes ? * Tyre weight (relation with overall size). * Surface area of each tyre on the sand when deflated. * Rolling Resistance * Tyre profile (aggressive knobby vs smooth HT tyre). Looking at above parameters, we would conclude that we are looking for a light tyre. The tyre profile in sand is not so important while driving but deflation is critical, and an AT tyre can be deflated further down safely compared to an HT tyre. We also noticed big differences during self recoveries on a smooth HT profile tyre vs a tyre with some moderate profile (AT tyres). Going for larger tyres results in higher weight on the axles, BUT seems to help with the contact patch area which is a good thing. So there is a balance that we are trying to strike. As a result of that you will see most offroaders in the dunes using similar tyres from the stock 31" to about 33" but not often 35" or more because of the negative effects that go along with that. (see re-gearing further down this topic). Category 2: Offroading in the mountains What are the key parameters that determine the performance for driving in the mountains ? * Surface area of each tyre on the rocks when deflated. * Tyre profile: AT Tyre is needed (HT tyre is not suitable for regular offroading in the mountains). * Ground clearance. As you can see, the key parameters for driving in the mountains are somewhat different because during rock-crawling you will be mostly in Low gearing and won't be needing the full top-end horsepower of your 4x4. The focus is more on using good torque and getting good clearance to overcome those boulders and other obstacles. As a result of that, bigger tyres would be performing better, simply due to the fact that you will win ground clearance without having to lift your 4x4, and the extra surface area of those tyres will give you better grip as well. And this is the main reason why we see so many Jeeps and Bronco's in the US on 35"-37" tyres crawling over boulders Re-Gearing: What's that all about ? source: https://www.4-wheeling-in-western-australia.com/differential-gear-ratio.html The differential gear ratio on a stock standard 4x4, are made to suit the tire diameter which the vehicle is originally came with. Using bigger diameter wheels/tires with stock ratios will cause more wear and tear on clutch, driveline and engine. Low range gear will also suffer as 1st gear low will now roll too fast as the tires are bigger, this becomes a problem when descending steep hills and climbing rocks and logs. Example: a stock 2005+ Toyota Hilux has 29 inch wheels/tires and fitting 33 inch rubber is quite bigger (4 inches in diameter bigger) this will cause the engine and entire driveline more stress and more power is then required due to the larger rolling resistance. The final gear ratio is suited for 29 inch, this ratio in this particular case is 3:5, referring to a chart it will state the same (29' recommended ratio is 3:5) and looking at 33 inch diameter the chart will recommend 4:1. Going by the chart any higher will make the 4x4 rev too much at highway speeds causing poor fuel economy. Changing the crown wheel and pinion is how the ratio is modified. Basically installing a new or reconditioned crown wheel and pinion with the recommended ratio will bring the 4wd driveline back to stock specification rpm and fuel usage. Once differential gear ratio mod is done the vehicle will regain its 1st gear low range and take off in high range will be improved or even back to stock. This chart is an approximate tyre size to differential gear ratio; it’s based on an RPM at 105 km/h (65 mph) and 4th gear on a manual transmission or 3rd gear on an automatic gear box (1:1 gear ratio). This is only a guide to get a general idea of which ratios would suit the vehicle in question. To get an accurate RPM the following steps and formula will give an accurate answer: Take a drive and record the rpm at 105 km/h (65 mph), the next step is to work out what the current ratios are in the vehicle. This can be revealed by calling the manufacturer or even calling a differential repairer giving him/her the Vehicle Identification Number, also known as VIN. Once all this information is known use the following formula to get the accurate differential gear ratio for the larger tires: Example: The rpm is 2806 at 105 km/h (65 mph), the current tires are 29 inch, the factory ratio is 3.73 and the new size upgraded tires are 33 inch. RPM: 2806 Stock tires: 29 inch Stock ratio: 3.727 New Tyre size: 33 inch 2806 = 65 x 3.727 x 336 / 29 (rpm = mph (not km/h) x diff ratio x 336 / tire size) Now the correct rpm is known for the vehicle (2806), the next step is working out what ratios are available for the vehicle, some makes and models won’t have as many choices as others. Say the following 3 ratios are available 3.909, 4.100 & 4.88. The new tire size wanting to be fitted is 33 inch and the rpm needs to be a close to the 2806 as possible in order to keep it to stock specs. Just a quick scan at the differential gear ratio chart it’s obvious that a ratio of 3.909 is too low at 2587 rpm, ratio of 4.88 is too high at 3230 rpm. But looking at 4.10 with the rpm at 2713 is the closest to 2809 stock rpm. New Specs: RPM: 2713 New tires: 33 inch New ratio: 4.10 Please share your experiences / feedback !

Done this, the reason I bash my Jeep more now than my LC100, cos the car feels a bit more Lexus quiet now 😂 Rear Wheel Wells, Front Firewall, Front Doors and Roof Liner are the best places to reduce outside noise to the driver. I actually created a Word doc for the garage with a list of example applications, lemme see if I can upload that here...

Reall sorry @M.Seidami am running 15 minutes late. So it’s better I cancel than holding up the convoy. Got delayed leaving from work.

per your command 😅😅 doc @M.Seidam

Fantastic job ! which material did you use ? This is adhesive butyl ?

No worries 👍

I am going to read @Sunil Mathew as @Looper

Thanks @JeromeFJ and definately looking forward to the new drives and locations Thanks @Krishna R, can't wait Thanks @Bashar Beasha, looking forward to seeing your Patrol out there again Thanks @DP1011, greatly appreciate it and I will do my best

Thanks of letting me know @Marketa Dobesova bez problemu . See you tomorrow in the blue then 😉

@M.Seidam, my 🌻 is having currently a service treatment, so tomorrow I will be driving blue 2door Wrangler JK from @Felix Obst☺️ Tesim se!! 🤩 @DP1011and @Ale Vallecchi, looking forward to driving with you again 😊🙌!

Possibly I will over the tunnel and the fire wall, will see what sort of difference I get with this first. Just doing the rear cabin has made a big difference