Gaurav

Well done everyone for their fair share of input. Good job. @Brette pointed the main reason for all this struggle, very nicely. Here are the things that went wrong with this recovery in the right priority order: NEVER NEVER NEVER do recovery with full throttle - This alone point was the main reason for this guy entire struggle or (maybe) he is doing it on purpose to gain attention with sand fountain from the beach crowd. Deflation or no deflation (depending on sand softness) if anyone recover with full throttle from stand still motion, they will dig deeper than going front or back. He has been forgiven partly due to powerful 4x4, offroad tires and good ground clearance. Make a flat track first before recovering on soft sand, so that you can compress sand 10-15 meters ahead of you to get both cars in momentum and then give little more gas to continue the drag without failing on momentum or without any wheel spin. He could have moved his car gently (without wheel spin) front and backwards 5-7 times in a straight line, to compress all the soft sand to great extent. Engage both cars in LO gear. Clear the sand from front of the tire of stuck vehicle and slap the path with shovel to compress sand. Then attach a tow rope for recovery and stretch the rope to max without pulling. Ask stuck car to give 1500 rpm first and then he gives 2000 rpm slowly without wheel spin. Once both car move 10-15 meter, give close to 3000 rpm gas to get out without leaving the gas. If any car still bog down, move quarter of steering left and right aggressively to displace the sand on the go. Instead of pulling so long on soft patch, he could have come closer to the camera where many cars are crossing. If still impossible to pull due to very soft sand, after the first fail attempt, accept the defeat and deflate both cars. I think in end he deflated so close to the beach because he must have seen A/T light or car was overheating.

Or maybe check with other Xterra guys there could be Nissan interface bridging between OBD. My model Pajero has MUT interface and many cheaper OBD scan tool can plug but only able to scan basic info and can't read the fault or scan thoroughly unless MUT adapter plugged in with MUT supporting interface. Big scan tool box that comes for 8-10K (Autel, Xlaunch etc.) comes with box full of adapter for this reason only. And those tool usually scan everything in my model Pajero within few minutes. So whenever I see phone app or small peony OBD scanner I know it's not going to work.

@Shamil @Atif @Brette @AKR @Fuad @Halit Mert Issever @Julien V @Xaf What do you guys think?

Again this is a dated information from few dino centuries ago. Show me one "STOCK" 4x4 who is rating there hook today? None. Read that AU thread and you will understand the saga of tie-down vs rated. If MMC engineer tested Pajero stock tie-down for 3 ton KG, then both hook can last for 6 ton easily to airlift that 2.5 ton pajero of its feet.

We all have witnessed aftermarket tow hooks, ball, hitch failing gazillions of time as factors involved behind such bad jobs are endless, but never or almost never a factory tie-down point failed, if used within limits. Not rated hook, ball or hitch Weak joints Wrong placement Wrong size/strength of bolts used Wrong number of bolts used Just this year, Xterra tie-down point failed, but everything was still safe as it was secured with additional strap due to heavy impact expected. And moreover after lot of research on that incident we realized that speed of the pull was a major cause than the weight rating. Early this year, I have winched same Xterra while hanging nose down on top of mountain and same factory tie-down point didn't failed. Apart from that incident, we have no other tie-down or tow points failing incident so far.

Why this guy struggling so much after having such a powerful and well equipped truck to recover?

Read Again @Frederic comment Watch the video from MMC Engineers testing the so called tie-down points. Just FYI and everyone knowledge most cars these days have tie-down points and no pintle hook or tow hook comes standard. This means for moderate sand stuck, you can use them safely but for deep stuck, use both hooks with bridle what @Frederic mentioned. Using single hook in deep stuck will tear down the chassis point, like it happen with Xterra. So far we have tons of Pajero and none of their tow points failed yet. Same has been shared in Australian forum too https://www2.pajeroclub.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=57572

So what was the root cause of these intermittent check engine light? Hope you found out that and nail it down to not to haunt you again.

PMs are perfectly working for Expert and Legend Membership. https://carnity.com/forums/topic/13713-carnity-points-system?&page=2#comments

Well done @Frederic for taking so much time to share this great off-road knowledge. Very well explained and documented with perfect diagrams and videos. Only thing I like to add for all new offroaders, learn and follow above instructions to the max but never fight the gravity. If you had a bad feeling for any side sloping, criss crossing attempt, exit safely and make another attempt rather than fighting the gravity. Small deviation of track can also cause lot of difficulty and push the car to the soft patch, in that case simply accept the defeat and exit down without fighting with mother nature. Even experienced offroader do have refusal and repeat without any hesitation, that's the real fun and challenge of offroading.

Quick reply from a Pajero friend, hope it helps. European Pajero has Air Filter.

Search here or on youtube, as I rem seeing something in the past exactly what you are after: Put an AC filter when stock doesn't have one. Shame I can't recall where I have seen that, but its possible for sure.

I fully agree with Fred advise on fishing pole, if you don't like to drill hole. To strengthen it you can join suction clamp and flag with masking tape strongly, use little water for suction cup and try to use flat glass than curved one for better grip. If you really want a permanent fixture, you can buy AOR flag from many ENOC fuel station now and go to Ras Al Khor and many shops are available for making flag bracket. Go here https://goo.gl/maps/FTNF7NpYeiBQn9E1A and check and few other garage in the same line. I can't rem, but I think I got my LED light bracket made from Powerfull or next neighboring shop. It took them 2 hour to make it and costed me 200 dhs. For flag bracket I think it might cost 100 (maybe).

That was ABS and/or SRS fuse, I rem that.

Never use any compressor for 8 tires without a break. 10 min break after 4 tires is highly advisable to let internal parts cool off before they are pushed again, although putting them in AC is bit too much I think. I'm using bushranger for 7-8 years now and it has never failed working in outside temp.

Bushranger box still carries 5 year warranty sticker, but ACE gives 2 year warranty only.

These social influencer was a big thing in 2016 - 2018 when legit influencer made ton of money. Now it's a rat race started and every avid user of social media (billions) calling themselves social media influencer with millions of FAKE followers. When you dig in their insight majority of them are fake with 99% follower from unheard cities + 1% from your targeted cities.

Not bad, for 50% clean slate for traffic fines including the black points will be waived off too. https://m.khaleejtimes.com/national-day-2019/uae-national-day-50-discount-on-traffic-fines-announced

So true, and still SM ruling the planet.