Sunil Mathew

Thank you @Carnity for accepting me in to Team Carnity...looking forward to interesting times and to see how this pans out ....Been around with the club for couple of years now, and thought of taking this new found hobby towards a higher commitment...albeit a bit late Thanks @DP1011, @Frederic @Davie Chase and @Looper ... see you soon as and when our sand paths cross!! 🙂

Confirmed

Great drive as usual @M.Seidam doc...always like your night and twilight drives .. Big Red is definitely an area where if we dont move in tandem with the lead, the drive experience goes multiple notches down...We as a convoy definitely found our rhythm yesterday and behaved as a single unit throughout the drive...good to drive with all of you @Looper @Ahmad Nerat @Senthil Kumar @Pacific and @Cha.. See you next time!!

Congratulations @Senthil Kumar!! See you soon

I also faced the same issue....horn was working intermittently, and not working at all when steering was straight.. when turned towards any side, it used to work randomly. The culprit was the clock spring aka spiral cable , located within the steering wheel housing For the fortuner - AED 330 for original part, AED 120 for labour 🙂

Congrats @Joji varghese... see you soon on drives!!

Congrats @Rk ram...see you soon in the sands!

@Abhilash Kottakkal congrats !! See you soon on drives!!

Cannot agree with you more @Frederic.... seeing my name as second lead on a night drive, which was a first for me (i think), and in a terrain i have never driven before, i was consoling myself that i would anyway be following another long wheelbase car - your Patrol.......but it was shortlived ....seeing the green frog lined up when i arrived, definitely gave me the 'oops" thought bubble Like in your briefing it was really a weird unpredictable terrain with a cocktail of everything - bushes, tree stumps, soft sand, rocks, pipes!!, hoses!!!, pumps!!!, fences !!! and the cherry on top - a gazelle at night 👇👇 (for those who can spot, or else be content with the scurrying silhouette ...) Another video when i realised i cannot follow the trooper everywhere, took a short cut, saw a bush , tried to steer clear and lo and behold - @Gary F calls out - 2 wheels in the air, but the Fortuner's 4LO + Diff Lock did the trick Good job on your first FB+ @Andrei S, and that too a night drive.... hope you got some pointers to take home and see you soon on the next one!!... good to drive with everyone - @Benjamin @Krishna R @Zulfikhar Naiyar another night drive with you guys in a short span 👍, and great driving again with old timers - @Gok Krish @Waqas Parvez and @Zed

@Vishnu Ramankutty @DP1011- WRT the query about voiding warranty, i cannot be much of a help, because i drive a 2014 model, and warranty was never a concern when modifying the car. I believe @Waqas Parvez drives a Prado which is under warranty and he has upgraded his suspensions and done other mods. probably Waqas can shed some light on how Al Futtaim views his mods. For my car, which is a TRD version, the first thing i did was to strip those 2 low lying plastic lips on both front and rear bumpers. I have further trimmed the front main bumper to be higher than the wheel centre. attached photo may offer some clarity. Skid plate, UCA, suspension - done as additional mods, which are required to enjoy this hobby safely and with piece of mind for a fortuner. If you plan to trim the bumper or upgrade suspensions with extra lift, do it along with or BEFORE you install skid plate, so that skid plate front level matches the cut bumper. As a separate pointer - I also carry a spare air filter with me and change after each drive, and get both filters cleaned every 2 weeks. Since i dont have a snorkel , the filter gets choked soon, and i can feel the engine slightly hunting/ rough idling after higher level drives. So you might want to give this a thought too. My whatspp - 0559498749 in case you want to have a detailed chat

Congrats @Mark B.. see you soon in the new level!

Congrats @FERNANDO SYRIO, great to see another fortuner climbing up the ranks!!! See you soon !!!

Excellent drive doc @M.Seidam, really enjoyed the fast pace, the bowls, innumerable criss cross/ switches and climbs… the technical area was also pretty intense , More so for me and my car, trying to save my bumpers and fuel tank guard 😀 ( lost one during a previous tech drive, going over a bush sand mound !!) … Great to reconnect again with all fellow drivers, and to engage in post drive chit chat @Joji varghese @Benjamin @Senthil Kumar and @Rajiv Sam

Hello Doc @M.Seidam..can i sneak in to fill the gap 🙂

Just to add some car specific feedback, as a Fortuner owner myself (2014 ,V6) , I drive in "manual" gear, mainly because I like to be in control of my gearshifts. Vehicle controlled upshifts are not advisable when climbing long and steep dunes. In the older version of the car like mine, the "manual" gear selects the max top gear allowed. Eg. If you are in M4, it is same as D and the car up/down shifts with the max gear being M4. If you are in M3, the car up/down shifts automatically with max gear allowed being M3, ie. it wont upshift to M4 even if you hit the rpm limiter (resulting in the rat-a-tat-atata exhaust sound, if you have noticed) . So , in effect you are actually selecting your allowable top gear, while still allowing "auto" gear shifts within the range . Probably the same in all cars. Specifically speaking, i choose HL on transfer case, and toggle between M2 and mainly M1 for higher level drives with lot of climbs. For lower level drives with flat areas and low dunes, M3 will do fine, but M4 is not so comfy for me. I have tried LL occasionally, toggling between M4 and M3 just to get a feel of it , and felt more grounded overall.