Zed

Thanks @Asif Hussain bhai for leading today. Ridge riding experience is a result of following you, Sri and Fred's multiple drives 😁 Looking forward to more challenges & training 😊 we always own up to our mistakes bro @Naveen Raj, that's what Principal Asif taught us 😂😂😂. My car is like 911 bro, call me anytime you're stuck 😅

i'm in, spoken like a true Director, keeping the option open for only-driving, only-meteorhunting and whoever wants both 😁👍🏻

@Gaurav PCR has never stopped me from coming to Dubai, if this thing's on I'll spend my Marriott points to stay overnight in Dubai 😅

Congrats @Zixuan Huang - Charlie , might see you for some Fewbie Plus drives...

Coincidentally, 12th August is declared UAE Public Holiday for a good long weekend https://gulfnews.com/going-out/uaes-next-public-holiday-when-is-hijri-new-year-1.1627193460855 But according to @munkybizness's links, it will only be visible from 22:00 until 04:00, so the right plan would be: 1. Night drive à-la Srikumar starting at 9pm night on Wed 11th Aug or Thu 12th Aug. 2. Stop for stargazing at 12 midnight 3. Those who want to go home, exit. Those who want to stargaze more, do camping 😅

@munkybizness if they did, it's probably to save cost to make similar features for both Europe & Middle East. According to European Union Law Regulation No 48 of the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations (UNECE) — Uniform provisions concerning the approval of vehicles with regard to the installation of lighting and light-signalling devices [2019/ 57] (europa.eu) : 5.1.5 Reversing Lamp color is White and Rear Fog Lamp is Red 6.4 Minimum 1 Reversing Lamp mandatory 6.11 Minimum 1 Rear Fog Lamp mandatory So to fullfil above requirements, they probably make 1 Reversing Lamp White on the Left + 1 Rear Fog Lamp Red on the Right. Below photo is Honda (Japanese) and it only has 1 Bright Red Rear Fog Lamp. Test your Y61 rear fog lamp and post pics please 🙂

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie this is why for desert we prefer SuperChargers compared to Turbos, it's powered by the Crank Pulley like Clutch Fan & Timing Belt, so the power increase is instant 😁 Turbos depend on Exhaust, hence the lag 👇

Thanks @Zixuan Huang - Charlie for the additional cars, wow I believe with the price advantage, these can be considered for dune-bashing 😁 Even though the engine is 2.0, I think we can find some garages who can add turbos to add the horsepower & torque 😃 After all, now manufacturers care more about pollution & fuel-efficiency, so they put less powerful engines but add turbos. For example Toyota stopped making V8 Land Cruisers, and instead use turbos for their V6 to achieve more power 💪 How are aftermarket compatibilities? Do you think because BAIC was a Jeep manufacturer in China, most aftermarket parts like lift kit will fit the BAIC BJ40 too?

Thanks @Gaurav bhai for adding these extra correct points. Man how could I forget Rubicon, I almost bought that car and I did look at videos of how cool sway bar disconnect is, most will show putting the tyres on a fork-lift but as Gaurav said; when you are crested press that Electronic Sway Bar Disconnect and the front tyres will drop to touch the sand like a Long-Travel Dune Buggy would, in the hope of gaining traction to self-recover 😁

Found a better illustration on the side-effect / disadvantage of differential: the point that the power will always go to the least traction wheel, shown below: If your car specs says "Limited-Slip Differential", then you're a bit better, as some power are distributed to the wheel with traction. However note it's not an "Anti-Slip" Differential, just limited, so the arrow to the left is smaller (less power / limited) than the green arrow on the right wheel (more power / slipping). To achieve 50% left : 50% right power distribution, you still need to Lock the Diff.

If you can, get the 3.8 engine for that extra power. We have a lot of Pajeros in this club, so you'll have friends who can advise you on stuff. Regarding price, of course haggle it as low as the owner is willing 😁 For mileage, use it to negotiate price, but don't be scared of high miles, my Land Cruiser has done 350,000 kms and it still climbs dunes ☺️ You need to do 2 things before you finalize the price: 1. Take it for a test drive. This will tell you if you want it or not. 2. Take it to a garage that does Comprehensive Pre-Buy testing. They will check for leaks and any flaws that the owner is not telling you. From here you'll get a list of spare parts and estimate how much to fix those flaws. Use it to your advantage to negotiate. From point #1, if you love the car, you don't mind spending money to fix it, but tell the owner because you will spend A to fix it, you want the price lowered to B 😊 Sample comprehensive pre-purchase report shown below, he will mark the areas that have flaws:

Hello @ShereenMK, i think we "crashed" to your private session last time and @Karthikeyan Govindarajan showed that if you get distracted or miscalculated for 1 second, you can get crested & stuck 😂. Hope you'll enjoy driving on the sand and make it a weekend hobby, we need more folks in Abu Dhabi 😊 As for your car, it's too early to hunt. Watch the video link below, my friend drove a Montero Sport to climb Bu Tais Dune, and he always says it's the driver that makes it, not the car ☺️ You only need to find a second-hand car once you damage your Montero like breaking bumpers 😂

I had a center diff lock issue few weeks back: after self-recovery the center diff lock remained locked and would not unlock, causing heavy steering when driving home. My mechanic was trying to solve the center diff problem by isolation: whether it was mechanical (possible fix: change center diff lock actuator), or was it electrical (possible fix: clean dirty connections). While he was doing that, I was reading the materials from my Land Cruiser Repair Manuals and some other sources. Thought I'd share my "differential enlightenment" here, and try to explain it as non-technical as possible 🙂 FYI, I've arranged it so that everyone knows the context and working background of a diff before using this knowledge to our offroad driving, so read from 1-2-3-4, but if you wanna go straight to how we use diff locks, go ahead to point #4 below: 1. The Minimum 3 Diffs required for most cars Forget if you have 3 buttons with labels: RR/Rear Lock, Center Lock, FF/Front Lock. Forget the IFS vs Solid Axle debate for front drive. Turn your 4WD car upside-down (or easier to look at the underbody diagram in your manual 😁 ), it better have 3 differentials: Rear Diff (Red Sphere), Center Diff hidden in what's known as Transfer Case that also holds the 4LO low-gearing (Purple Sphere) and Front Diff (Blue Sphere). What's that, you don't like this 3D illustration? Let's show a real example with an old Toyota Fake Jeep #whoops I meant FJ 😂 You can see I circled the 3 "pumpkins" casing showing the 3 differentials location 👇 2. Why do we need those spheres/pumpkins/diffs ? The picture below shows 2 tyres on an axle with NO DIFF. Do you think it will turn nicely without slipping? Do we want this kind of horse carriage in our modern 4WD systems? 😅 So there you go, we need Diffs to make smooth turnings without stressing the driveline. In the illustration below, when we turn the Red Curve is longer (travel more distance) than the Blue Curve (travel less distance), so how can they turn at different rates when the engine gives the same power of 1,000 rpm? The answer: the magical mechanical device called a differential 😊 General Motors made this video long long time back, even though it's in Black & White, it explains how the concept of Differential came about (also explained how the Spider Gears work!). The video is optional, only for the technically-inclined and curious ones... 3. Why do we need that Center Diff? So from point #2 above, we know Diffs are used for turning the car, so front & rear diffs make sense, but what does a center diff do? Tilt the car? Refer to sketch drawing below: The car is turning left. Each wheel follows a different curve path: the inside wheels don't need to turn so fast, so in this diagram the front inside wheel needs 50 rpm and the rear inside wheel needs 48 rpm. BUT in order to turn, the front wheels need to turn faster than the rear wheels: thus the outer front wheel needs 54 rpm and the inner outer front wheel needs 50 rpm. Both front wheels are rotating faster than the rear wheels. If you add all the power required, Total Front Drive Power Needed = 54 + 50 = 104 rpm and Total Front Rear Power Needed = 52 + 48 = 100 rpm. WITHOUT CENTER DIFF, the transmission outputs 100 rpm to both Front and Rear drive shafts. So what? Well, that 104 rpm needed to turn wheels is greater than then 100 rpm, so extra stress is created... if continous stress is accumulated, this may lead to the image below, kablooi! So the Center Diff is similar to point #2 above, but instead of allowing inside wheel & outside wheel turn at different rates, the Center Diff allows the front axle and the rear axle to get different power output. Refer to diagram below now: So by having that Sphere/Pumpkin/Diff in the middle, the front drive shaft gets more power to accelerate faster than the rear drive shaft which move slower. Don't believe this paper drawings and theories? Well let's watch how the World Rally Championship uses Center Diffs to make turnings smoother and then lock the Center Diff to distribute power in a straight-line driving: 4. Press that Center Diff Lock! Finally we can use all that theories to use. Refer to below illustration: Red Axle is the rear and Blue Axle is the front. The Front-Right wheel is slipping while the rest of 3 tyres got some traction. Why won't the car move? Here's a little secret: Diffs are great for helping to turn, but the side-effect of a diff is that the output power from transmission will go to the wheel with the least traction. In the diagram above, that means the Front-Left Blue tyre will not turn at all! BUT we still have the 2 Rear Red tyres with traction, don't we? Yes, but from Point #3 we know an open Center Diff allows front & back axles to turn at different rates, so in this case more power is given to the Front Blue Axle because of that spinning wheel that has the least traction... thus the rear tyres spin r.e.a.l.l.y s.l.o.w.l.y , making the driver frustrated and leaving him sweating 😂 Now we hear those famous words from the radio: "Engage 4LO and (Center) Diff Lock" We'll talk about 4LO some other time, but the effect of pressing the Center Diff Lock is now this illustration: No it's not the same image... ok yes, but watch the rotational arrows at the back. You see that Front-Right Blue slipping wheel? That one is stealing all the drive power. BUT because of Center Diff Lock, we now forced the Front & Rear axles to turn at the same rate. So if the Front-Right Blue is stealing 100 rpm slipping, then now the Rear Tyres are also spinning 100 rpm, with probably 50:50, so Rear-Right is 50 rpm and Rear-Left is 50 rpm. Because the Rear Tyres have traction (those brown balls), then the rear tyres move the car forward... or down-right depending on the angle you wanna recover. 5. Press that Rear Diff Lock! So you think Center Diff Lock is enough and no need for a rope tug? Well check the illustration below: Now we have 2 wheels spinning: one in the front (Front-Right Blue) and one in the back (Rear-Left Red). You press Center Diff: nothing is moving. Why? Well the Center Diff allows front & back axles to turn the same, that bit is right... BUT because power is lost to the least wheel with traction, the transmission output will just spin both wheels (Front-Right Blue & Rear-Left Red). Calculatively: Front-Right: 50 rpm spinning Front-Left: Zero rpm not spinning (refer to disadvantage of diff in Point #4) Rear-Right: Zero rpm not spinning (refer to disadvantage of diff in Point #4) Rear-Left: 50 rpm spinning (same speed as Front-Right due to Center Diff locked) Here's what's gonna happen if your 4WD is lucky enought to have a Rear Diff Lock button: It's the same image again? Yessirree but look at the rotational arrows, especially at the rear red axle. So now Rear Differential is locked, splitting 50:50 drive power to the Rear-Right Red tyre and the Rear-Left Red tyre. Now instead of Zero RPM, that Rear-Left tyre will get 25rpm and might just nudge the car forward a bit... slowly but steadily, you might self-recover! Calculatively: Front-Right: 50 rpm spinning Front-Left: Zero rpm not spinning (refer to disadvantage of diff in Point #4) Rear-Right: 25 rpm (due to Rear Diff Lock) Rear-Left: 25 rpm spinning (due to Rear Diff Lock + Center Diff Lock) Yes you have to do Double-Locking: press Center Diff Lock first, then Rear Diff Lock. 6. Press that Front Diff Lock! That situation in Point #5? Well you have a higher chance of self-recovery if your beloved 4WD also has a Front Diff Lock. Refer to illustration below: Calculatively: Front-Right: 25 rpm spinning Front-Left: 25 rpm (due to Front Diff Lock) Rear-Right: 25 rpm (due to Rear Diff Lock) Rear-Left: 25 rpm spinning (due to Rear Diff Lock + Center Diff Lock) You can now do Triple Locking: get out of the car, assess the situation, then press the magic 3 buttons: Center Diff Lock On, Rear Diff Lock On, and Front Diff Lock On. 7. Cars with Triple Locking from Factory If you made it to this point, then you may want to now look for second-hand 4WDs that have triple-locking from the factory 😊 Here are 3 that I know of (please add if you know more): 7.1. Land Cruiser 80 Series: just look at the diff lock indicators on that dashboard. No custom aftermarket buttons to show if your car is triple-locked 😁 7.2 Mercedes Benz G-Wagon. Do you know why I said the order is Center Diff Lock then Rear Diff Lock then last is Front Diff Lock? It's because Mercedes Benz labelled it in that order too! 7.3 Land Cruiser 300: well, this one you have to wait, and there's no second-hand market yet, so this is the most expensive triple-locked currently 😅 Sources: The nice 3D Illustrations are from the Land Cruiser Cool Project.

@Wade Pat2 the OEM TRD brand is a rarity, those who have it want to keep it forever since TRD only produced a few before discontinuing it due to warranty concerns. BUT it was made by Magnuson, and the model is Magnuson MP90, so it may be easier to find the non-TRD branded version. However, if you try to find MP90 SC, usually it's in a solo and not the whole kit, example this listing on eBay for MP90 selling for only 6000 AED / USD 1700 (get it before it disappears 🔥). Then you need to find other fitting parts (pulley, belt, hoses, piggyback ECU, etc.). Picture of the complete TRD kit at the bottom of this post. a. You can read this Installation Guide of 2UZ-FE TRD Supercharger Kit to find the parts that you need to source. b. There is a post on iH8mud from a guy in Sharjah selling his unused SuperCharger for AED 20,000. Try contacting him so you don't have to import from States. Recommend to negotiate & haggle since the post was from 2019 ☺️ c. There are garages in Dubai and Abu Dhabi who can do the sourcing for your. One garage quoted AED 15,000 for a second-hand supercharger, but most quote AED 30,000 to import new from Australia. Ping me on WhatsApp if you want the addresses of these garages 😁 As for me, due to the pricing, SuperCharger will be next year or the next, saving like AED 2,000 per month for it! 😂 TRD Supercharger complete kit:

@Hardik Mody is this your X-Terra 👇🏻? I see Two Red Rated Recovery Points like from the 3D Printing file 😁

Pull that traction fuse @Kailas! Kidding, hope you'll get it fixed easily... take care of the car and it will take care of the driver 😊

@Frederic if you combine this with a Short Bottle like below, it will be a usable mod 😊

@Wrangeld looking at this DIY Jack Rebuild Instructions, it seems: a. Good quality brands sell a "Rebuild Kit" with instruction diagram in case it needs to be repaired. b. Cheaper brands don't bother as they want you to buy new one. c. A floor jack contains a bottle jack inside it laid sideways, so maybe you can replace the bottle jack that's hidden inside with a spare or second-hand bottle that's working fine... Else you gotta open up that bottle jack and dig deep. If the brand doesn't sell Rebuild Kits, it looks like a hassle and maybe you can call each of these guys to make assessment how much money it will cost to disassemble and repair: Refill & Bleed For others already on this thread, if it leaks or losing its mojo, do not deteriorate further by replacing Hydraulic Oil with Brake Fluid, Motor Oil or other types of oil (not even Vegetable Oil!) : 1. Buy Hydraulic Jack Oil with these characteristics 2. Bleed the air out after refilling the oil

That's why the Meeting Point is still TBD!!!! 😂

in that case the white smoke is probably due to blow-by, but this assumes there were lots of going uphill / climbing during the trip...

@Gok Krish @Niki was the white smoke like this 👇 ?

Congrats @Lakshmi Narasimhan, well-deserved bro 👍

dear @Kailas kindly add me to Waiting List for 2nd Drive this weekend, i'm joining Anish's FB+ for my 1st Drive ☺️

@M.Seidam According to Al Sadeem Astronomy below, the Sunrise is coming later approaching 6am and the Sunset is slowly coming earlier approaching 7pm. Daytime is definitely becoming shorter, in the words of G.O.T, "Winter is Coming!!!" 😁 so yes let's start our camping gear shopping now before everyone else jumps in and hike up the prices 😂

Now that we have more Fewbies in Abu Dhabi and even coming from outside, plus to help the R&D / Exploration Department of @Frederic, @Chaitanya D, @Kailas , I'll list here the tracks that were endorsed by DCTAD (Department of Culture and Tourism) and mentioned in VisitAbuDhabi page (just in case the page is offline in the future). I've only tried one-and-half of these tracks: Remah to Nagrah route and that's because it's marked "Easy". I didn't find it that "easy" since Remah is soft sand + technical up-down & criss-cross; maybe a good warm-up before reaching Nagrah and playing with power & speed. The other half is Al Fayah South to Khaznah, maybe we can do that for Al Fayah Part 2 Fewbie+ next time 😁 Anyways for the rest of the trails, I prefer someone more senior to guide me and hopefully these will be inspirational for future Abu Dhabi drives: 1. Remah to Sweihan (Easy according to DCTAD, but I would categorize it "Fewbie") One of the highlights of the Al Remah Route is an authentic Camel Racing Track. Close by, you will find the Telal Nature Reserve with the possibility of spotting some deer. Other highlights include beautiful desert trees near Tawi Naqara and an amazing selection of high dunes, beautiful Gaff trees. Remah Google Maps Track / KML file that can be imported to GPS app here 2. Wagan To White Sands (Easy according to DCTAD, but I haven't ventured here, maybe Fred will start this trip for Fewbie 😁 ) Regularly driven by Bedu (local farmers), there are often tracks to follow. Can be done in reverse, however in some areas it will be more difficult. Be mindful of water pits, as the groundwater table is very close to the surface. Look out for camels, including camels training for racing, usually later in the day and early morning. Wagan Google Maps Track / KML file that can be imported to GPS app here 3. Al Fayah to Al Khazna Route (Advanced according to DCTAD, cc @Frederic this is the "southern" side of Fayah that I was talking about in our Faya Exploration Fewbie+ trip) This advanced route takes three to four hours to complete, with steep climbs, sharp drops, deep bowls and highly technical dunes. Khazna Google Maps Track / KML file that can be imported to GPS app here 4. Umm al Oush (Intermediate/Advanced according to DCTAD, near the border of Oman) Advanced moves required, like side-sloping and side-cresting. Easier to tackle with a long wheel-based car that has a 2” lift. Can’t be done in reverse. Sights include enormous dunes, starfish dunes (cc @Frederic), and incredible scenery. Umm al Oush Google Maps Track / KML file that can be imported to GPS app here 5. Hameem Loop / Tropic of Cancer (Intermediate according to DCTAD, near the Saudi border, save this for Winter-time driving) Expect slipfaces and deep bowls. Can’t be done in reverse. Sights include plenty of gazelle, an abandoned Nissan Patrol and solar power bank, and camel and goat farms. Hameem Loop Google Maps Track / KML file that can be imported to GPS app here 6. Liwa Crossing (Advanced according to DCTAD, near the Saudi border, save this for Winter-time driving) This is an advanced route with huge dunes, some of the largest in the UAE. There are some very tricky crossings and this remote route may take 1.5-2 days to complete. Make sure you take everything you need with you - early exit from this route is not possible. Liwa Crossing Google Maps Track / KML file that can be imported to GPS app here Source: Visit Abu Dhabi page - Offroad Driving