Niki

2 hours ago, Gaurav said:

I just got my Geolander 4th Set early this month.

Using them since 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020 and couldn't be more happier.

If you use your FJC lot on highway, then you can consider Michelin too, as they are super quiet on highway and reasonably good in sand BUT MINUS the rock and mountain driving capabilities.

Yokohama Geolander are great all rounder. I have used their G012 (model) for first 3 sets and this time I got G015 as Yoko discontinued G012 and upgraded to G015.

@Gaurav thank you 🙏🏽 awesome advice spanning near a decade is incredibly helpful.  The current tires are only a month old so I will look to sell them on as may still attract interest and are flawless... ease the pocket when moving to rapidly upgrade to Yokohama G015. 
 

as we have another car as the daily driver I am less concerned about road noise so will invest in the Yokohama - I searched briefly and see you had this conversation in a previous thread where you also gave some tips on suppliers (rough location in Sharjah) so I will follow those .. 

again thank you - the whiskeys I owe you are mounting up ... I may just send you a bottle in advance 

1 hour ago, Rahimdad said:

@Niki Patel firstly let me congratulate on completing your first drive successfully and sounds like you're already bitten by the sand bug reading your questions. Ignoring doesn't come easy for some as an OCD seeing something is wrong. However if you don't have OCD and can ignore it, as @Gaurav bhai put it you are still learning and can spend a fortune on spending on the TPMS after every drive. @Asif Hussain had a Ford Explorer truck which kept having this issue, maybe he can help you with suggestions as to what he had done.

Regarding Traction Control try to keep the button pressed for 10 seconds till you hear a beep and see 2 orange signs on your dash. For Toyota's this is the trick to get rid of 90% of the issues and no need for a kill switch. @Atif bhai can vouch for this as he drove smoothly ever after. Enjoy your ride and time with us, we are a community who likes to help and hope you'll pass on the tips and tricks you learn to those who join behind you.

@Rahimdad really nice of you ... so happy to get through the absolute newbie session and it was a blast !! 
 

the bug bit me some time back and if it were not for covid I would likely have started earlier in the year... the intro session just reinforced the interest and cannot wait to make it a true hobby!  Some negotiations at home are the current biggest challenges (tougher than a pop out). 
 

your advise was spot on ... holding the switch made the two lights come on and so feel a little silly but am glad I asked and grateful of this community to respond so quick and patiently... I will for sure look to pass any learnings on to the next set of newbies! 
 

Ps I am not competent OCD but the wife is and though this is not the main driver, likely every time she will get in there (trying to keep limits on that) I know it will be a conversation topic that doesn’t end well for me. 

@Asif Hussain do let me know your solution / experience.  At present I am contemplating just disabling it permanently vs maintaining the sensors.  Having a gauge and air compressor, I find I may have enough to manage without (did so with the previous car). 
 

looking forward to having an experience like @Atif had after learning the magic of that button.  
 

look forward to future drives with you all

2 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Hi @Niki Patel it was nice meeting you yesterday and it was fun drive considering your very first off-road drive.

For having a tire pop out there are multiple reasons responsible.

1. Type of tire - Dunlop Grandtrek AT22 is mainly an on-road tires and not ideal for desert. I have been branded as king of pop out when I was driving my Land Cruiser with Dunlop Grandtrek. Every drive I used to have one or two pop out. Later on I changed to Michelin LTX and never had a pop out again.
    
2. Deflation for road tires like dunlop grandtrek, bridgestone dueler and any other HT (Highway Tread) should not be lower than 14-15 PSI, as if you must have gone lower (by mistake, gauge error or leaking valve) it will result in pop out on smallest bump or sharp steering on high speed.

For TPMS, don't bother much as of now, as if you are running on Grandtrek you might have pop out soon again, so drive for 4-5 drives and see if you have complete buy-in to this new hobby, then think about changing tires or adapting greater control with grandtrek. Once you do that, then you can get the TPMS sensor as with TPMS wheels, sensor breaking is quite common and replacing will be a bit of task and an extra expense always.

For Traction, FJC comes with TC off button that I think (not sure completely) you need to either press and hold or press with key on/off @Ale Vallecchi can share the steps. This TC button disables partial traction interference and that should be again enough for newbie level drives. Then later on you can decide to install the kill switch (search and read here) or not with its pros and cons.

Many thanks 🙏🏽 (again) @Gaurav.  My mechanical/technical skills are clearly not a strength (also removed from my profile 🤣).  Just holding it down a few seconds did the trick and disables both traction control and ABS.  
 

I was actually thinking to disable/remove the TPMS ... for 10 years I’ve not had it on another car and relied on visual inspection and ride to make sure was safe to drive so feel would easily work just as well ... and now owning a compressor and gauge .. well I almost fee the TPMS is a distraction.

look forward to seeing you again very soon, hopeful the morning rides with coffees or evening with bbq open up again soon and I’ll exchange details next time so I can get join you for the whisky promised  

On 11/20/2020 at 12:00 PM, Srikumar said:

Waitlist 

1. Anoop Joseph

2. Srijith

<<edit - I realize I will not qualify for the drive as I will not hit 3 drives by 27th  ... look forward to the next one.  Please feel free to remove me from any wit list to bump up others. >> 

thanks 

Hi, can I be added to the wait list! Thanks 

On 5/19/2017 at 1:45 PM, Gaurav said:

I had something similar issue in past when I was driving with cooper tires and cooper dealer renaissance trading in deira 04 2669166 sent me to some specialize 3D lazer wheel balancing workshop to adjust the toe, camber and bla bla's like barry mentioned. It was about 5-6 years back and all I remember that they were using the John Beam balancing system.

Either you find some dedicated specialize tire balancing guys to cure this peculiar problem or call renaissance guys and get the name and number of their trusted workshop where I been, as I don't have their contact detail.

For the offroad tires, there are few tires I can suggest and recommend based on my 10+ year own experience in offroad.

Listed below based on my preferences:

1. Yokohama Geolander A/T-S
   • Awesome for offroad in sand, wadi and mountain.
   • Reasonably comfortable on road
   • Reasonably acceptable on fuel mileage
   • Reasonable tire life of 30,000 - 40,000 kms
2. Michellin LTX M/S-2
   • Awesome for sand but not great for wadi and mountain.
   • Super comfortable on road
   • Good for fuel mileage
   • Awesome tire life of 60,000 kms
3. Cooper ATR
   • Good for offroad in sand, wadi and mountain.
   • Reasonably comfortable on road
   • Looses tire chunks at half life
   • Reasonable tire life of 30,000 - 40,000 kms
4. BF Goodrich
   • Very good if your car engine has power modification as they are very heavy for hill climb otherwise
   • Awesome for self recovery in sand and great in mountain traction
   • Tooooooo noisy on road - similar to Cooper STT having aggressive tire tread
   • Bad for fuel mileage
5. Dunlop / Bridgestone  - Stay away for offroad usage as far as possible.

Instead of Michelin LTX has best of all, but still I rate them second because best tire term should be as an overall factors. I think Yokohama Geolandar has crack that formula very well to strike a balance in offering Good + acceptable without any bad aspect.

Secondly while shopping stick to denomination of A/T-S or M/S-2 or ATR specifically as all company slightly different variation comes in same tire name but for road usage like Yokohama Geolandar H/T (highway tread) - NO NO for off road.

@Gaurav 3 years on from this post, would you still say this holds true regarding recommendations!  And I am lol reading about my stock Dunlop’s making it to the bottom of the list  

I was tempted to run the tires I have for a reasonable period (through Newbie levels) and then invest in an upgrade as my first spend... however my recent experience makes me feel it may be wise to change earlier vs later!? Opinions welcome! 

Hi again

my first and last trip as an absolute newbie is over!  Couple of asks to this community to help ready for future drives 

1. reducing the tire pressure for the ride, having a pop out (likely due to my clumsy maneuvering) and then the subsequent tire cleaned out, the Tire pressure monitoring sensor (TPMS) broke and I now have a permanent warning light on the dash (all 5 wheels are monitored so even if I switch out with the spare this error remains).

ask: do I simply ignore the dash error or should I plan to remove the sensors and have regular valves installed? Would this enable deflation safely to a lower value (as no devices sitting inside the tire?)

2. ABS kept kicking in on the first drive ... it’s not a pleasant sound but didn’t limit my driving as I was on a beginner level. 
 

Ask - does the ABS kicking in have an impact on the car so I should arrange a kill switch to protect the brakes /mechanical side. 
Or can I just keep going at this beginner level as it’s just an inconvenience vs a longer term problem

ps. Showcasing how basic my mechanical knowledge is ... the car included a skid plate so my previous post was not acted upon!  Learnt this as the pop out was being fixed by hero @Ale Vallecchi and @Gaurav
 

Thanks again community... 

niki 

@Gaurav @Ale Vallecchi thank you both for a memorable first desert driving experience!  I would definitely have preferred not to experience a pop out on my first drive however learnt so much from that experience!... all it may have cost me is a bottle of whisky! 🥃 

I am truly grateful for having you both there for that moment! Thankyou 

from the baby FJ toy car all the way to the radio chatter about bbq - what a fun group this was to be a part of!  
 

excited to take the next step and be just a ‘newbie’.. learnt a lot about my car and it’s tires 🤦🏽‍♂️ ... felt in such safe hands under the guidance and support of Ale and Gaurav!  
 

have added a few pics from the morning and to the rest of the gang-I apologize again for delaying your experience but it at the least allowed a few of us to get to know each other 😃

14 hours ago, Frederic said:

 

@Frederic i should have remember it was your thread!  thank you for all the support you and the senior members provide to us newbies.... cannot express how easy you make this process for folks who are doing these things for the first time - all while you have a day job, family, a drive to enjoy yourself etc!  

Excited to join my first drive!  Went through the videos last week and the FJ has an inbuilt compressor and a flag pole plus bracket (screw hole on the roof) set up as I suspect desert season stock when I bought it  

I have a radio ready and charged.. will tune in the frequency soon! 
 

maybe you can tell I am little excited ... 10 years here and finally I will get to experience the real dubai (a small intro I know). 

I have the 5aed valve removal tool (though I paid 15aed in Ace so feel like I got the expat tax  ) ... have a pressure gauge and finally have already set my alarm as that may be the hardest part for me! 
 

see you all on Friday and good luck those taking the trip to dragon mart ... though in the guide in this forum I think someone shared the location of the store! 
 

Thank you everyone for the advice!  I being new to Toyota and FJs are learning all about the massive choices in independent   garages out here!  With my previous Land Rover experience, general garages were a mistake and finding a specialist made all the difference.  Apologies admins as I now know the rules on promoting product/garage and appreciate this as it ensures genuine discussions.  
 

I have all I need with regards advice ... and will now explore Al Quoz and beyond 😂 to learn about the options available for me!  Wish me luck and see you on the dunes soon I hope! 

2 hours ago, Ahab Shamaa said:

Hey @Niki Patel, I just had a skid plate installed on my car yesterday. I saw the offer you’re talking about for all 3 skid plates for 900 AED (ARB I believe). I passed on that offer, and instead opted for an 8 mm aluminum front skid plate.  The shop took measurements of my car and laser-cut the plate and installed it. It was around 1000 AED for this job, and the bash plate looks very solid. 

@Ahab Shamaa many thanks and if you could share the place you got your work done I will drop by as it seems a more suitable option.  The 900aed option was an AOR branded skid plate set so was very tempting (brand and price) but having a custom made thicker and potentially lighter version is a no brainer.  Thank you all above and below who replied with experience and guidance!  Helping a newbie like me massively and a testament  to this forum and community!  Hope in the future I can offer support to others like I have received already! 

Thank you @Chaitanya D ... the 8mm advice is taken and I will be looking to find suppliers in Dubai over the coming week.  Peace of mind is almost priceless when I think about the alternative as you mentioned. 

@Brette many thanks ... first time shopping for skid plates so I am currently going to the well ‘marketed’ spots... will shop around a bit more and good to know it can be done for 1k! Appreciate the quick response and reality check that risk is there no matter driving style 
 

Hi all,

As I get ready to joint the newbie session and pick up the recovery gear, radios etc.  I came across this offer for 4mm skid plate full (front, mid and tank), 900aed fitted.  
 

I am struggling to confirm if 4mm is enough protections. The offer is great and I know I am not planning any extreme trips or driving to the limits so am keen for advise. thanks again all. 

Posting again to ensure I follow the rules (apologies admins) 

Many thanks  and I am waiting for Sunday to register on the newbie first and then get in as many weekly rides as I can.  Really look forward to meeting you on the dunes and again appreciate the welcome! 
 

Hey Ahab!  Thank you so much for this welcome and guidance.. exactly what I needed.  Love that FJ forum community and so happy to have found this group for fellow UAE owners.  
 

mines also a daily driver and weekend toy (once I complete the 1k miles running in  )

I’ll prioritize going through the forum vids etc as recommended.  I played with 4high at the hidden beach ... I’ll look to find a safe place to practice low and atrac ... amazing to hear how effective it can be in the dessert.  
 

I hope we get to join a drive together soon.. once I get confident and through the intros. 
 

lots to learn from this forum so will keep myself busy today

Hi all

Am a new member and recently purchased a new 2021 spec FJ cruiser that I am desperately trying to get through the 1k miles run in period  

excited to join the beginner sessions and would welcome fellow FJ owners recommendations/guidance/warnings.  
 

I am keen to ‘explore’ the desert vs dune bashing or extreme off-roading... looking forward to start my journey with you all.  
 

thanks

niki