Thomas Varghese

congrats @Looper. See you soon in the sands

@M.Seidam I'm sad you didn't invite me for this recovery. Could have learnt a trick or two from @Gaurav.

@Lawrence_Chehimi the Bilsteins you get from Arabian Auto is model 4600 and is priced at 1800 for all 4. If you can get the Bilstein model 5100 from abroad it will cost the same. The difference is 5100 are adjustable shocks.

Dear @Lawrence_Chehimi the total expense will not stop at 9 to 10k. Its better you leave the suspension of Xterra as stock. I drive my Xterra onroad and offroad in stock condition. To be frank the car behaves ok even as stock condition. I have not cut my bumpers too. As it is the Xterra has good ground clearance. For the sake of a lift of probably upto 2.5" let me tell you what you will encounter. When you lift up the car you need to change the upper arms which is around 3000 AED. The wheel spacers, the wear and tear on the axles and the wheel bearing. And at the end of the day you get a car whose center of gravity has gone up - prone to roll overs. Xterra in stock condition itself is a very able car as Dr @M.Seidam has put it. Just like him I also changed my stock shocks (mine is not Off Road version) to Bilsteins. A skid plate, and radiator bracket reinforcement and a flag mount is all what I have done to my Xterra. Ohh yes I changed the tow hooks too. Never experienced much headaches from the car so far. Yes the off road version has rear diff locks (electronic) but understand thats at the cost of km/l as gear ratio is slightly different. Not much. 1 more problem with rear diff lock versions are if you bust it, its very difficult to source the second hand same version differential. Please understand Xterras are now ageing vehicles. The last 1 came in 2015. The good quality of the car is all parts are available 2nd hand at unbelievable prices. I haven't seen any other car which had a nasty roll over coming out of the garage after spending just 3500 AED which includes painting. Most of the time a roll over means the car is a total loss. Anyways upto you to lift your car. If you feel its necessary for your off roading experience please proceed. But I wouldn't advice to change the dynamics of the car.

congrats all of u

Dear @M.Seidam, Sorry I need to sign out as a meeting suddenly popped up on Saturday morning

Don't know if its fun or the level of drive. For me fun is when I drive with drivers I know under a lead I can trust. To put in more simple words fun is when I know I am safe with friends and will not be discarded inside the desert when some mishap happens.

well done @Suresh K

congrats @Claudio C. Well done

Congrats @Harshal. I haven't driven with you yet I believe but will be doing soon.

Congrats @Goh KP. Enjoy the new level

Congrats @Tom B. New level, new strategies, new fun.

Congrats @Davie Chase to reach IM level. See you in the sands wrooming in your red wrangler

Should I write about the drive or not? Big dilemma. What shall I write about @Ale Vallecchi's drive? Its always the best drives. Thanks to everyone for showing up on time and off on our way on time. The drivers in convoy responded well to the track laid out by @Ale Vallecchi. Beautiful clean sands and nice technical dunes for warm up. Everyone in the convoy performed very well considering their experience as FB. Never gave me or Ale any tense moments. Minor refusals and stucks which could be dealt with under supervision of Ale. Some pictures are posted in the gallery. Unfortunately not much as I was the support and the convoy didn't stop much due to driver's mistakes. Thank you @Vinod Damodaran, @Pascal, @Joseph Raju, @Jona & @Morshedi for the wonderful drive. See you all soon in the sands.