Thomas Varghese

This is 111th drive. Keeping my fingers crossed

Once I think I can survive without depending on my kids for financial assistance without me working. All these years I was investing on their studies. By the grace of God all of them completed.Daughter is a manager in a hospital and married. Son is an Aerospace engineer and working in Bangalore. Youngest daughter finished her B Com recently

Confirmed

Ok everybody. Let me put it in another perspective. When I started driving with @Carnity every time I get bogged down or couldn't match the climbing abilities of other drivers I was sad my car was not living upto my expectations. It was the same when I started to click pictures. Every picture I took I felt was not upto the mark and was always looking to spend money on better gear so that I could at least come near taking some good photos. Both cases I was wrong. It is never the gear. Gear can help but its always the man who uses the gear who unleashes the potential of the gear. I was wrong with my car. Thank God I kept it in stock condition. Once I started to understand the capabilities of the car I understood the car was never to be blamed. It was me and me alone. Over time I got to know how my car behaves when I ask him to perform certain tasks and what I have to do to make my car do it. Every gear has its limitations. Its good to upgrade once you are done with the present gear. Same with my camera gear also. I bought all the lenses I could afford to improve my photography, Do you all know which lens I use the most? The nifty fifty which is the 50mm prime lens and which is the cheapest. Sometimes the 75 - 300 if I need so much of a close up from far. All other lenses are simply resting in my camera bag. Same with car mods also. At one point of time you will realize the company settings were the best and you have sunk all your money into an endless moneypit for nothing and you will no longer recognize your car. Go through @Carnity website and propaganda. It clearly says the club teaches you to offroad in stock condition. I'm happy with that. The money I may have spend for mods I can use it for my retirement and continue offroading more in those days.

Mike looks like the offroad bug has bitten you and will stay until you drain all of your wallet. You want to see how a really modified Xterra looks like? I have seen 2. One was my friend's X. It had all the works you can imagine of. I used to gaze at it with wide open eyes. Calmini metal bumpers front and rear with a winch in the front. Imported from USA. Both rear sides had a ladder going up to the roof. 2 petrol cans mounted on either side up the rear tires. Water can mounted at the back door with the steppini tire relocated from under the car to the rear door. For an X this itself is a very expensive mod. Hi lift jack mounted along side the mounted tire. Inside it looks like he has his whole house inside and ready to zoom in case of a nuclear war to his bunker. Man that car looks like a monster out to prey on his victims. Last year I saw his ad in FB to sell the car. Called him up and asked him why you want to sell such a beautiful car. The answer he gave opened my eyes and made me vow I will not do anything to my car. With all the weight loaded on the car it won't run more than 150km on a full tank. The 2nd car belongs to a garage owner. He partially own a club and is a Marshal. I asked him why he is not using his highly modified Xterra on his drives. The answer he gave made my vow even stronger. He said every time he takes out the car it will cost him 1000 AED to repair the broken parts. So please go easy on the mods until you know what you are doing exactly and there are technicians who can deliver what you have paid for.

What shall I say mike? U had a beautiful Pajero which could have given @GauravSoni's tuned Pajero a run for his money. I seriously doubt with these investment on tires you can push the car. U can say an investment gone bad. Do u still have your original rims and tires? Put them on. This mod you can sell to other enthusiastic offroaders and lessen your loss. Lots of forums are there where people who don't know anything are experimenting with all sorts of funny contraptions and finally realise they made a fool out of themselves. I'm not saying these experiments are unnecessary. I'm only saying cars are serious machines and the manufacturer has put in so much R & D when they produce a car. When you try to alter a constant other variables has to be changed. I don't know any serious modifier who knows what is he doing in UAE.

OMG some people here are too serious with offroading and go to any length to make their car look like they are going to join paris - dakkar rally the next moment. My head started to spin reading all the technical jargon. A beautiful Pajero is made to look like a dragon and now the dragon has started to show its true colors.

@GauravSoni Regarding his tire rubbing the fender inner liners is not because of this 1.2inch dia difference. I suspect it has to do with the setting of the suspension hardness or softness. Most people doesn't know how to do it by themselves whereas its a simple procedure if you ask the technician who fixed the lifted suspension.

Thank you @Islam Soliman for a wonderful Newbie drive. I never expected the Newbie drive to be so exciting when I joined late yesterday. It would have been a loss missing this drive. Everybody was at the meeting place on time and we could move at the scheduled time with ease. @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler as 2nd lead was perfect for the role. He could sense when to stop, when to drive even before the lead could announce on the radio. Perfecto. @Brett Eicher in his Jeep drove effortlessly considering he hasn't driven much in the sands. Couple of refusals and a crest but that is all part of the game. @george charbel was also good in handling his Jeep. Small fine tuning on throttle control and he would be a good offroader soon. I was enjoying my position as sweep watching the jeeps tackle all the challenges Islam threw at the convoy. @Islam Soliman had really made a good track selection and for sure the pace, the challenges was a notch above and everybody performed very well. Made me go back to my Newbie days when I would announce I have a refusal, I have a stuck, please I need assistance. This convoy fortunately had not much stops and we exited the drive uneventfully at the scheduled time in Qudra Lakes. Uneventful I said because considering the terrain of soft patches here and there and really good climbs, crisscross & ridge riding the convoy performed very well. No mechanical issues, no pop outs and Islam had to give us breaks occasionally as there was no stoppage due to any of the causes mentioned above. It was my honor and pleasure to meet new faces and get to know each other and drive on challenging terrain. The advantage with a short convoy is very soon the drivers get accustomed with each others style and adjust very fast. See you all soon for another drive in the sands.