Thomas Varghese

Dear @Joseph Raju, Looking forward to drive with you on Friday. By the way I'm just an ordinary club member who is still learning how to drive my car in the desert. Thank you for your enthusiasm to drive me me. Its my pleasure to drive with you. Its over 1 year I have started to learn and still learning. More than my presence you will enjoy @Foxtrot Oscar's skill in leading the convoy. Its always a pleasure to watch her skills in manuvering her black XTERRA through the dunes.

It will be fun @Michel Van Woudenberg. Last Sunday drive with @Shaaz Sha was similar to this. My wiper didn't stop from start to finish. By the way let me warn you beforehand. The general perception is the sand gets compacted when its wet and is relatively easy to drive. The fact is the sand gets very slippery when wet while raining. A moment's distraction and a slight deviation from the track made by the car before you will force you completely off the track. Be very careful.

As of now I am confirmed. Looking forward to drive with you Angela. Its been a long long time I haven't driven in your convoy. Wanted to give up my space when you said there are others in the waitlist but on second thoughts yalla lets go. Its been really long time. So others in the waitlist I'm sorry.

So this proves the system is perfect and its human error which caused it to reject my waitlist. Wow.

The best choice is Xterra. Its powerful, nimble and relatively cheap to maintain than any other off roading 4 X 4's as 2nd hand spares are aplenty if at all you break something. Has good ground clearance in stock condition itself. A bash plate, flag mount and you are ready to offroad.

More than joining the drive i wish @Carnity club ease out the bugs. As a member of more than an year now I'm proud of what Carnity club has achieved in documenting offroading of the drivers. Hope @Gaurav will solve this issue too. The new waitlist system itself is a great technological achievement.

@Gaurav this is what the system is reporting when I try to waitlist. My 1st drive is in the morning with @Shaaz Sha and @Foxtrot Oscar's drive is in the afternoon.

Hi @Gaurav the system is not allowing me to waitlist

This drive is at 2 pm and the drive I joined is for morning. WL option is not allowing me to waitlist

Wl please. 2nd drive

Couldn't find the gallery section for this drive. So pics are posted here.

@Shaaz Sha never ceases to amaze us with his route selection and challenges. The drive was tricky from the beginning as it was drizzling from the word go. Not one moment in the drive where I could switch off my wiper. The wiper washer reservoir ran dry almost half way through the drive. The sand was expected to be compacted as it was wet but the terrain fools you with slippery sand occasionally. The moment you take your eyes of the track you find your car has deviated from the path and you have ended up on the other side of the dune. Twice I had to ask @Rizwanm2 to use his rope & Xterra to tug me out as once I found the rear right wheel off the ground and the other time the car got bogged down in mud like sand. Thank you buddy for the well executed gentle pull. Almost all in the convoy drove perfectly and without much issues even though the terrain was tough. The only nail biting situation came when a LC 70 rested on a slip face with 2 tires barely touching the sand and tilted on a very precarious angle. God's grace the car came down on its own with some left right steering and blip blip acceleration. Not sure if the driver exited his passengers before attempting this recovery as @Shaaz Sha and me were far ahead and by the time we raced back the car was already coming down to safety. @Gaurav Soni & @Rizwanm2 can shed more info on this as they were in charge of the action. Anyways this created a pop out and double pop out for the car very soon as the tire beads were compromised with sand intrusion into the tire and there was no way to hold air inside those tough BF Goodrich tires and the passenger side rear tire had to be swapped with the spare. Thank God the car had spare and soon we were on our way to the exit. Thanks to all who showed up on time early morning and exited safely after having a wonderful drive on a weekend morning@Joji varghese, @Rsjiv Samuel, @Fabien Monleau, @Mohamad Anwer, @Rizwanm2, @Gilbert Khalil, @MMansoor, @munkybizness, @Javier Lucero, @Gok Krish, @GauravSoni and our wild card entrant @Ashok chaturvedi. Some pictures in the gallery

@ZULFIKHAR NAIYAR I have a feeling the squeaking sound comes from the rear leaf springs. Probably your rear leaf spring bushes have cracked or worn out. These bushes are not available OEM and you have to replace the entire leaf spring for the bushes. You can also purchase the aftermarket neoprene bushes from Dobinsons which are even better than the OEM rubber bushes. The cost of the bushes with the replacement labor from Dobinsons would be 400AED if you don't fall for the aftermarket greaseable shackles which they will try to promote @ 175 a piece. You can also check the shocks for leakage and for drives in our club you only need the stock Bilstein shocks. If they are gone you can buy them from Arabian Auto which I'm not sure if its there in stock. The Offroad version Bilstein shocks are the non adjustable 4600 which Arabian Auto is selling for 1800 for all 4. You can purchase the adjustable 5100 series Bilsteins from Amazon probably for about 2000 AED. Whenever you make a purchase from Arabian Auto never be shy to ask for a discount which they will extend upto 55% of the cost price. Regarding the engine mount, its a usual practice to replace them probably every 6 months as they are prone to crack fast. Gear mounts last much more. Another thing to check in your Xterra are the front suspension bushes of the upper control arm and the lower control arms. The bushes don't come separate as OEM part and you need to change the entire control arms which will cost you around 2000 AED to change both sides. Would be good to check the tie rod ends, the ball joints & the axle boot when you do an inspection of the front suspension. My advice - I never replace the control arms and buy good aftermarket Thailand made bushes for the upper and lower control arms. The best advice I got from my friend @Shaaz Sha who owns a good XTERRA as this costs me only less than 500 AED. Whether OEM or aftermarket these control arm bushes never last more than 6 months when you bash your car in the sands. Always buy the OEM ball joint, tie rod ends and axle boot as duplicates don't last a month. Before you take the XTERRA to the sands observe the engine temp gauge if it rises more than the 1st line after C during your stops at traffic lights or when you are crawling through traffic. This is made obvious to us as the AC condenser cuts off and you will feel hot inside the car. The AC resumes to work once you gain momentum. This is the tell tale sign of a failing fan clutch. REPLACE with OEM. You can buy from Arabian Auto for 600 AED or Nissan original from spare parts shop for 400 AED. Change your air filters before you take the car to the sands. Make it a practice to clear the air filter box once your sand drive is over. Be sure you close the air filter box properly after you clear it of sand (Need to learn it from a mechanic). Saves a lot of gas if you practice this. Good idea to keep a MAF sensor cleaner in your glove box and clean the sensor after 5 to 6 drives. Also check the rubber hoses which connect the air filter box to the inlet manifold plenum and the hose which connects the throttle body to the air pipe. If they are hard replace them. Again OEM hose is not available and you have to buy the entire assembly for 2000 AED from Arabian Auto. You can get both the aftermarket hoses only for 100 to 150 AED in Amazon. This is a very critical part which if neglected will kill your engine if it breaks while driving in the desert as it will suck in all the dust right inside the engine. Replace them if you feel the rubber hoses have become hard. Also please check the brake pads and the brake rotors as this is an 8 year old car. The spark plugs, the ignition coils etc etc. Hope I have covered most of the routine maintenance of the mighty XTERRA in this write up.

Wonderful drive on the weekend. Absolute stunner. Everybody showed up on time and drove very well. Definitely an IM drive. The fun with IM drives are there are rare refusals and stucks. @Shaaz Sha made up for this by giving breaks in between for catching our breath. As @Charbel commented I felt I was in a motocross. Completely exhausted my built up extra energy for the weekend fun. It was nice catching up with old friends and having a chit chat in between, especially @Ahab Shamaa. Long time I didn't drive with him and it was fun watching him race the dunes from behind. Some pictures posted in the gallery. thanks @Ranjan Das for a perfect second lead and @Matt.T & @Alexander Alcala for the excellent support.