Thomas Varghese

12 hours ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Dear Desertnauts

while the weather seems to have gotten in the way of a scorching trial this weekend, we'll still do our best to enjoy the cooler spell among the dunes. We don't expect this drive's theme to change into The Big Chill. So we'll warm up by crossing from Solar Park to Little Sweihan, we'll bring up the temperature of the drive a notch, by navigating the soft, tall and tight dunes of this triangular shaped formation just north of the eponymous AD area, and will keep the drive hot by speeding through the Faqa plateau, before reaching our exit.

The convoy, truly quite an experienced one, will line up as follows:

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie in Second Lead

@ASAD. at #3

@Waqas Parvez #4

@Davie Chase at #5

@Simon Dawood #6

@Thomas Varghese at Center Forward

@Vaibhav will be #8

@Zed #9

@Daniel Yang at #10, and 

@Chinthaka Ruwan in the Sweep position.

The radio channel will be chosen before starting the drive. In the meantime, enjoy the evening, and stay cool.

 

Dear @Ale Vallecchi the professor in desert driving, I am honored to be the center forward in your convoy for tomorrow. Considering @Davie Chase being a support team member acknowledged by @Carnity I can forfeit this position to him if you and he wishes to. I'm not shying away from responsibility and know perfectly how to support the convoy with your guidance when needed. I'm comfortable in driving in any position you assign me to. If you still feel I should be the center forward I would be glad to assist you and the convoy. 

congrats @Rob S

congrats @Waqas Parvez

Due to the recent rain and cooler weather conditions its be seen how much we are going to be scorched in the desert. Hopefully we won't be doing a pond or river crossing inside the desert. 

congrats @takeshi sobue. After last drive with you I was thinking you are eligible for a promotion soon. 

THE RECOVERY MASTERCLASS DRIVE.

This was a drive where everybody witnessed a remarkable recovery of 3 cars from inside of a bowl. From words borrowed from @GauravSoni a pickle situation. When the senior members of the convoy - me, @Ashok chaturvedi & @Pacific raced to check on the safety of the lead @Rizwanm2, the 2nd lead @GauravSoni we found the 3rd car of @Gregory Powell perched high on the slip side of a dune at a height above Rizwans car. Its a miracle no cars banged into each other in the tight bowl. Rizwan had already announced on the radio for the 3rd car to hold and not follow the lead and 2nd lead, Gregory had already crossed the threshold of holding but all 3 were safe but stuck. @Ashok chaturvedi rose to the occasion and kindly offered his new prized possession the WINCH at the disposal of the convoy for the ultimate recovery. Its commendable how Ashok has mastered the controls of the winch so that all 3 cars came out of the bowl like it was a walk in the park. BRAVO Ashok. Rest of the convoy watched the very extreme recovery and I hope they have understood the basics of a master recovery in a safe way which is what the club teaches its members. The instructions from @Rizwanm2, @GauravSoni and @Pacific was precise and all 3 cars continued the drive joining the rest of the convoy.

Regarding the drive - it was fantastic and Rizwan really upped the challenges as the convoy was strong. We had our share of a pop out, my rear right tire popped out after hitting soft sand and cross tracks from the rest of the convoy on a side slope 🤣. Fixed in less than 10 min. I had a weird crest also while reversing the car up a high dune.

The convoy of very able drivers @Gregory Powell, @Sam K, @Jonny90, @Federico Galbieri, @TT_Dubai, @takeshi sobue @salah2u hadn't had much issues through out the drive and I really enjoyed driving with them. Deliberately didn't mention @Pacific and @Ashok chaturvedi as they are now veterans in desert driving and what can I complement on their impeccable driving and machines. Did everything as expected of them and even played role models to the rest of the convoy. 

Thank you @Rizwanm2 for hosting the drive. It was fun.  

See you all soon in another fun drive in the sands. Some pictures are posted in the gallery for all of you to reminiscence our drive. 

As @Pacific is already a support team member he should be included in the manage tab instead of cutting into the place of an ordinary driver. Am I right? 

Thanks for the IM drive today. It was fun driving with people whom you have driven with before. At 1st it seemed relatively easy but very soon got into challenging terrain. Plus point of the drive - @Islam Soliman took us through a track which had no cross tracks meaning less frequented area. Everybody showed up before time and so we could exit on time. Most of the time radio silence as all were experienced drivers. Had 2 crests - 1 for @Chris Wing and 2nd for me at the same place🤣. Had a crest situation after a long time. @Simon Dawood tugged out the 1st crest of Chris and @Ranjan Das pulled me out relatively easy. 

See you all soon in the sands. Some pictures are posted in the gallery for all of you to enjoy. Couldn't take more as no one helped the photographer in me by having a refusal or stuck. 

Hey @ASAD. I have a professional scanner and get ur car upto the meeting point. Will clear all ur problems 

All the usual culprits have already joined. 

Congrats @Sunny84

Very interesting drive. I hope @GauravSoni's car after the bashing it got today will rise up to his master's command for the next drive tomorrow. Short convoys are always fun especially when you know each other and have driven so many times together before. @GauravSoni kept finding very interesting track of endless ridges to ride. Challenging too. In fact it sapped all my energy I could barely get up from bed and have to sign off from Gaurav Soni's drive tomorrow as I feel I will be a burden with so much fatigue. The weather was excellent and not much hot due to the cloud cover. But the challenges was too much and befitting an IM drive. Enjoyed throughout. In short @GauravSoni, the 2nd lead @Zixuan Huang - Charlie, @Chinthaka Ruwan, me & gautam @Looper had a very action packed Eid Al Adha. 

Thank you Gaurav Soni & everybody. See you all soon in the sands. 

Got to exit @GauravSoni. Too tired after todays drive.

20 minutes ago, GauravSoni said:

Being a small convoy, we will have each one take different roles during the drive. Will decide the convoy order at meeting point. 

Please note except the lead role. 🤣

Is the drive still on? Meeting point still shows TBA

On 7/6/2022 at 4:52 PM, Zixuan Huang - Charlie said:

@Simon Dawood @Chinthaka Ruwan please dont leave the drive 😭, I think the minimum is 4 cars?

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie I have joined. That makes it 4 plus @GauravSoni. 

6 minutes ago, ASAD. said:

@Rob S guess you forgot to mention how you got convinced of those dobinsons?? 😂😂

I can answer this. Dobinson is a brand leader in offroading stuff. If they are selling something it must be good. Price is good. I can afford it. Let me have it. If I really need it I will know once I subject it to test. If it works I'm happy. If not consider this as a hobby and learning experience. 

All I wanted to say @Gaurav is a better amp battery will prolong the death of a battery when its not charged properly by a competent alternator. The OEM battery is enough if you have an alternator which can power up the battery as per demand. But ultimately the battery will die if the alternator cannot cope with the power demands you subject the car.  Light mods are taken lightly until you end up in the middle of no where with a dead battery

Let me share you my experience. I have aux fans installed which someone suggested will cool the engine. Now fact is they don't. In fact they disrupt the air flow drawn in by the main fan and makes the engine run hotter when switched on. The only time they help is when you are idling in a traffic bottleneck. It helps the AC condenser to cool better and give you better temperature control inside the car when you are at snail pace. Due to the summer I use them often and forget to switch them off sometimes and end result is when I come out of a 2 hr meeting I find a dead car. Thankfully I have the good jumper cables being an offroader and I can even get a micra car owner to convince him to jump start my car. The proud look on his face after my car springs to life is really funny. Its because the jumper cables are so good and can really draw all the power from his battery to power a bigger car like mine. In that sense my better jumper cables is also a mod.  

I have to disagree with you on light mods dear @Rob S. They may seem essential when you drive in places too dark at night but from my experience when you add additional lights you need to provide a better power source to power them up. The OEM alternator doesn't have that much power to supply the discharge from the battery when you switch them on. Getting a higher rated AH battery is not going to help you when you switch on the aux lights for long. Very soon the battery will tell you it doesn't have the 12V to keep your car running ok. This is an area where no one has dwelled into. As @munkybizness said even adding an amp and running it demands more power from the alternator you have to consider this when adding additional lights. Sadly higher rated alternators are not available in local market. Even if you find one there are additional mods to be made when you fix that alternator. As is the case with every mods you need to research and study how its going to impact the systems in your car when you veer off from OEM specifications and then implement it. Otherwise you will find yourself using a jumper cable to start your car once you stop it.  

23 hours ago, munkybizness said:

 

*The priority coding is intended for you, and not for me. I can tell you for certain that the speaker upgrade was the single greatest thing I did.

 

The speaker and amplifier upgrade was the most satisfying upgrade I have done. My car is a daily drive and I travel between 300 to 400 kms daily and it gives proper entertainment and refreshes my mind and takes away the fatigue listening to all the great songs 

Dear Mayank @munkybizness,

Great topic. I'm always against major mods to the car which was designed by competent engineers who has designed a machine keeping a balance between weekend funs with offroading and daily use. I don't like to make any mods before understanding how its going to benefit me and my driving style. I have tweaked a little bit here and there to squeeze out a little but no major mod till now. The 1st mod was putting wider tires which I believed will help me to have an advantage. Now I have gone back to the stock tire size as increasing the width only increased the weight of the tires and I didn't gain any significant advantage and increased the rolling resistance. When engine temp became a problem I made the fan clutch a little tighter enabling it to engage faster and run more efficiently. Of course the shock absorbers were changed to Bilsteins which was again Nissan's choice for their offroad version and anyways my stock shocks were really bad. I have put 4 additional lights on the roof top under the impression that they will give me better luminance during night drives but due to poor brackets and placement defects I don't use them much. They actually aid me in finding where my car is parked in a parking lot as they rise above most cars and helps me in identifying where my car is parked. Another reason I don't use them is the limitations of the alternator which really cannot cope up with the high demand.  Looking out for a higher rated alternator which can cope up with the supply demand. Of course higher rated alternator fix needs a higher rated battery terminal cables. 

I'm not against any major mods but believe me they are not worth it. The amount of money we spend doesn't justify the performance. At the end of all the mods you get a machine which you no longer recognizes and cannot use much. 

Congrats @varunmehndiratta. Looking forward to drive with you sometime. 

I was driving without the thermostat valve for more than 8 months. It never created any major issues except it takes longer for the engine to reach optimal operating temperatures. I fixed the thermostat valve back for only 1 reason. I bought an OBD 2 scan tool and it was impossible for the scan tool to set the idle air vol learning as it can only be done when the engine reaches operating temp of between 84 C & 91 C. The car was always running at colder temperatures and I could only execute the relearn program on a desert drive when it reaches the temp specified for the learning specifications. I had to do this procedure as my wiring harness was a mess and sometimes CEL comes on and even after clearing the codes the engine idles rough for sometime. Now I'm permanently rid of that problem because I brought a new Engine wiring harness from Nissan USA and is fixed. The new harness has created a fresh problem when all the signals are now proper. The CEL light illuminates sometimes because the Catalytic Convertor was deleted sometime before by the previous owner. The car runs very smooth, has increased fuel efficiency but now I got to solve the CAT deleted problem and the related CEL from a tuner who can do it. @Gaurav if you can share some knowledge of solving this issue it would be a great help.  

After sometime you will start liking the roar. Makes others think you are driving a high performance engine with all the roar.