munkybizness

@Frederic, now you’re giving me goosebumps ✨🤩 There is a guy I ran into in Al Quoz who was doing exactly what you’re talking about in the back boot of a Lada. The moment I saw it I was in love and terrified of it both. And you’re absolutely right about finding decent shops in the UAE. Very few know what they are doing. Actually, the person who installed my speakers did such a poor job at tuning that I spent a month learning to do it myself. And then played around until I had it right. One day, and I even know which moment, I was driving to Sweihan and suddenly I realized that my speakers had broken in. I can’t explain the ecstatic feeling when you realize that your speakers are finally breaking in to their true character like a child losing its milk teeth.

I have an opposing take to the above. I did actually go the full monte on my internal speaker setup, and it is still hands down the best upgrade I made overall. But audio is subjective and you need to know that you can discern the difference. KNOW WHAT YOU LISTEN TO I spend upwards of 6hrs to get to and from drives deep in Abu Dhabi, 4hrs in Ras Al Khaimah, 3 hrs in Dubai, and 2hrs in Sharjah. My Patrol is also my daily driver so I take it everywhere. Also, on Newbie & Fewbie drives, I listen to music offroad. To put this into perspective, I logged 29,000 minutes of streaming on Spotify in 2022 ~ 79 mins on average per day. So music and podcasts are extremely important to me. Before you go into a build on audio, look at the top genres of music that you consume. For me it is classical, electronic, indie and a smattering of hip-hop. This meant that I needed vocal clarity, good separation of individual instrumentation, and the ability to deliver clean bass (not earth shattering). I also wanted to listen to my speakers down low. EACH COMPONENT HAS A ROLE I did do incremental builds with my Pioneer head-unit and a 3-way front speaker & 2-way rear speaker setup. While the head unit has a decent amplifier, it is nowhere near as good as a dedicated amp. A dedicated 4 channel amp meant that my headunit became a digital signal processor (DSP) accurately setting in the right delays while the amp did the heavy lifting of powering the speakers. It also meant that I could accurately control passover frequencies between my individual speaker layers. The difference in layering when connected to good source quality music is night & day. I recently tested Tidal HiFi Plus and the FLAC-level source audio was a different beast. SUBWOOFERS When it comes to subwoofers, I agree with @Frederic, that they take up too much place. I got a portable unit and it has been impossible to manage. I intend to build a dedicated ported box for this in the near future because your speakers should just not be messing around with frequencies on the lower end of the spectrum. They just cannot deliver fidelity there. DON'T FORGET SOUND DEADENING One crucial addition that you must do is invest more in "sound deadening". Don't skimp on this. Our cars are loud, and with AT tyres, and they blunt way in which they cut through air, they are loud all the time. Sound deadening will help reduce cabin sounds down a few decibels which is all you need to isolate the sound from your speakers. HEAD-UNIT - watch outs! No local installer will tell you this but because of the chip shortage, there were tons of American units in the market. Please don’t buy them even if you’re offered them. Most of them don’t have the same steering control interface as EU spec, and they are locked to only odd numbers on the FM so any even decimal numbered FM station will not work. And finally, as for dust getting into the car, you have to live with this but a regular cleanup has kept my equipment relatively unimpacted. For the amps, I have casings that protect it with some mesh to ensure heat dissipation. My audio needs outrank my offroader needs. A happy cabin is one I can spend more time in regardless of the terrain I'm in. I am at the other end of the spectrum above 😛

Always keep a spare pressure gauge (keep an analog one if you have digital, and vice versa). If your car has a good in-built Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) which monitors each individual tire, you just need one additional failsafe on hand. With convoys like ours, there's always going to be a second person who can lend you one, but it never hurts to be self-prepared. Of all the things that have failed the most with me, gauges are definitely up there. Another often forgotten item - especially if you manually remove the valve stem to deflate - is to keep some spares. They are very cheap and easily available. But lose one while deflating, and if you don't have one on hand, you will need to swap in a spare tire (or steal its stem). These things are tiny and when you deflate, they get ejected with such pressure that they'll fly out so far that you'll never find them. This is what one looks like.

Amazing thanks! I spent two weeks scratching my head trying to remember where I left it… which gave my parents the perfect opportunity to force me to eat more peeled almonds. I can finally go back to being treated like an adult 🙄🤣

I will depart Dubai by 7pm/8pm on Friday night so will most likely be at the meeting/camping point by midnight. @GauravSoni, I believe you have my spare Baofeng UV-5r from the Al Qua’a drive late last year. It should be all faded. Could you please bring that along with you?

Congratulations @Ishak - enjoy the new level!

The LR2 is a capable offroader and while it wasn't your model year, but I saw @frederic demolder drove a Freelander/Discovery Sport/LR2 in Area 53 with me in late 2021. It was a very capable and powerful car throughout that run. The trim on the majority of these cars have become more aggressive for on-road driving so there was some bumper adjustments needed but it never struggled in the churned-up tracks of Area 53 on a busy Saturday morning.

@Gaurav, I've also switched over to the Michelin LTX Force ATs recently. I've done a lot of highway driving with them taking them to Liwa in December, and a fun-run through the Yellow Truck area. They were pretty capable overall. I'm running the 275/65/R17 variant. On road, I definitely find them to be about the same noise as the Geolandar GO15s, but less stickier after warm-ups than the Geos. Through corners, a warmed up set of Geos would hold a cleaner line than the Michelins. I've noticed that the LTX brakes much better though. Off road, the sidewall flexes much lesser than the GO15s on the Y61, which even at 13psi would sometimes look they were almost flat. But the flex is still a lot more aggressive than those that I've seen on Cooper AT3 4S and BFG KO2s. Visually, I find the Michelins appear taller than they are. It's probably because the shoulders of the Geos were a bit more rounded than the Michelins. Currently, I have no complaints but I've barely given them about 1,000kms of run-in. Let's swap notes in Liwa

Congratulations @Nadeem Ansari!

Congratulations @Marco B. - enjoy the new level!

It cheers up my heart to no end when I see another VTC on here. Congratulations @Bravoecho

Congratulations @Stan! Enjoy the new level

@Waqas Parvez, your greatest gift is that not only are you so easily approachable but you deliver advice in the most endearing and positive way. Every ear on the receiving end of your words knows that what you say, you mean with only the best intentions. You've helped me out in some of the most stressful moments and in the process, you went from just another acquaintance to a brother. Every adventure we've shared so far has been a pleasure, and I know that there's many many more to come. This promotion is a testament to your phenomenal spirit and I can already see you (officially) leading us through phenomenal tracks in the months to come 🚀

Killing it in every single drive I've been with you on so this was never a surprise. Congratulations @GauravSoni! I will spare you a 2 hour long post about how amazing you are. Will reserve that for the adventures you're going to lead us all on.

Congratulations @Andrew McCarthy! Enjoy the pace that FB+ brings with it

Congratulations @Stumpy Paj! FB+ is where things really get interesting. Enjoy it

Well done @Gerrit Bus!

Enjoy the new level @Tharun Kumar V!

Enjoy the new level @Thejas Uthran!

Amazing going, @Frans M. Love how you're coming along and rising through in your stunning motor!

Congratulations @Gertjan!

Well done @Ahmad Nerat - love the spirit you bring to the drives

Enjoy the new level @Tareq Al Turq

Yes! One more VTC to the mix - keep driving and rising @Bashar Beasha!