Luke K P

i couldnt find any nice natural colour ones, and ended up getting this 3 way unit from ACE
https://www.aceuae.com/en-ae/wild-land-galaxy-solar-light-w-tripod-and-bag-1.8-m/2274533.html

detachable work light, usb-c charging. sits up quite high and can push out a lot of light, but also multiple dimming modes. Works for me for bbq'ing at night.
 

just make sure you get something sturdy. Once I bought a jack for offroad it moved little by little around inside my plastic box i was using, and eventually cracked the sides. now i strap my jack down to another tiedown point so it cant move around at all but separate to the rest of my 'soft gear'

I've also seen some people use a small suitcase. which seems to work pretty well giving you two sides to work with and fits well into trunks, and can be strapped down easily.

I have everything stowed in a toolbox, which is secured using ratchet straps from Amazon.

I also have some shovel rubber mounts which I have installed on the inside boot area so that during drives I can get quick access to my Shovel to dig myself and others out without having to disconnect all the straps and do them back up after.

See you on a drive sometime!

1 minute ago, Zubail said:

Hi, I by mistake press going for Abu-Dhabi newbie instead of Dubai, is it possible to change?

Hi @Zubail, you can click on the calendar again, and remove yourself from the going list,

Then you can click 'going' on the Dubai twilight newbie drive

Awesome @Ishak I bet you'll have a great time on those IM drives!

throwback to the last known photo of LRDG back in 1943,,, i mean 2023 😆


hope to see you all for some further lomg distance patrols soon. 💪

Thanks for the fun short drive.

Sorry I had to bail early because of the passengers.

Have a great week 🙏

2 hours ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

@Julien Recan, you have been added automatically to the drive after Haneef's drop out. Do you confirm the participation? Thanks

C'mon @Julien Recan let's go!

4 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Third alternative, is to drive at 11 psi instead of 10 psi, if you have had consecutive pop outs at 10 psi.

Simple, cheaper, lighter and 1 less thing to worry.

I'm not actually looking at changing now that I've found my perfect pressure zone.

But I am interested in what tech is out there and the pros cons are re: tyre mounting

Just now, Sunil Mathew said:

Radial pins - wont these keep hitting the tread inner side on full compression of the tyre during jumps or in case of puncture?

I have had a look at the inside of a friends tyre , after around a year of usage i believe (but not ICON) ...there were damage spots corresponding to the pin locations on the inside of the tread

LoL that sounds like a terrible design then!

Beadlocks are heavy and difficult to work with if need to do in the field re-beading.

The two alternatives I've found are the method beadgrip, and the icon innerlock. Both of these are lightweight and can have tyres installed without needing to be torqured precisely and needing retightening every X KMs.

Icon features locking pins that are installed radially into the wheel stopping any sideways motion of the tyres, whereas the bread grip utilises ridges on the inner bead groove to help stop the bead slipping.

Looks like the innerlock tech might do a better job at holding your tyre impact from the pressure testing performed by both companies. (See images below)

Here is link to both manufacturers info: 

Method beadgrip:

https://www.methodracewheels.com/pages/bead-grip?_pos=1&_sid=847b565ed&_ss=r

ICON vehicle dynamics:

https://www.iconvehicledynamics.com/rebound-pro

Anecdotally, I found the beadgrips to be excellent when I was running them on pajero. Never had a pop out whilst using them compared to 3or4 on my stock rims. (Could also be sure to driving style changes...)

Do you know of any other simulated beadlocking tech that's available out there. And any real world experience (good or bad) using these over standard rims or real beadlocks?

13 minutes ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Dear Desertnauts

I am looking forward to returning to the sand after a few days of absence and following the rains of the last weeks. It is in consideration of the latest heavy precipitations that I have not yet published the meeting and starting point for the drive. Considering its length, and the fact that I have been travelling for a while, I'd like to evaluate the situation of the various areas and terrains, before deciding where to drive. I will publish the final meeting point by Saturday afternoon. The choice will be between the souther part of Dubai's desert (Lisaili/Faqa and/or Solar Park/Qudra areas) or Sweihan's section closest to Dubai (say from Pac-Man dunes to Nagra/Nahil).

In the meantime, the convoy order that I'd like to line-up will be the following:

@Aser in Second Lead

@Sviatoslav at #3

@RiadJL at #4

@Zak_ at #5

@Andrew John Melvill at #6

@Batuhan Kulac at Center

@Johannes Roux at #8

@Mahmut at #9

@Hani Howeedy at #10 and 

@Luke K P in Sweep.

Let's reconvene here on Saturday to share the meeting point.

Enjoy the end of the week.

No long til the weekend 😁🙏 see you all Sunday..

last faqa drive i dont think you were getting most of our messages from the back either.. no replies.  maybe too much squelch applied filtering out 'staticky broadcasts' 

you're a machine @Looper 💪💪 💪💪  💪💪 

10 minutes ago, Lea Degner said:

Dear Ale, I accidentally signed up for this drive. I wanted to sign up for the Newbie drive instead which I did now but not sure if I properly canceled my attendance here. Can you please check and if necessary remove me from here? 

Thank you so much, Lea

Hi @Lea Degner, looks like you have cancelled you attendance correctly  no longer in the guest list.

cheers!

10 minutes ago, Zed said:

@Luke K P @Julien Recan check out this recent Dakkar Rally "amazing shot" video, the car is "fighting gravity" on a side-slope.  Center Diff Lock + Rear Diff Locks will help here:

• Center Diff Lock will ensure both front axle + rear axle spins at same speed. 50-50, not 40:60, not 30:70. 50:50 means better traction because if your rear tires are slipping, front tires still have 50% power to pull (assuming the sand allows it).
• Rear Diff Lock will ensure rear-left + rear-right tires are always spinning. What if you hit a small stone and your rear-left tire is in the air? Without rear-diff-lock, this tire in the air will spin and the tire on the ground will stop spinning (at least momentarily until all tires land on the sand again). BUT this driver has to go down in a controlled manner and not full 90-degrees down.

That's my drifting style on the 1m tall ridge I got stuck on on Saturday 😎🤣

Thanks for all the examples and info@Zed 🙏🙏🙏

17 minutes ago, Zed said:

@Luke K P @Julien Recan  please read my prev article on this if you haven't >> https://carnity.com/forums/topic/16736-diff-lock-simplified-center-rear-front-explained/

The Standard Order is Central Diff Lock > Rear Diff Lock >> and last Front Diff Lock.

Am sure there's a very technical reason for this, one involving blowing out diffs, but for shortcut let's just say this is how it's done in Mercedes G-Wagon and Toyota Land Cruiser 80, so let's follow Mercedes & Toyota engineers regarding this order of pressing the buttons  

Here's my take on your new orange Ford:

1. First check if your Center + Rear Diff Locks are automatically engaged when you switch to 4Lo. My Nissan Y62 Patrol did this, everytime I turned 4Lo, it automatically enganges Rear Diff Lock (thus also Center Diff Lock). My Jeep Grand Cherokee doesn't do this, so if I go 4Lo, it doesn't engage any diff locks.

How to test? You can't test on sand. In your parking space, turn on 4Lo then move forward 3 steps so it fully engages 4Lo. Then turn your steering wheel full-left (or full-right) and accelerate. If your tires are slipping or you hear screeching sound, means your rear diff is locked. Remember the purpose of Differential is so that left tyre and right tyre can spin at different speeds (which is needed for turning full-left/full-right mechanism)

 

2. If #1 doesn't make any sound means you are in 4Lo but in open diffs mode (no center and no rear diffs locked). Great, you can drive in 4Lo at high-speed to get more torque. 

 

3. Why would you ever want to drive with diff locks engaged at high speed ??? Read Point #1 above, the purpose of having differential is to allow left-tyre to spin faster/slower than right-tyre, which is needed for full-turn.

Yes in low-traction platform like soft sand and water, the tires still slip but they will not screech and make sound like in your concrete car parking or highway asphalt. But still, do you want to risk it? Example: you're riding on a ridge with soft sand with Center + Rear Diffs locked, then suddenly you have to make 90-degrees left-turn to exit the ridge riding. If the sand is hard (due to rain), now you're turning on a non low-traction platform. The tires will slip to make the turn, but because you're no longer in soft sand, you will be turning like a Rally Driver, with that drifting effect, which is fine on horizontal levelled plain areas (sabkhas), but on a ridge? Only the braves will risk it....

I've asked some "crazy" drivers why they turn-on Center Diff Lock when driving, and these are their reasons:

3.1.They want to drive in a STRAIGHT LINE very fast. Rally drivers do this. You can also try when you're climbing up in a straight line, but not when you're going up then decided to make a loop.

3.2 They want to drift when they're side-sloping, only doable with beadlocks. I've seen this in front of my eyes: so the car looks like fighting gravity, but in fact they are SLIDING horizontally with the nose facing 45-degrees up. Very cool for videos, but even I don't want to try that 😂

PS: we can do a 30-mins "testing session" after an official drive to test the various modes of your mighty Raptor 😁

 

 

Thanks @Zed.
Indeed I have checked that sand mode (4H) does engage rear difflock right away. Can turn it off and keep it off.

4L does not automatically switch it on.. 4L becomes manual on and off.

Given your descriptions above.. think maybe the 'sand mode' ( 4H + diff lock ) is aimed at american baja type flat sand desert driving rather than up and over of dunes.... ie lots of drifting on fairly level ground.

5 minutes ago, Julien Recan said:

@Zed this is exactly what happened when I was cross-crossing. The back just slid when I tried to cross and ended up crested.

i (unwillingly, thought it was sensor issue) drove for 30 mins with rear diff lock on and while its not totally unmanageable, I clearly noticed the back was sliding a lot more anytime I was turning sharply. 
 

@Luke K P not sure how that compares to your experience, but from mine, I can’t really think wranglers are meant to be driven with it on 😁

yeah the cresting whilst turning over it @Julien Recan left me thinking about this all weekend.

@Julien Recanand I had a brief chat about using rear diff lock engaged in the sand full time. 

I've been using this recently and have seen some notes that Jeep sand runner has the same functionality when in desert offroad mode (up to 100kph)

What's the pros and cons of this? 

I note that this mode (on my vehicle at least) requires center diff engaged as well for 4WD (or just 2H), which is the default in sand mode. 

I did half my drive on Saturday in 4H + rear and centre locked, then half in 4A (unlocked centre and rear diff).

Could not perceive any difference to my driving experience in the large dunes in nahel.

Added page from manual from reference for locks and modes etc.

@ZedI'm sure you have some opinions on it?

27 minutes ago, Andrei S said:

Hi Luke,

After my jeep drowned 🥲 I'm looking for a replacement and the new ranger raptor is a very attractive option.

Is there a way we could contact directly to tap into your experience?

Best,

Andrei

Bro nooooo... Jeep didn't make it??

Can hit me up on instagram to get my phone number if U wanna ask any specific questions etc.

Def go take it for a test drive and see what you think. It's certainly much longer than the Jeep so the feel might not be what you're after. It's a boat.... But it's a jet-boat 😎

Best luck with the car hunt 🙏

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yoPwGEYVgBNZwNt66

Whole crew doing some more sidies with a lot of sand splash at the end

Thanks everyone for a excellent drive.

@JeromeFJgreat leading taking us into some exciting and new (for me) terrain. Really spectacular scenery.

The FB+ debutantes @Aserand @Shaun J drove supremely well, and were very handy with the shovels digging my car or from the full body cresting on the ridge! I claimed first stuck of the drive 😎

Both myself and @Robk got to enjoy the full pleasure of long wheel base vehicles in technical dunes with some shovels and ropes.

The big bowls were great fun, as were the back and forth crossing of ridges towards the end of the drive. Was great to see big combo of FJs, jeeps, the big patrol, and the retro livery LC71 dominating everything that Jerome put in our parh

Here's a couple of captures videos of the convoy... I'll get some more of my camera tonight I hope. 

Cheers and see you all in the sand again soon.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gTS4rsRDK2pW3i1h7

Side sloping 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nRtnjCE9gZAvxry5A

Briefing sky time-lapse

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6VsNe46o3uZczysdA

Team loops

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kJqXDdDDf7BrjSQAA

Ridge crossing with refusal 

See you all tomorrow bright and early

Quote

 

1 hour ago, Zed said:

@Luke K P @Ishak  see you on the 101 th drive next time pals 👋🏻 🙂 i'm guessing @Frederic's exit point will be Nahel so who knows we might cross path tomorrow 😁

Enjoy 100 mate

20 minutes ago, Gaurav said:

@Luke K P I got a chance to see a 2km cruise mimicking our blip blip skill in Ranger Raptor, today. It's a pretty impressive feature for self-recovery without stressing to dig more.

Although I am not sure why Ford decided to engage the rear diff-lock in 4H, by default. Is that kind of LSD, which activates under low speed only and becomes open diff at higher speed like in old Chevys?

Nice helper feature @Gaurav., but nothing beats just practising doing it manually 😅👍

Some offroad modes don't lock the rear diff in 4H. Sand mode does. But then rear diff can be configured 3 ways in offroad mode in 4H, 

Locked at all speeds.

Locked at < 40, then automatically unlock above 40kph, relock when speed drops.

Unlocked at all speeds.

And then save that as the new default for your custom off road mode.

10 minutes ago, Zed said:

decision...decision 😅  this drive is already full, while the other drive starts at 7am and less full 😁 will toss a coin 48hrs before 🪙

Ha! Was only 3 when I typed the above .. gotta be quick on the reservations around here mate 😜