Need for Speed II

[Saeed FJ]

Hello EveryOne
Another amazing afternoon with the family, I reach to the meeting point with my passenger, and this experience was his first in the desert, and really he was impressed by the organizing and the area was amazing.
after attendance, I was assigned in Solmaz convoy, the drive started from al-Ain road to al Qudra, the convoy was moving smoothly we had few stacks, and the rescue has been done smoothly.
advice for all to be learned a proper distance and speed, keeping a proper distance will help you in avoiding any incident and to gain speed for climbing.
the proper speed it will avoid you the jumping or stuck on the crest.

another successful drive as usual.

thank for the organizer, supporting team and for everyone work to make it happen
see you on sand

[Serkan]

Hi Almosters

Everybody who wrote the report have explained the trip details very well. Hence No need to go deeply again :), however, the trip had a lot of member who caught the chance by registering to the system and join. There were 2 convoys and I was with the [mention]Solmaz[/mention] 's convoy, pace of the convoy was so good, it was a technical area and caused some second tries, stuck. Some unexpected situations happened due to the poor workmanship of the workshop on [mention]Solmaz[/mention]'s FJ. Outer tie rod has loose and moved out. There was nothing to do with FJ and totally workshop mistake cool . However [mention]James[/mention] was there and sorted out the issue quickly with his knowledge and ability.
Thanks to [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] for arranging the drive and thanks to [mention]Solmaz[/mention] for leading



Regards
SeRkAn

[giorgio]

Hey all,

What a day it was. A day I will remember.
...but let’s start from the beginning.

The group was split in two convoys, one lead by @Solmaz and another by @Daggerfall , I was in the 2nd one somewhere in the middle of the group, behind @Rooies .

The drive started pleasantly, the pace was not too fast and I did not find it too difficult. There was a few 2nd tries on the go. It was all relaxing, perhaps too relaxing, until s… happened.

We were all driving like a train of wagons connected with long Viking ropes, jumping forwards and stopping, jumping and stopping, jumping and stopping…. We were all too close to each other. Because of that we did not have enough momentum to tackle the very soft on that day sand. Since I was too close to the car in front of me and had to stop and go, I did not gain enough momentum to climb, an otherwise very small and innocent dune not bigger than 3-4 meters. I did not even try to fight the gravity, the whole climb lasted 2 seconds, the sand was very soft and I did not even had a chance to give up and drive down anticlockwise. In one moment I was stuck in a nasty position with my front right wheel in the air and yes, as @alshamsi_m told us during one of the training sessions, I did hear the suspension making the worrying noise.
The rescue team did act quickly. The front right corner of my car was anchored to a vehicle parked on the other side of the dune crest. Whilst 4 dead-weight colleagues standing on my door step balanced the right side of the vehicle, I reversed on 4L+diff lock with my steering wheel full left.

Lesson learned: keep your distance and tackle obstacles with a sufficient momentum. Do not underestimate the terrain. S… can happen on the easiest dune.

After my stuck another colleague had a very similar stuck in a nasty position just a minute later. After a briefing by @Daggerfall and @JockJKU we moved.
On the way there was an interesting high climb with a balcony in the middle and double change of climb direction. This climb showed us advantage of cars with bigger approach angle like FJ and Jeep over cars like Patrols with longer noses penetrating the slope walls before the wheels start the climb.

We kept driving. Just before another steep climb, on a flat area driving towards blinding sunset, I did not see a small but nasty ditch, which was virtually two widths of the tire to the left of the track. My left wheel was trapped in the depression and I hit the side of the ditch with my left corner of the vehicle. At the first glance, only the bumper was slightly bent and I lost the wheel alignment. After straightening the bumper and a quick inspection, we moved.

Lesson learned: stay on the exact track.

Was it also perhaps a accumulation of bad luck. Sun in my eyes. A ditch very close to the track. I try to excuse myself thinking that it is IMPOSSIBLE to stay exactly on the same track with a tolerance of 50cm, but this time the 50cm was too much and s… happened. It happened to me.
Agalon identified the ditch and he parked his vehicle next to the ditch to warn the incoming ones about the danger just a second before I hit the spot.

During the next break I looked at the vehicle in more detail and realized, that the transmission oil pipe is cut and loosing oil. We tried to stop the leak (thanks @Agalon and @Issa ) without much success. The oil pressure was too high. We tried to check the level of the transmission oil. We were trying to locate the oil dip stick and reading the car’s manual. @Daggerfall and @osman , nothing wrong with us, we could not find the diagrams in the book, because they were not there. Eventually I found a note in the manual, that ‘’to check the oil level, contact your Nissan service’’.

Since I kept losing the transmission oil, the drive has finished for me for the day and with the guidance of @Agalon, I reached the gravel road. From there I headed alone towards tarmac and civilization. I have lost quite a lot of oil and decided not to push the luck further and not to drive to the garage on my wheels. I called a recovery truck and dropped the vehicle at a mechanic.

Now listen to what is the condition of my car, after the encounter with the ‘’innocent ditch’’:
• Bent steering link => replacement
• Cut oil pipe => replacement. It was the bent steering link that damaged the pipe.
• Bent and leaking diff housing => replacement
• Deformed bumper skin => repair
• Destroyed bumper support => replacement
• Deformed skid plate and plate’s support structure => repair

Who said off-roading is a cheap hobby?

I have driven before with Almost 4x4 some more challenging drives, giving me sweat on my neck, crazy heart rate and adrenaline pumping. This drive was not like that.
S... does not happen during these drives. It happens when you expect it least.

This day I almost rolled over on a pixy little dune and a few minutes later I crashed my car in a ditch size of a large fridge.

I heard that off roaders have these days. This day was mine.
You never know, when it comes, but it may come and slap you in your face and make you rethink a few things.

I wish you all, you never have this kind of DAY.

see you in the sand

I am sorry to hear that it was so bad. As you said some times S happens. 2 weeks back i hit a ditch and bended the diffrenential housing and broke my ring and pinion. Hope till next time i ll catch a brake

[Solmaz]

Hey Almosters,
Looks like it was one of those days for both [mention]Kris_K[/mention] and me.

My afternoon started with a broken, leaking pin which eventually escalated into a tire change operation. With many helping hands it took us less than 15 minutes to finish it and once done I found my convoy ready and waiting. We had [mention]Yoghybear[/mention] for sweep as our guardian bear, [mention]Youssef.Abdelhady[/mention] as my second lead and [mention]haider alnuaimi[/mention] and [mention]Saeed FJ[/mention] for the rescue.

I love how this area has a variety of different dune sizes and types to practice and I believe we took the best of it. We rode on the dune tops, did some side crest training and even a little egg basket fun. Most of the drive our convoy moved smooth and FAST. The only problem I noticed was the distance, especially when we switched from one type of area to another. In small technical dunes, you have to have enough space to adjust yourself otherwise second tries and stucks are inevitable.

After our small break, we continued with gaining even more speed until I found that drop. It was not the highest we did that day, nor with the hardest landing. But somehow something snapped and I felt that I hit my bumper. Then as soon as I started climbing again I noticed that car was pulling badly to one side like I had a pop out. I called Yousef to hold the convoy and stopped to check my tires. I went out expecting a cut tire. The driver side was ok, passenger side looked fine too. Only on my way back, I noticed both my front tires were facing inwards like a shy little puppy.

We quickly investigated the situation and noticed my passenger side inner tie rod is dislocated. Then [mention]James[/mention] jumped in and did some magic trick and voila my FJ was good as new.

By the time we were done, the sun was already low in the sky so we decided to go out all together fast track.

Thank you all for the great teamwork and great drive.

Just as a side note, I suggest all FJ people to get their tie rod ends checked after each alignment. This is the second time this happening to me and both were just after an alignment job done. This connection is hidden under a rubber boot so no way to notice if it is loose until it gets completely dislocated.

This story would have been a very different one if happened on the road while driving at 140 kmph.

[Rooies]

It was the 8th day of the week, drive day thumbsup

We met at the meeting point & when I got there, there were already a lot of cars, everybody was looking forward to the drive.

We went through the usual drills, had the briefing, [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] called us aside & explained what we were going to do & also what NOT TO DO!!

We took off & the pace was good, the following distances was not good & soon we had second tries because of that. The first victim to not enough speed & momentum was [mention]Kris_K[/mention] , he did not have enough speed & ended up in a very awkward place, but our marshalls & sweepers were quick there to sort out the problem without any incident. The next victim was [mention]mquadros[/mention] , he also ended in a very bad place, but again the marshalls & inters came to the rescue. We all stopped after the rescue & [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] & [mention]JockJKU[/mention] adressed us, our following distance was way to close & we did not have enough momentum for the crossing of the dunes. We came to a nice climb which I stuffed up & had a second try, [mention]JockJKU[/mention] said I must go a bit more to the left (he meant when I get to the top) I thought he meant at the foot of the dune. I gathered speed & headed for the dune, the result by going a bit left, steep incline, sand went over the roof, but I kept my foot on the gas & went over the dune, when I had a chance to stopped I jumped to check for any damage, the only damage was my numberplate - it was gone grin . We waited for all the cars & continued. We heade up some other nice big dunes & then I lost [mention]Kris_K[/mention] in my mirror, he reported he got stuck in a ditch. The convoy stopped & waited for him. After a while the convoy regrouped & we continued on our way. We stopped again for a short break & [mention]Kris_K[/mention] saw that there was fluid leaking from his car, the damage was done, the power-steering pipe had a small hole & was leaking.

[mention]Kris_K[/mention] decided to call it for the day & was escorted to the road, the rest of us continued to the end with the sun setting.

It was a very nice drive & again I learned lessons, following distance, speed/momentum & listen to the instructions. If one sticks to the basics, everything works well, or it's supposed to work well grin .

Thank you to [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] , [mention]JockJKU[/mention] & the rest of the inters that looked after us.

Till we meet in the sand again, take care.

Greetings
Rooies

[Youssef.Abdelhady]

Hello Almosters,

From reading the trip reports, it seems there were a lot of lessons learnt that day, but thankfully we all made it home fine.

I was second lead in [mention]Solmaz[/mention] convoy. She mentioned during the briefing that the level would be a bit higher than usual and at a fast pace. Well... she definitely delivered on her promise. It was a fun, fast paced drive and I really enjoyed it!

We had a few stucks and second tries. Unfortunately for [mention]Saeed FJ[/mention] the stucks would always happen next to him, so he was the only one doing recoveries XD (sorry buddy).

As you may have already read, we encountered an unusual issue with Solmaz's wheel connection (first time I've seen this). Thankfully [mention]James[/mention] is well experienced with cars and was able to fix the issue like a pro.


A small reminder to the 10+s, always remember the fundamentals taught by our marshals. Avoid being relaxed / overconfident since issues will always strike when you least expect it.


See you all soon. pacman

[panos]

I guess it's never too late to post trip reports.... have a nice day

Not much to add up....when I first read the title of the trip I knew what to expect, but uncertainty was there, so I was looking forward for it.

I was with [mention]Solmaz[/mention] convoy. In the sort briefing she informed us that this was her first +10 lead, so in case we felt she was too fast, we should let her know.

I believe that the tempo of convoy was excellent, everyone was able to catch up and enjoy the ride. We just had a couple of second tries/stucks, but nothing much to disturb our nice drive.

Then we reach the point where Solmaz's car didn't wanna move more. I have to admit that she was pretty relaxed when she saw that and the funny thing is that her daughter was still sleeping in the car! have a nice day Evaluation was made by the expects and [mention]James[/mention] took over, after giving us a short presentation of the car's steering system! have a nice day It was a very interesting learning experience and indeed you are learning something in every single drive.

I have to admit that it was a good warm up for the CMIYC drive that was following. grin

Thank you Solmaz and all in my convoy for the nice drive!