Tech 1

[Dave]

Thanks OxanaLu. You have done a good job at the beauty saloon with the Pathfinder. It was the new pink paint work and long eye lashes over the head lights that threw me!

Great driving with you yesterday. Thanks for always keeping a safe distance. If there is one "manly" thing about your car it's that massive steel front bumper. I am very happy you kept it far from my much less protected rear end!

[caprihorse]

[quote=RedShark;32128]Chief i never had a pop out in my life before ,and i never used the stock jack before on road or off road ,so only yesterday i realized how bad is it[/quote]
I hope for you that you didn't open a chain. Anyway we wrote several times that it is critical, that everyone has his own tools.

[Green Giant]

Some good detail from Dave and Singh about the tricky and challenging terrain. Yoghy said at the briefing that it would be a technical drive and it certainly was! This was a new area for me and the rain from the few days beforehand fooled us into believing the sand was hard. However, this only proved true in a few areas - as Singh said the track was very quickly churned up - even Dave as second lead said he was struggling at times following Yoghi's track. I achieved a first today in the Green Giant - I was behind Red Shark and stopped when he got into his first trouble, but didn't give myself enough space to clear the crest once he was clear and got stuck. At the same time, Red Shark had reversed back into a ditch at the same time as Alfalasi appeared from behind a dune to say he was also stuck!! Strawb came to the rescue and promptly cleared away the three stucks.

The drive continued at a controlled pace with occasional stops for troubles in the convoy, and as the sun started to lower towards the horizon we had to up the pace to get clear of the tricky dunes before sunset. GnH had some altercations with the terrain and came out a little scarred with a missing front wheel arch and bumper, and Mike reported at the end of the drive that his TJ had a rear axle problem and had to be nursed back. We all made it out safe and sound (ish!) and made Al Badayer shops to a throng of high performance buggies, quads and 4x4s all gathering for the friday night Al Badayer festivities.

Many thanks to Yoghybear for a great lead, to Strawb for the support in sweeping and rescues, chit chat and strength demonstrations(!). Thanks to all my fellow newbies as well who I think all had a good lesson today, I myself learnt a great deal more respect from the Desert, and yearning for more and the chance to develop my skills further ready for the Intermediate test, whenever I get the chance from the Marshalls. See you in the sand.

I have some video which I am editing and will post later.

[Green Giant]

Forgot to post the track for thew trip: 29.5 km in the end.
[IMG]http://www.almost4x4.com/vb/webkit-fake ... image.tiff[/IMG]

[mike]

A wind swept tricvky desert ride, plenty of stucks, a couple of pop outs and for me, a wrecked rear differential! It started with few bngs from the rear, which only seemed to occur when doing tight turns. It didn't seem to get significantly worse, until the last climb a few km from the shops.

Limped home hoping it was a broken axle shaft, only to find that the four side gears inside the diff had dissintergrated! Seems the rack and pinion are OK, but looks like it may be a while before I'll be out to play again : ((

[Dave]

Sorry to hear about your rear diff packing up Mike. I did notice through the sand storm that were giving your rear axle an unusually high level of interest during our stops! Hope you manage to get the Jeep back on the road soon. Still a good 3 months of cool driving weather before the desert starts to heat up. All the best with getting it fixed soon.

[strawb]

[quote=mike;32186]A wind swept tricvky desert ride, plenty of stucks, a couple of pop outs and for me, a wrecked rear differential! It started with few bngs from the rear, which only seemed to occur when doing tight turns. It didn't seem to get significantly worse, until the last climb a few km from the shops.

Limped home hoping it was a broken axle shaft, only to find that the four side gears inside the diff had dissintergrated! Seems the rack and pinion are OK, but looks like it may be a while before I'll be out to play again : (([/quote]


sad to hear about the rear diff buddy

it was good that you removed the rear drive shaft as the busted rear diff couldve screwed up your 4wd and tranny if you drove it back dubai in that state

we hope you get to sort it out asap

the sharjah industrial area is where you can find your quick and easy fix to this

[mike]

[quote=strawb;32202]sad to hear about the rear diff buddy

it was good that you removed the rear drive shaft as the busted rear diff couldve screwed up your 4wd and tranny if you drove it back dubai in that state

we hope you get to sort it out asap

the sharjah industrial area is where you can find your quick and easy fix to this[/quote]

Actually, I stopped about 1km away from the shops to put the prop shaft back in! The noise it was making with the prop shaft out was terrible!
I think without the prop shaft, the damaged side gears were trying to spin the carrier. Once I put the prop shaft back on, it all quietened down again.

Putting the prop back in was interesting given the darkness, the wind, the sand and being buzzed by quads!!

[strawb]

[quote=mike;32209]Actually, I stopped about 1km away from the shops to put the prop shaft back in! The noise it was making with the prop shaft out was terrible!
I think without the prop shaft, the damaged side gears were trying to spin the carrier. Once I put the prop shaft back on, it all quietened down again.

Putting the prop back in was interesting given the darkness, the wind, the sand and being buzzed by quads!![/quote]


well that sucks ..... even worse ..... hope you get to fix it soon man