White Sands & sand storm

Today at 2 am in the night i set off to my first longer trip with a new Land Cruiser FZJ76. I was planning to visit some dunes located in the central part of Oman, and away from from capital town around 500 km.

I wanted to check a few things. First of all the long and lonely driving in the night on the black top roads and finally check the car in the soft sands. Now the weather conditions are very bad on this kind of adventures. There is a high temperature and sand is very soft. So i thought if the new Land Cruiser 76 will be doing in such conditions, can cope in any others. I was curious my feelings with the new model in the desert conditions as well after years experience with Land Cruiser 100.

In the night i just grabbed my basic stuff and moved quickly from Muscat. On the petrol station i refiled 100 litters of petrol to the tank, and additional 20 litres to the jerry can. Fuel consumption also was in my interests. The first 250 km i was driving constantly between 90-120 km and noticed that it is optimal speed on the long stages of the asphalts. Above this speed the level of noise inside of the car was to high. After 200 km i pulled over on the service stations and refuel tank again. The final result was not bad. Fuel consumption is around 15-16 litres per 100 km. a bit better then a Land Cruiser 100 with the same engine.

 

Quick coffee after sunrise somewhere on the desert near the main road and i moved quickly between the sand dunes. The first bigger sands i have been reached around 9 am. The sun operated a bit strong. After first 15 minutes on the sands i could noticed that the weight of the J76 is smaller then J100 and the new J76 drives smoothly even without low range, on the smaller and not very high dunes. Around 11 am the sun and the wind operated perceptibly stronger. 

The sand changed and was a bit softer. I moved between some concentration of the medium size sand heaps and i felt that the car got bogged into the sand sometimes. I reduced the pressure in the tires to 20 psi and tried continue driving. I really wanted to reach the beach and the ocean. I was less then 5 km from the shoreline. Surprisingly deflated tires did not improved my driving and i stuck in the sand. The first time.  Again i reduced the pressure in the tires to 12 psi. Car moved surely but i did not feel any particular improvement. Bridgestone Dueler AT 275/70/16, however good tire on the hard desert surface are not great sand tires. I reached the sea without any bigger adventures. Around 12 noon the temperature across 42 C' and i back between the dunes. I found small rock and the tree and stopped there for a short nap and snacks.    

After an hour refreshed i set off to the way back to Muscat. The first test on the sand desert convinced me that the new DiscoverOman.eu car has many of opportunities and i need a time to switch from the serie 100.  The driving and the feelings in that legendary model 70 are much different then i had been experienced with FZJ100

During the way back temperature soared to 52C' and the wind blew much stronger. Somewhere in the middle of my way back i had to drive much more carefully because suddenly sand storm arose. Thats why we organising our expeditions to the serous places like Al Huqf or Empty Quarter in the autumn and the spring. No one feel pleasure being on the desert when is 52C'. Even local bedouins.

 

 

Jerzy Wierzbicki 

Team DiscoverOman