[Guderian]

Admiral & The UFO...
The first ever tango/tangle with an Unidentified Foreign Object !

So, with a song in my heart and whistle on my lips I trotted off early, real early, this morning for Admiral's Sunday cleaning.
Started with the inflator and the tyres. At the front left tyre noticed something odd. Just next to the tread almost on the sidewall notice a thich nail like object firmy embedded. Took out my Leatherman and pried it out with the pliers part thinking it must a surface object when I heard loud hissing. Startled, I pushed the object back into the tyre as I found it and the hissing stopped. Had to think & then sound battle stations. In less than couple of hours had to take the LoH out for an important Sunday mission. Ship's Sunday routine was cancelled. Materials secured and off I went to a tyre dock - wondering whether at that unearthly hour if any one of them would be open. And I was wondering whether I should do it myself as I had the kit. But decided against it as I wanted the tyre to be thoroughly checked.
One hole in the wall I used to regularly go earlier and quite closeby - was open.
It was pouring felines and canines when the guy started (he needed all the help he could get to understand where to place the jack and raise etc - never worked on a Fortuner and I was insistent that the jack is not placed under any suspension part but specifically under the ladder frame and raised) and finished in a jiffy. The foreign object was not a nail but something like the cut off spoke of a motorcycle. The damn thing would have been in the tyre for a few days and I never noticed it.
Tyre checked no other UFOs. All well (touchwood !).
Costed me Rs 150.

The object enters the hall of fame for objects that have been picked up by my wheels including a 6" bolt that the Yokos of my Scrorp picked up couple of years ago among other things !



The plug !
Damn - wonder whether I should have asked for a designer plug...



OK - so now as we had discussed the LIMI inflator etc earlier when the tyrewallah was filling was topping the air I asked him to fill 34 PSI. Came home and checked the air pressures of other tyres and found them to be steady at 34 and the repaired tyre showed 38.5 PSI. Quite convinced that the LIMI is over-reading the pressure. Might increase the pressure in all tyres to 36 PSI by the LIMI which could be the real 30/32 PSI. Or since the current 34 PSI, as read by the LIMI, is very comfortable might leave it at that.

I love working with/under pressure/s - of the tyre types !

[Off Roadie]

For the admirals sake general, please do not exceed 34 psi (actual) when cold. How you manage to get to the true reading I leave to you as I trust you have the sound judgement.
Specially now that the monsoons and potholes are around.
The steering linkages and suspension bushes may start acting up in protest.
The last thing you want is a lifeless rudder.
Kanpai.

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by Off Roadie

For the admirals sake general, please do not exceed 34 psi (actual) when cold. How you manage to get to the true reading I leave to you as I trust you have the sound judgement.
Specially now that the monsoons and potholes are around.
The steering linkages and suspension bushes may start acting up in protest.
The last thing you want is a lifeless rudder.
Kanpai.

Hi Off Roadie,
Appreciate the observation. Agree that excessive pressure would have deleterious effect on the suspension parts.
I guess when the LIMI inflator (not all, but the one I have I suppose - going by the assumed over-reading tendency !) reads 36 PSI it would be actually around 32 PSI. But need to again verify the degree of over-reading. I have a solid brass, US made, Accu-Gage (- http://www.ghmeiser.com/dial.htm -) haven't used it for sometime. Will dust it and get back into action. This was very accurate till I last used it about 2 years ago - I trust it still will be so or else will check the calibration and get a fix. But yeah - it'll help quite a bit.
And yes - one way or the other will leave the cold tyre (true) pressure at 32 PSI max.

Kanpatti.

[Guderian]

Yeah right, Saturday was Engineers' Day.
And Sunday was Admiral's Engine Day.


Hang on...first things first.
And the first thing as always was tyre work. So as mentioned earlier - out came the Accu-Gage.


Solid brass I tell you...reminds of that limerick about the Man from Madras !


And so on measuring the tyre pressure with it - The AccuGage showed 27 PSI & the LIMI digital inflator showed for all 4 tyres 34 PSI. Was quite clear that LIMI was over-measuring by almost 4-5 PSI going by this gauge and the gauges at the ASC and the tyre shop. So now reset the LIMI monitor to 36 PSI and filled up. This would mean that Admiral's tyres were now at 32PSI or so.
(Later on had a long drive to complete a driving errand for the LoH - Admiral rode really well. Since then - couple of days more of driving gave me a feeling of tautness and the slightly soft/soggy feeling of the old has vanished. I like it at least ! Is it very bouncy ? Not really.)

And then the engine cleaning. Was doing it after a few weeks.
After the wash. Never seen a more purposeful engine. And this after 30K KMs.




Not too bad eh ?


And an eerie feeling....
Admiral stands in solitary splendour at the office parking lot.



And they say a lot can happen in a parking lot !

Shalom.

[rahultomahawk]

Hi Harish ,

Got my self a new Fortuner , Its named Free Spirit 2. I sold my Landcruiser. Posting some pics of the new car.

[Repsol]

Originally Posted by rahultomahawk

Hi Harish ,

Got my self a new Fortuner , Its named Free Spirit 2. I sold my Landcruiser. Posting some pics of the new car.

Congrats on your latest buy rahultomahawk

Seems that you have already started adding stuff from your LC

By the way, have you changed the tail-lights of your T-FORT ? Seems that those are smoked LED lights.

[rahultomahawk]

Originally Posted by Repsol

Congrats on your latest buy rahultomahawk

Seems that you have already started adding stuff from your LC

By the way, have you changed the tail-lights of your T-FORT ? Seems that those are smoked LED lights.

Thank you Repsol, yes they are after market lights .All are led. The tent and the awing is form my earlier car. Will post more detailed pics in my ownership thread soon.

[Off Roadie]

Originally Posted by rahultomahawk

Thank you Repsol, yes they are after market lights .All are led. The tent and the awing is form my earlier car. Will post more detailed pics in my ownership thread soon.

Will look forward to that, the way you've been accessorising your car (seen on HVK FB page) has got me quite interested.
Oh and heartiest Congratulations.

[Monaro CV8]

Originally Posted by rahultomahawk

Got my self a new Fortuner

Congrats for the upgrade @Rahul ! That is a nice colour

I noticed, your car has a lot of changes from the regular New Fortuner.
E.g.
1. The Toyota Monogram on the front grill - There's a TRD logo under it.
2. The Tailgate & the front doors have extra sticker treatment.
3. Tail lights are different.
4. Huuuge LED beam bar on the roof carriage
5. LED DRLs on the front bumper.

For a moment, I was thinking that Toyota India are now selling Fortuners with TRD kits also.
Maybe, your car is from a series of Special edition (or Anniversary edition) lot.

or otherwise, are all the above after-market accessories?

[kedarwalke]

Originally Posted by rahultomahawk

Hi Harish ,

Got my self a new Fortuner , Its named Free Spirit 2. I sold my Landcruiser. Posting some pics of the new car.

Nice ride rahultomahawk.Can you share price of tail lights? They are absolutely wow!!

[rahultomahawk]

Originally Posted by kedarwalke

Nice ride rahultomahawk.Can you share price of tail lights? They are absolutely wow!!

Hi Kedar, please find the photos of Free Spirit 2 .

[kedarwalke]

Originally Posted by rahultomahawk

Hi Kedar, please find the photos of Free Spirit 2 .

What is the price of Led tail Lights & the hydraulic Pump for bonnet?

[yaji]

The rear tyre of my Fortuner burst the other day due to some low lying object at a Toll booth and the tear is pretty deep. I presume it cant be vulcanized and used too even with a tube inside (in turn making it With Tube tyre). Being R17, tubes are not available easily too...

The price of a stock Dunlop from Toyota costs a fortune (24K+ !) and I' am in no mood to go for them. What is the alternative the Guru's here would suggest ? I understand Bridgestone is harder than Dunlop so its not recommended unless all the tyres are changed...whats better for the stepney and which is available in India in R17 size ?

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by yaji

The rear tyre of my Fortuner burst the other day

Sorry to hear about that mishap yaji. I thought the stock Dunlop was around 16~17k at the dealership. Kindly cross check. Even otherwise, I would advise you NOT to to mix brands and go for the OE Dunlop. It's a great tyre for the beast and would be a good investment in the long run.

BTW, where's Herr' Generale'?

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by yaji

The rear tyre of my Fortuner burst the other day due to some low lying object at a Toll booth and the tear is pretty deep. I presume it cant be vulcanized and used too even with a tube inside (in turn making it With Tube tyre). Being R17, tubes are not available easily too...

The price of a stock Dunlop from Toyota costs a fortune (24K+ !) and I' am in no mood to go for them. What is the alternative the Guru's here would suggest ? I understand Bridgestone is harder than Dunlop so its not recommended unless all the tyres are changed...whats better for the stepney and which is available in India in R17 size ?

How did the burst happen e.g. did you have too high or low pressure? The stock tyres have served the rest of us pretty well, so I am wondering. Maybe it was a freak accident - if so, I would recommend that you stick to the same tyres if you get a good deal.

The Dunlop A/T should not cost so much. Not sure why they are quoting so high. A few weeks back, I was browsing changemytyre.com, the price of the tyre was ~ 13K. I don't see the tyres on the website right now for some reason.

But since such an incident shakes one's confidence in the tyres, if you really want to change look at Michelin A/T, Scorpion etc. E.g. have a look at http://changemytyre.com/TOYOTA/FORTU...l-Variants/668, check out Tirerack.com to do some research. Suggest you go for A/T since the added toughness is worth it.