COVID19 Compliant - Morning Newbie Desert Drive - Sweihan - Abu Dhabi - 27 Nov 2020

[Srikumar]

TRIP REPORT

The wide spaced out dunes of Sweihan is week after week proving to be the perfect playground for Newbies to learn the basics of offroading. Almost everyone reached the meeting point on time and for those who did, we do very much appreciate the same. 

After a proper briefing we entered the dunes through an easy track, but I guess everyone was just warming up. A couple of stucks and a few refusals was the order of the day. However, once everyone got their bearing right, the pace they all matched the pace which was fantastic for a Newbie level drive. We played all along the roller coaster dunes that Sweihan can offer with speeds exceed 60 kmph in some areas. As we reached near the exit point, we needed to cross some massive dunes with the exit point at the top. The only way to cross over was by doing the roller coaster to build the momentum and reach the exit point. And everyone listened to the instructions and achieved it in the first attempt. Fantastically well done by the entire convoy.

@Ruan van den Heever was my second lead and was extremely comfortable driving in his wrangler. Well driven and hope you had a good time.

@Ramprakash was our AN in his Jeep Grand Cherokee. Though initially reluctant and few doubts on how his his JGC would manage with the proper offroaders, by the end of the drive I am sure he was very much surprised with the capabilites of his JGC. Like I mentioned you can contact @Brette who is a senior member on the basic mods that he has done with his JGC. You drove exceedingly well for an AN. Well done.

@eidooo was our second AN for the day in his FJ, but I guess he had some prior experience of offroading as he rarely put a foot wrong through out the drive. Well driven. Regarding the bash plate or basic modifications you can check with our Marshal @Ale Vallecchi who drives a stock FJ but takes it to all the possible places.

@samir83 was driving with his nicely lifted GMC Sierra a powerful beast. As you get used to the car start learning on the approach lines to scale a dune as then you would put less load on your truck. Also in future drives start off with 13 psi as that would give you better flotation. But overall nicely done.

@Willie in his nice maroon SWB Pajero 3.8, managed the route extremely well as its not easy following on the tracks of a heavy truck that is churning up the sand. 

@Anoop joseph for me should us the highlight of the day as he crawled himself out of an extremely soft patch with soft good throttle and steering control. That was a pleasure to see.

@Aamir Siddiqui who pulled off a last minute sign up on to the drive thanks to @Srijith Gangadharan did quite well through the drive with the minimum of fuss. Well done.

@ashique rahiman was the 3rd AN with a 2008 Xterra and he like most of the guys hardly made any mistakes. Regarding the traction control, as in the 2008 model there is no button you can check with @Chaitanya D and @Desert Dweller on how they manage to turn it off. 

@Omar Al-khoori joined us with his long truck, but unfortunately due to low side steps he had to exit out after a few dunes. We look forward to seeing you in Liwa with your Wrangler. 

Meanwhile, @Jaap was quietly conquering all the churned up tracks with his Xterra which just again showed that Xterra is an extremely capable offroader in stock condition. Well done.

And at the back of the convoy we had @Shehab Alawadhi and @Arman who not only had a good time, but also kept the convoy entertained with their friendly banter. 

It was really wonderful driving with a fantastic bunch of offroaders in the right spirit which makes the experience even more wonderful.

Finally a big shout out to @Xavier Treasurer for helping everyone throughout the drive. He was probably the busiest person and had also the opportunity to help recover the few vehicles that were stuck. Well done my friend. 

For the next drives, please bring along a deflator, pressure gauge, shovel, flag and radio as a minimum. 

• Learn to deflate your tires and checking them precisely
• Learn to fix a flag on your car
• Learn to program and fully charge your radio

Also like I mentioned during the debriefing, join the Carnity Whatsapp Drive Notification to get the latest updates on the drives, so that you can RSVP on time for the next weekend's drive.

Please have a look at below topic which describes the tools needed for every level. There is a separate tutorial inside which explains which radio we recommend and how to program them: (Please do not buy the Baofeng 888S spare radio we gave you, as these cannot be programmed without a special cable and software).

 

Please have a look at below grading structure that explains various off-road levels:

See you soon on the sands. 

[Ale Vallecchi]

On 11/29/2020 at 11:23 AM, Srikumar said:

TRIP REPORT

The wide spaced out dunes of Sweihan is week after week proving to be the perfect playground for Newbies to learn the basics of offroading. Almost everyone reached the meeting point on time and for those who did, we do very much appreciate the same. 

After a proper briefing we entered the dunes through an easy track, but I guess everyone was just warming up. A couple of stucks and a few refusals was the order of the day. However, once everyone got their bearing right, the pace they all matched the pace which was fantastic for a Newbie level drive. We played all along the roller coaster dunes that Sweihan can offer with speeds exceed 60 kmph in some areas. As we reached near the exit point, we needed to cross some massive dunes with the exit point at the top. The only way to cross over was by doing the roller coaster to build the momentum and reach the exit point. And everyone listened to the instructions and achieved it in the first attempt. Fantastically well done by the entire convoy.

@Ruan van den Heever was my second lead and was extremely comfortable driving in his wrangler. Well driven and hope you had a good time.

@Ramprakash was our AN in his Jeep Grand Cherokee. Though initially reluctant and few doubts on how his his JGC would manage with the proper offroaders, by the end of the drive I am sure he was very much surprised with the capabilites of his JGC. Like I mentioned you can contact @Brette who is a senior member on the basic mods that he has done with his JGC. You drove exceedingly well for an AN. Well done.

@eidooo was our second AN for the day in his FJ, but I guess he had some prior experience of offroading as he rarely put a foot wrong through out the drive. Well driven. Regarding the bash plate or basic modifications you can check with our Marshal @Ale Vallecchi who drives a stock FJ but takes it to all the possible places.

@samir83 was driving with his nicely lifted GMC Sierra a powerful beast. As you get used to the car start learning on the approach lines to scale a dune as then you would put less load on your truck. Also in future drives start off with 13 psi as that would give you better flotation. But overall nicely done.

@Willie in his nice maroon SWB Pajero 3.8, managed the route extremely well as its not easy following on the tracks of a heavy truck that is churning up the sand. 

@Anoop joseph for me should us the highlight of the day as he crawled himself out of an extremely soft patch with soft good throttle and steering control. That was a pleasure to see.

@Aamir Siddiqui who pulled off a last minute sign up on to the drive thanks to @Srijith Gangadharan did quite well through the drive with the minimum of fuss. Well done.

@ashique rahiman was the 3rd AN with a 2008 Xterra and he like most of the guys hardly made any mistakes. Regarding the traction control, as in the 2008 model there is no button you can check with @Chaitanya D and @Desert Dweller on how they manage to turn it off. 

@Omar Al-khoori joined us with his long truck, but unfortunately due to low side steps he had to exit out after a few dunes. We look forward to seeing you in Liwa with your Wrangler. 

Meanwhile, @Jaap was quietly conquering all the churned up tracks with his Xterra which just again showed that Xterra is an extremely capable offroader in stock condition. Well done.

And at the back of the convoy we had @Shehab Alawadhi and @Arman who not only had a good time, but also kept the convoy entertained with their friendly banter. 

It was really wonderful driving with a fantastic bunch of offroaders in the right spirit which makes the experience even more wonderful.

Finally a big shout out to @Xavier Treasurer for helping everyone throughout the drive. He was probably the busiest person and had also the opportunity to help recover the few vehicles that were stuck. Well done my friend. 

For the next drives, please bring along a deflator, pressure gauge, shovel, flag and radio as a minimum. 

• Learn to deflate your tires and checking them precisely
• Learn to fix a flag on your car
• Learn to program and fully charge your radio

Also like I mentioned during the debriefing, join the Carnity Whatsapp Drive Notification to get the latest updates on the drives, so that you can RSVP on time for the next weekend's drive.

Please have a look at below topic which describes the tools needed for every level. There is a separate tutorial inside which explains which radio we recommend and how to program them: (Please do not buy the Baofeng 888S spare radio we gave you, as these cannot be programmed without a special cable and software).

 

Please have a look at below grading structure that explains various off-road levels:

See you soon on the sands. 

@eidooo, congrats for your first drives with Carnity. I also did my first drive with @Srikumar, so you couldn't have had a better baptism. 

Regarding any mods to your FJ, my approach has been to first build my feeling with the car, learn to take advantage of its full potential, practicing and improving my off-roading skills, so that I learned to go everywhere with only my expertise as an allay. Once you've done that, you may start looking into mods.

There may be some additions to the car that will be useful from the start, but that'll be your own choice to implement them. For instance, a front bash plate will help you avoid damages to the front of your car (namely it will protect your radiator). Yet, I still have not installed it (it would be my next, and first mod), and I've found that not having a bash plate has forced me to learn a more careful way of driving, more finesse-oriented if you like, even when ridge riding, or criss-crossing, and in technical dunes.

Next mod you may want to think about may be a snorkel. This will help you feed your engine with clean air, avoiding the filter getting clogged with sand, or injecting fine sand particles in your engine. The alternative to a snorkel is that you make sure you clean the filter (and the pipe leading to the engine) thoroughly, after each and every drive. This is what I have done so far, but I believe that a snorkel will be my next, second, mod.

Lastly, perhaps you'd want to think about installing harder shocks, and lifting your car. The harder shocks will aid you in taking smoother, more effective, long climbs, and will make riding on heavily marked terrain, full of older tracks, more endurable. A lift (with either spacers or longer shocks) would allow you to use bigger tires, which would also give you more clearance, for more advanced ridge riding (especially on sharper dunes, with an uphill approach). At the same time, the more you lift an FJ, which is already quite a tall and relatively slender car (you can lift the car from 2 inches up to 13 inches) the more you'll increase the risk of roll-overs, as lifting the car will move its center of gravity higher. Wheel spacers will then be required to increase the car's "foot-print" and reduce the risk of roll-overs. 

My advice, in any case, is not to rush into any race to make mods. These alterations are expensive, and you should not consider them until you'll have decided you're in off-roading in the long run. Also, no mod is a shortcut to better (and safer) driving: your performance in the desert is, first and foremost, entirely proportional to your driving skills, so actually, the less mods you have made, the more you'll be forced to hone your skills, and "invest" in developing your feeling with the car, managing to extract its true potential.

So, in a nutshell, keep on driving, and focus on learning/perfecting it, until you may be ready to turn mods into true advantages.