COVID19 Complaint - Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Short Wheel Base Focus - Lisaili - Dubai - 12 May 2021

[Wrangeld]

THE SHORT WHEEL BASE FOCUS DRIVE

In most club convoys there is a mix of vehicles, some nimble small, light cars and at the back of the pack, the leviathans: Patrols, Raptors, F150s, Prados and LWB versions of some of the most popular cars. 

What would it be like to focus just on the SWB vehicles in the club? A chance to focus on what it's like for the SWB to criss-cross, ridge ride and navigate the small tight dunes and soft sand? In this drive we will try to make the most of our better entry and exit angles and investigate how to drive so that the higher risk of roll-over (especially in lifted cars) is minimized. 

This drive is limited to cars with a wheelbase of 98" - tape measure will be brought out to check if necessary!

 

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely.

MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions

 

MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: BAN POST

Drive Details

Level:  Fewbie 

When:  12th May 2021.

Meeting time: 5:00 am  (SHARP - Without any exceptions).

Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/f782dd5PLRj9sRV36

Action Plan: Drive from Bab Al Shams, enjoying some technical dunes along the way, find some nice dunes and practice ridge riding and criss crossing. After that, we will enjoy a drive that will take us into Last Exit with enough time spare to go out for breakfast after the drive.  

Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance.

What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

Approximate finish time:  09:00am

P.S. Only join if you have a compressor to inflate your tires after the drive.

 

LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE:

• Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 3:00pm
  • If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. 
• Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
• Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
• Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others.
• Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month.
   

Please RSVP on below Calendar 

 

[Wrangeld]

• Mario Cornejo @Mario Cornejo (Nissan Patrol SWB) [Intermediate]
• Pacific @Pacific (Jeep Wrangler SWB) [Fewbie]
• Chris Wing @Chris Wing (Toyota FJ Cruiser) [Fewbie]
• Nathan Evans @Nathan Evans (Suzuki Jimny) [Fewbie]
• Jeandre Bezuidenhout @Jeandre Bezuidenhout (Jeep Wrangler SWB) [Intermediate]

Thanks for signing up for the SWB drive. 

@Chris Wing ... The FJ is not a borderline SWB.  At 106" it is an MWB, but as you've signed up let's leave it at that for the moment.

If the numbers stay at this level, we will use the drive to focus on the following: 

Ridge riding - we will start at the basics, small low dunes and build up from there as far as the terrain will allow. 

Criss-crossing - in both directions, i.e. hard face approach and slip face approach.

Technical dunes & soft sand - to understand the advantages of the smaller wheelbase.

This implies we will not be looking to find long dunes for slide sloping or climbs. 

If there is something else that you want to add, please use this forum. I am more than happy to try and use the session for us all to learn as much as we can. 

As you appreciate, I want to use the time to learn/hone skills. If your expectation is different, then it's no problem if you decide that there's a better option over the week that satisfies your adrenalin or other wishes. I will say that if we fall below a 4 car drive, the drive will be cancelled. As a favour to your fellow drivers, and knowing that there is space on other drives this week, if you are in doubt, please make your decision early. 

The last ting we want is for too few drivers to turn up at the start finding that someone changed their mind. 

See you soon in the sand. 

 

[Pacific]

Learning never stops, thanks @Wrangeld for this type of drive n learn.

I believe we have fun if we learn. Hope to see you all guys.

[Wrangeld]

Good morning everyone. We will be out of the desert by this time tomorrow (hopefully), so it's time to set the radio channel at #1 and the convoy numbering. 

This will be: 

• Wrangeld (me)
• Goutam @Goutam
• Chris Wing @Chris Wing
• Nathan Evans @Nathan Evans
• Kailas @Kailas
• Pacific @Pacific
• Jeandre Bezuidenhout @Jeandre Bezuidenhout
• Mario Cornejo @Mario Cornejo

I've changed the start location to Bab Al Shams because we can find practice dunes more easily from there - and then can see where the route takes us. I'd like to think we can venture into some very challenging technical areas and some areas that are technically challenging (there is a difference) as well, which are close by. 

 

See you soon in the sand.  

[Chris Wing]

@Wrangeld sorry i thought my car would be considered short wheel base. But happy to see that you kept me in:) looking forward for a fun outing👍🏼

[Wrangeld]

21 minutes ago, Chris Wing said:

@Wrangeld sorry i thought my car would be considered short wheel base. But happy to see that you kept me in:) looking forward for a fun outing👍🏼

Like I said Chris, the FJ is a pretender!  We will still let you in and maybe we can all learn something by having the MWB imposter amongst us. 

[Pacific]

Sorry I thought it was 5:30 and so I am late but I am on the way

056 583 6979

[Mario Cornejo]

On my way too

[Wrangeld]

Post Drive Report

Seems my last radio message was not heard today, so I will set it out here. SWB does allow us to go play in areas that otherwise are a real challenge with a 'longer' convoy. There is a reason that the sands on which we drove today were so pristine. And the tolerances are small. With just a few inches more wheelbase, our MWB found the going tougher. The sand was horribly soft (as I found to my own cost more than a few times), but with the SWB vehicles, we managed to explore some amazing and extremely complex dunes. 

For that I am really grateful - so thanks to all of you for signing up and letting me lead through an area of Qudra that I so rarely get to see. 

For the rest. I guess the areas we traversed gave more opportunities for criss-crossing than ridge riding. I tried to mix it up a little between breaking over crests from the slip side and the hard side and getting onto a ridge and then coming down. Everyone did really well here. At the back of the convoy it was heavily churned so must have been a bit more difficult to get through some of them. 

What I felt was that it was a flowing drive punctuated by some stucks that took time to resolve: not overly time consuming, but just because we flowed so nicely when we did these stops felt to be taking up time. 

I'm not going to give specific driver feedback because I think that everyone did exceptionally well considering the terrain.

Massive thanks to you all for the teamwork and patience. Special thanks to @Kailas and @Jeepie for keeping me almost completely sand free!

See you soon in the sand.  

[Pacific]

Sorry for being late, sincere apologies for the same.  Thank you all for waiting. As rightly quoted by @Wrangeld we were challenging technical area and some were technically challenging, difference learned retrospectively. Also there was no adrenaline rush which covered by the very need of dopamine for the brain. Thank you for the drive.