Leaderboard

Thank you to all the active members of Carnity who have supported the drives by coming out in numbers and have shown the enthusiasm and the will to learn, As you would notice after this weeks drive that I am trying to pick the level slowly so that every one gets the confidence and the know how of how to tackle different dunes in different situations. I'm pleased to announce the upcoming drive on 10th Feb, Friday afternoon to let the members of Carnity experience the ultimate terrain in the UAE. This drive is going to be slightly more challenging than our previous 2 drives and will be an addition to your learning curve which so far has been impressive. The beauty of this area, the wide open dunes, and with the occasional sighting of wildlife like gazelles and oryx are all resons to set your pulses racing. The plan would be to meet up at 2:30 pm as per the below link and than head out to have some awesome fun through terrain that will leave you wanting more, and we will end it with a good spot to sit around and have a BBQ session with chats about the drive, general talk and share some jokes. When : 10 February 2017 at 2:30 pm Where : First Emarat Petrol station on Dubai - Al Ain Road after Outlet Mall. GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/KD4Lath3cB42 Level of drive: Newbie/Fewbie Plan: Drive followed by BBQ What to bring along: Stuff for BBQ like grill, charcoal, lighter fluid and BBQ meat or chicken, water, liquids, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time : 9 pm Note : Drive level can be changed if required to suit the level of the convoy.

This is more than perfect for newbie to fewbie level, if you listen and follow the advice and drive discipline.

@desertdude Mitsubishi Outlander, hahahahaha, we are all aware that the Outlander is not even a proper off-road vehicle and this is what I have said, clubs accept all kind of AWD on their trips instead of making the owner aware that it is not meant for the desert. @Digital the Pajero rear bumper is known to be a sand digger and every possibility of losing it during any type of drive due to the petrol tank being small compared to the Prado and the wheel being on the back of the vehicle. In case of Prado, either you have the spare wheel at the bottom just next to the bumper not allowing the Prado to carry sand, or in cases where the wheel is on the back of the Prado means that it has an extra petrol tank, in either case the bumper does not get affected by carrying sand. However, there is no denying that off-roading is an extreme sport and you have to be very careful, if you follow the instructions handed out by the seniors you should be able to make it in and out of the desert without any incidents, but the desert is an unknown territory. I too use an older vehicle for off-roading because it hurts you less if you end up with any damages during the trip, they are cheaper to maintain, older technology is simpler to use and repair, if God forbid it goes for any repairs you still have your daily driver to take you to work and back, lastly because small dings ans scratches will not affect you as much as a newer more expensive car. But I believe this decision should be taken after you have done a couple of drives to see if you are really interested as buying a second hand car also costs you money, and better to be sure how much you want to do in off-roading to know which kind of older vehicle will suit you and your driving skills and requirements the best. If you have a Prado and it manages well at newbie level and you decide that you do not want to go out into terrain any tougher than this, than keeping the Prado and bringing it out occasionally for a newbie drive is the way to go. But on the other hand if the sand bug bites you and you want to improve your skills and venture out in to the unknown and do a little bit more every week, than its best to go for a suitable off-road vehicle which will not cost you an arm and a leg.

There is only two things I like to add here after such a nice trip report and pictures by everyone: It was not only the driver's fault for the flip but also the extreme weather condition to be blamed for such an unfortunate scene. Sand storm made it difficult to read the dunes and rain made the sand harder from top to prevent the stuck, which resulted in a flip. By seeing the gopro footage (which is not very clear from a distance) I can see that driver wanted to follow the lead over a broad ridge and due to being too close he estimated that leader will take left or his car slided left, whereas leader has gone right. So to correct that immediate left to right on relatively soild sand (due to rain) car flipped on driver side. Secondly, unlike many other offroad clubs here in UAE we like to share and discuss these unfortunate situations to educate everyone to avoid same mistakes in future. Everyone should feel free to share and discuss these incidents in a healthy way to bring some valuable knowledge from which everyone can learn and enjoy this extreme sport carefully (no name and shame please).

Moonlighting as a Producer, Mixing and Mastering engineer I can fill out pages on this subject, but I'll keep it short and sweet. Since I don't know your car type, or what kind of music you prefer to listen to, I'm going to keep it generic to get a good overall balanced sound. Technically one speaker cannot produce the entire frequency range of the sound spectrum. So assuming you have a regular sedan, I would say get a decent set of tweeters in the front, placed at ear level, usually the A pillars, And for the doors ( assuming your doors have only a single speaker and don't have low range [bass] encloures built it ) get the speaker with the widest frequency range, between 12Khz to even 60Hz would be good. All this info should be available on the box or the website of the speaker in the form of a frequency response chart. Keep the speakers within the power output range of the head unit. Don't go too low or too high. ( Like your headunit will say 50w x 4 ) That means you can connect 4 speakers of 50w and be OK. Speakers too low can get blown out or distort the sound badly at higher volumes and speakers too high will mean you will really have to pump the volume to be able to listen at a decent level. As for brand any of the popular and known brands should be OK. Since its a Kenwood headunit I would say go for Kenwood speakers and they could be better matched with the headunit. Pioneer is another good make for DIY car audio.