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Truly its been a while since |I have been in Al Awir and it seemed a bit new to me on entrance, but once we were passed a few new roads and villas it was the same simple desert place I was used to with the usual tracks. It is perfect place to introduce Newbies to the sands and gain their confidence as mostly tracks passing through quite a scenic desert. All for the exception of a few dunes with some soft sands that needs precise navigation. From what I saw I was impressed that all the newbies did very well and more pleasing is the more seasoned ones who kept the patience in such a terrain and kept the convoy moving at an amazing pace. We had a little niggle with one of the vehicles 4WD selector shift, after going under the car also we were not able to figure out where the linkage was under the vehicle. Luckily with 4 low the car was not immobilized and he kept the convoy moving and helped in any way he could to keep the convoy safe and steady. At one time we found tracks and were moving at a very good pace when a fence presented itself, keen eyes of Asif and Gaurav bhai spotted a track that lead to a break in the fence and we were out. Yet the center barrier on the road kept us from crossing over. So we started driving towards an underpass that would give us access to the other side. Soon we came to a spot with a gap in the barrier which was sealed with some cones and plastic barriers with sand filled in them, they were difficult to move, but with some team effort we were able to make way and soon we found ourselves on the other side. With about 23 Kms to reach Fossil Rocks I followed Gaurav Bhai's advise to follow a path and made it a good 10 Kms in about 15 minutes, but just than we got into a dune with really soft sand and all but one vehicle got stuck in a very bad way. slowly but surely we got it out of the situation and by that time it was too late and the sun had already started to set. With natural light still left and everybody feeling hungry we stopped over for some snacks and drinks. By the time we finished our little picnic it was time to pack up and leave. By this time it was dark and everybody with their night lights had the covers off and ready to go. Keeping in mind the safety of everyone we had a short driver's brief to make them aware of what to expect in the dark and we were off. Luckily we found a track that took us out on Mahafiz Road and we were headed to the closest Adnoc pump. Technical help arrived soon at the pump in the shape of Saleem with his handyman to sort out the effected vehicle, around midnight we were sorted out and on our way back home. Special thanks goes out to everyone who participated with full enthusiasm and delicious food, 8 cars, but we missed Basel. Until next time this is your host Rahimdad signing off.

Hi, The 4x50 Watts on your head-unit are in reality hardly 4x22 Watts RMS. Upgrading with an amp will surely result in a big improvement in terms of sound quality. The fact that your original speaker size is a bit on the small side, will not result in a lot of power on the low frequencies. So adding a subwoofer will come in handy. Unless you are able to put bigger speakers in all your doors, then you might be happy to go without a subwoofer. Full range speakers for your doors are fine. Better results will be achieved with component speakers on the front. Mainly you want to be able to point to separate tweeter directly towards yourself, which is not possible if the tweeter is in your door. Dampening the noise is surely possible. We used to put asphalt bitumen on the insides of the doors Pertaining your question on the wattage: - For door-speakers: 50W RMS onwards is more than loud enough. Many speaker brands use wattages like max or PMPO (peak music power output) which are very very overrated and unrealistic. If you go for the big brands, just look at the RMS rating because this is at least a realistic value. - For subwoofers: Anything from 200W RMS up to a few thousands of W RMS is possible a good starter set is a 12" subwoofer for 200W RMS. Take into account the space it will need in the back of your car. If you want to go offroading and camping, it becomes a bit of a hassle imho. You can put plugs on it so it becomes removable, but also comes with some limitations. - For Amplifiers: Always make sure that your amp can deliver/match the RMS wattage of your speakers. There are many options available: 4 channel amps, 2 channel amps, amps which can be bridged, amps with onboard crossovers, etc.. etc... Chronologically in your case i would take the following route: 1) Look for a good component front speaker set in either the original size that fits, or if possible go for a bigger size. Pioneer, Sony, JBL are good entry level brands. Rockford Fosgate, Kicker, Polk Audio, JL Audio, Focal, Hertz, are more high-end but will set you back a decent buck and are more difficult to find here. 2) Buy a decent 2 channel amp that can power the front speakers. Again Sony, Pioneer, JBL, Alpine, etc will give a good bang for the bucks. If possible go for an amp that has built-in crossovers. You can enable the highpass filter for your front speaker so you can make sure they only play stuff above 80hz. It will result in less rattling in your doors, and anything under 80 hertz will be for your sub anyway 3) Rear speakers: Less important imho. Buy some entry level ones and keep them on the headunit amp. 4) Subwoofer: 10 to 12" is the most chosen option due to power vs size. You can buy an additional amp to power it (2 channel amp that is bridged), or go for these active sub tubes with built-in amp. I found a shop on SZ that sells Ground Zero stuff. Unfortunately they charge a bit too much like most shops here. You didn't mention if you want to do this by yourselves or not. It is a nice hobby and if you have some basic knowledge about electricity and removing door panels, it is rather easy to do by yourselves. I made it my hobby many years back and the joy of installing, listening, and fine-tuning it is much higher than getting everything installed by a pro. But that is your choice of course and installing cost here in UAE is not that high. Good luck !

Here is my current audio system build - Pioneer (all the way), that I and Barry have built last year. SUPER happy with the output and loud enough to have crisp detail with enough bass for little outdoor gathering even. Pioneer TS-A1686S - 350W - 60W RMS (Front speaker) - 150 AED Pioneer TS-A6996S - 650W - 100W RMS (Rear Speaker) - 200 AED Pioneer TS-S20 - 200W - 20mm amorphous-titanium-coated dome tweeters - 250 AED Pioneer DEH-X4850FD - 100W x 4 Channel (Head unit) - 375 AED Pioneer GM-D8604 - 1200W Class FD 4 Channel Bridgeable Car Amplifier - 500 AED Oxygen free cable for wiring - 100 AED High-quality AMP cables - 100 AED Labor in 3 places - 300 AED Total: 1975 AED My strong advice is to first make up your mind 100% on which all components you want and then go with one shot buying and installation, as that will save you labor cost, time and hassle A LOT. I have done in 3 tranches and regret the time and money wastage. For road noise, there are soundproofing ways that you can ask the sound installation guy to place it and seal all doors. Of course, it's not cheap though and it may cost in the range of 800 - 1000 AED additional.

A very sincere thanks to the complete team with Gaurav Bhai, Rahimdad Bhai and Asif Bhai's unparalleled support and guidance. In spite of being newbie it was a cake walk at every instance. Appreciate the way every minute details are executed in a organized way.. Happy off roading !!!

Annabel Smith is a new member of the forum carnity, very pleased to be acquainted and make friends to share everything in life with people. Especially learned from the forum.

Awesome input from @Frederic Nuyttens, I wish I knew you in person while setting up my system. Your explanation and pain points remind me of my journey and I'm sure @Barry can relate to it as well. Keep going, buddy. @skumar83 THE MOST important decision before anything you need to make is the choice of setup with or without woofer so that can size things accordingly. Previous explanation of Fredrick goes for the system with woofer, so if you go with that build and minus woofer, you will not enjoy. I was very clear from the beginning that I can't afford a woofer space in my dinky boot that is already loaded with tons of off-road equipment and that's why I went for the real powerful rear speaker that deliver door-shattering bass if you turn up the bass remote from AMP (remote is place next to driver). Finding the head unit that delivers 100 RMS is must and also it's pain in entry-level setup. Pioneer only has one system that delivers 100 RMS x 4 channel DEH-X4850FD. Just to give you an idea, entry-level setup costs from 2000 - 3000 AED, Pro level cost in the range of 5k - 6k with likes of Focal, JBL, Harman Kardon etc. Competition level cost in range 10K - Sky is the limit.

Hi there, It goes without saying that your car's alternator, battery, and wiring should be in good and working condition, with or without installing additional equipment. Basically, you will need to run another power wire straight from your battery's + towards your amp(s). Choosing the right size of cable is based on how powerful your amps are: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-1TnffuYRpSC/learn/learningcenter/car/cable_gauge_chart.html I'm not good with gauge sizes, i used 10mm2 cable if i'm not mistaken (7 AWG). You can buy the complete cable sets on s o u q or downtown which will contain the following: 1) Power Cable (red) with fuse and fuse holder: Avoid drilling holes in your firewall (metal wall between your engine bay and the inside of your car). Just look at which location the cabling from your engine bay goes towards the dashboard. This will normally pass through some kind of rubber. Through this rubber you should be able to pinch a small hole and then put your power cable through it. Now guide your power cable to the back of the car where your amp will be located. You'll need to remove the upholstery/carpets/sidepanels and look for the shortest way possible. 2) (Ground cable) Black: This will be a short piece of black cable of the same thickness as your power cable. Connect this one to a GOOD grounded chassis point nearest to your amp. with GOOD ground i mean it has to be a bolt going into the metal frame of your car. Use an ohm meter to be sure that the grounding is actually in touch with the frame. In many cars, the bolts that are used to mount the seat-belts to your car frame are good for this. If nothing is available then you could drill a hole in the metal panel, remove the paint, and bolt it to the frame. But use this as last resort to avoid corrosion or hitting something which you did not intend to hit like your gas tank. 3) RCA Cable: This is the cable that sends the audio signal from your head-unit to the amp. DO NOT put this wire together with your power cable in the same cable trunking. In some cases it will result in humming or noise when you accelerate the car. Just try to find a different route. Normally the power cable goes through the left side of the car (the side where your battery is), while the speaker cable and signal cables go through the right side. 4) Remote Cable: This is a simple wire that you'll need to connect to the headunit's "remote" connector. It sends 12 Volts to the amplifier to switch it on when the headunit is switched on. Most RCA signal cables have a small third extra wire along the core that you can use, but any wire (or some extra speaker wire) will do. 5) Speaker Wire: Regular audio speaker wire 2,5mm2 will do to cable the speakers all the way up to the amp. You can choose to tap into them through the original connector behind the head-unit, or you can pull new cables all the way up to the speaker itself (not so easy to do with front speakers as you'll need to pass through the original rubber door cabling). You'll need the following equipment: -Soldering iron (if you decide to solder instead of using crimping lugs). I prefer soldering any time. -Crimping lugs (forks, male and female). -Electrical tape. -Multimeter. To identify which speaker is which in your cabling, you can use a 1.5 AA volt battery . Just hold the speaker wire on the + and - for a second and the popping sound will get you to identify which speaker is which. Try to take into account the correct + and - connections of your speakers. If wired incorrectly it will result in a phase cancellation fault which you cannot hear easily, but results in far less bass coming through the speaker because one speaker moves outwards while the other moves inwards during pumping out sound, resulting in a cancellation. If you are not sure which is the + or -, just wire up everything and when you play a song with some good bass, try shifting the balance from L to R on your head-unit. You will notice that suddenly you will have more bass out of 1 speaker instead of 2. That means your + and - are reversed . Most-probably you WILL break some of these side-panel plastic thingys that pop into the holes and keep your doorpanels and sidepanels in their place. The older the car, the more likelier because they are detoriorated and will break off very easily. But that's a small pain compared with the joy of having a good sound system.

I like to welcome three newbies to the Carnity offroad club: Aref, Prakash and Vinod. All of them drove very well and had lot of patience and understanding to follow the brief for safe off-roading. Thanks to my limited memory chip, I completely forgot this area and it was like totally new area for me after several years of break. It was something different and had the perfect mix of all terrain for the newbies. We had 2 cars, with really low bumpers and to my surprise, both of them managed very well and exited with the same bumper in place. Special thanks to Rahim bhai lead to keep everyone safe and we manage to finish drive with just one stuck in 5-6 hours. It's always good to meet new faces and exchange different cuisines at the end, that makes any drive complete with social touch and knowing each other.