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@derik that's a very tricky question asked by you it's an individual choice whether you want to learn something new driving with a off road club or go to the same places with same old friends. When you drive in our club you get to know people from different nationalities and different modes of life and learn from their experiences. At carnity we are a family more than a club. As you get to know people in the club you will invite your friends too and you will be able to relate to your question and answer us with your feedback.👍

Today I would like to talk about that tool that you might not think about too often until you have a flat tire or a pop out and you are on the side of the road or some place in the desert. There are over 8 different types of Jacks! But for our purposes we will focus on the 4 main types of Jacks Scissor Jacks Hydraulic Jacks – these include Floor Jacks and Bottle Jacks Hi-lift Jacks – also known as a High Lift or Farm Jack Exhaust Jacks Scissor Jacks A scissor jack is perhaps the most common type of jack you may have encountered as these jacks come with your car! Pros: Scissor Jacks are lightweight and reasonably small, making them easy to store and use for the average consumer / car owner. These days there are even electrically operated scissor jacks available that run off your vehicles battery. This makes jacking your car up to change a tire a very simple process. Cons: They are incredibly unstable, they are also very slow to use as you have to turn the screw quite a few times to get any meaningful height out of them. If you have a tall vehicle or you will be going off-road then you need to look somewhere else, this is not the jack for you. Floor Jacks With floor jacks the arm of the unit is pumped repeatedly. This pumping action sucks oil out of the jacks oil reservoir and forces it into the lift chamber, creating an increase in oil pressure and resulting in the saddle arm of the jack rising and lifting your car. Pros: These jacks are far superior to scissor jacks as they take much more punishment, wear and tear and rarely if ever fail, even after decades of use!. They even sell them without the wheels to be used off-road (see below). Cons: Look at the size of that thing! not all of us have space for our off-road equipment, camping equipment and this massive thing. Bottle Jacks Another type of hydraulic jack that you may be familiar with is the bottle or whiskey jack. So named as its physical appearance resembles an old fashioned whiskey jug or bottle. The bottle jack has a single lift rod, which acts as a piston. Cons: One major drawback is its collapsed height is usually only half that of its extended height, this means its unsuitable for many regular vehicles. When using on a vehicle many people like to use a block of timber to help cushion the impact on the cars body of the relatively small (in comparison to a floor jack saddle) point of impact. Pros: Is ideal for vehicles with higher clearances, such as trucks and 4wds. The range of height is much less than a garage jack as well, but once again for vehicles that already have high ground clearance this isn’t a problem. They are usual more robust, take up a lot less space in your vehicle when compared to a floor jack and can safely take more weight. Hi-Lift Jacks (Widow makers) Hi-Lift Jacks, also known as High Lift and Farm Jacks were originally developed for farm work, they are made of a pair of climbing pins, that climb the height of the jack (sometimes as high as 2 meters) by a ratcheting action, achieved by a manual pumping mechanism. Cons: The jacks are not suitable for conventional vehicles, you need to have steel bumpers and/or rock sliders to use this jack, they will sink in the sand, they are super dangerous if you don't know what you are doing (see below). Pros: There are no hydraulics to fail nor cranking of an undersized bottle jack to raise your vehicle. Simply plant the jack under your vehicle, place the foot of the jack under a secure anchor point on your bumper or rock sliders, and then, using the long round lever, start cranking. Exhaust Jacks The exhaust air jack lifts a vehicle using emissions coming from the tailpipe. A hose attaches from the exhaust to a big sack placed under the car. The air coming out of the pipe fills the bag, and voilà! The car lifts off the ground. Cons: This is meant to be used with 6 or 8 cylinder vehicles, it may not work with 4 cylinders because there is not enough engine compression to lift the vehicle. If you have a dual exhaust you can't use this. Pros: The sack is placed anywhere under the chassis, so no jack points are necessary. Since the gadget is basically a big balloon, there's no need to center it under a particular spot on the car. This works perfectly on sand.

My experience with friends always ended up with there choices to stay, bbq, live cooking, than actual drive. Hence since the beginning, I was very happy with club discipline that everyone gets together to drive and nothing else. Off course after drive we do chill, cook, bbq and relax but not during the drive. No matter how much you plan and organize with friends but one guy wants to sit back and enjoy so the whole group has to suffer. I have endless stories with guy change his mind and opted to do the photo shoot of his wife, kid and car and leaving all of us to wait for 3+ hours in the best dunes. Other time, one guy change his mind to stay overnight on one island, so I have to split and drove the rest of the way alone to keep my hotel booking during Eid holidays. As everyone mentioned, with clubs you will explore more places and learn faster due to collective experience on board and in offroad you can never learn enough. I and Rahimdad still leaning after decades of experience. The second best thing with clubs is you get to meet different nationalities and talk to them about there country offroad experience, try their cuisines, share jokes and know more about there culture that you rarely get to see with friends and families. In Carnity I guess we have over 20 different nationalities in the offroad club and I always look forward to sitting with them in the end. I rarely eat my own food, as I love trying different cuisine while listening to their own interesting and colorful stories. You will actually see how cheerful people are in offroad rather than at work culture because at work everyone is serious and busy with their routine but in offroad it's more of a vent out and relaxes for everyone so you will enjoy there jovial side more often. Thirdly in most of the offroad clubs here in UAE, safety is paramount so chances of you getting into unsafe recovery/mishap are very less, as they always have trained Marshals and Crew to take care of extreme recoveries and accidents. Looking forward to seeing your clan and don't worry about the noisy animals as Jungle is already filled with many.

HAHAHHAHA, I couldn't agree more. I love Jack too @Frederic you focus on bringing Belgium chocolate for all of us in your suitcase and I will pay for your jack, but the weight of the jack and chocolates should be the same.

Thanks guy for all inputs and showuing the so many different ways and angles i havent realize. I agree fred we limit ourselve many times to serios duens due to the few underpower suv. will think a way to bring my clan to carnity family too - hope it work with so many noisy animals in one group

Brilliant article and sharing the real knowledge @Javier M, wish I can give 100 likes for this contribution. The only thing I like to add with my little experience for people to decide which is the best jack for offroad use is the one that covers the maximum surface area on the ground as in offroad - be it sand or rock you will never find a perfect ground like Tarmac. So for that reason, even fanciest scissor or bottle jack is out of the league. I have seen the bottle and scissor jack losing balance after few seconds and dropping the car down much before the repair work starts. Best is the floor jack, stable, reliable and safe to operate under any load or position. While getting floor jack you also need a stable wooden board to place the jack to even increase the surface area (only for sand). To avoid the cons mention for a floor jack, instead of buying 3-4 ton humongous jack you can get 2 tons jack but with a swivel neck and it lost around 150-200 dhs only from DM. 2 ton size is not huge and plus good enough to lift any ONE side of the vehicle as in 4 ton Hummer H2 any one side will not weight more than 1-1.5 ton. So using 2 ton is practically enough as we only need to work on one wheel at a time. I have used Pentax 1.5 ton floor jack for good 6-8 years and then upgraded to JZX floor jack 2 years back. They almost last forever if you are placing them properly and not in rush in some weird angle that will bend them slightly and loose its lifting strength. Exhaust jack, I have seen leaking after some time as underbody of the car is extremely hot in summer or stone or rock can easily puncture them too plus they are expensive compared to the floor jack.

I also noticed it and was thinking if those are not original as I brought second hand car, after reading the above topIc i can die peacefully

I see that a lot here. Customers head gasket blows, “mechanic” tells customer to buy a new engine because he doesn’t have either the knowledge or the confidence to fix it. Same with rattly bottom ends. I’ve never met a mechanic here who understands the process of regrinding a crankshaft and using oversize shells. New engine is always the answer. I’d always choose a rebuilt engine over an unknown scrapyard engine, it’s going to last a lot longer. But only if I built it or someone I knew built it.

All the very best @Sajith Kumar Do post some pics once you done with your project is complete 🍻

Hi @Ren13 & @desertdude, thank you for the feedback. I agree, while the desire to have a fully adaptable car seat is indeed very tempting, I will look into the upholstery option too. Lemme get more info on this, and if it will address the issues I am facing. Hi @Gaurav, thank you for your feedback, and even more for sharing the listings. I will check with these folks. Wishing everyone a great weekend!!!

I love reading @Frederic writeup. With 10 years of off-road experience behind me I have had plenty of stories to share, but these are best done when everybody is sitting together and we are having our snacks and drinks. However I will share one of my worst with you here on the forum. If you like it, you can join us to hear many more. On a perfectly hot day all you want to do is get in to the sands, do a bit and head out without any issues. Sweihan is a place fully of dreamy dunes and following Asif bhai's wonderful lead we quickly forgot how punishing the weather was enjoying every rise and drop and playing around on huge virgin dunes. Our aim was to get to some alien like circles in the middle of the desert. Were we on to something? As fate would have it we came to the biggest dune in Sweihan and tried climbing it from the front. After being unable to do it from front, I have this habit of finding cheat routes to reach the top so headed behind the dunes. After successfully completing about 75% of the dune from the back, I was doing a side sloping when my car just got stuck for no reason. After following Gaurav Bhai's advise i turned my steering wheel completely right pointing downwards, but I was still not moving. Upon visual inspection Asif bhai discovered the reason why I was not moving anywhere. My left side tyre was pointing full right, but my right side tyre refused to move from a complete left. So my tires were pointing at each other. It was dangerous to tug the car normally downwards, so we tied the rope to the wheel and slowly tried to get the car onto the flat surface. After close inspection we discovered the culprit was a bent tire rod end. By this time it was pretty hot and we tried to make a shade and think what we were going to do. Before our thought process was over we had our darling Saleem bhai heading of to get a huge hammer from one of the many farms around. What happened to him is another story, but close to evening as the weather was just settling down we had him back with a hammer, we tried our level best but we were unable to straighten out the tire rod end. Close to sunset we decided to leave the car overnight, get the spare parts on Saturday and comeback to complete the drive the next day. Verily once I have the spare parts all the participants were back to the sight where we had left the car overnight. It was not only repaired in teh middle of the desert, but a very good alignment job was also done to get me back to Sharjah from Al Ain. That still leaves one mystery, what happened to those Alien circles? Yes we did reach the spot after a quick drive. But just before the area that we wanted to explore there was a huge fence which was guarded by security and we were not allowed inside. Was the information which was in there so sensitive that we were not allowed to go in? As we drove back we saw the circles the best we could from the road. What was it than? As i said I am only going to share this one story on the forum. All interested to find out more please join us on the drives to find out what lie in those circles for it to be heavily guarded. Hope you are happy now Derik.

This might be the longest thread of Carnity if everyone starts pouring with their experiences, ill limit myself to 3 only: Broke my Land Cruiser front differential in a stupid self-recovering attempt in my learning days. Then just to drag uphill 1 tall dune with 2 cars tugging at the same time we took 4 hours and broke few tow ropes because of dragging the dead weight of 2.5 tons uphill on a dune. Most painful and slowest recovery I have seen. @baselsm83 stuck in the weird pocket of soft sand where his Patrol front and back is hitting the dune. Wasted lot of time in recovering uphill, as goin down the soft sand was tricky to get two car stuck at same point. Finally, a bunch of locals came with an intelligent technique of going down and flattening the soft sand to make a path first and then give a gentle tug to Patrol to change his orientation. Less than 30 minutes out for which were struggling for 2+ hours and taught us something new to how to flatten the soft sand patch and use it in our favor. @Asif Hussain Ford stuck in the wedge next to iftar bowl (one of the tallest dune), to change the orientation of his Ford it took me more than 20-30 tugs due to the weight constraint of my SWB Pajero vs LWB pickup. Later we discovered that all gear oil leaked due to an impact and revisited the next day with mechanic, oil, and parts to fix the car and bring it back.

He better bring for everyone

The funniest i saw was at the Qudra Lakes a few months back. I was inflating my tires on the side of the road after going for a small drive and a guy comes up in his Porsche Cayenne all nicely dressed up, he drives next to me and says with a grin "i don't think i'll need to deflate with my car", so he goes into the first patch of loose sand and immediately gets stuck. What he does next is what most idiots with 500+HP cars do: he starts revving like a maniac to get unstuck and all the time i am standing there looking at him with my biggest grin.... Eventually he gets out and approaches me with a 50dhs gas station rope and asks me if i can pull him out. I tell him in a friendly way that he should use that rope only to tie a floormat on his roofrack.... After deflating and removing the sand in which he reluctantly had to rollup his sleeves and sit on his knees to help me, he quickly got out and all this time his wife kept on shouting at him at what an idiot he was 😂. The worst stuck i've yet have to experience.. The Carnity boys are so experienced that even pulling out a Pajero from out of a massive deep bowl with several ropes tied together seems like a walk in the park for them 😉

Just tell them they need to change the blinker fluid.

@derik I can write up all I want, but you will only realize the difference if you join us once. We too will get a chance to know you better and discuss this further. From my personnel opinion having driven off-road for over 10 years and been on both sides, when I have done a few drive with friends and done it as a club. When you are driving in private you might take things seriously and have all the equipment, but those around you would always keep depending on you, where as in a club as you grow you realize that you need to carry some equipment as an individual and along with your driving capability your safety tools also increase. Within 10 friends you are limited to certain areas and would not venture out much, plus if friends are busy or have other engagement you will be left with no drive at all. Whereas in a club there is a drive posted very week, sometimes multiple drives and you can join one which suits your level, having a 100+ members helps, because atleast 10 - 15 cars would want to attend every week. The first year we had no official structure in Carnity due to which we faced several problems, after introducing structure last year, more people enjoy their level of drive, learn with enthusiasm as they want to grow and help others and we make new friends every week. in a friendly drive you will not be able to discover so many places as the comfort level is not so much, you might always sacrifice your drive style to suit the lowest level member in your friends, whereas in a structured club you can join the drives you like or lower level drives knowing that it is going to be slower than your style of drive. As a club you will get to taste several flavours as everybody as individuals has their own preferred terrain and drive style. plus with so many minds at work we are always trying to discover and try out new areas with intermediate drivers and above. I like the way @Frederic has tried to give you an example of a gym, or the way @Emmanuel has expressed his concern as we do not know your drive level or drive style along with your friends or the equipment available to you or the areas you visit or if you have tried to explore new terrains. We are always open to questions and appreciate your question. I have been off-roading for over 10 years, but I still learn from people who ask questions and the many challenges we face during each drive. We are blessed at Carnity to have a very strongly knitted team and all those who join have a like minded approach. Once again I would like to welcome you and your friends to join us and we can chat further on this subject. I am sure after driving with us a couple of times most of your questions will be answered without a word being said.

Well i'd like to compare it with going to the gym because you want to get in a better shape: Option 1: You go alone to the nearest gym, mess around a bit with the equipment, get sprains and injuries, and maybe you will become a bit more fit once you get to know how the equipment works, but you are left to your own devices and not always sure about if you are doing the right thing OR if it is even safe to do with the health or equipment you have. Option 2: You join a gym and go for 10-15 lessons. Your personal teacher will assess your current condition and will guide you safely to minimize injuries or accidents. Thanks to his experience and knowledge you will progress much faster than others and will be grateful for having somebody to learn something from. Joining an Offroad club like Carnity is free, and you get professional advice from people who can safely guide you through and avoid mistakes which in the desert can end up being costly or even fatal. But don't take it from me, take it from the dozens of people that joined Offroad clubs and learned essential stuff like how to deflate properly, recover yourself, and what you and your car can do. If you or your friends get stuck, do you know what to do or which equipment to use to safely recover yourself ? I go for regular camping trips myself with a group of friends, but we don't venture deep and definitely don't do the stuff we are doing in an Offroad club. We drive around a bit, set up camp, and have some drinks. We avoid the real dunes and difficult tracks because most of my friends have very little Offroad experience and we don't want to get in trouble having our car full with kids, dogs, etc... Joining Carnity Offroad and doing the Newbie drives gave me more confidence and far less stress when going camping with my friends, as i know that my car is always equipped with recovery gear and i know how to use it. And most of all i can help my friends by sharing that information. PS replace "teacher" by our Offroad Specialists like @Gaurav, @Srikumar @Asif Hussain, @Emmanuel, @Rahimdad and more team members who will take your under their wings and teach you all the skills and fun our UAE deserts have to offer....

Newbie Drive This is an easy-level off-road drive designed to help beginners get comfortable with the basic techniques of driving on sand dunes. Drivers will learn how to safely go up and down dunes, perform small side slopes (“sideys”) and rainbow arcs while driving in a convoy. The drive focuses on mastering throttle control and smooth acceleration while negotiating the dunes. Participants will also receive an introduction to ridge riding, side sloping, and crisscrossing broad dunes — all in a safe, controlled, and beginner-friendly environment. Who can join: Any Newbie or first-time member with a 4x4 vehicle having 8–10 inches of ground clearance and front & back tow hooks. Fewbie Drive This is a moderate-level drive where drivers will further develop and practice ridge riding, side sloping, and crisscrossing techniques on more challenging terrain. Participants will learn how to handle different dune situations while understanding vehicle limitations and working with gravity rather than against it. This level teaches drivers to become more calculated, disciplined, and technically aware, going beyond simply being a capable off-roader. The pace, terrain, and challenges are several steps above Newbie-level drives. Who can join: Any Fewbie and above level off-roader. Fewbie Plus Drive Fewbie Plus is an extension of the Fewbie level, designed for more experienced Fewbie off-roaders who want to tackle greater challenges at a faster pace and with increased technical difficulty. This level serves as a bridge between Fewbie and Intermediate drives, helping off-roaders transition smoothly while building confidence, control, and technical driving skills. Who can join: Any Fewbie Plus and above level off-roader. Intermediate Drive This level combines and refines all previously learned skills on more technical terrain and smaller, sharper dunes that demand precision, vehicle control, and advanced driving techniques. Drivers will also be introduced to larger dunes and learn how to safely navigate and connect dune lines while maintaining momentum. Intermediate drives require a high level of discipline, patience, awareness, and consistency, all while driving at a significantly faster pace than Fewbie-level drives. Who can join: Any Intermediate and above level off-roader.

@Ahmed Azmy welcome to carnity off-road club. This drive is for fewbie and above level. You can join tomorrows newbie drive.

This sounds like an episode of Stranger Things: “In search for mysterious circles our friends suddenly experience mechanical issues as if the car was taken over by a evil force. The man with the hammer disappeared and reappeared without reason, and the Sweihan area became the backdrop for governmental experiments in alien technology”.... NOW on Netflix ! Love your write ups too buddy 😉

Guys , my number is 0508407408 if anything. Have a good evening for everyone! See you all tomorrow at sand

Great article @Javier M I have seen those hi-lift jacks mounted on almost every Wrangler i see driving in my community. Hence i sometimes have the feeling it is more a form over function thingy like a spoiler, but i could be wrong. The bottle jack will do the job, but surely only when it's properly secured on a scaffolding plank / wooden board. The 2 ton floor-jack as @Gaurav points out is also my preferred one. I haven't got to buying one yet as i have one laying idle in my house in Belgium which i always talk about bringing it with me when i travel, but in the end my suitcase is full of other stuff .

@Gaurav I could not agree with you more!😁

Please RSVP on the calendar, if you are coming

Drive call off Due to limited participants we will be doing this drive NEXT WEEK at same location and same time. When: 1st March 2019. Friday Meeting Time: 12:45 PM, Convey will move at 1:00 PM Meeting Point: Al Rashedi Restaurant, Sweihan - GPS coordinate https://goo.gl/maps/B5SZM6kKCMv

This is why you mix soda water with your vodka and cranberry. Rehydrate as you dehydrate 😊

Hi @Per A, this is a Newbie drive and it's not expected that you have any gear. Just you and your 4x4, with a full tank of petrol should be good enough.

yes i have exp of 8-10 drives in last 2 years and we go 5 to 10 cars with famiy

my opinion, there is no should, the main matter is never going alone to the desert if you are more than 2 cars and you have experience with full recovery equipments, enjoy the ride

Thanks @Srikumar for the much important info shared regarding insurance company and recovery service which we miss at times and take it for granted that its unlimited. @Eric Pereira please note this will help you in deciding on the insurance you need to take for your pajero.

Give the coordinates too, you never know it might help someone save lot of time

@Frederic wow that's an excellent explanation on the music system. I normally go for a basic pioneer or Sony explod single Cd player with aux and USB port and add a sub woofer and a 2 way amp for the sub woofer all connected by a monster cables and capsule near the battery terminals that helps me get a decent sound on my vehicle.