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Learning never stops at any level in offroad tbh, being careful and vigilant at all levels, matters the most. Although this was Shamil's first intermediate "test drive", but this incident happen on the 4th dune, that was medium size comparable to any fewbie or even newbie level drive we have had. Instead of recommending any level, I would leave this with Shamil to choose what he is most comfortable with after his big learning lesson and trust his judgment completely.

Hats off @Shamil. Such an enthusiastic guy. We all are waiting for your come back and looking forward to drive with you. In sha allah. 👍🏻

First order of business, do a full and complete service. Change all fluids and filters. Engine oil and filter Transmission oil Coolant Flush and refill new Brake and Clutch oil Transfer case oil Front and rear diff oil Check and test engine cooling system. Hoses and belts Plugs and wires Grease all joints and shafts where applicable So you have a good worry and problem free season

I am glad that @Gaurav and @Srikumar said exactly what was on my mind. I just didn't want to say it first as i thought it would be best for the seniors to give their opinion. I too, totally agree that this mishap could have happened on any drive level as this particular incident had nothing to do with the "drive level" as such. In fact, this could have even happened in an absolute newbie drive. I have successfully crossed ridges on an angle, quite a few times before, so i know that i am capable of doing the same in an error free manner. On that particular day, it was an error on judgement in my part and in no way am i allowing this incident to discourage me from driving again on any level that the seniors deem fit for me to drive. In fact, on the contrary, I will be exercising way more caution going forward which will actually help me to become a better driver who is aware of the risks associated with ridge crossing.

Shamil was driving well in the previous drives and I agree with Gaurav, that this was just a judgement error rather a drive level related one. And mistakes happen to the best of us, and most of the time its just simply a case on not reacting to the situation correctly and fast enough. Having experienced similar situations in the past, its best that Shamil decides what suites him. After all, we are all there just to have some fun during our weekend.

Yeah. Driving to dubai - desert - back to alain sometimes kill me. Most of the time i feel sleepy. insha allah will try to be there soon . Definitely miss my Carnity Family , @Rahimdad parataas too

Thanks habibi @Fuad. We have missed you buddy. Try and join us soon. I know you are based in Al ain but if time permits then please do join us.

Hats off to @Shamil to immediately analyze the situation & check what went wrong or rather what he did was wrong. We learn from our mistakes. Unfortunately people who owns their fault are rare. Salute to your courage for not just accepting it, but analyzing and sharing with others.

@Shamil it takes a lot of courage to showcase one's error and to analyze it as well. I am 100% sure, you and your Xterra will come out much stronger. Look forward to seeing you in the sand.

Well done @Shamil for sharing your incident with bold outlook to accept the failure, mistake or bad luck with open heart to help other avoid it and learn from collective experience. Keep it up and I'm sure we gonna see stronger, smarter and more seasoned Shamil soon. Nice input @Jas Gajaria spot on.

Hey Shamil, Glad to know that you're alright! Although the rollover occurred, you were able to analyze the mistake. I would also like to add that in such situations (during the cresting) you should never be hesitant to take the crest even one bit, hesitance will cause a driver to be unsure of what they are doing and slow their reaction time when its needed the most. This is a very serious hobby and one must be alert at all times. Another thing I noticed is that once you took the crest, you pressed the brake. Hard braking in the desert with cause the tires to dig or push the weight of the car to areas you dont want it, if in an emergency make sure you brake only when the car is facing downwards, any sideways braking is asking for trouble! I'm happy to hear that you'll be coming back stronger ! I'll see you in December where I may or may not tease you a little about XTerras ! Drive Hard, Crest Safe! Cheers, Jas

Here’s the video of the roll over incident I encountered in the intermediate drive that took place on 13th September 2019. So as you may see from the video, to start with, my angle of approach on the dune was wrong and to make things worse, after I crossed the ridge, rather than turning towards gravity(which in this case would have been left) and stabilizing the car, I turned against gravity(to the right) due to which the car rolled over completely and luckily for me and the car, landed on the tires. A rollover that ended either on the side or even worse, upside down, would have been far worse - for me to get out, and the additional trouble involved in recovering the car back to its tires. I hope by sharing this rather unfortunate incident, I could shed some light on the consequences of overlooking certain basic off roading pointers which we could sometimes take for granted. I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate the swiftness, expertise and the sheer presence of mind, displayed by the rest of the convoy members such as @G.huz and the carnity senior members @Emmanuel, @Gaurav, @Rahimdad, @Srikumar and last but not least @Asif Hussain without whom, the day would have surely been a lot worse. Thanks to all of their combined efforts, I was safely escorted out to the deflation point, despite some new issues we encountered along the way. I have taken this incident to my stride and in no way has this dampened my spirits. I fully intend on returning to the dunes once my car is repaired. IMG_2885.MP4

Brilliant idea, but first decide who will pay for such service and then you will be in chicken and egg cycle. Sellers will say buyers should pay and vice-versa and dealers will say consumer should pay. Ultimately main idea creator will curse himself that why they hell he decided to do something new and helpful in this market. You will be shocked to hear this, when I sold my Range few days back guy said that I should be paying for RTA passing for transfer and we had a laughing argument over 170 dhs. Finally he gave up when I ask him to check here with any 5 people, if any 1 says seller should pay, Ill happily pay. However if car fails, then i'll pay for it. Finally car passed and he paid, quietly. Imagine the mentality of a matured person buying 83K car in cash and arguing over 170 dhs.

Emmanuel. He always has ideas. But pronounces it as ID.

yes it has. we had done a drive there about a month ago.

Has been hitting dunes for past few weeks all around alain + sweihan. will soon join carnity for a spin 😉 al yahar has some beautiful dunes ,we should try it some day 😉

Drop it in newbi fewbi sand and get the feel then you can see the shortcomings

Headers Lift kit I think OME sells 1.75" springs for pathfinders better recovery points bash plate cold air intake I would remove the side steps - they reduce the ground clearance

Maybe when you are little free, start explaining in more detail so we can advise. More importantly, I like to know that how long you had her and based on how many drives you concluded or thinking to have certain modifications? Primary reason for this is because you switch offroad car and also come back after long break, so you can't fully compare your previous car comfort, safety or power with another as all cars are different. If you have done 10+ offroad drive and face certain specific issues like bouncy suspension, failure to climb in first gear or hit the bumper on every descend etc. are more sensible reason to consider an appropriate mod.

Get the spare tire sorted first. I agree with Sri, and wait to hear if you have taken her offroad and whats your main objective modification: Power, Safety, Cosmetics or Moreeb hill climb

I honestly don't see a reason to modify the vehicle. It's a powerful beast on its own. Have you started taking it offroad? Or noticed any issues?

So finally after all the wait and inspections from the shop they finally cleared it to go off-road. I will be testing it the whole weekend 😎 I kept asking around and all of the Jeep owners gave me the same answer. This is common in Jeeps. Next time this happens I will be installing an LSD instead.

tease my X, haha. Will ensure you will be eating my dust when you are back in december.

Very well written and explained. Your approach and attitude toward this is very mature and i am sure that this incident will carry a lesson. You can help become the torch bearer in the club to show newbies what happened and how to avoid this and there is absolutely no shame in that. Like @Jas Gajaria mentioned we need to ALWAYS be on full alertness, and sometimes after an incident we question ourselves on why we reacted the way we did. You did your due diligence by analyzing and discussing with the crew members and you’ve been open and transparent from the start. Thumbs up buddy, this is brilliant attitude. Wish you all the best, a speedy recovery for the Xterra, and many more rides in the future with us !

Best is to go to the desk of the RTA official and get it cleared out and he will explain who needs to pay what. Been twice in that situation recently and both times had to get the RTA official to adjudicate the matter

Only available in SA ? With the way things are going now in SA these cars are gonna cost 999999999999900000000000000 Rands 😔

Trying to do a donut on the crest of a dune ?

And I also think you need to start hitting the dunes quickly.

Insepected everything, and replaced few bushes and all are good to go. Was previously well maintained by last owner. Yeah. Thinking u r absolutely right. Looking forward to follow your suggestion. thanks @Srikumar

Congrats with the ride buddy. Come and join us for a number of drives and then start setting up your plan. First stick with the basics of getting the car FULL inspected: battery, all fluids, compression, cooling system, etc.... You might need to shell out a few thousands to get that part in 100% condition.

So then why change a working formula?

Thanks @Gaurav bhai for your encouraging words. Really looking forward to resume once the car is up and running. Thank you for your kind words @Frederic. And yea - definitely looking forward to many many more rides with you guys in the future. You guys rock! Thanks @Srikumar. Thanks @syedyaseer for your kind words.

Thank you @Shamil

Thanks for that detailed report @Emmanuel. Yes I will post the video on the other thread now and also go over the reason/s as to why the roll over happened.

I recently bought a 3.5 2004 manual pathfinder which is meant to use only for weekend drives. I would like to have experts valuable inputs -on building machine -things to be taken care of -selection of materials -Reliability of materials Attaching photos. waiting for inputs

In the UK we have 2 books available. Glass’s Guide and Parker’s Price Guide. These are annually released books that show the guide price for all second hand cars graded on mileage and condition. Any decent second hand car dealer has both these books and uses them to price cars when buying and selling. It has to be more reliable than pricing cars based on dubizzle where dealers post fake cars that aren’t for sale to artificially inflate prices. Something like this could really shake up the market here although I admit it would be a hard sell. People are too brainwashed and set in their ways to accept anything new.

Congrats @Fuad I guess everybody got to it before I could even think of answering any questions. You've seen my Pathy I am not much of a mod guy, but I think ground clearance could be an issue at Fewbie+ level and above. But first you need to feel the need for the mod and be specific so we can all help in making your rife closer to what you need out of it.

Ah ah like many French people: “aydi”

Congrats @Frederic. Kudos to this much deserved rank. Love you buddy.

Turned a very sharp right at a pretty high speed. OR he fishtailed from applying to much gas and over steered to much to correct.

What happened here ? 🤔 IMG_6687.MP4.20cab3273ea5dadbd36a9ae8b2f0953b.MP4

Congratulations. Just for information can you please share how much you paid for it. What is the odo reading?

Obviously no cosmetics, only stability and power and safety. have spare tyre just need to mount it back to normal position

Everything works fine so far

Superman?

Based on the J70 chassis and available in petrol and diesel V8 The 4.5 litre petrol engine only manages 202 bhp but it produces 317 lb ft of torque. Not a massive amount but respectable even if it is a low figure for this size of engine. What is impressive is that the engine produces this torque at 1,200 rpm. I imagine this engine will be super reliable due to its low stressed engine. Despite the size of the 4.5 litre engine it still manages 25 mpg which is impressive. I’ve had 2 litre cars which struggled to achieve this. Despite all the efforts Toyota made to build a fuel efficient, reliable overlander, they still managed to fit a set of seat covers that look like they came out of the cheapest accessory shop in Satwa. The kicker? The Landcruiser Namib is only available in South Africa.

In my (local) experience, the power and torque of this LC is more than enough to carry a load of 800- 900 kg from anywhere, to anywhere in Africa and back. The biggest advantage of the V8 is the fact that it makes most of its power at very low RPM, which translates into super reliability, which is the primary consideration when you are planning a long overland expedition. I agree about the price though- it is super expensive.

That's why I love the old Land Rover V8 massive torque at very low rpms and a pretty flat curve across the entire room band. Having said that there is nothing in this world tougher than the LC pickup. P.S : Those are water and mud proof easy slide covers to protect the actual seats underneath. There are supposed to be loose fitting

TRIP REPORT (sorry for the delay…) Except @Frederic and @Jas Gajaria who unfortunately had to cancel their participation at last minute, we all met on time at Badayer Shops. Deflation, short briefing, convoy numbering, we were all set. @Gaurav was my second lead, followed by @Shamil, then @G.huz, @Srikumar and, in sweep, @Rahimdad, who had as a passenger our good friend @Asif Hussain. Round 1 We started the drive at a quite reasonable pace, as it was still night. Before climbing the first high dunes, after about 1km, we suddenly heard @Srikumar's voice on the radio : « Shamil had a rollover ». Of course we all rushed around him, getting out our extinguishers and shovels in no time as there was a bit of smoke coming up. Thank god Shamil was OK, though a bit pale for the fear he just had, and thank god the smoke disapeared shortly. As you can expect after rollover, the Xterra wasn’t in his best shape : windshield cracked, dents on the doors and the hood, plus a pop-out... I won’t discuss here the reasons why @Shamil flipped, because he wants to post the video of his accident in the « What went wrong » thread, so everybody can learn a good lesson - not the hard way, as he did. We decided to wait half an hour so that the engine cool down before we open the hood, check the leaks or damages and then attempt to switch the engine on again. Extinguishers and shovels were ready in case of need, but the vehicle started normally. We eventually fixed the pop-out and got ready to head back to the starting point for the report and the recovery. After a few meters the Xterra stalled. We cleaned the MAF sensor and it restarted, but with very low power, so low that it was very hard to cross a small dune. Here came our hero of the day, Asif, who managed to drive the Xterra till Badayer Shops. To be honest, no one, even our Superman, understood how he made this… Once we reached the road, @Shamil called Sharjah road traffic police (Rafed) for the report and a recovery truck. We shared a breakfast while waiting for Rafed, asking ourselves should we go back to the dunes or home ? I have to admit that I was hesitating, because of what happened and because it was already 8:15, but when I saw the enthusiasm around me, my decision was made. @Rahimdad had a commitment in the morning so he decided to wait the recovery truck with Shamil and head out directly after. Round 2 started at about 8:30, same convoy numbering but without @Rahimdad and @Shamil. This second part of the drive was like our revenge on Friday the 13th (obviously the winner of the first round). We reached Iftar bowl in about 50 min, played a bit there and exited at 9:30-10 am. As always, great Carnity team spirit. No one left behind with a problem, everyone trying his best to help. @Shamil I hope that the car is getting fixed, so you can come back soon.

Sorry was a bit late in noticing.. Yeah the same guy. XJ