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Well, finally the search has ended! I’ve gathered so much information, gained significant knowledge and above all, made friends in the process. Special thanks to @Rahimdad for his patience, assistance, continuous Support and valuable advice. To @Gaurav for asking the right questions to put me on the right search path and, more importantly, answering mine in such analytical way. And special thanks to @Emmanuel who tirelessly gave advice whenever I needed, and made sure I knew what I was getting myself into with every option I considered. Last but not least, thanks to @sertac, @desertdude, @Shamil and the rest of participants for sharing their opinions and personal experiences, as well as the comparative analysis between different makes and models they shared here. So, without further ado, I went for an Xterra Off-road model, 2014, 70.000 km. Looking forward to taking it to the desert!

There is always LOT OF MISINFORMATION you get when you ask something from someone who doesn't want to answer you IN FULL. Maybe purposely or to spread rumors. No offroad lights are allowed Allowed if they are covered while doing the passing test, even with masking tape @Shamil No metal bumpers are allowed Allowed if they have two rubber bump stock in front No loud exhaust are allowed Allowed upto 80 decibel sound, that is reasonably enough for 90% stock cars. No lifting is allowed Allowed if its not more than 5-6 inches. More than than it need additional paper. No welding is allowed Allowed if its not on critical load bearing areas.

See you guys on Friday! I won't have the necessary gear yet but I hope it won't be too much of an inconvenient and that someone can share 😊 Can't wait to be on the sand again!

Hi Rahim. Can I join in? Getting better from the operation, but don't feel like driving to Liwa. Will be happy to be of support. Thanks

Time to get the hockey stick then.

From going out and finding the right radio model, programming it, and using the functionalities to get it to work properly, this topic will be used to bundle all essential information and can serve as a discussion thread for everything radio-related. The first handy advice is found below: Above advice contains all the basic information to setup your radio. For whatever questions related to the topic radio / walkie talkie please use the "Walkie Talkie Essentials and Questions" thread to post your questions on which model, where to find, etc...

Liwa - An Unforgettable Experience For the intermediate and above level offroaders, who have missed the chance to experience Liwa on 14 Feb, here comes another golden opportunity to embrace Liwa with its open buffet of some of the best dunes in the UAE. As much as Liwa is fun, thrilling and mind boggling with humongous dunes and vast desert, it is indeed very tricky, scary and challenging to test all your off-road skills in one drive. More than the skills and your vehicle capabilities, you need to be very sharp, calculative and attentive to understand the convoy movement with patience and level head at all times. As it's a 3+ hour drive from Dubai so ideally well rested body will enjoy this whole day drive without fatigue, so reaching a night before and camping or sleeping in the car at meeting point would be ideal, but completely optional for everyone. When: 28 February January 2020, Friday Drive start: 7:45 AM, the convoy will move at sharp 8:00 AM Where: Maraba Al Dhafra Petrol Station, Zayed City, Abu Dhabi Meeting point: https://goo.gl/maps/3TNYZFbBztR93Yo76 Level: Intermediate and above - STRICTLY. Type of Car: Proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 10 inches of ground clearance. Well serviced and thoroughly checked to be in pristine condition without any flaws, warning light, mechanical or electrical malfunction. Plan: Explore and drive till about 05:00 PM What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Extra fuel jerry can - at least 20 liter, more the better. Spare tire should be in good working condition. Drinks & ready to cook food for lunch and dinner Snacks or nuts to munch while driving All spare fluids for your car Firewood (20 kg) / Car - If you are camping Optional items if you have them bring them with you (no special purchase needed) Binoculars Sand track/mat Tie-down straps Tool kit, Ratchet, socket set Essential spare parts for your car Axe, Saw, Heavy duty Hammer etc. Approximate finish time: 5:00 PM Camping and bonfire: 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM - (Optional) Sleep over: 10:00 PM - 6:00 AM - 29 Feb 2020- (Optional) MUST READ: First off-road drive checklist Off Road Driving - Roles & Responsibilities Off road Driving Etiquette's Off-road Convoy Rules Off roading - Everything you need to know Please RSVP on the below calendar.

Which radio do you exactly have? Do you have windows and a sd-slot in your computer? Are you handy with conputers/ installing software? Maybe I can help you to save the money, but at own risk!

Hi, please find my comments below. Please share your vehicle details below - FJ cruiser Prior off-road experience (Yes/No) Yes but Not expert. Confirm front and rear tow hooks- Yes confirmed. Regards Nizam

Go to that same guy again - strictly - and ask if metal bumper with 2 rubber bump stops are allowed...? After hearing his answer, you will understand my real feeling behind the above post In your Y62 case, off course I fully agree trimming is better for initial newbie-fewbie level drives.

CONGRATULATIONS @Jamy B., very nice choice you made and seems like real good deal you got there with low km Xterra offroad. Looking forward to see you soon in action.

Thanks for the introduction, see you on Friday !

Hey Guys, Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 2018. All car requirements are meet. I have super basic offroad experience so far. See you on Friday!

Of course Alessandro, glad to see you're recovering ! See you Friday !

Hi, I have Mitsubishi Pajero 2015 model. No prior experience in off road. Front and back tow hook available.

Hi, Prado VX 2019; tow hooks perfect. Prior off-road experience, but only once in dunes (Toyota Academy)

Given LC in Alfuttaim for Updating of software OMG !!! Its never free with dealers ! AED 350/----THE F@#K The Reason they gave is all software need updating at one time. I mean its Crazy , Good old Stereo system were so much better than todays tech! Even the chinese or Normal LCD are better works for years and Years. @FredericI removed the battery wires for 15min to reset but it didnt work! @Gaurav BHAI It will hurt me more with hockey stick than it will Hurt the Car. 😋

@Kalahari @Nizam Mohammed @Shiju Manuel Welcome to Carnity Off Road Club ! As it's your first time with us, please share with us the following information: Please share your vehicle details below Prior off-road experience (Yes/No) Confirm front and rear tow hooks

Thursday night sleeping area without Adnoc bright light.

Thanks @luwaimn will add Al Nahda to my list of visit 👍

Disconnect the battery for at least 15mins and try again. If not resolved you might want to give the Toyota dealer a visit.

Im reaching on Thursday night too by 11 PM - 12 AM, means before 2 AM ill reach and sleep, lol. For people sensitive to sleeping in light (like myself). Take 50 meter detour just before adnoc meeting point and drive on sandy patch to park car just outside Adnoc facing the highway. We did this last time and I had nice 4 hrs sleep without any disturbance. For Friday evening, I was 50/50 initially to stay or leave but recently got the new schedule from ministry of interior, so I will be leaving by 5-6 PM in evening. Guys who ever have extra radio and its charger, please bring it on as in full day drive, radio needs bit of boost.

Sadly, I need to be back at work Saturday and am travelling the whole week from Sunday ... so no option to stay.

I meant on Friday night after the drive

@Jeepie and myself plan on arriving Thursday around 10pm (work permitting we will leave around 7pm). Or were you thiking about Friday night? Don't really fancy a 3 hour blast from Dubia and then a full day in the Dunes - better the other way round (hahaha)

@Zed try Al Amiri in Al nahda. They have a everything available in car accessories and their price range is also quite reasonable.

Higher wattage only affects the transmission output power, ie people can hear you from further away. It won't affect what you can hear through your set. Sets are cheap, check eBay. Installation is easy and doesn't take up much space. Mag mounted aerial on the roof and the radio connects to the cigarette lighter. Most modern sets are the size of 2 cigarette packets. I got into CB at an early age through my uncle. A basic setup is actually pretty cheap. A couple of hundred dirhams will buy a basic second hand 40 channel Cobra radio and a mag mount antenna. All plug and play and totally removable. I started out with a little Maycom EM27 and modified it so I could receive AM, FM and SSBs. I swapped that for a Cobra 29 that I modified to receive unlimited frequencies. It's an addictive hobby and I ended up buying a President Lincoln home base and a huge antenna mounted to the roof of my dads garage. My dad went crazy when I dug up his garden to run the cables. We used to get a lot of use out of car mounted mobile units at home when we were young stupid kids into street racing. You could send a sweeper car up the road first to report that everything was clear, no cops, no people walking on the road etc. We also used to play a game called catch the fox. Someone would go and hide somewhere in their car and send a message every few minutes foxy foxy foxy. Then the hunters would try to track down the signal using the Rx meter. Spent many teenage nights DXing, looking for a good skip, bouncing signals off the ionosphere and ended up with a pretty good collection of QSL cards from all over the world. I have so many good radio stories. I still have a lot of my gear back home in my dads house but god knows if I'll ever go back and use it. Definitely a fun hobby though. There are people out there now sending messages to and receiving messages from the ISS. Apparently the guys up there are more than happy to chat to people who have the equipment to contact them. The mobile phone killed the scene a bit but there are still die hard guys out there.

I hope they are generous with my standby duty and give me a day off on the 28th. RSVP latest 18:00 in the 27th.

We have recently decided to use the PMR446 Frequency Range. PMR446 is commonly used and is consisting of 8 analogue channels located between 446.000 up until 446.1 Mhz. That gives us about 9 channels that we can use, BUT with most Chinese radios here being from Dragon Mart, i have seen that they have a bandwidth of 25Khz, meaning that you're constantly overlapping between CH1 and CH2. For this reason we have chosen to use: Channel 1: 446.00625 Channel 3: 446.03125 Channel 5: 446.05625 Channel 7: 446.08125 Putting the radio on NARROW setting to reduce bandwidth helps, but after testing 15+ radios of different models i have seen that even on narrow setting they seem to have this overlapping frequency (after all we are not using professional radios with super accurate frequency modulation). We are still testing these available frequencies and look for the safest solution, considering the fact that we are broadcasting now with +35 people on a sunny Friday morning, sometimes in the vicinity of Military Bases. (something you should know).

I guess it could be true. i will try to rest it again and try to use it in my car, it just start's making very loud noise sounds once it is inside the car 🙄

Which literally means Earth or ground balancing otherwise know as road force balancing Btw has anyone ever tried bead balancing? It been around for ages and supposed to work brilliantly and automatically adjust as the tyre gets older and worn.

99% of the shops don't even know how to install tyres properly on rims. Those blue red lines you see on the tread of a new tyres and the red and yellow dots on the face are there for a reason. Go ask any tyre shop what they mean and I bet they won't be able to answer

But you have seen people talking on the phone while driving. Most probably when you see a car cut 6 lanes 0.5 meters from the exit at 160 kph is because of such. I never surprises me how uncommon is common sense.

Desertdude made a good point. I am very biased because of experience. But lets be open minded. So you want to talk, you have to push a button, or it is activated by voice. I can already tell you; you don’t want to use the function that you will transmit as soon the mic sense audio. A lot of distortion on the frequency. This is maybe interesting for an open mic environment, 2 people on one frequency, but not in a group. Can you imagine, “please can you repeat that?”, “oh sorry, I was just taking a sip of my coffee” So we still have to use one hand to transmit. I am sure it is possible to fabricate a button on your steering wheel to transmit, but I am also sure that this will be expensive. We are not rally drivers who need a hot mic with our navigator. Another thing, the quality of sound, transmission, language, accents, I don’t want to imagine how terrible it has to be to receive this direct in my ear the whole drive for 4 hours. The reason why they wear headsets in Rally, because it is very noisy, you would not hear the guy next to you. Same Counts for planes, for example Gliders, they don’t wear a headset, because you have no engine that is rumbling. First thing I do during work, when the conditions permit, is hang that bloody headset behind me and put the speaker on. Can’t imagine to hear all the guys/ girls talking continuously direct in my ear. But this is my point of view! Lets keep this discussion open regarding equipment/ solutions if we want a hands free radio in a group environment. Desert dude said it already, ANC, aviate, navigate, communicate. It is a strong model that is used as foundation for pilots. We can use this model also with our drives. - First drive, have your car under control - Navigate, where do you want to go? Or do you want to go anywhere from here? - communicate, talk or answer a radio call The benefit of using such model is, that it gives you thinking capacity, we believe we can multitask, but we don’t. (greetings from Lagos, unfortunately not able to join tomorrow’s drive)

The 2014 LC GXR V6 Touch Screen is stuck on “Caution Don’t use when Driving Toyota Logo Screen” Nothing else is working expect the reverse camera. I turned of the car off many times the screen remains the same. Tired to reset it with that small reset button but no result. Please help to identify this problem