Leaderboard

Blind spot gone 🙏🏻 I tried it this morning with my X adjusted the Side mirrors And I realized that I was driving before in a very big blind spot that I created my self and only what I got Is a neck pain! thats why in driving schools if you don’t first look in the rare mirror then the side you fail the test ! Honestly no one explained it properly . ( I have 3 drivers license from three diff countries 🤭). Regarding reverse parking no problem at all . To the contrary it’s a neck saving correct way . Let’s see the Grand Cherokee and with all the options in it what will do this afternoon .... to be continued Thank you @Emmanueland @Gaurav cheers👍🙏🏻🚙

Hello @Yasas Dharmadasa. You are welcome to join. Thanks Dear @Yasas Dharmadasa, @Gok Krish, @Baskaran P.R and @Athula Dharmadada, can you please confirm that you have aknowledged the Anti Covid-19 rules, as posted on the drive's announcement (by clicking on the "totally agree" icon)? Thanks a lot for confirming, and sorry for asking in case you had done it already.

Hahaha if you can handle a Pajero, the Wranger will be a walk in the park Thanks for the quick reply !

This is really interesting. Let me adjust my mirror tomorrow n see if it solve the problem.

If it is stuck, switch to 4L, do 5 vigorous left and right with the steering wheel, move slight forward and reverse and see if there is movement, you might crawl out of the situation, or just call @Gaurav for help on the radio for rescue🤪. For pop-out, stop immediately though make sure it is on flat ground and then call Marshal for rescue..👍 Just for fun🤣

With the tremendous increase in the number of COVID cases in the UAE, we all have to be responsible while off-roading. Failing to abide by any single precaution at any time during the drive, will result in an immediate ban from Carnity Off-road Club. ZERO TOLERANCE First offender - 1 Month Ban. Second offender - 3 Month Ban. Third offender - lifetime ban and report to authorities. COVID19 PRECAUTIONS 2.0 All Carnity off-road drives will be LIMITED to driving only: No Socializing and gathering allowed at any time. No break for taking photos, breakfast, smoking, etc. No exchanging of off-road or recovery gears. Wear a mask at all times, while outside your vehicle. For passengers restrictions, follow RTA or NCEMA guidelines. All passengers should be inside the car, at all times. Maintain a minimum of 2-meter social distance at all times. Sanitize your hands and recovery gear after use. PS1. If you and your passenger cannot sit inside your vehicle for 3-4 hours please DO NOT JOIN CARNITY DRIVES. PS2. A Member who has RSVP the drive is RESPONSIBLE and LIABLE for their passenger's compliance. PS3. The above precautions apply to everyone irrespective of their vaccination status or schedule. PS4. You can confidentially submit the photo of any offender by sending an email to [email protected]. How to comply Read the drive post before arriving at the meeting point, so that you know your convoy numbering and radio channel. Arrive at the meeting point and switch on your radio to the pre-set frequency of the drive. Stop your vehicle at least 10-20 meters away from each other. Deflate your tires, while wearing a mask, and then go back inside your car. All briefings will be done on the radio now, so pay full attention to a briefing for your own safety. After the briefing, fall in your convoy position just before the drive starts. While driving if you get stuck, announce on the radio and be inside your car at all times. Trip lead and/or support will guide you on the radio for self-recovery or tow-rope recovery. While there is a stuck or a refusal, everyone else supposed to be inside their car at all times. You can only take a bio-break during the drive, by requesting trip lead permission. Once the drive is over exit out to inflate by maintaining 10-20 meters distance from each other. While inflating, only the driver supposed to be out and with the face mask at all times. After the drive, you can talk on the radio for any feedback, suggestions or help you need.

While offroading, we cross dunes by using different methods, based on how the dune is formed and what the drive level is. Once you have spent some time in the desert, you will slowly start to pay more attention to the dune formations and how we cross them. Once you reach Intermediate and Advance level, you'll need to start learning how to read these dunes in order to navigate and create your planned routes in the desert. As a rule of thumb, the prevailing wind in UAE is blowing from a North-Western direction to South-East direction from 10AM onwards. At night and in early morning it will be reversed and blow from the South-East to North-West. This is something you should remember and you will notice when you zoom into certain areas with your navigation app (Google Maps, Gaia, MotionX, Mytrails,...) you will notice that the wind from that side has caused the dunes to take on their shape. This is a general rule and will not always apply, as you will see that in certain areas where wind is coming from different directions, you will see for example "star" dunes appearing. There are different types of dunes which are separately described below. As you can see in below picture, a dune is formed when the prevailing wind blows on a mound of sand, where the grain will move into the wind direction and create a ridge. The sand which falls on the other side of the ridge, creates a slipface, and this sand is not compacted by the wind. This is the main reason why we generally drive on the prevailing wind side or the convex side of the dunes on the Newbie level. "A dune is a curiously dynamic creature," wrote Farouk El-Baz in National Geographic. “Once formed, a dune can grow. It can change shape and move with the wind. It can even breed new dunes. Some of these offspring may be carried on the back of the mother dune. Others are born and race downwind, outpacing their parents. [Source: Farouk El-Baz, National Geographic, February 1982] The shape of dunes is affected by things like the strength, direction and consistency of the winds; the consistency and amount of sand; the hardness of the terrain and the amount of vegetation. Below we will describe the most common dunes found in the UAE. Different Dunes Crescent or Barchan Dune This is the most common dune. It forms the shape of a crescent moon when the wind blows from one direction. We generally use the words concave and convex to describe both sides of the dune: * Concave is a shape that curves inwards. * Convex is a shape that curves outwards. Crescent-shaped mounds generally are wider than long. On the concave side you will have the slipface. These dunes form under winds that blow from one direction, and they also are known as barchans. Parabolic Dune A parabolic dune is similar in shape to a barchan, but it is just the opposite. The tips of this dune point into the wind, and its main body migrates with the wind, forming a depression between the tips. Because of this formation, parabolic dunes are also known as blowout dunes. These dunes often occur when vegetation stabilizes sediments and a U-shaped blowout forms between clumps of plants. Example of Parabolic dunes near Faya: https://goo.gl/maps/ob8xu3y8VJJvF6hk8 Longitudinal or "Seif" Dunes They are also often referred to to as "sand ridges" or "seifs". Their length can range from a few meters to many kilometers and their height from a couple meters high to a couple hundred meters high. Wind pushes the sand and forms ridges parallel to the prevailing wind direction with slip faces either side of the crest. Linear dunes are straight or slightly sinuous sand ridges typically much longer than they are wide. They may be more than 160 kilometers long. Linear dunes may occur as isolated ridges, but they generally form sets of parallel ridges separated by miles of sand, gravel, or rocky interdune corridors. Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes. Many form in bidirectional wind regimes. The long axes of these dunes extend in the resultant direction of sand movement. Barchanoid Dunes These ridges are similar to Barchan dunes. They are connected in long crescentic waves as the sand supply is much greater than that which forms a Barchan Dune. Star Dunes These dunes are formed when there are several prevailing wind directions - there is a complex wind regime. Typically there are three or more slip faces, whilst the dunes do not migrate they grow in height. Star dunes are radially-symmetrical, spyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the high center of the mound. They are created when the winds blow equally from every direction, causing the sand dune to grow many extensions and resemble a star. They are rare and are fairly stable and remain in the same place. Some are landmarks with names. Example of a Star dune: https://goo.gl/maps/jRnYghQc8ACzVz6T7 With this knowledge, the next time you step into the desert, you can start looking at the different dune formations, and this will give you lots of knowledge that you'll be able to apply in the future when leading and navigating off-road drives.

Visited recently this camping site (but decided not to camp as even 800m altitude was not enough to get the cool temperature) How to get there - you should follow to the Jabel Jais area, and already from the Jabel Jais secondary road just get the turn right to the offroad track. The first few kilometers are relatively flat, crossing few wadis, but when the road goes up it became really difficult: steep, bumpy, and narrow. Expect to spend at least 30 min for going up. So I wouldn't go there on crossovers, only proper 4-4 At the top, there are 2 campsites, 20 meters between each other. Flat, I would say each can accommodate 4-5 campers easily. The view is absolutely marvelous. Extremely difficult road limits the number of people There is another campsite downhill (it should be at around 400 m altitude - it can be spotted on the photo here) - I've seen youtube videos where people did camping there, it looks very spacious and the road is obviously much easier.

Little old but priceless video to save lot of trouble, as many car drivers adjust the side view mirror in totally wrong way. MUST WATCH AND SHARE VID-20181021-WA0018.mp4

Sure @Gregory Perkin, you’re next on wait list as @Luca Palanca Falsini isn’t eligible yet for fewbie plus drive.

Done @Athula Dharmadada and I have totally agreed.

Hi All, I'm glad to join the club. I'm Archie from Hungary. No prior offfroading experience. My vehicle is a 2002 Jeep Wrangler TJ manual. Ground clearance and towpoints should be alright. Looking forward to the ride on Friday morning!

Hello Frederic/Asar, Nice meeting you guys!!! I drive a mistubuishi montero sports 2017. In regards to offroad experience, I've driven few time to fossil rock 😁 but that too from the maliha side so i count it as mini offroad experience 😅. Also i confim the availability of front and rear towing points. I have inflator and guage and I'll be getting the deflator too.

That is indeed a strange issue. 1) Are these the original headlights ? 2) Are they LED headlights ? If so the anti flicker harness might be having an issue. This might be related:

@GauravPls add me in waiting list

@Ajiesh George Kannankara If you don’t mind, please get in touch about these picture. [email protected] Thanks!!

What about below mod guys. I feel X's left side (driver side) rear view mirror is too flat and not adequately convex. Hence there is huge blindspot in the mirror. i think a small blind spot mirror like below would give at least little bit of comfort. but right side mirror is ok for me.

@Emmanuel , sure, understand. (despite I am driving like marshal 😁😁😁 )

Thanks. Searching now....

Just for family, check out the Infinity QX56 2006-2008 models. You should be able to get under 20k and very capable and steady off-road with goid reliability.

Jeep Grand Cherokee heating issues can be solved easily but Jeep Grand cherokee and ''i want to spend weekend in dessert not in workshop'' is not matching Cheap Jeep means being best friend of your mechanic. In your case you can look for 2008-2010 Xterra or 2007-2011 Pajero with that budget.

Hi @Badar Tariq, Looking at your budget and the performance of the vehicles in our club, i would recommend the following: 1) Nissan Xterra. Even the basic model is an amazing offroader that will fit your budget. 2) Mitsubishi Pajero LWB: 3.5 or 3.8 (3.8 has bit more power). Generation 4 3) Mitsubishi Pajero SWB: 3.5 or 3.8 (3.8 has bit more power).Generation 4 4) Nissan Pathfinder R50 model. Go for the 3.5 model.

Hi @Gaurav thank you for the welcome, i really feel excited to join the club. Thanks for making me understand the diff lock main purpose because i thought its a must to do off roading. Plz find below my thoughts on the questions Max budget, Max 15-20k, but cheaper the better but ofcourse i want to spend weekend in dessert not in workshop Purpose: Sand, Mountain, Wadi, Beach, Camping or all... All but with family not too extreme Size: LWB (5 doors) or SWB (2 doors) LWB Any special preference of brand of origin like Japanese, Jeep, Nissan etc. No preference just need good performer. Before checking out the discussion in this group i was looking at jeep grand cherokee but i read tbat it has engine heatup issues..so confused now...

@Shyam Karat nice picture capture really 👍 I like the red wrangler with black star ,though !

Dear Desertnauts. @Rizwan Waheed, @Syed Raza Hussain, @Kailas, @Athula Dharmadada, @Andrei, @Gok Krish, @Ashy, @Hardik Mody, @Shyam Karat, @Mikhail Lukichev, @Baskaran P.R and @Suresh Nair, welcome to this drive. In anticipation of this Friday's drive, here are some information about what we are looking forward to. As we know, arboretum means "a botanical garden devoted to trees". While it's not likely that this area would qualify as a "garden" by any botanical standards, it is actually quite full of trees. The northern part of Faqa, in fact, benefits from a higher aquifer, which allows for a very abundant presence of trees, rarely alone, and more frequently gathered in sparse copses. We will enter the long range, white sand dunes, of this area through some of these groups of trees, and we'll continue in a southerly directions, toward the heart of the Faqa region. From here we will either double back toward the entry point, or continue eastward, looking to reach Faqa town, depending on the convoy's response to the more technical nature of the terrain which characterizes the second half of the drive. This is in fact an area that is usually visited by Fewbies and above convoys. Nonetheless, the nature of the northern sector of Faqa, with waves of long range, relatively open dunes, allows for safe travel also by Newbies in search for a bit of a challenge. Hence Arboretum 101 as the name of the drive, to suggest a Newbie level outing with the chance to taste, in a safe and controlled manner, some of the challenges to come once achieved a higher rank. It will provide the convoy with ample opportunities to practice low side slopes, riding on smooth, wide ridges, and straight crossing low dunes, honing one's off-roading skills, especially in the areas of finesse and control. More info to follow just before the drive. In the meantime, enjoy your week.

TRIP REPORT A chilly early morning start which was full of surprises. The best surprise was to reach early and see most of the convoy already deflating. One of the bad surprises was @abdallah hussein did not show up and I had no intimation of that. Radios that were not charged properly or was a faulty piece sold by the shop. Biggest surprise was my car count was not lower. I later realized that @sheri had joined the drive around 10 pm after I had locked my drive at 8pm and gone to sleep. I was always in search for some virgin dunes and discovered some nice clean patches early on. As we came close th Pink Rocks I saw so many convoys playing around and there were cross tracks all over the place. At this point I decided to cross Pink Rocks and play around on the other side. With a bit of a paved way for us we were able to make it to some very nice dunes very quickly. Everybody managed to keep good pace and kept the convoy closely knit. As we approached Big Red and jyst as I was about to exit I saw a clean face on one side and decided we were going to play. Sideys was the name of the game and everyone one did so well to show case their skills with steering and throttle control. After everyone had their fill and as it started to get hot we exited, inflated and head back home to be glued to our screens on Sunday at 7 pm to grab any available spaces. My thanks to @Ashy as my second lead, he did very well in handling his JGC. @PN1207 did very well at number 3, but needs a little bit more practice with his throttle control. @Roopesh babu still needs to apply what we have taught in theory, but managed himself well on the trip. @Francois Germishuys just added thrill to the group with his very loud F150 which I could hear from 200 meters behind me. What an awesome feeling. @Franco Swart did really well with his little Pajero. Awesome sight to see good control on both steering and throttle. My sincere thanks to @Alexander Alcala performing the most difficult job of Centre Forward to keep the convoy moving. @Anand Nataraj did very well with his Xterra. @sheri did well to keep up and I never heard any refusals from him. @Vijaysekhar was very pleasing to the eyes to watch as he not only had good control but all his manoeuvres were with grace and poise. @Shyam Karat only impresses me every time I drive with him. @Gok Krish and @Kailas right at the end kept the whole convoy moving and enjoyed driving together in the back. Special thanks to @Kailas to be my sweep and keeping me updated about the condition in the back at regular intervals. All in all a brilliant drive, but more interesting was the fact that so many members appreciate and want to do more to help out our community. Rest assured with growing numbers all of you are headed in the right direction to contribute and make our community stronger. Until next time adios amigos and Amigas.

Hi Everyone I can only speak on behalf of myself and my passengers but we really enjoyed this drive probably because we took part in most of the action and also being part of couple of stuck and fantastic rescues from it @Ajiesh George Kannankara Thank you so much for your help multiple times and looking forward to the drone shot @Christian Andras You were an inspiration during the rescues and probably iam buying all the gear you had 🤣🤣 the double stuck of us was the highlight of the day @Wrangeld Thank you so much for your support and trust in me with cf position and indeed we had a great drive again and looking forward to more of similar ones And for everyone else thank you for your patience and support

Some Thought From The Front of The Convoy It's often more about the journey than the destination I really enjoyed today's drive. It was full of natural beauty, surprises, little treats and incredible teamwork. Sometimes, after a drive you reflect and ask what went wrong, today I was focused the whole day on what went right and why. What went right? First and foremost, the Carnity spirit is alive and well. We may not be able to meet but the teamwork shown today, the concern for each other, the offers to support and help, the digging are all part of what makes a Carnity drive special. Second and equally important the team members stepping up to the plate today. @Christian Andras, @Tamas Hoffmann were immense as our recovery crew. You were spectacular ... although I do hope someone has a photo of your joint crested vehicles ... @Ashok chaturvedi flawless as my second lead and truly the other drive members were all on hand, offering support because, let's face it there was quite a lot of digging needed. Third, and connected, getting to actually meet our reverse @Ale Vallecchi convoy in the middle of the dunes. To paraphrase, "I love it when a plan comes together". We were even able, as a result of this, to offer @Miguel Ibarbia the chance to join the right convoy. Fourth, we had a great drive, technically. Good play areas, dune crossing exercises (yes, you might not have known, but those cross overs could have been 'redirected to be much simpler ... but then, what would you have learned?) Some new types of terrain and a lot of soft, soft sand. Fifth, driver development. @jodha singh shekhawat made massive strides in the space of one week. @Sreejith Sreenivasan the LR2 offers challenges because there is no low gear, but you started handling this much better by the end of the drive. @Nizam Deen the Prado is more and more under your control, you need to decide if moving forward it is the Prado that you master, or not.@Sajit Modiyil and @Hennie Schoeman you are both showing why the Wrangler and Xterra are excellent drive choices. Jennie you said at one point it was the vehicle ... but neither of you is anything without the other. Special call out to @Ajiesh George Kannankara at this point. A Y62, full and the drone ... and your willingness and offers to help every time. I know that Tamas and Chris really appreciated that, as did I. Sixth. This area is stunning. We saw gazelle, camels and incredible scenery. We are so, so lucky to have this on the doorstep. Perhaps we did not want where we wanted ... another 45 minutes we would have been there ... and maybe there was some dissatisfaction to our stopping at the exit point, but all in all a great drive. Look out for the return journey, because for sure I will be asking Ale if he wants to swap directions next time round. See you soon in the sand..

Some thoughts from the rear perspective This was my 11th drive with Carnity, and possibly the most fun I have participated in!!! No, we did not make a lot of kilometers, we didn’t reach the planned destination and we got warned by the police for busting a restricted area 😆. It was my first time as sweep, and didn’t know what to expect. I have had a shinny new rope and shackles for a while now, but I actually lost track of the number of times the rope was used today!!! Shovel got used as well (the 30-dhs-Dragon Mart proper one, and not the 200-dhs-“tea spoon” as Richard has named it previously...). What a physically challenging ride!! But it was soo fun, all the recoveries, the getting together, digging together, discussing together etc! I think it was very good to actually see and learn all the different problems from pop-out to stucks in different positions. Thanks @Wrangeld for the continuous support and your relentless driving up and down the convoy to assist us in the back. I am amazed that you so easily can handle the responsibility of getting 10 cars out in the desert like that, and more importantly also getting them out... A special thanks to my “brother in arms” @Tamas Hoffmann and his crew for his work!! The moment both of us gut stuck, crested besides each other, pointing in opposite directions, and needed @Wrangeld to pull us both, was simply priceless!! I also have to mention @Ajiesh George Kannankara and the black Patrol crew, who where always helping out - great job!! Thanks all for a great ride today!! I have taken exactly 1 picture only for the whole trip, so I’m looking forward to all nice pictures you guys must have!

Ok guys than next week abs kill switch is coming.

Besides the flag and communication common sense is also not there. On 6th second you can see sand flying meaning the FJ was stuck. Without paying heed just go with the flow. Typical attitude of people not paying attention to their surroundings.

Thank you @J J and @Asif Hussain for posting some very valuable videos in order to learn from these mishaps. I think everybody knows the main reasons for the flip, thanks to a very decisive approach by @Carnity to have a structure and teach people slowly and steadily their capability, vehicle capability and understanding the dynamics of each vehicle. On @J J video all I can say I'd fish tailing. When your vehicle is fish tailing to the left, steer left. This could have been avoided if he steer to the left. The left back side of the car got pulled by gravity and he failed to steer the car to the left. A little extra throttle to correct the trajectory of the car could have also helped with correct steering. Knowing the basics is one thing, but practicing these during every drive to know your vehicle dynamics and these principles become a part of your every day drive. @Asif Hussain bhai video, sand reading and knowing when to and when not to do certain manoeuvres are critical. If the driver understood the correct way of criss crossing he would never attempt it on such a sharp ridge at such high speed. The car literally jumped to the other side with the right front tire getting caught by sand while the rest of the car momentum continued to result in a roll over. Never a good sight to see these accidents, not only it dents the car, but also the owners pocket and their confidence. Thus whenever attempting such manoeuvres the trip lead always goes first and advises the others the dangers in @Carnity.

Wrong way of criss crossing, he should have been ride over the ridge little bit further down and cross the other side of the dune.

Speed is one : couldn’t ride the ridge as it was curvy at the end to left. looking carefully and in slow motion maybe when realized it at the end decided to ride to turn again but already the momentum ( always faster then the intended turn ) pushed him to the other side which caused the flip .here comes the precise control with speed in action and the sense of danger , I would complete the side down especially when you are attacking the slip side of this complex dune !🤔 I might not be right entirely so let’s see our Carnity leaders say cheers 🚙👍

indecision between doing side-sloping or crisscrossing; wrong speed and angle for the both anyway...

Thanks for this post! I had a few close shaves already in the 7-lane roads of Dubai. After reading this yesterday, I have reset my side-view mirrors and tested them on my way home last night. For sure it makes a massive difference, but it does need some time to get used to (especially since it limits the distance in the rear that you can observe - which should be OK if you use the rear-view mirror more often).

There was a time in India in the early 90s when there used to be a single side view mirror on the drive side and that would invariably be folded. Upon asking the driver, he would state that by keeping it open someone driving past would break it.