Leaderboard

TRIP REPORT: Premature end for an exciting drive, which was turning hot. Thank you friends for showing up in time for this drive, which will be etched in my memory for being my first independent Intermediate drive with Carnity off road club. Probably this was the only memorable thing in this drive and feels terrible we had to end it rather abruptly owing to my car running hot and could not continue further considering the terrain which was coming next. We started on time, and drove along the Lisaili Camel track entering the technical areas after the subsidiary track on the other side of the pylon track we took, it was indeed a very pleasant morning. We could negotiate the technical terrain in quick time , thanks to every one driving very well in this area. Some of you had done this terrain few weeks back and the way you all got through the technical area was great. Once onto the Sabkhas separating technical and Long range dunes in Lisaili, we were onto it in quick time. Ridge crossing on a rather steep looking one got few cars crested which were recovered by the adjoining cars in quick time. As you are all intermediates , this will be norm where you will be responsible to recover the car immediately to the next or before you . Again probably I was getting excited a bit too much, that I got stuck myself in a super soft patch while trying to backtrack to see what was happening. Thanks to @Lorenzo Candelpergher's advise I could recover myself with shovelings and some steering adjustments. Once we were beyond these initial hiccups, we did squeeze out all the juicy long range dunes which Lisaili has to offer for side sloping, ridge riding and criss crossing. Every one of you did extremely well and showed very good control even on doing longer ridge rides. Well done to all of you. One one of these ridges I took a nasty bump which was the trigger point for what was coming next in few hours. We drove along most of the playable long range dunes and headed towards our next landmark which was the long range dunes in Murquab. While you all negotiated the slightly easier technical area between Lisaili and Murquab with minimal refusal only, I was again getting excited seeing long range dunes just beyond some small dunes and the discussion about "honeymoon areas" sprung up. We took a small break and that's when I realized my heat guage was showing slightly higher than normally expected temperature. I waited for it to come down a bit and started again , very eager to get on to the " honeymoon" dunes. My guages were blowing hot and if had not stopped I would have almost kissed and blew the head gasket. We stopped to check and , did all that we could in the middle of the desert. With a dry radiator and reservoir, a gallon coolant topped up meant I had something serious, we had to cut short this drive and exit out through the shortest route onto tarmac. I felt sad it had to end this way because everyone of you were driving really well to all the challenges which this terrain was throwing at you. At one point after getting out of Lisaili , I was feeling very positive we were on track to Faqa considering we had very few issues. But as it is said Man proposes and God disposes, the desert Gods disposed this wish we could make it . @Nivin was my second lead, defacto leader and you all followed his tracks. He was quick in responding to reroute/deviate from the nasty track/bumps I took ,considering the faster pace we were driving at.Job well done. @Mehmet Volga in his pajero was having minimal issues in driving , especially in technical areas . Much more confident and well driven than the recent drive we had in the same area. @Islam Soliman's first intermediate drive, and quite glad you have tamed the beast in yukon. Even in technical and tight spots getting this LWB car in an out is really commendable. @Ilya Golubinsky in his wrangler LWB was hardly heard on the radio, great control on the slopes and ridges. Well driven buddy. @Jorge Stepniak Felippe' first intermediate drive and he was surfing on the dunes in his SWB wrangler. Very well driven in all the areas. @Christian Andras in his Blue FJC was seen enjoying the challenges with very minimal issues. His FJC was riding through without breaking a sweat and the credit has to go to the driver for managing it well. @Janarthan was the more experienced of the lot , towards the back of the convoy . He was excellent in rerouting slightly and exiting out on ridges when they were getting churned up. Excellent Jana. @Lorenzo Candelpergher was my sweep, after the recent promotion to Advance level. Fantastic driving as usual , great control of the massive Y62 and excellent with presence of mind for a well thought advise. Thank you! Some Stats from the drive Total time- 2hr52 min Moving time- 1hr 51min Ave Pace - 25Kmph, Max speed 57.9Kmph Distance covered 45.5 Km I would say it was probably my mistake in misreading a nasty bump on the down sloping end of a ridge which was the trigger point that leaked all the coolant from my radiator drop by drop, evaporating even before one could make out it was leaking. Probably I pushed it a bit hard, but I don't know what else I could have done to avoid it. Probably the nerves of leading a first intermediate drive took the better out of me. I will sort my car soon to come back here and accomplish what we planned one day, really hoping you all will show confidence in me and join in again. See you all next weekend (hopefully!) and enjoy your week.

DRIVE REPORT Another beautiful morning in the Fossil dunes ! With everyone arriving before time, we were out in the dunes by 06:20 and that's an amazing start to get 16 cars out in the dunes. With @Nitin Mohan as my second lead, we headed out to find a clean track between the big amounts of vegetation, and went looking for some nice areas to play in. And playing we did With only some minor refusals, we reached the base of Fossil Rock perfectly on time, and with some wiggling we all made it up to the top eventually. Courtesy to @Foxtrot Oscar for the encouraging words to get everyone up to the top ! I saw lots of smiling faces today and was superbly impressed with the driving skills, positive approach, and teamwork everyone showed today. A big thanks to @Pancho and @Foxtrot Oscar who both did a stellar job of supporting the big convoy today ! Fossil Rock never dissapoints and we will be back for more soon ! Enjoy the long weekend !!

Happy Halloween! 👻 @Neale Faulkner

Khatam to Faya drive Yet another chilly morning drive..which actually feels cool and fresh mostly at the sunrise time though...😉. It was great to see most of us nice and early at the meeting spot and even nicer to see that we have @Rahimdad as our flying sweep today. @Brette, thank you for giving me the responsibility of being your second lead today and I hope I did justice to the position. It was quite a challenging drive today. As we started on those churned up areas, I had my first refusal even before I could realize that the sand was soft soft and softer..and then thanks to @Rahimdad I was out of that pocket kind area within no time. Despite the struggle of a few of us, we all managed to reach up at Fossil rock and down within the first hour itself. We then proceeded nicely to the khatam area which was technical and also had a lot of cross tracks but very enjoyable indeed and, as it is I do like the colors of the sand in this Sharjah region. We did have a few refusals and maybe one or 2 stucks if am not mistaken but overall was then an excellent trip at Khatam area. Faya is a great region to drive around bowls but was definitely challenging for most of us as it is so churned up and the sand here as well is so so so soft. We did had a good start at that region but then with the refusals, a lot of struggle was required to get out of that area and thanks to @Rahimdad for showing us how it is to be done. And @Rahimdad did burn a lot of calories today but he is the superman ☺️. With that situation, @Rahimdad was sure that most probably the tyre pressure went up and indeed that was the case which was immediately by deflating to the appropriate psi. Our second attempt was slightly better as @Rahimdad took us to the top of Faya. Thank you for the amazing drive @Brette... Thank you loads to our superman @Rahimdad for really being a flying sweep, for supporting this drive, for showing tricks...and endless other help...Thank you... Special thanks also goes to our CF @Craig Finlayson and our sweep @Kailas... Great drive by the whole team today...see you in the sand soon...

Dear @Chaitanya D, I was honestly very impressed by your cool and professional lead yesterday. It may have been your first independent lead but it didn't look like so and I think everyone in the convoy appreciated your great experience and the sense full control that you were constantly projecting. The start from the Camel Track was fast and at the end of the convoy I was driving in a thick cloud of white dust, hardly seing the car in front of me. The Lisaili technical dunes were crossed quickly and without any troubles. Actually it happened so fast that by the time we were out I still had the feeling we hadn't started yet. Approaching the long dunes behind was really beautiful and we were blessed with a fantastic view of the sunrise with multiple hot-air baloons flying above us. The subsequent portion of the drive was fast paced and action packed, with very nice and long ridge riding / criss crossing opportunities. As I was driving at the back and in the opposite direction along a close parallel line I could witness @Chaitanya D's car diving nose down in to a totally hidden and nasty bump at the end of a long and flat ridge that didn't give any hint of such an insidious spot. The impact was unavoidable as was the damage to the radiator, I guess, but @Chaitanya D was very responsive in instructing the following cars to steer away avoiding the point. It took a while for the leakage to become evident so we kept on driving and having great fun, until we had to surrender to the impossibility to safely proceed further. The exit took quite some time and luckily the damaged X-Terra could make it. Everyone drove very well, from what I could see from the back, kudos to all. And great congratulations to @Chaitanya D for his first independent lead. I will be happy, one day, to have half if your coolness in the occasion of my first drive as a lead.

Some highlights from today's drive.

Dear @Jeepie, Convoy 2 had a very nice and enojoyable drive on Thursday. Deflating before dawn with a temperature of 16°C was really a great way to start the day. We made it to Pink Rock rather quickly despite a couple of crested cars. Unfortunately we couldn't climb the rock itself due to challenging visibility as the top part would require driving with the sun straight in front, however driving around it from the north/east side offered an equally spectacular view of the sunrise. As we moved along, we enjoyed a variety of mid sized dunes, challenging enough for my passenger's stomach on his first off-road experience 😖😖. We the reached the mighty Big Red area and made a few attempts climbing up the tallest dunes, but eventually gave up as the sand was a bit too challenging for a fewbie drive, even though we had plenty of time to play up and down on a large and straigh slope on the east side. Everyone did well, with fairly limited stucks and refusals. I could again watch @Piotr Kolodziej in front of me and could notice a great progress since the last newbie drive where I had followed him. @Dagdag Sofiane was able to self recover from at least 3 nasty stucks after some serious fat-burning shoveling. No need to be anxious to get out of trouble: we are in no hurry, and getting stuck is part of the learning process, you should enjoy recoveries as well. @Ashy was sometimes too respectful of and gentle with his throttle pedal.. The rule "Keep enough momentum" prevails on the rule "Don't use too much gas" when you want to climb up serious slopes.. That's when your can really floor it and enjoy the feeling! @Chaitanya D at the back as sweep was a an absolute certainty. In fact he was back and front, left and right, more like a flying sweep which made my job as center forward much easier. Thanks @Jeepie for an impeccable and lead along a very nice route. See you soon in the sand again.

TRIP REPORT Sweihan is clearly one of my favorite places in UAE, and in an area which has traditionally been reserved for Intermediate drives, we at Carnity have found some amazing stretches with absolutely virgin dunes to arrange a Newbie drive week after week. Everyone was there at sharp 6:00 AM, and with a couple of drop outs and no shows we were 5 cars which made for a short but tight convoy. It gave me the room to push the pace through some big dunes knowing very well that the cars at the back would not have to deal with churned up tracks. The broad spaced rolling dunes offered a lot of high paced action and adrenaline with speeds in some of the dunes reaching close to 60 kmph. The entire convoy did extremely well, and the drive was so supremely smooth that we didn't have to even take out the shovel let alone the rope. Though I am not a person for statistics but at the end of the drive I was curious, and we had done close to 51 km of 100% dunes and an additional 30 kms of flat track to get to the ADNOC gas station. Probably the smoothest Newbie drive that I have been a part of in a very long time and the entire credit goes to the excellent convoy of @Srijith Gangadharan @Jonathan Maumy @Aamir Siddiqui . Also thank you to @Pancho for supporting the drive, even though you had almost no work throughout the drive (courtesy the excellent Newbies that we had), knowing you are at the back of the convoy gives the Lead the liberty to push the pace. Hope you guys had fun, for I most certainly did. See you soon on the sands.

89152483001_relive-tracker_1604038199574.mp4

Wonderful drive I and Richard @Wrangeld arrived at the same time to the deflation point and by the time I finished deflation and flagging up almost every one was done as well. this is my 4th fewbie and the longest And fastest one so far what a wonderful drive ! Few refusals or stuck which was dealt with as usual in a team spirit professional way.only @Arun Mathew unfortunately had to exit half way due to some heating issue in his vehicle hope he is safe and his car issue got sorted out. i realize from this trip that learning is a never ending process that I need to sharpen some Skills yet especially on the side of the dunes. I loved the technical part a lot , though! One person we all missed today is our friend @Chaitanya D I think by now his vehicle issue got sorted out. Things happen always for good buddy. i would like to thank @Wrangeld and @Kalahari for their lead and sweep as well as for @Anish S our center forward. thank you all dear wanderers for coming and making this day so enjoyable. cheers 👍🙏🏻🚙

LAHBAB - QUDRA MARATHON DRIVE - PART 2 Report As winter approaches, long drives lasting the whole day, will soon become possible. This excursion was planned as one such drive, but was broken into 2 parts, firstly due to the lingering heat in the middle of the day, and secondly to allow more members to join, in this past long weekend. This route aims to join one of the least driven areas of Dubai - Lahbab - to the most popular one - Qudra - covering most of Dubai's desert from East to West. The whole drive covers 108 Km of sand, with a break between the end of the first half at Skydive and the start of the second leg at Murqaab (but it could also be Lisaili). The second leg of this marathon started just past Murqaab's Mosque, and took us through an initial area of tall and wide (almost flat topped) dunes, then on a sand track (cutting through an unfriendly technical area) to the long range dunes of Lisaili, ending in a gentle cascade at Solar Park, where we exited as the sun went below the horizon. It was great fun scaling the tall, camel back, dunes of Murqaab, which are really a great treat and a wonderful surprise, being so close to other well beaten locations, and yet so devoid of other convoys. And it was almost hypnotizing, the driving on Lisaili's easternmost dunes, which again immaculate, as much less driven than those closest to the pylons toward the north-west part of Lisaili. This Marathon Part 2 also saw @Foxtrot Oscar (Angela) making her debut in the Lead, executing an extremely clean, smooth as silk, follow the sun drive, from the heart of Lisaili all the way to Solar Park. Congrats Angela!! Great thanks also go to @Alexander Alcala for anchoring the convoy in the center position, and to @Pancho for sweeping it to safety, both assisting the few refusals of the day. Very well done to @Abu Muhammad, @Gok Krish, @Kailas, @Piotr Kolodziej, @VipinShetty, @topgear, and @asifk (I hope your family enjoyed the drive). The second part of the Marathon saw the convoy drive for 49.5Km, in 2:34 hours, at an average speed of 19Km/h (25Km/h while moving). Thank you all for coming, and see you soon in the sand.

@Ale Vallecchi and @Vanessa8580, thank you for a wonderful drive today. It was exciting, at a great pace and full of learning opportunities. I look forward to seeing everyone again very soon! Ahab

LAHBAB - QUDRA MARATHON DRIVE - PART 1 Report As winter approaches, long drives lasting the whole day, will soon become possible. This excursion was planned as one such drive, but was broken into 2 parts, firstly due to the lingering heat in the middle of the day, and secondly to allow more members to join, in this past long weekend. This route aims to join one of the least driven areas of Dubai - Lahbab - to the most popular one - Qudra - covering most of Dubai's desert from East to West. The whole drive covers 108 Km of sand, with a break between the end of the first half at Skydive and the start of the second leg at Murqaab (but it could also be Lisaili). The first part of the drive, which we are reporting here, took us from a yellow sand area of open dunes, with a few technical areas and sabkhas separating them, to a fun string of red sand low bowls overlooking Nazwa (with Big Red and Badayer's pyramid dunes visible in the distance, then directly west toward Skydive, through technical yellow dunes, and finally, whiter sand open dunes close to Skydive. The drive took place without almost any refusals (save while riding in the bowls), with all drivers displaying very good control of their cars, both in the tighter, more technical terrain, and in the more fun playgrounds. It is incredible how this area gifts us with no other clubs' convoys zig-zagging through it, in spite of its proximity to the most popular Nazwa/Big Red/Badayer off-roading locations. The only human signs were tracks left by locals training their falcons, and a circuit used by quad-drivers during the previous day, which marked heavily the sand close to Skydive. Other than this, we thoroughly enjoyed the almost unspoiled area. Congratulations for an excellent drive to @Tamas Hoffmann as Second Lead (waiting to see some of that drone footage), to@Alexander Alcala covering the Center Lead position with abnegation, and to @Foxtrot Oscar (Angela) for her clean sweep of the convoy. A note of "Very Well Done" to all the drivers: @Javier Lucero, @Athula Dharmadada, @Anand Nataraj, @Senthil Kumar, @Yasas Dharmadasa, @RaYan E, @Jihad Hachem, and @Abu Muhammad. This first part of the Marathon covered 58.8Km, in 2:55 hours of driving (while moving), at a total average speed of 14Km/h (20 Km/h while moving). Thank you to all the members, looking forward to another, uninterrupted Marathon drive. With the idea of getting ready for the winter, when long drives lasting a whole day (with a lunch break) will be possible

Fully agree - the drive was an absolute pleasure and landscapes breathtaking. Many thanks to @Jeepie, @Lorenzo Candelpergher and @Chaitanya D for leading the convoy smoothly through so many ridges and soft sands! @Dagdag Sofiane, it was nice to follow you, I enjoyed our covid-friendly car-to-car talks and thanks for saving my bumper when you warned us about those scattered bricks just in time! @Lorenzo Candelpergher I hope your passenger recovered in the afternoon- it's always tricky with such long and bumpy drives if someone happens to fall sick right in the middle of the desert as there are not many options to get back to a flat surface quickly... 🥺

Hi all It was action packed and speedy drive yesterday, which was actually my first Plus drive. Pretty challenging and diverse terrain with soft sands, crisscrossing, hill climbing etc. Very nice ! I was not awake obviously in first 500 meters, messing up with my gear shiftings and Prado slipped away from the path. Good wake up call ! 😄 Thank you @Tbone valuable advices regarding car accessories and well managed drive. Good convoy management also from @Biju Abdul and @Emmanuel ! See u soon on the sand !

@Brette @Rahimdad Thank you very much for organizing a drive through the spectacular sand dunes. Click the attachment below for photos https://carnity.com/gallery/category/377-fewbie-khatam-to-faya-sharjah-30-oct-2020

For many offroaders, navigation looks like a scary thing, and finding your way in the desert used to be a daunting task with old obsolete maps, navigation with sun or stars, and many other old tricks of crossing the deserts. Until 5-6 years ago, companies like TomTom and Garmin were ruling the world navigation software and hardware, until our phones became smarter and smarter, and nowadays there are tons of free or paid navigation software programs available which are tailored for hiking, off-roading, cycling, or other outdoor activities where you would like to record your tracks. In this post i will give some basic essential advice on how to get started with navigating by using GaiaGPS, which is an amazing app that allows you to: 1) Create routes at home via your desktop/tablet through the GaiaGPS website. 2) Use different types of maps like topographic maps, sattelite maps, to find your perfect route you'd like to explore. 3) Save and manage all your tracks, waypoints, areas. 4) Automatically sync all this data with the GaiaGPS Mobile App that is being used to record your track or follow the route you have created beforehand. 1) Registering for GaiaGPS account https://www.gaiagps.com/membership/ You can choose for a FREE account, which works fine for basic topographic and satellite maps, but will not allow to use them offline. The PREMIUM membership is recommended for around 60USD per year. The Outside+ subscription is useless as this is mostly for US based customers. Their Trailforks Pro App is very similar to Wikiloc. Once you have become a member, you can head over to Gaiagps.com, login with your account name, and have a look at the basic functionalities. I've posted a short video below that gives a small demo on how to use the GaiaGPS website functionalities. As you can see in the screen, there are many tracks i've recorded with my phone that remain saved in the website. You can remove these or hide them. The red zones i have marked are called "areas" where you can identify tricky areas that you would like to avoid. They will appear on your phone app as well so you can easily avoid them. Waypoints Waypoint, or pins, could be points of interest, landmarks, entry and exit points, or any place where you want to mark the location and save for later reference. They will appear as a "pin" on your map. You can assign a color to them as you like. This might be useful as you can categorize them. Next to the classic PIN icon, you can choose different other ones, like fences, skulls, forest, or anything that will help you in identifying the waypoint. Satellite Images Having crisp detail in the satellite images you are looking, is essential so you can create a route which focuses on the nice bigger dunes instead of the small technical or bushy areas. Gaia comes standard with the Mapbox "Sattelite with Labels" Imagery which is not bad, but the best one i have found so far is the ESRI Sattelite Imagery Map. Below you will find some information on how to add custom maps. The map called "WORLD IMAGERY" in the Premium version is the same as the ESRI Sattelite Imagery Map. Which phone ? Gaia GPS will work on any smartphone that has a decent GPS antenna built-in. In my case i purchased a separate dedicated Android phone which is mounted in my car that i solely use for navigation. This allows me to keep using my own phone as backup device. That dedicated phone has the offline maps downloaded on it, so i don't need cellphone coverage (no sim card). App functionality On an Iphone, this is how the app looks like. The buttons like "RECORD" and "PICTURE" are customizable, and by keeping your finger on it you can select something else you would like to see on the home page. The Magnifying Glass allows you to enter coordinates. You can copy them from within Google Maps. this button toggles between full screen or normal screen. The crosshair button is very important. Click on it once and it will appear green and bring you to your live location and follow you while keeping NORTH up. Click on it again and another logo appears, looking like two reversed triangles. This is the mode that keeps your live location but constantly rotates the map based on your direction. You can experiment with both modes to see what suits you best. I like to stick to the first mode because it allows me to see in which compass direction i am heading. The + Button contains all your other useful functionalities, like adding a waypoint, creating a route, download an offline map, or create an area. Once you hit the record button, the app will start recording your track. Once you finish, click again on it and select "Finish Track" It will then be saved. (and also appear on your GaiaGPS website once you have synced). On the bottom, you can see your trip details, open the list of saved tracks, or go to your settings. Note: In the settings you can put your units/distances in miles or kilometers (whatever you prefer). You can also enable or disable the autosync function, but better to keep it on. So as soon as you have Wifi/Internet on your phone it will automatically sync your tracks between the app and your GaiaGPS account (website). These things will take a bit of practice, and i can recommend you use your Gaia mobile app for a while on your daily commute and experiment a bit with the settings until you have tailored it to your own needs. Exporting Maps Most navigation software use .gpx or .kml files which you can import in Google Earth / Maps or any other navigation program. On the GaiaGPS website, and also on the app you can choose to "export" your track. It will create a .GPX file that you can share with fellow offroaders or import in the Relive app Adding Custom Maps Adding a TMS Map Source – Gaia GPS for the GaiaGps app users, the Google Maps like Satellite, Terrain, or Hybrid, are not standard built in, but can easily be added by using the GaiaGps website. This is the procedure to add for example Google Terrain. 1) While logged into Gaiagps.com, add a custom map source via TMS here: https://www.gaiagps.com/mapsource/add/ 2) Fill in this TMS URL to get Google Terrain: https://mt0.google.com/vt/lyrs=p&hl=en&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}&s=Ga 3) Give it the name "Google Terrain" 4) Set the Min and Max Zoom level on 4 and 19. 5) Click on "Add this Map Source" The next time you will login it will appear in your mobile app. Some other map links. To add them, follow the same steps as above: Google Maps: https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=r&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} Google Satellite:https://www.google.cn/maps/vt?lyrs=s@189&gl=cn&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} Google Satellite Hybrid:https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} Google Terrain:https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=t&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} Google Roads:https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=h&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} ESRI Sattelite Imagery:https://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x} Open Topo Maps: https://a.tile.opentopomap.org/{Z}/{X}/{Y}.png Others can be found here: Folder: / (arcgisonline.com) 15 Free Satellite Imagery Data Sources - GIS Geography

@Veedooshee you failed at writing a good trip report, you mentioned me only 7 times in your 7 lines. Hahaha. What a beautiful day with beautiful people all around. It was sad to learn that @Anish S was busy at work and could not join. Yet @Veedooshee did a marvelous job at second lead and it was good to see how far she's come since I last saw her. The greatest thing about her is her enthusiasm has not changed to learn and do better. @Brette thank you for allowing me to support your drive. It's a wonderful feeling when you coach and mentor someone and the day when you get to flavour their drive and get to support them to pay back in part for all the times they supported your drives. @Sinol great to see you out with your family. Sure there is a slight up in the difficulty level from newbie to Fewbie, but you seemed to handle most situations well. It was great to have you on the drive, 12 PSI would seem to be the right figure to maintain, just make sure your gauge is working and need to apply more throttle at times remember we are not on the roads anymore. Your Pajero needs to learn you need all the power it has on offer. @Syed Raza Hussain. Wow. Great enthusiasm and energy. Loved your smile throughout the morning. I believe you're having so much fun you didn't even realize the time fly by. @Rizwan Waheed you were awesome with your Pajero. However you need to lower the weight in the car to get more power available to get it moving. With the restricted power accessible to you still you did well for the major part of the trip. @Athula Dharmadada your JGC seems to be loving the way you're handling it. I've seen a good growth in your progress and you've really done well with the JGC. Hope the steering oil issue gets sorted out soon. @Craig Finlayson always a pleasure to drive with you. The energy you bring to any drive is incredible. Congratulations on your first rope recovery. Very nicely managed. Incredible patience and raw enjoyment of the terrain on offer. Well done buddy. @Gok Krish drive style is looking so much more confident with the Jeep Wrangler. Amazingly well done at the Fewbie level, seems you're enjoying and perfecting your skills at this level and the Wrangler has lots to do with it. @Ali Abas Ali seems to be very comfortable in a Toyota only he knows how to operate in the best way possible. He just keeps surprising me week after week as I tried his ride once and seems 1 button makes all the difference. Keep enjoying and keep conquering. @Neale Faulkner thank you for the Halloween scares. Lovely pic of you without your morning make up. Once again you and your Wrangler seem to be synced in and know what to expect from one another. Absolute treat to watch you murder those dunes. @Kailas is settling in with different responsibilities. This week it was the sweep duties and he did so well to keep everybody in convoy moving at all times. Finally, what do I say about @Rahimdad. He's such a wonderful and humorous person. Always adding life to a drive. The drive would have been half the fun without him. Catching up with @Frederic, @Foxtrot Oscar and @Pancho was the treat right at the end. Thank you for coming to Faya and blessing us with your presence. Really awesome time out with awesome weather and beautiful people. Love to all.

Oh, and @Lorenzo Candelpergher that was also the reason why I didn't congratulate you on your promotion yet. You really deserve it and in my mind will always be the king of pop-outs

Hi @Piotr Kolodziej @Kailas @Ashy @Craig Finlayson @Dagdag Sofiane @Chaitanya @Lorenzo Candelpergher very sorry I wasn't able to write a drive report. I somehow managed to throw myself out of the off road club in carnity. I was however able to post pictures on the gallery so I hope that made up for it a little bit. Thank you Lorenzo for basically doing it for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive and after giving everyone the chance to do a lot of long ridge riding in a safe area, I think you all did great. I didn't know that we had a couple of new fewbies in the convoy. Otherwise I might have toned it down a little. So you really did incredibly well. Thanks for the enthusiasm and see you in the desert

Thx @Chaitanya D and sorry for the challenge of yesterday.. wish your car a speedy recovery and thanks @Wrangeld for stepping in last minute.. you did amazing today and no one can tell this was an improvised drive without enough time for you to plan it.. thanks a lot

Dear @Piotr Kolodziej, He said he was OK a few mins after the end of the drive, but commented this drive was enough for his off-road experience for the next 5 years., as he is a highway guy.. In light of that I am not sure he really recovered though.. 😂 😂 😂

Thank you Thank you a lot @Frederic, also this weekend I attended another Newbie drive. It was just quite an adventure!

Dear All thanks for helping me out when I needed to come unstuck. My old pajero was giving me power loss and some funny sound was coming from the engine.. I shall be taking it to the mechanic as quickly as possible.

@Frederic @Pancho thank you for today , was a beautiful and relaxing drive . @Foxtrot Oscar always happy to see you part of the convoy , thank you for being around

If you use the stem removal tool, you would deflate all 4 tyres in less than 4 minutes. The link that you have posted needs to be properly calibrated and from what I have heard that after a couple of times of usage, people stopped using it.

Thanks @Wrangeld and @Jeepie and teammates for joyful drive.

Dear @sertac this is a shock for me as i was preparing for myself for this drive just now. My apologies as i overlooked the date and misunderstood that there was even the drive for thursday! Morever now i am feeling sad that no drive for tomorrow morning @sertac thank you for writing the drive report otherwise i would have been waiting for you tomorrow morning at same location after driving all the way from Sports City.

Convoy report for the Convoy 1 First of all @Sajit Modiyil and @siddharth maheshwari didn't showed up. It is definitely not cool to not show up for the drive you signed up. @Nivin couldn`t came but at least he gave a explanation. Hopefully your car is back to business This was bit challenging. Maybe more than challenging. Actually we started very good, we drove from Nazwa to Pink rock making some sideys. Few refusals and if i am not mistaken maybe with only 1 stuck. Once we reach to the Pink Rock area we start having issues. Area was full of soft patches. Because of soft sand cars start having issues LR2 had hard time to deal with the soft sand without a low gear and Ashok`s Pajero start making a weird noise. In this point we decided to take Ashok to 2nd December cafeteria to let him exit. While heading to 2nd December i found myself in a nasty situation. Right side of me pocket, infront of me pocket with a tree in it and my car facing to that tree. I noticed the situation at the last point and manage to stop before going in to that pocket but i wasn`t able to go back, one of my tire was up and my car was front heavy. With a brain storm with Richard and precious help from Rizwan we managed to take me out from the situation. On the way again we had couple of stucks, which made us got slow and when we reach to the 2nd December it was already time to exit. We all inflated and exited safely. @Rizwanm2 did very well. Thank you for being 2nd lead. @Arda Yagcioglu had his first fewbie drive. Once you change your car it will be more easier for you. @Ashok chaturvedi hopefully your car will not have any big issue and you will be back soon. @Jose Martin flawless drive. Did wonderful. @Wrangeld Thank you so much for your support.

For any type of off road driving in the UAE you need to reduce your 4x4 tire pressure. For mountains and wadi it's easy to reduce between 20-25 PSI irrespective of the tire brand, shape, type and load. For sand the tire pressure deflation is little bit tricky and if you follow below steps, you can decode this better. Before that you also need to understand that why deflation for off road driving is so important: Deflated tires are hard to sink in or dig in the sand due to lesser resistance. Deflated tires increase the sand flotation to reduce the load on Engine, 4x4 and Transmission. By deflating tire pressure you increase the footprint, that help you stabilize & offer better directional control. Image shows the two tires track: One with 35 PSI (left) and other with 12 PSI (right). Finding a perfect tire pressure for off road driving for your specific tire and 4x4 is based on bit of learning and experiments. Of course the lower the tire pressure better it is for dune bashing, climbing and self recoveries but too low is also dangerous for popping the tire out of its wheel. You can follow the below chart, if you are totally new to off road driving as an indication (ONLY). If you have a pop out on normal driving, then increase 1 PSI next time to find the best tire pressure for your 4x4. If your 4x4 is Long Wheel Base (LWB) with full load then increase 1-2 PSI more than below indications. Type/Brand of Tire Regular Driving Intermediate Driving Self-Recovering All HT Tread (Highway Tread) Dunlop Grandtrek Bridgestone Dueler Yoko Geolander HT Michelin Latitude Pirelli Scorpion Goodyear HT 14 PSI 12 PSI (Avoid sharp steering) 8-10 PSI (Inflate after recovery) All MT Tread (Mud Terrain Tread) Mickey Thompson MT BF Goodrich MT Cooper STT - MT Nitto Trail Grappler MT Toyo Open Country MT Dick Cepek Extreme 12 PSI 10 PSI (Avoid sharp steering) 6-8 PSI (Inflate after recovery) All AT Tread (All Terrain Tread) Yoko Geolander AT Michelin Pilot A/S3 Hankook Dynapro 10-12 PSI 8-10 PSI (Avoid sharp steering) 4-6 PSI (Inflate after recovery) Disclaimer: If you can't find your tire brand in the list then rely on HT / MT / AT section to be 90% safe. For knowing how to deflate the tires, please speak to any of the Marshal or senior member to show you how its done properly. There are more than a couple of ways and tools off-roaders use to deflate depending on their choices. All tools, ways and method are correct as far as you achieve the correct tire pressure. If you are new to offroading, I highly suggest to double check the tire pressure twice once you are done. Borrow the fellow offroader tire pressure gauge and check again, as many times your new gauge might go wonky and give false readings. Once you are 100% sure that your gauge is correct always, then you are fine to rely on your own readings. PLEASE DON'T DEFLATE WITH KEY AND STOPWATCH AND ASSUME IT'S 14 PSI. Secondly, always check / adjust tire pressure again after 30 minutes of sand driving as it might increase due to the heat and stress. If you are facing constant refusal at the beginning of any drive, I bet your 14 PSI has shot up to 18 PSI and you need to reduce the tire pressure more to bring it down to 14 PSI. This happens on almost every newbie drive, so it's fine and proven gazillions of time.

@Rahimdad, mentioning your name even million times would appear less for all your support, efforts and guidance throughout the drives..thank u...☺️ I did miss my copilot @Anish S as well but it is good to be independent sometimes😉.. Kudos to the whole team again for an excellent drive..

Thanks @Ale Vallecchiand @Vanessa8580 for a very fun drive (with some extra fun) , very nice long range dunes for sideys and also for the "class" about crossing dunes, Crests, ridges , and some very fun criss cross.... as always the stucks are always teaching us something, how to not get or how to get out of it.... see you in the sand soon !!!

I quite agree that these set of 4 gadgets are non reliable and drivers need to recheck and calibrate again and again making them useless. I always have an issue with the sand getting into the valves and my carelessness on Thursday of not washing the threads of both tyre and the deflators caused me a lot of headache where there was tiny leak in the tyre valves the air was escaping minutely and two tyre was near deflated. Also, my electronic air pressure gauge was giving errors too showing wrong pressure so I while inflating the tyre and not bothering or holding up the convoy, I used my eyes to visualise the tyre pressure and made it even worse. So I now strongly wish to adhere to the fact that back up set is absolutely required and also regardless that you do not wish to hold up the convoy, it is far better to do so than getting stuck in the sand. My visual fluctuation was +- 10 PSI (???)

Hi @Mahmoud Asar the only way to see that is going to the drive calendar to see on which drives you have RSVP'd. So far you have done 1 Absolute Newbie and 2 Newbie drives till last weekend (this weekend not included).

@Wrangeld yes it was a spring they forgot to connect properly All settled drove 200 km today just to check, all good Hope to be in next drive with you

Excellent. Will be fun giving it a shakedown in the afternoon.

@Wrangeld noted. Thank you

Good evening Qudra Round Abouters. CORRECTED VERSION ~2 Please find below the convoy list and numbers for the Afternoon fewbie drive tomorrow in Qudra. @Hardik Mody @Sharooq Fassul @Mahmoud Asar @DANIEL NOGUEIRA @Anvar Sadath Bekal @RAKIN KURIAKOSE @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ @Sai Baskaran @syed salman raza @Jeepie @Probir Mukherjee @Malachy McGrogan We will be using Channel 1 from Carnity. Please make sure your radio is set to the correct channel and is properly programmed. We will not be able to program radios at the start point tomorrow morning. PLEASE CHECK THE DEPARTURE POINT FOR THE DRIVE AS THIS HAS CHANGED FROM THE ORIGINAL POST https://goo.gl/maps/oSqDeMS5W7KFwhjY7 PLEASE ALSO BRING A COMPRESSOR. I AIM TO FINISH AT LAST EXIT, BUT LAST EXIT IS VERY BUSY IN THE EVENING AND THE COMPRESSOR IS VERY, VERY SLOW Morning Newbie Desert Drive Qudra 29 Oct 2020 Attendees Level Car Radio Pos # Wrangeld Marshal Mitsubishi Pajero SWB Y 1 Hardik Mody Newbie Mistubishi Montero Y 2 Sharooq Fassul Newbie Jeep Wrangler SWB Y 3 Mahmoud Asar Newbie Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Y 4 Muhammed Kashif Razzaq Newbie Ford Explorer y 5 Daniel Noguiera Expert Dodge RAM 1500 Y 6 Anvar Sadath Bekal Newbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Y 7 Rakin Kuriakose Newbie Nissan Pathfinder Y 8 Sai Baskaran Newbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Y 9 Probir Mukerjee Newbie Toyota Land Cruiser Y 10 Syed Salman Raza Newbie Jeep Wrangler Y 11 Malachy McGrogan Newbie Ford F150 Y 12 Jeepie Expert Jeep Wrangler Y 13 Looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow afternoon in the sand.

Totally agree with Rahimdad on this, after COVID we can't do such things. Btw, Dubai municipality fine upto 50k dhs for desert safari camp sites for leaving any trash behind. If you suspect it was a party or safari camp trash send the pin location to DM and they will figure out the way to handle it. Good observation and concern for wild life, well done.

I use both the roof top LED bar as well as the one near the headlights, and both serve two different purpose. 1. The LED bar at the top is curved which is more of a spread light which helps see a bit on the left and right of the car especially when you are crisscrossing a dune, however the straight line visibility is limited. 2. The one in front of the headlight is a powerful spot LED bar which gives good straight visibility. If I had to choose one between the two, I would choose the spot LED bar any day because of the light intensity and the clear visibility of the track in front of you. I would recommend installing it near the headlights or just below as that is the best place to install without any reflections and you can direct the light in the right angle. Now, if you are installing near the front headlights, depending on the space availability you should look to install the most powerful spot LED light bar. Mine is a 32 inch spot LED light bar of 480W and my night vision has improved so significantly that I am no longer called a Day time Marshal (the old timers in the club would know what I mean) 😁. You can put smaller LED light bar beam as per the below image on the two sides (near your windscreen) that would give you a peripheral vision. This would be my recommended setup.

Hi @Christian Andras your points and concerns are completely valid. I used to have a double led bar mounted on the roof, but the wind noise was quite horrible and the reflection on the hood was also there but by pointing them a little bit upwards i was able to minimize that. From my opinion i have seen better results from a slightly smaller bar with latest LED technology mounted on the front grille.

I also thought about that, because it is horrible to find plastic and bottles at such an extent in these beautiful areas. But we also have to think in our own safety. What we can do, maybe, is document the piles of garbage in the desert and promote a cleaner culture. And perhaps the government will join us in a cleaning / conscious creation campaign. In the end, the desert is one of the touristic attractions of the UAE and it should be in the government's interest to preserve it.

It's only brightness is the main difference and that itself MATTERS a lot I got a dinky light for below bumper (maybe 3D or 4D) without knowing this and didn't felt any big difference. Then I got the 6D for the top and that made a huge difference that I can see 100-200 meters clearly