Leaderboard

@Christian Andras Gaurav has made a very important point. Tyres are very critical components for offroading and if you have recently changed the size it's very important to try them at Newbie or Fewbie drives, before pushing on Extreme drives

You can extend your learning mode without limping on Fewbie or even newbie drives.

@Christian Andras don't jump the gun so soon with another wheel or tire or bead lock. Tire when recently changed they use the lubricating kind of glue that indeed take time to seat the tire properly. Drive with your FJC for a week on road and try again. Secondly every tire size and brand have a different deflation sweet spot based on vehicle weight and drive style. So keep increasing or decreasing 1 PSI on every drive to find that sweet spot. Example if you deflated at 10 PSI on today's extreme drive, try 11 next time and see if it pops out again. If does bump to 12 and if it doesn't keep at 11 for 3 drives and then lower back to 10 to 100% confirm that you had pop-out today coz of tire change glue.

Hi guys! Hope you had a better continuation of the drive than the start. It was very sad to see you all ”vroooming” away, and living me behind, however, it was the right thing to do…From the technical point of view, I didn’t expect this to happen, not that bad. I have never, ever had a pop out, and felt a little bit ”overconfident” thinking “this doesn’t happen to me”, so I guess this was a small lesson in being more humble. What I have done, is to change the tires from 285/70 to 275/65, keeping the same rims…Tires were brand new 2 days old. Misstake. The tyre guy today said the tires need a while to get a bit softer, and “mold” a bit to the rim. Many thanks to @Lorenzo Candelpergher for the swift and expert guidance with the 2 pop outs. Also thanks to the rest of you who helped. I know that everyone wants to help, but still when you are the one causing the delay, it’s so stressful knowing you’re keeping everybody still… Went straight to the tyre shop, and fixed the tires. No damages, besides on of the tyre pressure sensors that broke. The biggest damage is the psychological one, cause my faith in the FJ, which has been rock solid until now, is somewhat weakened 😩. But I guess that happens sooner or later in any relationship 😂. So I have already found new rims to buy, cause the only way out of this is beadlocks. Anyone has any opinion/knowledge about “Black Rhino Primm” rims?? A final word to @Gaurav: you told me the danger of starting modifying the car, where you get into a never ending spiral of more mods/more time/more money. Well, here I am, living the dream: bought the car like this, w 285/70 tires>no problems>started with extreme drives>front wheels where touching sometime>decided to lift the car just a notch + spacers> hitting got MUCH worse>removed spacers>better but still not perfect>changed to smaller tyres>Today it was perfect and I fell like a king for 10 minutes before getting a double pop-out…I hope the beadlock rims will put an end to this drama… Hope to get the chance to have more drives like the first 2-3 extreme drives, which were magical, super intense and virtually with no stops/stucks/accidents… See you! /Chris

Dear @Christian Andras what ever happen your relation with the fj should never be affected😬. Tires are only shoes of the car, and I don't think relations with your friends are affected by .....🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks @Islam Soliman @Tamas Hoffmann @Abdul Rahman AK and @Ranjan Das had a brilliant first Fewbie plus drive! Definitely a step up and brings a whole new meaning to maintaining momentum Cant wait for the next one Special Thanks to @Tamas Hoffmannfor the little tug and not making me dig in near 50 deg heat 😃

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for bringing us back to the savannas of RAK. This was no remake, it felt like a true sequel and a completely new drive. This was far more intensive a drive than the original newbie trip which had no ridge riding and a path which didn't deviate from the tracks of the locals. I enjoyed this trip for completely differing reasons than the original (the original was the most scenic drive I have been on to-date) with this drive feeling like we were adventuring/exploring the region and master ridge riding on forgiving (not to tall and relatively flat) but bumpy and difficult long range dunes. I truly wish we started with the mountain side so the folks that had to leave early could experience the magic of the region.. it felt like the ultimate finale/happy ending for a drive and still my favorite location of any drive! Massive thanks again @Ale Vallecchi for scouting this region and taking us there again.... I would sign up instantly if we could visit that side for a full drive - being on tall dunes that become mountains, driving towards mountains landscapes, soft and virgin sand and the incredible slip faces to play... those final 30-40 mins were my highlight and I only wish we could spend a few more hours there! I took 'look for a tree for shade' too the extreme and ended up near the end of the dirt track so didn't get to say my farewell to the convoy - the group were amazing and I managed to get some pics of your slip face antics on the gallery. To close - this was the first ride where I experience the 'Holy Trinity' in one convoy!! 😃🙏 FJC (stock FJ Cruiser) FJX (FJ eXtreme) FJA (FJ Adventure X) #savannas #HolyTrinity

Dear Chris @Christian Andras I thought I was the only one who is not popping out . Trust me in each drive I do be it any level from NB till extreme this possibility is never out of my mind especially when it’s very pushy like in the extreme one. And for sure the day will come when this happen to me because there is no perfect tires on perfect rims driven by the perfect driver. But what is there for sure there are the best times with the best friends who can help us with the best advices and that what I call experience . cheers 🙏🌷 Mohamed

Many thanks @Ale Vallecchi for this beautiful drive. Totally agree with Nikki, we had really the feeling of exploring the savannah and dunes, up to the foot of the mountains. Definitely worth a Part 2 to continue further to the mountains. Thank you for having taken the time to prepare carefully the itinerary, fitting in the playing areas, long dune ridges and tall soft faces. Thank you Angela @Foxtrot Oscar and @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ for the support. We had a amazing convoy. I've made a few additions to the beautiful action pics of Nikki in the gallery, reflecting the atmosphere of the drive !

Drive report I only drove twice in Margham before so it was kind of a new place for me too but I did a recce there last week so had a nice track and enough confidence to take my convoy through the area. Because of a few last minute drop outs, I had to reschedule my convoy numbering a little bit and the convoy became smaller too which I like, a smaller convoy is more fun .... @Zixuan Huang was my second lead, followed by newbies @Charbel Yazbeck and @Luc Khaldoun. Then we had @N@ved in CF position and @Ahmed Wagdy and @Ammar Naji were at the back of the convoy. Everybody did amazingly well and we had a minimum of refusals and stucks. Two stucks were mine, there were some tricky dunes and the soft sand surprised me a bit ! @N@ved never used his rope before but he had to use it 3 times on the drive so he was a happy man .... I want to thank the entire convoy for their excellent driving and for making us have a nice morning out in the sand and a special thanks to @N@ved and @Ammar Naji for their support. @Zixuan Huang I hope you made it home safely and your car gets fixed soon .... @Luc Khaldoun your radio is fixed and ready to use See you all soon !

Dear Friends GauravSoni @GauravSoni Karthikeyan Govindarajan @Karthikeyan Govindarajan Darren Brooke @Darren Brooke Gregory @Gregory Sunil Mathew @Sunil Mathew Zed @Zed Ehab @Ehab Wade Pat2 @Wade Pat2 Anoop Raj @Anoop Raj Thomas Varghese @Thomas Varghese M.Seidam @M.Seidam Craig Finlayson @Craig Finlayson Hisham Masaad @Hisham Masaad Tbone @Tbone Please note positions for tomorrows drive We will use channel 1 for Radio coms Mandatory gear required for this drive will be Shovel, Flag, Deflator, Compressor and programmed radio. Fantastic support , so we should have some nice fun. We will break at 6.55 pm for next weekend Carnity drives RSVP and then continue once done. See you all tomorrow

Dear @Christian Andras, from seeing how you drive so wonderfully be it any level I don't think you should be feeling handicapped or wounded. Sand dunes are great leveler for anyone , irrespective of their cars/mods or tires. At some point you have to remember not to cross that line as there are some things you just cannot do /push through. You are a fantastic driver and ease through it, enjoy your drives be it any level!

Dr. @Chaitanya D I think we should stop at 6:55 for all to be ready to book their drives for the coming Friday😀 otherwise will end up staying at home🥴 stop should be with a good signal, otherwise @Carnity need to arrange for a booster antenna from Etisalat 🤔

Nice rope recovery executed by Angela @Foxtrot Oscar Beautiful self recovery done by @Saddaquat Tanvir upon instructions from @Yousef Alimadadi in AN drive 21/5/2021 well done

To be very honest, you were quite lucky today that the coolant hose ruptured was small and easily accessible to be patch with mseal, duct tape and cable ties. We always try to do whatever we can but we arent mechanic so our capabilities are very limited for such emergencies repair. This incident should remind everyone to be 200% sure on keeping regular maintenance and checks for their desert vehicles. Hope your explorer doesnt become exploder again. Thanks @Mukundan Nair and @Gaurav Soni for excellent teamwork and patience for such emergency repair job and rescue drive.

Confirmed got my car back from garage @Chaitanya D, i'm gonna make up for missing yesterday's drive ☺️ @Wade Pat2my LC-twin, see you tomorrow bro! 🤙

Thanks & confirmed

I had that planned, did not mention it. Don't worry whole of Qudra has good signals and we will not be far from tarmac. So all of you can book your drives as you like. We will stop at 6.55pm and start again once everyone has RSVPed/ applied for waitlist 🤣

Yes you are right.

Thank you @Chaitanya Dconfirmed for tomorrow.

@Brette thank you for the the pleasant drive yesterday and for the tips and information you gave me @Hisham Masaad thanks for the continuous support and always keeping an eye on us @Veedooshee can't thank you enough for your endless support to everyone in this drive Looking forward for other drives with you guys

No problem Normal headlights is okay for this drive. You will learn night driving in quick time You will be added to the drive, please confirm You will be added , please confirm

Desert @Frederic I have Nikon D90, with AF Nikkor 70-300mm zoom, and AF-S Nikkor 18-105 zoom. Re my knowledge and experience I can say small zero, not a big one 🤣🤣

Looking forward to a short evening/night combination drive.. @Chaitanya D I have same question as @Sunil Mathew regarding extra lights for night driving - I too only have regular (Pajero) headlights and fog lights.

Signed up now , @Chaitanya D, couple of questions 1. I don’t have any kind of off-road or extra lights. Just the headlight and fog lights 2. no previous night drive experience Hope I can still join? any other pre requisites or preparations to consider?

Almost reserved going, then remembered my car needs to be fixed a bit🙄

Thanks for your input @Gaurav! I thought the same, cause it would be easier and definitely cheaper!! But on the other hand I would feel very handicapped, always the fear of another popout, not being able to push the car, limping like a wounded animal at the back of the pack😭 Anyway, I’ll wait a few days before deciding.

@Vanessa8580 Yes, I was home on time for church, and the leakage stopped on the road. Thanks for asking. the car will go to garage for several days and should be ready for next Friday's main course

It's been a long long time since I was on a drive in AD (except for Liwa - which does not count because that it a special event). As I had to be in AD for meetings this was a great opportunity to leverage my PCR test and support on a drive with @Chaitanya Dwhose drives are always amazingly well planned and exciting. I was not disappointed or let down. This was a great drive, swooping through bowls, soft sand and even some tempting technical sections all in the dark and [because I was at sweep and catching up often] at some speed. As the car was showing signs of being tired, I did not play on Lady Dune - next time. All drivers were incredible. And the lead - wonderful. Looking forward to the next chance to follow. Since I installed my night lights, my car has been termed the rabbit with headlights and the new functionality of being able to isolate and switch on only one set at a time was very helpful and meant that the person sitting on the side of the car was no longer blinded as the side shooters can be turned off.

Drive report Well by now you all know it started with some last minute niggles. My pcr was negative but it wasn't reflecting on the Al hosn. The excitement of going to Sweihan did not let me wait. I went straight to the mina Rashid seha center where I did my pcr and asked them why not updated. They informed me that on Thursday the Al hosn app had some technical issues. Straight from there I left so that in a worst case scenario I could atleast let u all know well in advance and especially to Richard who was already close to the start point. At the check point , I had a discussion with the officer who said I need to make a U turn back to Dubai. Well this was when I had to extend our discussion, show him all the reports, receipts and the messages I received. With lot of checking which was right on their part , they let me through. It was indeed a relief to be back where I personally love driving , be it day or night. Glad to see all at the starting point. Great to catch up with some new friends in Xavier , and good old mates - Ruan, Hasan, Mustafa and Karthick. We had a covid safe brief and off we go. We drove along the direction heading north from Yahar which meant we were climbing the slip phases . This made driving a task, and especially leading for me daunting at places as I could not find easy exits going into some deeper bowls. With Richard and Marjan sweeping I was assured of some fantastic support and guidance which we experienced through the drive. One pop out in a nasty pocket like area meant we had to break for a considerable amount of time, but it was a good experience. Fixed up and good to go! We entered further venturing into an area notorious for sand formations, went as close but avoided going directly there. @Mus_hus78 might agree on this. While it was a great experience for me leading in night in a challenging terrain at Yahar, a big shout out to you all for driving with min issues, and almost to perfection except for few issues needing a quick pop out fix, some tugs (including one for me) , shovelling and some great self recoveries in the dark by Mustafa, Hasan, Xaviet and Richard. Mustafa now might know a new trick getting out from a wierd crest situation. @Xavier Treasurer a big thank you for being a perfect 2nd lead and doing the correction when I made mistakes . Well done @Karthikeyan Govindarajan impressive how you drove, but for the last crest - a karthick special. Which we all enjoyed, but you did well considering the terrain. @Mus_hus78 drove beautifbeautifully managing the challenges well. Your commaradrie on the drive is wonderful bring some smiles on everyone with your talks. @Hasan Wahlan managed his LC to perfection, even though being slightly back. Improving every drive , looking back from your NB we did some time back. Well done, make sure you balance your wheel after removing all the sand inside thoroughly. @Ruan van den Heever was unstoppable, conquering every dune with ease. Great to have you everytime we have been in sweihan. Well done @Wrangeld and @Jeepie thanks for sweeping, and helping on all the advises. How you had a great time being in sweihan. We enjoyed your company. Some pictures and stats uploaded in gallery. See you all soon. Please share some feedback, and the feasibility if you all would be able to join for a weekday drive . Let me know which time would be convenient so that it can be planned well for max participation . See you all soon

Today's desert drive was one of the best so far, however my vehicle broke down towards the end. Recovering my vehicle would not have been possible without the excellent commitment and dedicated support of the Carnity team @Gaurav @Mukundan Nair @Gaurav Soni; who after leading the remaining convoy to the exit, spent three hours to make it possible to bring my vehicle to the area where recovery service was accessible .It is thanks to them that I was able to prevent abandoning my car in the desert. I have reached my home safely and my car is in the workshop and many thanks to the team for this.

TRIP REPORT A perfect day for Absolute Newbies with the right amount of challenges. Its been a while since I did an Absolute Newbie Drive, so was really looking forward to this drive. Everyone reached the meeting point on time which was the first sign of a wonderful day ahead. After checking all the tow points, and helping few new members in deflation we were all set to start the journey through the Qudra desert. While some had a bit of prior experience, quite a few where entering the sand for the very first time. So the team of senior members helped each and every drive participant on how to engage 4 wheel drive and turn off traction control. @Paolo Pellegrini was my second lead in a Pajero and he did a perfect job of second lead by following the instructions and stopping wherever it was required. Hope you also saw that for normal desert driving there is no need to engage 4 HLc and that 4H is perfectly fine for desert drives. @Muhamad mustapha in his LR Discovery had a near flawless drive throughout except for the final stuck as we were moving out to the exit. It again showed that as the air temperature increases, we need to keep monitoring the tyre temperature. But overall very well done. @Talgat Mendibaevin the Ford Explorer managed the entire terrain extremely well and drove with extra caution which was much needed. He also had a couple of opportunities to learn the art of self recovery in soft patches. Well done buddy. @Aisha S was joined by @Arman as a passenger in her green wrangler and make the entire route look very simple as she was willing to test the power of her Wrangler on every dune. Nicely done and I am sure Arman would have also learnt a few tricks from you. 😜 @Saddaquat Tanvir did an overall excellent job in his LC and probably realized that he should not have waited 3 years to start off roading. Hope you had a good day, @Nishant Mulani brought in an almost brand new Y62 to the desert, and had his heart in his mouth on couple of the descents. But you held your nerve and managed the entire route extremely well with zero refusals. @Abdelhamid Elbasossi joined in with his son in a JGC on his first desert drive. But your confidence and technique showed very good improvement during the course of the drive. Well done. As explained during the debriefing, JGC requires the Traction Control and Airbags to be disabled as you move up the drive levels. You can check on the Carnity forum the methods by which this can be done without affecting the warranty from the dealer. @Rory Ashman brought in a beautiful 2 door manual transmission Wrangler. Just a couple of refusals, but nothing major that the Wrangler could not handle. Nicely done mate. @Ivan Pironi added another Ford F150 to our club and hardly broke a sweat at the back end of the convoy. As mentioned during the debriefing it will be better if you get rid of the air dam so that you have a better approach angle and have the peace of mind to push your beast. @shu yang probably the quietest guy in the convoy who had to deal with all the churned up the sand at the back end of the convoy. As I recall zero refusals, so very well done buddy. Please check out on the forum regarding the modifications other members do for the Y62 bumpers, as they are a bit too low hanging. Finally, a bit shout out to the two support members on the drive, @Yousef Alimadadi and @M.Seidam for their excellent support, guidance and instruction to all the Absolute Newbie drive members. Your support was much appreciated by everyone and a big thanks from myside. Moving forward you all will be joining the Newbie drives and not an Absolute Newbie drive. Drives are announced every Sunday at 11 am, and they go live on Sunday at 7:00 pm. Due to the high demand, these drives get full in about 10 minutes, so please be online at 7 pm to book your spot. If you miss a spot, put your name on the waitlist asap. Generally, by Thursday with dropouts everyone does get a spot if they have waitlisted. For the next drives, please bring along a deflator, pressure gauge, flag, radio and compressor as a minimum. Learn to deflate your tires and checking them precisely Learn to fix a flag on your car Learn to program and fully charge your radio Also like I mentioned during the debriefing, join the Carnity Whatsapp Drive Notification to get the latest updates on the drives, so that you can RSVP on time for the next weekend's drive. Please have a look at below topic which describes the tools needed for every level. There is a separate tutorial inside which explains which radio we recommend and how to program them: (Please do not buy the Baofeng 888S spare radio we gave you, as these cannot be programmed without a special cable and software). Please have a look at below grading structure that explains various off-road levels: See you soon on the sand.

Hi @Frederic i have a Nikon D 5100 with couple of basic lenses - one wide angle and one telescopic (i believe 50-200mm).

For considering for my first night drive.😊😊

Pls add me too if possible

Dear @Chaitanya Dplease add me to the waitlist, and manage tab if possible

@Chaitanya D will this be a Newbie or Fewbie drive? Apologies, saw it is Newbie and above

@Chaitanya DPlease consider me for the wait list and add me if any one drops out. thanks

Sorry @Chaitanya D will exit the drive didn't realize this is Tomo...my car is going for servicing and will get it back at 6pm so won't be able to make it in time.

Please put me on waitlist

Hi, having a basic experience, Will be using Nikon D60 with AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G.

I realize I am not in the ride yet, but being optimistic! I have a Pentax K-5 and for this occasion I will probably use a 80-300 as it is my longest zoom, but will also take a100 mm f2.8. I know how to use manual focus, though dont use it much. Also have a tripod which, should be useful .