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Love those midweek rides ! Yesterday was a pretty nice adventure... we rode for more than 4 hours. Small dunes, high dunes, criss crossing, night driving... that was rich ! Thank you @Anish S and @Veedooshee, I really enjoyed being your second lead and thank you for the advice, especially when I got stuck / crested. @Tamas Hoffmann, it was good to follow your lead too for a little while and good idea you had to cross the road into those virgin dunes. @Shaaz Sha even though you were unlucky yesterday it was good and reassuring to have you around. @Lakshmi Narasimhan well done good to see your improvements since we first started together. @Thomas Varghese, thank you for the pictures. @Chinthaka Ruwan @Darren Brooke @Russ @JeromeFJ never fail to bring good vibes to the group ! See you all very soon.

Please only Rock and Not Roll in the desert

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, I must say I am really starting to get addicted to these Wednesday mid-week morning drives.. Certainly a beautiful drive like the one we enjoyed this morning contributed badly to my addiction.. When you happen to meet @Gok Krish, @Hisham Masaad and @Dodi Syahdar at Last Exit Petrol Station at 4:50am getting the last shot of caffeine before the drive, it's a mixed feeling: on one side you realize you are totally mad, on the other side you realize you are not alone in such madness! We were all set to go by 5:23am, well before the sunrise. We quickly drove around the fence of Solar Park, then headed South towards Little Sweihan, where we reached exactly at sunrise time, only to realize it was so foggy in the distance that we were only going to see the sun much later. We then entered Little Sweihan Area and started testing the terrain and the convoy response, while the light (and visibility) where still quite poor, which - to my disappointment - caused my first pop-out as I completely missed to see a mini but nasty pocket at the bottom of a very innocent small dune. Luckily the pop-out was fixed in no time with the great help of the team and we moved again. With better light we started increasing the level and the pace. @Frederic had rightly warned me that "Little Sweihan can be deceiving" and he certaingly wasn't wrong. The sand is beautifully shaped by the wind in apparently gentle and round fashions and, given the absolute absence of any tracks, it is incredibly appealing, however the dunes layout in this area is very irregular, with frequent small and medium pockets, deep and steep bowls, sharp and curved crests.. in other words, the perfect ground to challenge a well motivated Intermediate convoy, a chance that - of course - we didn't miss!! As we moved slowly east, we had a very entertaining stint of rapid climbs, ambitious criss-crossings, evasive manouvers to get out of deep bowls, all combined in an amazingy fun "spaghetti drive", as can be seen from the below photo, taken real time from my navigator display (this is what I call "Spaghetti Little Sweihan Sauce", which has quickly gained one of the top ranks in my favourite mid-week breakfast menu): As we continued in our restless wandering, we experienced a 2nd pop-out by @Nivin, who was greatly supported by @Dodi Syahdar while the rest of the convoy enjoyed the fantastic morning views, some of which are here below: It was during this short break that we made radio contact with @Wrangeld who was leading a Master Class not too far away. As the 2nd pop-out was fixed, we continued satisfying our off-road appetite with more spaghetti, putting the whole convoy to a hard test. The terrain was indeed quite difficult today, with sudden patches of soft sand and very tight maneuvering spaces in many occasions, but everyone did very well: @Hisham Masaad was a great 2nd lead, following without hesitation my funambulist lines or holding back waiting for me to complete the full round of the next fun bowl. @Gok Krish, at his very first Intermediate Drive, showed a brilliant performance, handling most difficult situations very well and managing every time to get out of trouble by himself. @Ahab Shamaa found hopefully enough challenges for his experienced drive, while providing precious radio guidance to Gok in the occasion of a his very rare refusals. @Rob H managed his Tundra magnificently, considering the inherent difficulty of maneuvering in such tight spots and across many sharp crests. Exiting one of the big bowls he got crested in a moment of hesitation, but a quick winching got him out in no-time. @Watteau had "THIS IS FUN" written in capital letters on his face during the whole drive, exhibiting a 32 teeth smile every time his tinted window was down, as documented in a photo published in a previous post. I guess it must have felt great to handle the F150 across such a demanding terrain! @Dodi Syahdar was equally awesome at the back, managing the drive with very little hesitation, betrayed only by a small tricky step at the entrance of the last big bowl of the day, which costed him his first ever pop-out. As with @Christian Andras last weekend, experiencing the first pop-out after having made it all the way to Intermediate was a bit of a shock for Dodi, but his supercool temper prevailed in just a few seconds as he was already on top of the truck digging into his mega storage box for compressor and floor-jack. @Nivin at the back was as cool as a cucumber, diligently updating me about the status of the last cars in the convoy and super-helpful with Dodi's pop-out. With the 3rd pop-out fixed, we were all in the mood to continue for another couple of hours, but I had the unfair duty to be mindful about the time and to lead the convoy to the sabkha to reach the fence of the military area on the west side and then head north towards Solar Park long range dunes. We moved so fast on the dirt track that @Hisham Masaad raised his concerns about the possible presence of speed traps 😂..., then entered the dunes again starting to ride some very long and appealing crests. It was again a beautiful moment, but it lasted just a few mins as @Gok Krish's Wrangler had a few sudden power cuts due to overheating. After cooling down the car, it was decided to make our way out through the fastest and easiest route, i.e. along the existing dirt tracks, all the way to Bab Al Shams. It was the right thing to do, as we reached the exit point by 8:15am, our intended exit time. Overall we drove 58.2km (approx. 22 on dirt tracks) for a total time of 2h 55', of which 1h 55' moving and 1h 00' stopped, for and average moving speed of 30.3km/h (clearly doped by the long stints on dirt tracks, where we exceeded 90km/h). It was an energizing short morning drive, literally distilled fun in Little Sweihan, thanks to a wonderful and capable convoy. Too bad @GauravSonicouldn't make it today! Kudos to all, as the terrain was all but easy to drive through. And see you next time in the sand!!!!

Thank you @Anish S and @Tamas Hoffmann for the drive. It was a real gift to wander through in empty dunes on this week day evening. Thanks Thomas for the pics, and all the convoy for the excellent vibes within the group !

hi 😊. Thank you @Anish S for a superb evening drive. The drive was smooth and the terrain level was nice. started off slow and smooth and gradually with medium and high climbs, kept a reasonable pace to avoid any issues of over heating ... enjoyed it. It was not a great day for me in the desert yesterday with my car and with @Thomas Varghesecar. The whole convey performing really well and it's was unfortunate for me and @Thomas Varghese to exit out early. @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil did an excellent job as 2nd lead and looks like he is in full sync with his jeep now. good job buddy 👍. @Chinthaka Ruwan did really well and thanks buddy for keeping the XTERRA participation in the convoy till the end 😃😃🙏.. @Darren Brooke did superb with his TAHOE, which is one of my favorites. you did an excellent job with you full size SUV. @JeromeFJ had a smooth drive and it was easy peezy for his FJ. @Russwith his beast had a blast and could hear the roaring of your beast. @Lakshmi Narasimhanthank you for sweeping the whole convey to safety. Did a great job buddy 👍. And finally @Tamas Hoffmann thank you for being our flying sweep and for the tugs. Hope everyone had a superb offroading trip and see you soon .

Thanks @Anish S@Alain Canivet-Abikhalil @Shaz Shah @Lakshmi Narasimhan and last but not least@Tamas Hoffmann @Anish Sreally great route selection and great to do a little exploration drive on the opposite side of the main road @Tamas Hoffmannthanks for picking up the lead role while @Shaz Shahcar was "escorted" from the dunes @Thomas Vargheseglad to hear the car all sorted, interesting to watch how a pop out is "nearly" 😆 repaired for the first time. Loving the photos!! Really enjoying these mid week evening drives, so until the next one, stay safe

I'm sure next time these extra-convenient guys get stuck, they will simply walk out with hands up surrender mode.

Great news I am in 😃

@Jeandre Bezuidenhout, @marks, @Arun Mathew, @Nizam Deen, @JeromeFJ; @Chris Wing; @Nithin Vaidir; @Adhir Saxena; @Ben84; @Ehab; @darren thompson; @Jeepie; dear all - please not the change in the start / end time of the drive. We are now meeting at 5am. This is due to high temperatures this week which resulted in several car heating instances. @PaoloMaraziti, @Ranjan Das, @Miguel Ibarbia You are on still on waitlist however please take not le of the change in case you end up joining the drive.

Good morning all, the drive start time has been changed to 5 AM instead of 5.30 AM. With the increase in temperatures lately, we have seen a lot of cars have overheating issues and hence the new timing. We will target being out and inflating before 9 AM. @N@ved @Pierre de Maigret @Chinthaka Ruwan@Nathan Evans@Alain Canivet-Abikhalil @Pacific @Werno@Russ @Darren Brooke@Vineeth John Joseph @Mehmet Volga

Thanks @Anish Sfor the wonderful evening drive, @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil for second lead, @Shaz Shah for center forward and @Tamas Hoffmannfor joining late and helping as flying sweep and providing moral boost and assisting in recoveries and rerouting the convoy. Thanks to all friends for joining the drive and sharing the fun. Unfortunately @Shaz Shahcar has to be dropped out and he continued to drive @Thomas Varghesecar, again unfortunately @thomas tyre poped out and valve continued leaking. It was a hard decision to drop both of you to safety, good to see such sportsmanship demonstrated by both and @Anish S as a lead. Drive is not complete without struck, refusal or cresting all of these recovered quickly and with transmission over heating. We all learnt a lot and enjoyed driving in the dark as well. The terrain was beautiful and surprisingly most of the area was virgin. Looking forward for another such wonderful drive. See you again !!!

This is so lame @Ahab Shamaa .. all of this and still I have to step out of the car to take the flag… very inconvenient 🤪

@Gaurav Soni and @Darren Brooke we have 2 open slots on the drive now so feel free to RSVP if you still want to join… Time will come my friend.. hope all goes well with your car @RooRzOn

@Russ you likely know or have noticed there really isn’t an open market here and as such not a competitive market. There a single firm that sells each car brand and zero competition at the forecourts. Same plays out for supplying mods/gear. The benefit of this is that the price of the item (compressor,etc) will likely be identical no matter where you get it installed so you just have to find a workshop you trust. For ARB, they also have set up direct presence in the UAE, they have a small shop front in international city and zero website presence… join them on Instagram to see their deals and pricing (they did some great promo’s for their fridge line up!) below is the compressor of choice amongst this time sensitive, privileged, sun-shy, mod hungry bunch!! And the ARB add on to allow Bluetooth and mobile setting of PSI.

I don't think we can actually mention them by name on here, but my experience is to find out what you want yourself, all of them will install a twin ARB under the rear seat and say off you go, but then you have to have the passenger door open, add an extra valve that needs a tank (or so they say) etc. etc. there are always compromises, personally for the size of tires we have, and if you desire to do it faster then the only way forward is multiple compressors, as Ahab said the air tank is no good for improving inflation times, this is proven on several YouTube videos as well, the fastest inflation method is proven to be a CO2 power tank, but needs refilling and specialist valves and has to be operated vertically etc etc. every solution has caveats. Also if you run two compressors in series as in "double" power then your hoses and chucks need to handle the added pressure as well as your tire valve, running two compressors in parallel, provides redundancy and since each compressor is responsible for two tires rather than 4 at once there should be a time saving.I'm thinking to trial the apex valves Lorenzo mentioned and Ahab and Hisham have to see if that helps, raptor wheels are deep though so need to find a supplier who would test fit rather than burn 800 AED I think for the XL versions. I can't believe I have spent so much precious spare time researching air systems, FML. out of the box there is a system for raptors called updownair that mounts a plate under the bonnet, I haven't seen a real world timing of it though, and I'm not sure about having the shcrader valves in each wheel well. Our "mutual" friend has a set in his showroom. https://updownair.com/product-category/gen-2/raptor-4-tire-inflation-system/

A mix of white and red. So must be pink

Don't worry @Abdul Rahman AK for next 3-4 months you will have PLENTY of night drives now. Every year we mostly do night drives from Jun-Aug, it's just that last year due to covid curfews we started early morning drives.

@GauravWe already have 9 drivers for this drive within an hour of posting!!!! That just shows the hunger of team Carnity!!!!

Hi @Rory Ashman Regarding the radio, please refer to this article in Carnity. If you need it soon, I am sure you can find one in Dragon Mart. I use two radios, Baofeng (primary) and Crony (spare), both are common brands used in UAE. With regards to the flag, you can find one in ACE, Speedex, Adventure HQ and even in offroad garages. I think I've seen flags in a small shop in Ras Al-Khor located in a service road (google map reference: https://goo.gl/maps/fx6NwY7doGXaA3HH6) Best regards

Glad you enjoyed. I could see it from your smile this morning:

This is what it is IMG_4465.MP4

Thanks everyone for today, it was just what I needed, amazing area and some great challenges, see you all soon. Great route @Lorenzo Candelpergher

RED, RED, RED.....not White plz...summer afternoon drive and white don't add ..🙂

Again!!!!!!! Stop it @Ahab Shamaa🥴🥴

all sorted out and ready to rock and roll in the desert.

Thank you Gaurav and Team Carnity for the consideration, unfortunately won't be able to join this drive as willing to go for Intermediate drive if managing a slot in Friday morning drive... else I would go for Fewbie+ Saturday morning.... really appreciate your efforts 👏 Exactly, touch wood!

Congrats @Sunil Mathew

@Lorenzo Candelpergher I have the 4in1 system with digital gauge, I use it for both inflation and deflation, it’s pretty quick with deflation and you can make sure all tires are on the same pressure. I have the portable ARB twin compressor with tank, it’s really quick, I usually take the flag off, cover the lights, turn off kill switch and all 4 wheels are on 36 PSI already. I did not go with the mounted one because I use it with 2 cars and I also use it when cleaning the cars using a portable (external rechargeable battery).

Oh no ! I hope you are okay ? @Talgat Mendibaev will add you to the waitlist @Alfred Alinazar you can join the drive if you want. Let me know so I can add you ....

mornings go with white and afternoons go with red/yellow to me, and we have 1 other drive from Tawi Nazwa to sharjah at the same time. so my guess is yellow sand, near fossil rock area (I really wanna go there) 😁

Yes, since there is a target pressure, you can use it for deflation. I used once and stopped, since for deflation it is taking so much time. With the appex valves you don't need any thing, but make sure you don't over deflate, since it is so fast😀😀

@Russ it is ARB application, very simple. You have two inputs, current and Target pressure. Other photos will send when I reach the car👍

Thanks @Hisham Masaad, any chance of a few pictures of your set-up? Also what app are you using on your phone, and how does it connect with your install?

I got onboard Arb and installed. Its the best undoubtedly in terms of consistency and durability for the premium we pay. It costed me 2300 with air tank and 800 for installation.

So far @RussI found ARB is the best. No idea if they do fixing and connection, but many others they supply ARB and do the required connections or fixing. Re capacity suits your car, they need to propose, which most probably what you said, suits them. But you need to double check whats good for you. Apologies, can not help it.

My guess is also Red..just going by gut feeling 🤞🤞

I guess it will be red (hopefully not white)

I feel it's gonna b red🙂

Thanks @Lorenzo Candelpergher,very well noted, I was just wondering as I was on 1st wait list,so if could have got this one ,would sign off other. But obviously it's fair enough to give fellow brother a chance for first drive.thank you👍.

Dear Marshal's, @Gaurav @Rahimdad @Chaitanya D @Frederic @Srikumar @Ale Vallecchi @Foxtrot Oscar @Jeepie @Wrangeld I would like to request you all to consider this as a request, it would be nice if we can have more options in night drives (08:00 PM to 12:00 AM, Thursday and Friday) during summer, as it's really hot now since approaching peak summer. noticed in the last morning drive that most of the vehicles started over heating once the temperature started to raise. Thank you. Br, Abdul Rahman

Hello my dear fellow Carnitians; interesting thread you started@Lorenzo Candelpergher😁 @Niki @Hisham Masaad , you guys have as big an appetite as I do for upgrades. I just had to steer you in the right direction 😂 @Watteau, you have a great system on your car and I’m more impressed that you did the work yourself 💪🏻 Back to the topic at hand, as far as the deflation goes and in my opinion, the Apex valves are the best thing out there since sliced bread 😀 They truly work very well, and are the fastest solution I’ve seen on the market. It literally takes about a minute to deflate all 4 tires from 40 PSI to 8-9 PSI. Once you’ve used them for a while, you can kind of gauge when to stop deflating at the right PSI. As for inflation, I believe Hisham’s solution is the most convenient out of all the Carnity people I know. Attach 4 small hoses to each tire and voila! I’ve seen however a similar system to Hisham’s, where the inflation/deflation system (4 small hoses, each to a tire) is attached to an ARB double piston air compressor, where inflation/deflation happens from the convenience of the car, using an iPhone! It is brilliant, because by the time we finished the drive and reached the inflation point, the gentleman had already inflated all 4 tires (while driving). He then removed his flag and off he went. Didn't step out of the car for the inflation; only to remove his flag! One last word, I found that the tank doesn’t speed things up much on the ARB system. Instead, I opted to install two in-line ARB compressors in the car and managed to cut my inflation time by half 😀 Something to think about @Hisham Masaad and @Niki 😈

Yes it's advisable to get a PCR from any drive-thru center. I usually do this on Wednesday evening and get the results within 12 hours. Thanks, with regards to the radio, i think the online shop of dragon mall might be an option (not sure about delivery in Abu Dhabi) The Baofeng UV5R or Crony MT777 is a good economic option and should be readily available. https://edragonmall.com/collections/walkie-talkies/products/baofeng-uv5r-1-5-lcd-5w-136-174mhz-400-480mhz-dual-band-walkie-talkie