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Being in lead the day before and today in support in the same area really felt different. actually I kinda started to like this area 53 now 🤣 . Couldn’t just believe how this area has revived in 24 hours seeing many convoys around. I guess helped in that the relative drop in temperature and cloudy sky. That was a blessing indeed. today @Rizwanm2 has chosen a path route which obviously well prepared and truly I was impressed . Thank you my friend for leading us today in a safe trip full of excitement and thrill. I enjoyed it so very much 🙏 @Haitham Khattab second time we drive and your second lead was just stunning and we were following your path like a magnet 🧲. Your communication with the lead was outstanding well done . it’s always a pleasure indeed , and that’s what is @Carnity all about : connecting people , meeting new people : @Brett Eicher @Imran Kashif and @Gurcharan Mehta was at most pleasure observing how nice and in control you were guys driving that I rarely needed to correct anything for the guys behind whom as I sow from my rear mirror they were following each other in synchrony the two FJC @takeshi sobue and our sweep of the day who did more than great @topgear and his little copilot along 🙏👍 No shovels no ropes , just couple refusals cleared with amazing self recoveries. The only “ event “ of the day is that we had to exit @Gurcharan Mehta as his passenger didn’t feel well I hope all ok by now 🙏 hope to see you soon till then wish you good week ahead and take care . below is our play route hope you enjoy

Drive Report thank you everyone for reporting early morning today. we started our briefing just before sun rise and we were ready to move even before te sun rise. its was perfect weather today morning with plenty of heavy clouds covering the sky. we started our exploration from the northern part of the Badayer, which gave us enough time to warm up under heavy clouds and low visibility. During this session we covered plenty of technical dunes as well, to my surprise everybody did exceptionally well without any stuck or refusal. Then gradually we moved to southern high grounds of area 53. After about 1 and half hour from start @Gurcharan Mehta informed that he and the passenger is not feeling well. so we looped back to almost starting point to make an early exit for our friends. Thank you doctor @M.Seidam for assisting me and convoy by leading us to the early exit. after a quick break we started our climbing session which was not an easy task, the track was heavily churned and there were lot of traffic also in the area. only couple of refusals where everyone was able self recover with help of @M.Seidam precise instructions... Even i had fare share of desert bruise today when i suddenly dive in to uneven dune. Thank you everyone for help me sort out the bumper. after couple of back n forth loops we started heading towards out exit from far northers driving along Dubai sharjah border fence. @M.Seidam you are the star of the drive today for helping and motivating each and everyone of us. When i have such a great support in convoy have no worry or fear to conquer any terrain. Thank you very much my friend. 🙏 @Haitham Khattab You are truly amazing second lead, precisely doing what i want you to do even before i inform you. Thank you very much. 💪 @Brett Eicher i didnt hear much from you during the drive, hope you enjoyed the track today 🙂 @Imran Kashif You also drove very well today, @Gurcharan Mehta I hope you enjoyed the early bit of the drive, @takeshi sobue Hope today track was piece of cake for your monstrous FJ Cruiser. Last but not least @topgear Thank you very much for assisting and sweeping the convoy. hope you and and your copilot enjoyed the drive. Till next time enjoy your week ahead

Thanks you @Rizwanm2 for leading us today, I enjoyed the adventure and the nice weather while clouds were covering us throughout the whole drive. it was a busy day in Badayer with lots of churn but you were able to find us some fresh tracks and created a nice mix of technical, loops & Climbs👏🏻 Thank you Dr. @M.Seidam for the great support, clear instructions and useful information and keeping the convoy intact👍 Thank you @topgear for sweeping us and thanks to all convoy members for making this fun and keeping up with the pace @Brett Eicher, @Gurcharan Mehta, @Imran Kashif, @takeshi sobue see you all soon

Thank you @Islam Soliman for the drive this morning! These soft patches and side slopes are always tricky, especially for the back of the convoy. Great way to start the day in good company, and for me a last chance to take some sand with me before my holidays. @Chris Wing @Simon Dawood @Vaibhav @Zed @Fabien Monleau @Thomas Varghese @Ranjan Das it was nice driving with you, some of you since a long time! See you soon !

@Islam Soliman Thanks for the drive today! the weather was great and thought the terrain changed a lot we still managed to find some good lines. Somehow I reverted to Newbie in a couple of instances today Hope you get the car fixed quickly and we'll see you on the next drive. Congrats to @JeromeFJ for the 100th drive! Thanks to @Ranjan Das for sweeping us today as well. As usual was a pleasure driving with all the guys today, we know each other well by now and makes all the drives a lot of fun!

@Islam Soliman thank you for the drive Such a lovely climate. Just felt like winter but just warm.very challenging drive with the dunes completely changed due to wind and rains. @JeromeFJthanks for the dates. Have a lovely vacation and see you soon. It was pleasure meeting with @Chris Wing @Simon Dawood @Simon Dawood @Zed @Fabien Monleau @Thomas Varghese @Ranjan Das Hope to see you all on the sand soon

Thanks @Rizwanm2 for leading the drive today and supported by ever reliable Dr @M.Seidam Always learning from you guys. This is the first time I’m at Badayer for Fewbie drive. My previous visits were all F+. Today my son was with me and F level suited him well. The orange sand and high climbs was breathtaking. @Haitham Khattab @Brett Eicher@Imran Kashif @Gurcharan Mehta @takeshi sobue you guys made up a great convoy. As mentioned by Doc, no shovel and rope just refusals. @Gurcharan Mehta no apologies needed. Safety is important and honestly, even the exit drive was fun for us. @takeshi sobue it was easy following you as your exhaust note will tell me how much to push have a great week ahead

Thanks for the IM drive today. It was fun driving with people whom you have driven with before. At 1st it seemed relatively easy but very soon got into challenging terrain. Plus point of the drive - @Islam Soliman took us through a track which had no cross tracks meaning less frequented area. Everybody showed up before time and so we could exit on time. Most of the time radio silence as all were experienced drivers. Had 2 crests - 1 for @Chris Wing and 2nd for me at the same place🤣. Had a crest situation after a long time. @Simon Dawood tugged out the 1st crest of Chris and @Ranjan Das pulled me out relatively easy. See you all soon in the sands. Some pictures are posted in the gallery for all of you to enjoy. Couldn't take more as no one helped the photographer in me by having a refusal or stuck.

Was great having you @JeromeFJ and congratulations on your 💯 drive.. thx for the dates 😂

Glad to learn that . And please no need for apology 🙏

Thank you for the kind words @M.Seidam, likewise it was a delight to meet you. Yes, the family is doing better now, thank you for asking. @Rizwanm2, it was a fun route as always, unfortunately we had to exit early, but looking forward to your future drives. I would like to once again apologize to everyone in the convoy for the inconvenience due to the early exit as we weren't feeling well. @Rizwanm2 , @M.Seidam and everyone else, thank you for taking us to an exit even though we were in the middle of Badayer. It was a pleasure meeting everyone, see yall again soon!

@Zed & @Thomas Varghese thanku so much, just saw your msgs. Reconnecting the battery took some time but @Zed like you said no lights initially but came back on after some time. I wont be able to make it to the meeting point ontime now anyway, better for me to sit this one out and get it checked rather than take a chance and spoil the fun for the rest of the grp. I hope you all have an enjoyable and safe drive, i will def catch up with you soon.

Thanks so much for having me along, gents! It was a great morning, with plenty of variety, some stellar views, and a couple of small "community service projects" along the way. Carnity to the rescue! Take care, y'all.

Thank you again for organising this drive @Rizwanm2 What an amazing way to spend a morning. I had an absolute blast, always learning, and can't wait for the next one!

Great drive today. Learned a lot. Thanks Fred and the rest of the guys.

@ASAD. hope no serious issue with the car @Amir Amiri sorry to hear about the water pipe.. hopefully no damage to the house looking forward for driving with both of you soon

Drive Report Driving early ahead of time thinking that i will be the first one to arrive. surprised to see already three cars almost ready and it was not even 5 am so by then every one was there preparing to have a blast in this iconic area of Sharjah desert. I truly appreciate the punctuality and passion which says it all about how great you are my friends. starting slowly to get the feel of the sand and keeping not far from exit line but parallel to it and not for a long till @Rob S had a leaking air from his tire and we agreed to safeguard it by early exit. resuming the drive back and directly now boosting it ascending and descending cluster after the other with steep climbs at some times sensing the sand is being cooked under our tyres. never gave up despite couple refusals which cleared by nice self recoveries and successful reattempting in one hand and few re routing in few occasions on the other hand. our only stuck of the day which required rope recovery came when @Trekadogot bogged in a soft patch that the 4 tires sunk in. done safely in no time after which i asked every one to recheck the pressure and keep it on 12 PSI regardless of tyre type or how heavy is the car. after this we reached Iftar Bowl directly from behind like a woke in the park and there every one took time 2 to 3 attempts to experiment climbing from either side or just straight up till top and down. while sipping my coffee in my air conditioned darkly tended X my eyes never took off on them enjoying and feedbacking on the radio whenever required. heading to super bowl were the way to it was even more fun than the bowl itself in and out bowling criss crossing sharp crests from hard to slip and from slip to hard some times in sequence and that was epic and the climax of the fast drive . looking into my watch to realize that its time to push the landing gear and start to slowly descend taking a small loupe stripe of technical dunes in between trees and some scattered camels here and there till we reached the dirt track and existed at Tawi Ghadaya. you know guys non of my drive is free from technicality the most what i love and hope you loved it too. @Rob S sorry that you day was cut short but even till then you did amazing as second lead. hope you sort out the issue soon. take care my friend. @Alexanderrr you drove like a pro today and was a treat to see the Pajero climbing till top of iftar bowl today. @Trekado pleasure meeting you for the first time. after lowering the pressure in your tires it was different as you see and remember deflation is the king in sand driving. well done my friend. @KAMALIO nice drive you are getting finely tuned with the different terrain as we drove many time and this is big plus my friend. @Karthik Raptor seeing the raptor climbing and hearing it roaring in the middle of the convoy but fine and smooth you offered a track to follow for the back half is testimonial of how good you were today. well done. the wrangler pack @Prakash Anoop @Morshedi @RiaanJH and @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler I believe guys you had a ton of fun knowing it from the big smiles at the end of the drive . pleasure driving with you all . and i almost forgot thank you @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler nice meeting you for the first time and thanks for taking over the sweep position after Rob's exit. your communications were clear and relevant. @Ashok chaturvedi bhai its always a pleasure driving with you thank you for the initial sweep and then the second lead. your care for the convoy is always remarkable and effective .thank you @Zixuan Huang - Charlie thank you dear for being in the middle and for all the guidance in self recoveries and advices. i enjoyed today very much and hope you all did . till we meet take care and drive safe cheers Seidam

Really enjoyed this mornings drive, fantastic leadership from @JeromeFJ, great route which resulted in hardly any refusals. The practice time on the smaller bowls and slopes (and great advice) really helped when we got to the bigger bowls and dunes later in the drive. Great to meet you all and I look forward to driving you all in the very near future!!!

Hi @JeromeFJ , Thank you for another amazing weekend breakfast “bowls”. Had fun going around the slopes, and pushing the climbs. Thoroughly enjoyed the company of the convoy. The view from atop Fayah was breathtaking - fitting closure to the circuit. Looking forward to your drives in September.

It was a beautiful morning in the sands. Thank you all of you for joining, we had a great drive and a great company. Mahafiz area has always nice surprises, as the area might look relatively flat with a lot of bushes, but it has some hidden gems, as perfect shaped bowls and long dunes calling for side sloping. We took advantage of all of it, and each of you was attentive to correct their lines when needed. Good practice for the next steps ! Then, leaving Fossil Rock to our left, we reached the Faya area, crossing this beautiful stretch of dunes. There was almost no tracks, and a very soft sand. Even with the majestic views of the mountains and virgin dunes, you were focused on your tracks, and we had almost no refusal. Finally, the high dune of Faya was there to test our machines and our capabilities, showing that a big climb is not only about power, but a combination of line selection, acceleration dosing, proper gearing... and power! All of us (ok... one of us was a passenger) made it to this perfect bowl at the top of the dune, to enjoy the fantastic view around. Very well driven everyone we had only minor refusals, no stuck, showing definitely high level and concentration. Still we had 2 recoveries, not from our convoy. One motorbike stuck in soft sand, and a Patrol stuck in a pocket not even 1 km from the exit. Just reminders that driving alone in the desert is always to be avoided. @Gregory Powell thank you for the 2nd lead, very well executed. @Jaro Tuzinsky excellent progress during the drive itself, with a good control of the Pajero. @Brett Eicher nice performance with the manual Cherokee, we forget that some of us have additional work during the drive! @Dinesh Kumar A you take the Prado to heights without efforts, making any climb or bowl look easy. @Jonny90 excellent control of the Safari, you will enjoy your car more and more! @takeshi sobue, always a pleasure to hear the FJ in the climbs! @Imran Kashif it was a pleasure to meet a new FJ fellow. A few adjustments in your lines, and you will see the performance of the FJ can still be increased. @Ignacio Quindós, very well driven with good control. Big thank you for the sweep, with timely indications from the back of the convoy. Big thank you also to @Pacific keeping the lines of the convoy and assisting the refusals when needed. I will be away for a month, enjoy the desert during this time, and see you in September !

Our forums are rife with people discussing modifications that they are either doing or intending to do. There are clearly two camps: the modders and the purists. And there are those sitting on the fence. Neither camp is incorrect. And I don't think we should be trying to resolve the tension between the two. That's what makes the conversations here so darn interesting So when @Rob S called me out for pushing the "stock car" camp in drives, it forced me to rethink if I really have a true purist's machine. Having just completed a year at Carnity and owning my car, I've driven roughly 3,400 km off-road (thanks Gaia) in that time. And this coupled with Rob's shoutout, I felt like it made a good moment to reflect on what I've added to the car in that time, and answer the question - "is my car still stock?" To help bring some gradation to this, I'm going to employ the SAMR Model. The model is designed to study technology integration in the classroom, but the core strategic construct can be applied to vehicle upgrades too. After all, everything we do is integrating technology in various ways. Broadly speaking, technology integration is broken into two pillars - Enhancement looks to find direct substitutes or add-ons that don't fundamentally alter the core technology being used. For example, adding offroad lighting in any place that was not a light before, is augmenting a new use out of a previously unused area. Similarly, if you swapped out a Philips H4 Halogen bulb with an Osram one, or an LED one, you haven't physically altered the bulb housing or the reflector/projector setup. Transformation changes the design and/or definition of the part being used. For example, if you use an All/Terrain (A/T) tyre instead of a Highway/Terrain (H/T), you have fundamentally altered the part beyond it's core design. Therefore, an A/T tire is a modification. For our purpose, I will be using "Augmentation" to refer to Enhancement, and "Modification" to refer to Transformation. Here are all of the changes I've made over the past year of owning my Nissan Patrol (Y61) Long Wheelbase "Super Safari". *The priority coding is intended for you, and not for me. I can tell you for certain that the speaker upgrade was the single greatest thing I did. With this lexicon, it is clear that I've made four (4) modifications to car in the past year: A/T Tires, Fog Lights, Entertainment Head Unit, and Speaker System The truth is that the only true purist who can say they are driving their car as is would be somebody who has only installed a bash plate and is still running the H/T tires the car shipped with. Beyond that, almost every car has been modified from its original state in some way. And therefore, I'm not really driving a stock car anymore. But what long-term purists are constantly trying to help the modders avoid sinking their money into upgrades that are masquerading as significant incremental performance, but are instead purely aesthetic. And aesthetics are deeply personal. What looks good to you may not appeal to me, and vice versa. And secondly, pragmatic purists are trying to help modders stop and reflect about what is a true performance gain. Gaining 30bhp on a 250bhp car is a 12% performance gain. Your real, at-the-wheel bhp figures will be even lower. For example, if your car weighs 2,950kg and produces 271bhp; a 10bhp incremental lift will deliver a 3.7% gain in Power-to-Weight Ratio (PWR). But if you carry an additional human being weighing 50kg, this gain will go down by 2% to 1.7%. A half-empty fuel tank of 60L is already ~22 kgs lighter. So performance gains are notoriously difficult to get right unless you make the associated weight savings as well. And manufacture rated horsepower numbers are never the real at-wheel delivered power. And lastly, seasoned off-roaders (who actually care) are trying to ensure that anybody investing in a modification is "investing" in an upgrade that they know will fix a continued and replicated gap. Not being able to climb one or two times is not enough reason to tune your engine and get suspension upgrades. But, understanding the concepts of rebound and compression, and isolating how they affect your driving control when you try to negotiate steep or uneven climbs is. A seasoned offroader is just trying to impress upon you to invest the time and experience it takes to isolate where the real gain will emerge from. So, with these caveats and voices in my head, what might then, be further upgrades that I'm looking at in the future, you may ask: Aftermarket Shocks + Longer Springs (High) This will be my single biggest modification to the car, and I'm doing a ton of research to get it as close to right as possible. And I still may not do it for another year. The only real time I have felt the need for better shocks are when trying to build enough momentum over uneven dunes. In places like Iftar Bowl, when you climb from the right-hand side, there are a few humps in the get-go that my stock suspension just rebounds too much over. This leads to a lack in control and a fear that the bouncing front will rub the nose as I try to climb. If I take my ego out of the picture for not doing the climb, I don't actually really need the fancy Remote Reservoir or Dual-Shock setups. I can then instead look to make a suspension upgrade that will give me the ability to significantly increase my payload, increase comfort over rocky trails and corrugations, and account for additional weight in the front to prevent any nosediving. Cabin Drawer System (Medium) is a "redefinition" because it requires removing the third row of seats, and physically altering the space For all the things I want to stow away, and not have to constantly ratchet down. Dual-battery system (High) If you see above, I have a ton of lights If I add any more, and a fridge, and a rig to power any devices while camping, I will need an additional battery. One of the things that most of us never do when we add extra lights is to check for the current draw. Please do that, whenever you add additional electronics. This includes your entertainment head unit as well. And what are upgrades, I don't think I will be getting any time soon or at all: Beadlock Rims: I may even downgrade to the classic silver Nissan Rims on the Safari. The true benefit of using beadlocks is so far lost on me. If I was to truly upgrade my rims, I would go for forged wheels to reduce weight while increasing strength, than prioritise bead grip. Roof-rack: I don't currently see the full value in installing a roof-rack. I will only do this when I've exhausted the internal cabin space. The roofs of cars are not rated to carry the enormous loads that we subject on them. Furthermore, if weight distribution is not done correctly on the roof, it will significantly alter the center of gravity of my car. Exhaust Mods: As I live with a sportscar that is plenty loud to wake up the neighborhood, and is being tuned for the track, I prefer the "sleeper" silence of the Patrol. I've also gone to extreme lengths to deaden the internal cabin to hear music at the levels I like so getting louder outside seems counter-productive. Will this kick off another debate? I sure hope so. Like I said, that's what makes these forums so darn interesting. [ 🐵 ]

Thank you very much again for organising this drive @JeromeFJ The views were stunning, and loved the drive! Can't wait for the next one!

The weather was definitely in our favor today. Upon arrival @Paul Zietsman and his son were spotting scorpions at the meeting point and it didn’t take long for the rest of the gang to join us. With @Murtaza Bhuria in second lead, who drove effortlessly even though he’d been out for a while, @Lucas behind him, followed by @Paul Zietsman and a very capable sweeper @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler we had a small convoy today and everyone drove great. I was actually glad to have that handful of small stucks so we got to enjoy the beautiful weather As time was running out, we quickly zipped through Murquab, even though this terrain has amazing scenery and dunes but we’ll keep that for the next time. Thanks to all for joining this morning ! See you soon in the sand again!

Congratulations @munkybizness well done bro..

Good Morning @Rizwanm2 really sorry but we are running about 5 minutes late.

@ASAD. removing battery terminal is like formatting computer, it resets the ECU into learning mode again and zeroing all previous sensors' values. Car may run "rough" for a while as it relearns. This may work depending on car maker and codes. Error code like O2 sensors can only be cleared with a "Clear command" of scanner and not by resetting ECU (remove battery).

@Zed thanks i dont have a scanner unfortunately. Someone advised to remove the battery terminals overnight, i will try that and hope in the morning fault is clear. Are you sure it will be cleared with the scanner? Btw prado is a full time 4WD, so the 4H and diflock seems to be working fine. Its just the 4L function that seems to have the problem, not engaging also

@ASAD. try clearing the code with OBD2 scanner. If there's no issue with the car & clearing the code doesn't bring the code back, it's just a temporary glitch due to 4L to 2WD switching too fast (happened yesterday with a friend's Fortuner 4.0). If no OBD2 scanner available, come to the meeting point and we'll clear the CEL for you 😊

@Islam Soliman my engine check light turned on this evening and 4lo keeps blinking. There doesnt seem to be any issue in the car, probably a sensor issue. If the problem persists in the morning, i may have to skip the drive.

Thank you for organising this drive @Rizwanm2 Looking forward to it!

Thanks @Rizwanm2, looking forward to this drive👍

Dear Friends @topgear @Brett Eicher @Imran Kashif @Gurcharan Mehta @M.Seidam @Haitham Khattab @takeshi sobue hope you all ready to sign of another weekend with blast of drive in badayer. Plan for tomorrow is to start much early as possible to cover some good grounds in the early morning, Sand is expected to be super soft hence recommend to deflate your tires for about 12 PSI upon arrival and be ready to move by 5.15 AM maximum. we will use carnity radio channel 2 - 446.031 Below is our convoy order for tomorrow.

It was my first drive in Sharjah and we really enjoy the drive and challenges,wow.Thanks @JeromeFJ for guiding us and keep eyes on us all the time. Thanks all team who joined today drive with us😊 @Takinscalps89

Congratulations fitek bro😜

Thank you for organising this @JeromeFJ Looking forward to it!

@Gregory Powell @Jaro Tuzinsky @Sunny84 @Brett Eicher @Dinesh Kumar A @Pacific @Jonny90 @takeshi sobue @Imran Kashif @Ignacio Quindós Last update for tomorrow Meeting at 5:15 am Mahafiz Trees https://goo.gl/maps/KMT4BMT3qd6xSAJS7 The convoy order will be We will use Radio Channel 2 Take as much rest as you can, and see you all tomorrow morning !