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Dear FB+ drive participants. Getting closer to the close of the RSVP, and would remind you that you have added your names sometime during the week. In case a change of plan, please review and confirm. The list of names as of now are as below. For the records and to decide joining or not, if you are a person not getting speed tickets on road, you might need to leave the drive please. Attendees Zulfikhar Naiyar @Zulfikhar Naiyar Bravoecho @Bravoecho Jaro Tuzinsky @Jaro Tuzinsky Krishna R @Krishna R Joseph Raju @Joseph Raju Stumpy Paj @Stumpy Paj Mohit Gurnani @Mohit Gurnani Gary F @Gary F Mark B @Mark B Ahmad Nerat @Ahmad Nerat DP1011 @DP1011 Waitlisted Attendees Alphin Aloor @Alphin Aloor

Good evening, all. Many who have driven with me knows that my car carries 3 different colours (primary silver, secondary red, and thirdly yellow). In relation to this I have been meaning to write a post to help anyone looking to add a new colour or colour's to their car. To begin with I originally thought I could just slap any colour I wanted onto the car (even if it was only tiny little stripes; this is not the case). Recently I had to get a new Mulkia for my car this meant I had to visit a Tajeel center which failed due to incorrect colour information. So how would someone avoid the process of taking off stickers or potentially gain a large fine for driving a car that is seen as a UFO in the eyes of RTA. This is a long process which should not be overlooked ensure you do everything legally before changing the colour of your car. To begin with the first thing your going to want to do is visit the Dubai Police Vehicle impound Yard in Warsan 2 located here https://goo.gl/maps/ZK1mWcJt7Kotb6k27, Then you will want to meet the receptionist there and say your visiting to get a colour change request who will likely point you to a CID officer ensure they know its for non-commercial purposes. Now in my case after speaking to the CID officer and expressing concerns over having two new colours added onto the car he pointed me towards using the Dubai police app, he also told me to get the stickers put on before requesting onto the app which seemed to be taking a expensive risk. Get the stickers or paint job done to your car. Once your happy with your new colours and preferably your car is still under studio lighting within a workshop I recommend heading to the Dubai police app which is available on IOS and android devices Once within the app navigate to 'services' and scroll all the way down until you reach 'traffic services' from here click into 'vehicle change colour request' You will then be greeted with this request page, fill out all the credentials, photos and videos, then submit it to Dubai police this will in turn cost a fee which I think it was 140 dhs. NOTE: Be very careful submitting this form, ensure the current colour matches the Mulkia, if you're adding onto your primary colour make sure 'colour 1' is the same as what you have put in current colour. Also if you're going to add two new colours like myself ensure you put the largest amount of 'new colour' first before worrying about the second, in my request it was Silver and Red leaving out yellow. Shortly after you will receive a letter much like this one stating your car meets their requirements and the colour change is all done. You may think your finished however the fun is only beginning! 5. This step is optional, but I recommend anyway: Now if you have a third colour the app wouldn't let you submit head back to Dubai Impound in Warsan make sure you bring a printed copy or get desk 1 print you out your approval letter go back to the building with the CID officers and ask them to correct your form and explain you have another colour; in this case mine was yellow, be prepared to let them inspect your vehicle or show a photo just to illustrate what colour you mean; in my case the Officer wrote the word 'yellow' in Arabic followed by a signature and a Dubai Police Stamp (signature and stamp will show RTA guys that the form is legit) now that you're half way through the process remember you only have 30 days to sort out the rest of the legal paperwork on the new colours 6. Make sure you're up bright and early to tackle the task of heading to an RTA customer happiness center, I'm sure any RTA center is perfectly fine to go to however I recommend heading to this one in Al Barsha https://goo.gl/maps/CSWjyTbhGfxPrwYS6 7. You could attempt to head into the main office to ask for a colour inspection much like myself however they will point you towards a Tajeel testing center which is located right behind the buidling. 8. Upon reaching the tajeel booth ask the person at the gate your there for a colour inspection, they will most likely shuffle you into the 'special services' testing bay, after waiting for your turn tell them your only there for a colour inspection and give them your printed approval from Dubai police (even if you tell them this they will still do a full inspection of the car charging you 170 dhs which is frustrating so best go when your Mulkia is about to expire. 9. Talk to the receptionist within the Tajeel side of the RTA center and explain your there for a colour inspection, she will give you a ticket and now you wait! everything should be smooth if you only added one colour and you should receive your passed note from RTA which will allow you to talk to the receptionist to get your new Mulkia printed. Congrats! BUT if you also added more than one colour your day is going to get a lot longer within RTA, much like myself you will probably be located by the RTA guys and they will tell you the colour doesn't match what you have on the Dubai police report (potentially this was my experience) point out the stamp and the colour that has been approved by the Dubai police impound. This next experience can also vary so be prepared for the unknown, when you finally pass inspection and your directed to a new line for your new Mulkia you may be told a new card cannot be submitted to you because the colours don't match from the report and your car, explain the confusion or speak to the manager showing them your RTA printed document with the print and signature Ensure you scan this police document onto your phone in case it is lost within all the RTA confusion 10. Everything should be cleared up and you should have a new Mulkia and should have all remained colours onto your car! Congrats! 11. Enjoy your stripes or new paintjob until you realize that stickers may need to be fixed every 2 years due to the hotter climate of Dubai Thanks for reading and I hope this helped someone in the long run.

A small project that I have been putting off for a while. mounted the ARB compressor inside the rear L/H quarter panel. Lots of room even with the factory amplifier. had some left over sound deadening mat so put a bit in as well. took about three hours to do so nice little mod that frees up some of the limited space in the back of the SWB. Have a kill switch for it next to battery and the switch next to the air fitting but will install a relay and a switch in my dash next. (Just have to find a heavy duty 60amp relay)

Definitely you cannot be second lead then @Jaro Tuzinsky . Sweep is best position for you and also ensuring convoy discipline ! you cannot overtake anyone

@Hisham Masaad and now?:))) this without other tickets :))) i am looking forward driving with all of this morning.

Mostly personal preference but the V6 Engine bay is a bit to cramped, if this was the 3.2TD I would have a second battery and the compressor in the engine bay. there is lots of free space in the 1/4 panel plus it’s pulling clean cool air from the cabin, the engine bay cops at lot of sand and heat (over 90deg) so hopefully the compressor will last a bit longer in this location.

1000km down and all is well so far, had to install 10mm spacers under the transmission mount as there was a bit of vibration from the tail shaft at higher speeds. Easy job just took me a few days to find something suitable. car drives the same, body roll and handling hasn’t changed, if anything it’s a bit better due to the new UCAs and trailing arm bushes. 👍👍👍👍

My Wrangler is white and one day I put the black stars on the front doors. At the first renewal, RTA said my Jeep was no longer white, so test failed. However, the process to change the colour was extremely simple for me. From the Dubai Police app, you access the service, load the pictures of the car, and in a few minutes voila, colour changed. And RTA approved. I didn't have to go anywhere.

While having some speeding tickets to our account, do we also need to be "Cool headed" about it ? and not getting heated ?

@Hisham MasaadIf you'd count many tickets in multiple emirates then please confirm my attendance

@M.Seidam thanks! Yeah I had some worries too with the black on my car, I heard nightmare stories of jeeps failing without stickers because of the black rooftops that come OEM from the factory as the black isn’t stated on the Mulkia. Hopefully stickers will stay in good condition for a good amount of time

Very well written @Benjamin.. one word of advise is to secure CID approval prior to starting any color change as in many cases they will request the car to be brought for inspection and if the color is changed already from what is recorded in Mulkia it can complicate things.. bare in mind that the main purpose of the CID preapproval is to ensure the owner is not changing the color to hide something (hit and run or other major offense) so if they are suspicious for any reason and color is already changes it can be a big problem

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

GENERAL OVERVIEW We request every member that joins this drive to go through the below information and strictly follow these guidelines, etiquettes and responsibilities. MUST READ AND COMPLY Environmental Policy Offroad Flag Guideline Two Way Radio Guideline Off road Driving Etiquettes Emergency details for all off roaders Off Road Driving - Roles & Responsibilities DRIVE DETAILS Level: Fewbie Plus and above When: 5 August 2023, Saturday Meeting time: 5:30 AM - Sharp (Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/Hh48junesz1v6eiSA Approximate finish time: 8:30 AM Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Mandatory off-road gears: Tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, compressor, walkie-talkie radio, off-road flag, shovel, first-aid kit, Tow Rope, 2 Shackles and fire extinguisher. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE This drive is limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Friday - 10 AM If the RSVP is full, you can add your name to the waitlist, once anyone drops, you will be moved to the RSVP list. RSVP will close couple hours prior to preparing a convoy list. Latecomers will be returned back - Without any exceptions. Members without RSVP will be returned back - Without any exceptions. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP ON BELOW CALENDAR

Cheers mate! Good reasons

I am afraid that this is all what has to be done for two color combination but multi color/ strips I guess you have to go to @Benjamin’s one thousand mile journey 😅

Seems to be much easier when your only adding one colour for sure! But nice design choice!

Whoa ! what an honor to have you @Anish S !! - Looking forward to see you ! Welcome back

Totally agree @Islam Soliman I tried securing CID approval before putting stickers first visited an RTA HQ located beside the airport, who then pointed me to a nearby police station HQ for CID approval, they ended up being closed, this leading to the police station in Warsan 2 though it might be a good idea to get a signature from the officer there but they told me the approval will come through with the Dubai police app, even when I voiced the concerns of causing any confusion with my current condition and colour status of my car at the time. Been chasing it up for around a month. Talk about time consuming 😂

Thank you @Benjamin for the clear and fantastic info. once the RTA tasjeel personel asked about the black star ( sticker ) on both sides of my Xterra and i told him that its mentioned in the Mulkia color black and white and there is no spesification for stickers as when i bought the car it was registered as such and Transfer registration was done as such from the first place and he accepted. and yes if the stripes fade away or in my case i had to re place it due to a car body work last year.

Thank you @Gaurav! means a lot, just hoping these more updated details will help someone to get through this process or help them decide if the process is worth the struggle to go through in the first place

The only issue I struggle is rpm which is locked at 4,000 and above that the ECU takes over and doesn’t allow no matter how much gas you press hard. For all dunes in UAE if you are not doing dare devil extreme drives this is more than enough. 😀 I am traveling at the moment and would take you for a drive when I arrive end of the month. You can drive my tuned Prado 2022 model. look at a comparison I had made few days back when I wanted to buy off-road trading the Prado. the first three Toyota still cheapest and multi purpose.

I have written a similar one for finding the CID office (somewhere in ghusais) for getting permission for full color repaint back in 2017. But yours is a fantastic write-up with much more and newer details with updated contact, well done.

Excellent and informative write-up - it could not be any more detailed IMO.

Great info mate, appreciate you posting that, I have thought about wraps and did wonder what the headache would be 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Thanks @Davie Chase and @Imteeaz for your kind words, but the whole credit goes to the amazing convoy that made the whole morning beautiful in Lisaili dunes. Everyone drove amazing and big kudos to @Arun Menon for the first FB drive, he managed very well, even in a little tricky situations.

@Gaurav I echo the statement from @Davie Chase such a smooth drive with the right amount of adrenaline rush everytime i get dirty on the sand. Thank you mate. @Alphin Aloor @Arun Menon @Emanuel @Glenn W it was a pleasure to see some new faces for this drive. You all drove well and were up to challenge. until nxt time, enjoy ur week

Waiting for Sunday 🤪