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@Haneef Thayyil But I see it on your profile Fewbie. try to restart your phone or laptop and refresh may be?? ( 😂😂😂😂😂)

Thank you very much @Gaurav, the Carnity leaders, advisors, supporting team and all the members. It’s been a pleasure to learn and grow with your support and guidance, and so happy for the promotion.😊 I look forward to the next level of drives with more fun and excitements. Thanks again.

Thanks for the tip @Sunil Mathew. Plan on checking if this is the culprit tonight. Obviously damaged from my over enthusiastic usage of horn 😅😅

These are the stats from the last two drives I did here. In the first of the drive, we had a situation where we had a stuck car being pulled by another that got stuck which needed to be pulled by one more which got stuck too so we had to use one more behind it. There was a pop out too at the very start even before we entered the dunes. In the second drive at one time, we found three cars inside a small bowl, a little later in the drive we had 2 or 3 simultaneous popouts being fixed at the same time, and a dead car towards the end of the drive, in the dark. Expectation: The sand will be incredibly soft; the dunes are un-even and narrow. It will be a slow and treacherous track, where anything that could go wrong will go wrong. Objective: We will thread carefully among the dunes and try to keep moving by finding an uncomplicated way to navigate. Reality: TBA

Congratulations @Haneef Thayyil for reaching the Fewbie Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. FEWBIE Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 5 Newbie drives are required within last 3 months for Fewbie promotion. What you'll learn Basic dune and sand reading Self-recovery techniques Shoveling at right place Crawling out of difficult situations Blip Blip - Coordinate steering and gas control Basic side sloping and hill climb Basic ridge riding and criss crossing Basic control over technical dunes Slightly faster pace desert driving Ability to manage stuck/refusals with radio Learn to control and avoid fishtailing Never fight or challenge gravity Skills required Enthusiastic and positive attitude Willingness to learn and help others Presence of mind and attention to detail Car Worthiness Any 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor. Drive teamwork Manage second lead and sweep positions upon request Intuitive and proactive to support Trip Lead Observe recoveries and offer help, when needed Drive Joining Join Newbie and Fewbie drives Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Wow 🤩🤩 is it too late to switch to this drive instead???? 😜

Maybe just have a read of the radio info here and preprogramme your radio before Sunday 👍 https://carnity.com/advice/offroad/carnity-two-way-radio-frequencies-r119/

@Abhilash Kottakkal Only piece of advice is, U need to identify the sweet spot ( as @Gaurav always says) Start at 12, if u feel good thats it, if refusals go to 11, if thats swift and smooth u have identified ur sweet spot. Dont be afraid of popout, U will have to go through that process to identify ur sweet spot and there is no science involved, keep going and u will revert everyone the day you identified it👍🏻😎

Do you have a flag yet?, edit, sorry just saw that you have one on your previous post

Guys - I have some news to share and Those who will be making it to this drive, Please carry your coffee mugs , As I am will be treating the convoy with Beverages or so As I believe in not adding further to trash, would prefer to avoid disposables! ( I will be carrying trash bags though, in case someone wants to collect the trash we find during the drive 😂) Black coffee guys pls react "totally Agree" Coffee with milk and sugar "well done Lemonade : "Thank you"

Congratulations @Haneef Thayyil on your promotion.

Congrats and Well done @Haneef Thayyil ! See you soon some day in Sand!

Well done @Haneef Thayyil ! See you soon in the sand !

Congrats @Haneef Thayyil Enjoy the new rank and pace!

I also faced the same issue....horn was working intermittently, and not working at all when steering was straight.. when turned towards any side, it used to work randomly. The culprit was the clock spring aka spiral cable , located within the steering wheel housing For the fortuner - AED 330 for original part, AED 120 for labour 🙂

i had the same issue after the rollover, below are the steps my electrician did: 1. Use a meter to probe the relays if they are good instead of unplug-and-replug. They were good. 2. Open the steering wheel cos the horn and cruise control wirings go through the Yellow Spiral Clock Spring thingy. The yellow clockspring was ok. 3. Finally he used the Electrical Wiring Diagrams to probe the wirings, and found one wire needed soldering. Good luck with yours 👌🏻

@DP1011 first of all let me thank you and all for the great support as i have all time to get . and let me inform you about the source of Energy is the support i get from all of you and my colleges, with my confident to do something new in my life . with thanks to all of you .

Drive Report : For a Newbie level - Test of Endurance, raising your patience levels and Team sport - This is what I would call this drive all about and ALL of the convoy demonstrated all of these skills - Absolutely Impressive! Thank you @Islam Soliman For giving us this opportunity of great learning , both for the NBs and as well as the Support members ! Despite the challenge thrown by @Islam Soliman & Google maps ,on Finding the location of meeting point, All of the members were pretty much on time and post deflation with a back to school detailed briefing by Islam the journey of learning began. Some Drive stats : The drive commenced at 6.20, and we finished at 11.30, covering a distance of 39kms . The total duration being 5 hours, with 2.15 hours of stoppage time, while battling those soft patches which offered all of us great learning of who are our first go to friends in desert - the 3s, Steering, Shovel and Support team The only absolute NB @Rafey Hashmi with his impressive Jimny and from being flagless one day before the drive, to an amazing UAE flag, demonstrated great attitude by taking up all the challenges offered. am sure reflecting back on what you did, you should be proud of yourself ! Keep it up my friend and am sure you also learnt the art of moving to Manual and the timing of shifting gears and how steering works in your favour ! - just a reminder , Ikea 49 Aed is for the shovel is your next investment @Dev_ - Another member in convoy - I think hardly any refusals for you except minor ones if i remember, was first drive with you and you drove well, My only suggestion would be on aggressive steering my friend and nothing else - I know you felt the drive was easy and that explains your experience of learning on just you second drive ( not sure if you were driving before) @Dorian Zissi - Hope you had a good relaxing weekend my friend and am very sure, when reflecting on the day, you will certainly be proud on yourself, with so many learnings - as we say, the more you are stuck or face refusals the more you learn. and what you learnt on this drive is i would say, I learnt in 5 drives of being my newbie level - Keep up the endurance and the way you self recovered your self on that soft patch with inputs from Pajero king @Mehmet Volga was absolutely impressive. and looking forward to driving again with you soon . @DTG The demonstration you do with you machine is always commendable Danny and how well you know your vehicle is clearly seen that you buying water spray even before Shovel ( just on a lighter note) - Ikea 49 dirhams is your next investment !! _ Nicely done while doing those side dunes and overall I see you stepping up in each drive ! @essam ibrahim Always great to see you on drives and You were most inspirational on endurance level, with minor refusals , great attitude and extremely well done ! What's your source of Energy - we would all want to know !! @Fabien Monleau & @Mehmet Volga - Been long we drove together and it was great to have you guys as a team and am sure if not your presence, we wouldn't have had early dinner haha ! and lastly once again - Thanks @Islam Soliman - As I said, I got my technical Adrenaline ! Looking forward to seeing you all again soon in desert !

lol Dont get hung up on Liwa, really. As you need a ride that you can enjoy 12 months rather than once a year. Liwa is not a big deal depending on which level drive you join, we have seen all size and shapes of cars doing liwa every year.

One of my favorite topics...a Manual gearbox. Firstly, I love the feel of a manual gearbox especially while driving on the sand. No overheating issues, no upshifting issues and if you are reasonably careful they will outlast an automatic transmission any day. As Fred said, however much your experience of driving manual on the road is, off-road is very different. You will definitely burn your clutch in the initial phase. How many clutch sets you go through depends on how fast you learn not to ride the clutch. I prefer the vehicle to stall 10 times rather than ride the clutch once. But before you jump into a manual Xterra, I would check the following: 1. What are the gear ratios of the manual Xterra vs the automatic version. In some cars like the XJ the manual gearbox has a superior first gear ratio than in the automatic, letting you drive at high speeds on 1st gear. 2. If these gearboxes are not common, what would you do when one fails? Are they places (in US or a scrappy) where you can find a replacement. After struggling with quite a few bad scrapyard and rebuilt gearboxes over the past 2-3 years, last year I finally was able to source a new gearbox from the US. Costed a bomb, but I am glad I took the call. Some points that you ought to consider before buying a Manual Xterra.

Hey @Sreenath G Of course you can drive a manual gearbox in the dunes. I even prefer it over automatic. For an Xterra it's definitely rare, and probably lots of fun, @Anoop Nair, @Srikumar, myself, and few others drive manual gearboxes. The advantages: 1. No automatic upshifting. You and only you decide which gear you want to drive in. 2. Less weight in comparison with an auto gearbox which will mean better performance and less delay (no torque converter). Disadvantages: 1. Little bit more difficult to learn and you will probably burn 1-2 clutches by the time you get fully used to it.

Everything you need to know about Off-roading in UAE from Desert, Mountain, Wadi and Camping As simple literal meaning off-roading means any terrain off the road, but it gets way too confusing as per so many people different understanding with not enough clarity. After spending 12 years in UAE off-road scene, I feel this write up will help many offroaders clear their doubts and explain a lot of intrigue details to other aspiring offroaders. Off roading is a way of life For a vast majority of UAE population venturing offroad over the weekend is a way of life, that you sneak away from your busy lifestyle and enjoy the adrenaline rush to forget all your worries and recharge yourself. Why and how do you forget your worries? While off road driving your brain has to process hundreds of instructions per seconds that you will eventually forget all you were thinking in the first 5 minutes. And this process continues for the whole offroad drives and keeping you super alert at all times to have the best experience every time. Offroading is an act of driving a standard, stock or modified vehicle on any surface other than the tarmac road. It can be on loose gravel track, beach sand, desert, dunes, mountains or in wadi's (riverbeds). There are several different ways of off-roading in UAE based on your adventure appetite from leisure drives with stock (unmodified) vehicles to slightly modified vehicles to competition level with highly modified vehicles. Off road drive Sand Driving This is the most basic and first step towards an offroading. This requires your standard road 4x4 vehicle with proper 4x4 and LO gearing or even AWD vehicle is acceptable to a certain extent, but not an SUV. All you need to do is deflate your tires to 14-15 PSI to gain more traction and increase the footprint of your tire to spread the vehicle pressure on a greater surface area. At first, learn some basics of offroading in the sand in UAE. Plan your entry and exit points carefully either by following offroad books available in UAE or by existing trails from wikiloc. This level of a drive can be done on the beach, desert or any place close to the habitat territories. In the desert, it's usually restricted to either flat tracks (sabka's) or easily passable tracks on the broad dunes. Dune Bashing This is the most common level of offroading in the UAE, where the group of offroaders get together and venture in desert dunes and explore the uncharted and uninhabited territories. This requires a proper 4x4 with minimum 8-10 inches of ground clearance and deflation of 10-15 PSI depending on the tire and vehicle load. This level of drive organizes in the desert having plenty of dunes to make your own path on virgin sand dunes. This challenge requires special skills of reading the sand and riding the 4x4 with precise control to continue moving without getting stuck. Self-recovery in the sand is the most important skill that every offroader should learn after the first few drives. If you are stuck in the sand, then listen to the instructions very carefully without getting panic. Get out of the car to analyze the situation and also to help the person who is helping you either by shoveling or by fixing the tow rope to your car in the proper recovery point (tow hook). Once you are out of the stuck, do remember to get out of the car for removing the rope and thanking the person. In dune bashing chances of getting stuck are very high and that's why most of the offroaders venture in groups to help each other with proper offroad recovery gears. You can join the like-minded offroad club freely available over Websites, Facebook, Meetups and Whatsapp groups. All you need to do is join a couple of few to find where do you fit the best, as every offroad club and groups are different and unique in their own ways. Some people do prefer private drives over the club and vice versa, check out the reasons here. Mountain Driving This is the second most common level of offroading in the UAE, where offroaders get together to explore beautiful mountains, wadis, and gorgeous camping spots. This requires a proper 4x4 with minimum 8-10 inches of ground clearance and deflation of 22-25 PSI depending on the tire and vehicle load. This level of drive organizes in scenic mountains either accessible by gravel track or by tarmac road to a partial extent. Traversing through rocky mountains or riverbed, do require a special skill that is easier to learn with capable offroaders. Similar to dune bashing, you can join any offroad club for quickly gaining the right experience with safety. These are the Top 3 off-road mistakes in Desert & Mountain that you can learn and avoid. Off road cars Depending on the level of off-road adventure you seek, you need a capable off road vehicle to make you a good offroader. Not all 4x4 and SUV are made equally capable and some are better, stronger and more reliable than others. To begin your offroading journey you can take your regular road vehicle if it's equipped with 4x4 gearing and LO gear option and also have 8-10 inches of ground clearance. Once you get a hang of this new offroading hobby it's always better to invest on a separate dedicated offroad vehicle because of several reasons: You can enjoy the best of both worlds: a comfortable vehicle for road and stronger vehicle for regular off road use An offroad vehicle will be limited to weekend bashing to prolong it's offroad usable life, as every offroad car require more frequent maintenance than the road car. If your offroad vehicle is under repair, you can still safely use your road car for daily commute. You can freely modify your offroad car by trimming bumpers, lifting the suspension, additional lights etc. You will be more comfortable in pushing the rev limiter in 20-40K dhs offroad vehicle than in 200K road car. Here is the list of best offroad 4x4 cars under 10K and 20K dhs in UAE, if you really get serious for offroading. After every offroad drive, you need to check your vehicle before hitting the road again with these post offroad drive car care checklist to make sure if your vehicle is safe for the road again or not. For more serious and regular dune basher, you should learn from other offroaders mistake to know what went wrong just before the accident. These discussions and feedback from seasoned offroaders will help you avoid the disaster and save your life and vehicle. Last but not least wherever you venture, please do not throw your trash or anything as it's a house of beautiful wildlife who get killed by eating plastic, tins, glasses and even metal threw as garbage. If you spot anyone doing it, please explain this to them as many people think that desert is an abandoned area and they can throw anything there. Due to this inconsiderate approach authorities are fencing lot of conservation area and also issuing hefty fines for offroaders littering in the desert or mountains. Feel free to ask me any question for more details or suggest me to add more valuable points for offroading in the UAE.