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Dear Gautam, Kailas & Deepak, The drive you made it Superb! It was a unique and enjoyable experience and I really enjoyed it. Very well planned & managed. Thank you for your support and look forward.

It will be okay without them for this drive. However you should have a set in your car. Please go through the recommended gear post. You can buy AOR or some other brand Rope and Shackels from either Ace/Speedex or Amazon or even brick and mortar off-road shops. I’ll let others also pitch in with their recommendations and you can decide.

Just to update you all I cleaned my tyres after the ride and I was loosing pressure.. the culprit was the valve. I observed during our popouts but was not sure. The enoch people also failed to notice but when I took it took to the tyre people who put on the bfg they found it. The right one at the end I am still wondering...may be it's the last push that ended up In a popout anyway 12 psi I should start again.. Regarding the rim size the internal ridge size or the gap btw they told me it not a issue at all..the ridge of the tyre is not that much and there is enough room and it doesn't play a role in your popouts..they were like 10 psi is too low and this create gap btw rim and tyre and if there is sand in btw this you loose more air because of no sealing and finally a popeout... I personally feel that the popouts was because of...I don't know😂 Any way let me go down to 12 next newbie drive and see what happens... Thank you all for your inputs and please keep advising me...

Hey @Ben Williams Your question : THIS drive yes, you can do it. While its highly recommended , to invest in these if you plan to be moving up the ladder, and Till FB+ itd not part of mandatory gear( if you go by requirements listed in grading structure of our club) . Once u decide to move up/ apply for promotion to to IM, You do have to provide a confirmation and pictures that you have these gears with you. Trust this helps:) So for the time being you can postpone the investment , but again, if you drive with other clubs/friends too, this is a recommended gear!

As we reached our meeting point, some of us found ourselves engaging in a mini self-recovery due to the soft terrain. Prior to our combined convoy briefing, I was reminded that Convoy One comprised all the Mitsubishi Pajeros on the expedition. It was then that I playfully brought up the selection process for the convoys, which involved grouping vehicles based on the number of drives and assigning them to Convoy 1 and 2 sequentially. The remarkable history of Mitsubishi Pajero, now known as the Montero, was not lost to me. These vehicles boast an illustrious rally sport heritage and are considered among the finest machines ever crafted. Although they may not be as forgiving in desert conditions as some other vehicles, when guided by a skilled driver, they can match any car stride for stride. While Convoy Two appeared to have a relatively smoother journey, Convoy One encountered the full wrath of the challenging terrain. Initially, I worried that I might have exaggerated the ruggedness of the area, but it soon became clear that the terrain lived up to its formidable reputation. It wasn't exceptionally soft, but it was undeniably technical. We experienced a couple of tire popouts and had nasty refusals in soft sand, necessitating the use of ropes to help pull the vehicles even before we had crossed the 4 km mark. However, as the journey continued, the convoy's performance improved significantly. I took the opportunity to explain the best approaches for handling this demanding terrain, and I noticed a significant difference in our drive once we resumed after overcoming the initial obstacles. Although I refrained from vocalizing it at the time (as I believe in avoiding jinxing things by speaking too soon), I found myself driving at a higher speed through even more challenging terrain than we encountered at the beginning of the drive. To my delight, the convoy exceeded my expectations, and we encountered no further issues in this area. I have highlighted the area in the screenshot above which is a must do area in my opinion. I looped back in the highlighted area one more time before we left. I plan to do it again in the near future. As we left this area, we encountered one of the densest and bushiest deserts imaginable. Hardly should it be called a desert even. I was practically scraping the dunes' base to locate enough sand to continue driving. At this point, my focus was to complete the drive as our scheduled time had arrived. Towards the end I discovered some nice spots where we could do side-sloping on long ridges. We took advantage of this, but just a few hundred feet from the exit, we faced another pop out. Convoy Two also exited at the same end location where Convoy One had completed the drive. @Bravoecho you were excellent second lead to me and perhaps had the most amount of driving done in the convoy apart from me, keeping up with me in all the areas without any issues. @Srilakshman Karthikeyan you too had a good drive. I will recommend that you start to notice what the desert sands are telling you on how to drive on them. The soft sands require that you either drive with very gentle gas or full force of acceleration. You should now focus on the same and understand how to respond to soft sands of the deserts. @Abhilash Kottakkal couple of advises for you. One - do not fret over anything that happened today. All the refusals and popouts are part of the driving experience. You need to focus on how to reduce them - in doing so try to get some reliable pressure measuring device because you told me that you were at 10-12 psi when I checked you were actually at 8 psi. Next try to be gentler with steering. Desert does not like anything abrupt and it will cause issues. You will not only lose control over your car, but you can find yourself in some nasty situations. My second piece of advice is that whenever you change something in your vehicle, start low and gradually go up the levels - without over doing it. @Emanuel you were remarkable with your driving today. @Stumpy Paj thanks for all the help with the popouts and refusals. It was great to have you on the drive as usual. @Mahmoud Taha you definitely had the most driving done today and had some nice skill presentation when the rest of us had our break. That refusal on the crest and self-recovery was quite an impressive showcase of your driving prowess. BTW we would have left you there on the top of the dune to fend for yourself, should you not self-recover yourself. @Benjamin thank you very much for the assistance with managing the convoy and the effort you always put into every drive you join. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank @Kailas & @DP1011 for joining and taking up the second convoy.

Noted. Thanks.

@Ben Williams Have a look at this article to get more info about types of ropes and shackles:)

Evening all. I'm lacking a tow rope and the shackles. Are these mandatory for all drivers, or can I do without for this drive? If mandatory, can I get some recommendations please? I don't really know what I'm looking for.

power direct across the terminals of the horn indicate the horni tself failed. shoot should have tested the actual horn. 😒

clock spring was ok. Dropped the car off at the sparkies to take a look today... better be a quick fix! i need to get it registered this week 🤪

Thank you all for your advices and reassurances. Today in the drive I deflated to 10psi no pop out and it all went well..🤪 let's put it again to test tomorrow and see how it goes.