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@DP1011 @Davie Chase @Varun Mehndiratta @Pacific @Mahmoud Taha Many thanks for this drive gentlemen and for making it available for 2 convoys. I had fun, met new colleagues and enjoyed the white amazing sands of Al Fayah. Thank you for the rest of the convoy also, making it amazingly fun. See you soon in the desert!!

It's been 24 hours and I'm still reliving the experience in my mind, that's when you know it was a classic @Davie Chasedrive! Side slopes, climbs, technical dunes and most of all a lot of high speed fun. @Emanuel excellent S/L with viper instincts for instantaneous reactions to Davie's shout outs. @Imteeaz thank you for clean and simple support! Learning from the drive: 1. 5PSI is the new black. Thanks to @Frederic. Although I'll start with 5.5PSI and let the air go up and then deflate to avoid a 'too low' situation. 2. Introduced the third gear in this drive, have been using 1st and second only on all earlier ones. Getting a grip of it during climbs and sidies. Helps maintain momentum. 3. Davie withholds the power to jinx a clean sheet. 4. Jimny's can be tugged by Rubicons on neutral (jk) See you all next year #JimnyPower

@Rafey Hashmi I've been replaying this drive too!

Instead of getting a car for off-roading, just get a car for on-roading -

FJC and Wranglers are the best off-road toys, money can buy. If you already have one, I don't see a reason for another car. Your brand new FJC can very well hold weekly drives in stock shape and you should be able to find your peace with that for various reasons: Off-roading is not all about climbing the fastest or tallest. Stock FJC will be far more reliable to bring you back home, every time. Stock FJC, will push you to learn real skills and techniques. Stock FJC, will hold you back to not to do crazy stupid overconfident stuff. What most people don't think and see while adding mods, is that every mod adds certain dependability on other parts of the car. So one leads to other failures and for most of your life, you will be busy tinkering with the damage caused by the first mod and perfecting its gain as you spend money for that one mod. Example: When you add better suspension for 10k, you want to feel its worth and you start pushing the boundaries too fast and too rough. Which results in LCA, UCA, Axles taking immense beating and failing one after the other. You fix all this with another 10K expense and you start with round 2, to push more as now you are 20k down. Now comes the wheels, tires, beadlocks, bushes, bumpstops, drive shaft etc. You sort them for round 3, thinking you covered all and you are eligible for pilot license and then gravity prove you otherwise with nose dive, bent chassis or even write off. I know above example is very variable depending on the sensibility each offroader have from scale of 1 - 10. But more or less, this applicable to everyone when we want to get into modification world. If you still want, stay between 1-5 scale for safety reasons, at least.

Good point you are bringing up. And many off-roaders come to this point to keep using the daily driver vs buying an off-road toy. Capability wise if you want to keep the same performance specs as your FJ, only the Xterra would come as equally capable, and would be within decent budget. My comments on the other ones you suggested: 1. Older FJ. Resale value is still very high. Expect to pay at least 40kAED for an FJ that might need some TLC to get it fully serviced and ready. 2. LC200 5.7. Heavy boat that has lots of power but you will be breaking more stuff than on your FJ. 3. Patrol Safari. Quite heavy but reliable and stable on the sand. But very difficult to find a clean secondhand one that has not been revving in the redzone from morning till evening.... 4. Lexus GX460. Similar to the LC200. Too fancy to abuse in the sand, Here comes my two cents: 1. Keep the FJ and balance your off-road driving across different levels to minimize damages and repairs. Ignore this comment if you want to drive every week on IM level. 2. Get an Xterra for 25-30kAED. They are equally powerful but be ready to spend another 4-5kAED to make sure it's ready for the desert. If properly maintained they can take a serious beating. 3. Get an R50 3.5 Pathfinder for 15kAED and with some mods you can turn this into a real good dune basher.

Since I bought my FJ new this year and have reached IM level, started realizing that the car is taking a bit of abuse (holding up super well mechanically!). While I love the car and the capability- was thinking maybe it would be wise to buy an older & cheaper car which I’d be more comfortable in pushing to the limits + adding mods if needed. (Latter is a no-go for me with the current car) Below were some options in my mind (looking only at Japanese): 1. LC100 2. LC200 5.7l V8 3. Patrol safari 4dr 4. Lexus GX460 While option 1 is to get an older FJ, wise to consider any of these?

Thought it might be useful to get some advice regarding essential tools for field repairs in the desert. Any recommendations for wrench (combination, adjustable, socket wrenches) and ratchet (1/4 inch, 3/8 inch, and 1/2 inch drive sets) sets that are good quality and not too expensive? I drive a 2013 Pajero and plan to get wrenches and ratchets in metric but I guess there is an argument to also get some in imperial? Also planning to buy some Philips and flathead screwdrivers, and pliers.