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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?

Option 5 also Japanese

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.

Thank you so much for leading us @Davie Chase and @Frederic and helping me with the necessary equipment (off-road flag, tyre inflator, radio). I was a bit nervous in the beginning since I have never ventured into the desert while being on the driver seat (being the first one after the leads also added some pressure ). But it was so much of fun and learning to be honest. I got to learn so much in this drive. I never knew what a pop-out was and definitely didn't know how to fix it. Having observed such challenges made me realised that experiences and learning are as much a part of the drive as the thrill of driving itself. Being an absolute newbie, I was expecting myself to make some mistakes to be honest, and I lived up to my expectations, lol. But I feel good about the learnings more than feeling bad about the damage that I may have done to my car. And I believe it was necessary to learn this in the beginning of my journey, as making these mistakes would have costed me much more if I made them in more intense drives. Thank you @Imran Asghar and @W a q a r for managing the convoy from behind. The drive would not have been this smooth without your support. And thanks to the @Carnity community for organizing this! Looking forward to more such drives! We should take more photos with the group next time

Check out the Relive video 😃 https://www.relive.cc/view/vPv4VBYxjR6

Another amazing drive @Davie Chase. You set a great plan and track for us to enjoy with few issues which were mostly promptly sorted. S/L with you is always a pleasure and your timely communication with us is very good and reassuring when needed. Thanks to those that helped me from an unexpected crest. Seems like we weren't even warming up yet when that happened. Reset my groove and the rest of the drive was smooth. See you next weekend. Thanks to @Imteeaz and @Mark B for supporting us on the drive. It was a good crew. @Rafey Hashmi your Jimmy and driving we amazing too in this challenging drive.

Dear desert wanderers @Frans M @Emanuel @frederic demolder @Issam Atra @Pacific @essam ibrahim @Mahmoud Taha @Mark B @george charbel @Xavi Moyano @JohanE @Gary F @Dan S @Rafey Hashmi @Imteeaz @Imran Asghar @Varun Mehndiratta @ @DP1011 I hope you all had as much fun as we did during todays drive. Convoy two started of with a quick order stuck that took us a minute or two to sort out, but after that it was plain sailing to the meeting point of the rock formation that houses the desert foxes. We did manage to see one although it was unfortunately deceased. The timing could not have been much better with both convoys arriving form either direction at the same time. It was a great gathering with some lovely weather and fantastic picture opportunities (see the gallery). Convoy two then headed for Sweihan whilst convoy 1 headed back to the start point. (Deepak I will leave you to post the comparison of the two tracks side by side if you wish). Convoy two had a really nice flow to it until we had a couple of late stucks and one minor electrical issue, where we decided to not risk it any further and exit earlier than planned. Fantastic S/L by @Emmanuel staying just far enough back to react to my shouts of don't follow and of course please go a couple of cars to the left or right. Well done my friend excellent job. We had fantastic support from @Mark B in the middle keeping me informed of what was going on and assisting with the couple of issues we had. thanks and look forward to the next drive with you. @Imteeaz swept the convoy and was front and center guiding the team members that had a couple of refusals and stucks in the tricky soft sand, thank you my friend always a comfort to have you in support. @Issam Atra @george charbel @Xavi Moyano @Gary F @Rafey Hashmi you guys drove the wheels off your cars and made for a faster pace than usual for a Fewbie but man was it fun. Thank you and apologies to Rafey for jinxing what was a near perfect drive right up till a couple of dunes from the end, but it was the softest tug the Rubicon has ever had to give :):):). @george charbel hope your electrical issues is not too bad and you get it checked over and find the niggle before it gets worse. Hope you all have a great rest of your weekend and look forward to seeing you all again soon in the sand. Convoy 2 stats

Totally agree, so you can save FJC mileage for off-road use only and be happy for the next 10+ years.

First drive with carnity, looking forward to getting to meet some like minded people and start to enjoy the desert driving! First time with Carnity Off-road Club: Please share your vehicle details - Make, Model, Color, and Year. Blue 2022 FJ Cruiser Do you have any prior off-road experience? If yes, pls share details. Very minimal, one drive last year with friends Confirm your vehicle has front and rear tow hooks/eyelets. Confirmed Advise if you don’t have a programable radio and safety flag. Have compressor, deflator, flag already. Have a radio on order should have it by the drive. If not I will try borrow from a friend. MUST WATCH: NEWBIE VIDEO BRIEFING Watched the video

Gentlemen, my most amazing ride inside the deserts was this one until now. First time in Liwa and just WOW, incredible dunes, just like you see in the movies and you might think they are not real. Many thanks to @Kailas and @GauravSoni leading and sweeping and helping. Very good job!! It was challenging and not for the faint of heart but I had so much fun, some bumps that could not be avoided due to different colors of the desert made my front bumper retract inside of the car with 5 cm on the left but hard aluminum did not break in any way only bent the steel plates where the bumper is fixed Thank you for the rest of the convoy also! Looking forward to see you next time! Dear @GauravSoni I am soooo loooking forward for the phootoss

Hi Feras, you will be able to press Join when the drive will be open, each Monday from 19:00 onwards.

Count me in for this drive! I can’t join for some reason it’s saying I’m not subscribed but I wanna go

Good topic @Emanuel To save some space i mostly use adjustable wrenches, apart from a few popular sizes which i have as single pieces: 10 - 12 - 13 - 17 - 19 Socket wrenches: i only have a small socket set that goes up to 13, Anything larger than that i use the adjustable spanners. At home i have various tools and bigger socket sets (1/2") but never used in the during offroading or field repairs. I can recommend the YATO brand which they sell in Speedex. Good stuff and not expensive at all. They have many ready-made kits.

hey @Davie Chase, thanks for the drive today, was a really nice area and a fun drive. Have checked the issue with the car and put in on scanner, thankfully it was all ok... the issue was due to some corrosion formed on the connectors of the battery... Lesson learned, never let the guys at the staion spray the engine bay, and never let ur eyes off of them even if you specifically instructed them to just put some water on 1 specific area thanks! and see you all soon.

Thank you @Davie Chase for arranging the drive for us in the first place. Its what makes the Carnity community so great and the preparations and post activities are magnificent! @DP1011 what a man to step up and take charge of the pack for the day. I wouldn't have had my fix for the week if you had not jumped in and allowed us on the waiting list to join and on top of that what a great drive. Good pace and strong leadership. Thanks to the both of you. Johan

Great to be back on the sand after a few missed weeks and recent seal water pump issues, the right level drive to get back into the swing of things and of course a now type crest situation for me with one wheel high and spinning . Thanks for the tug @Davie Chase Split convoy was a fun idea and well timed to meet up in the middle. good to meet old and new sand sailors. until next time , I’ll be bringing a fleece.

Thank you so much @DP1011and @Davie Chasefor this incredible morning drive 👍 For sure it is one of most beautiful drive I did with Carnity. I am looking forward to driving again in this area ! Special thanks to all the support team ! 👍 you managed very well 👌 see you soon 😉

Dear friends, ! What a beautiful day it has been ! Am sure you all had great fun, just like me ! Below some comparative stats which shows how beautifully you all drove ! @Frans M @Emanuel @frederic demolder @Issam Atra @Pacific @essam ibrahim @Mahmoud Taha @Mark B @george charbel @Xavi Moyano @JohanE @Gary F @Dan S @Rafey Hashmi @Imteeaz @Imran Asghar Convoy 1 drive report : The initial agreement was both convoy's to meet at Rock formation in 90 minutes time, and we had a close call, am sure if we watch the replay, both the convoys made it exactly on time, and had a great time, with a full group picture ! All the refusals were handled well by Support members without use of rope or shovel, except one, where coming down one of the dunes, I encountered some hard sand formations, which with the help of shovel, was quickly converted to passable debris, thanks to @Imran Asghar and @Varun Mehndiratta being my eyes outside , which then was handled quickly and we were again on the move ! @Varun Mehndiratta - Having a senior experienced member as SL is the best blessing one can have as new lead - thank you ! @Davie Chase - Thanks for the idea of Fayah - My recent fav area ! @Imran Asghar @Pacific - Thank you for being the CF supports and handling those couple of refusals with self recoveries - which made me have some relaxed time and @Mahmoud Taha - Once gain thanks for Sweeping the convoy and handling those refusals at the back ! @JohanE @frederic demolder - You both drove very very well, with no refusals ! Great control ! @essam ibrahim - You made all technical patches look easy and easy patches look technical - Just joking, you did great to day with the pace and the dunes we had on our way ! You were a hero ! @Dan S - You were another star today - with your machine, it was never easy am sure , but Not a single time I heard from you - am sure you enjoyed and @Frans M - already pleasure to have you , silence at the back was confirmation of how amazing experienced players you were See you all sooon in Desert !!

Great drive today Davie! The convoy drove amazingly! Look forward to the next one

Dear desert wanderers @Frederic @Abdullah Nasim1 @W a q a r @Rafey Hashmi @Faraz94 @karim hamandi @Mahesh_ @Bhaskar @Julien Recan @Gagandeep @Haneef Thayyil @Imran Asghar and @Aser Thank you all for sharing in my inaugural newbie drive, it was a pleasure to lead you all through the beautiful sand of Lisalli. Great driving by one and all, great camaraderie, and we were treated to a rather large Camel caravan as it passed in front of us. Each and every one of you drove sensationally well making our jobs so much easier, we had a couple of refusals but no real stucks that I can remember. we did encounter a couple of pop outs, and strangely enough both at the same time, who would have thought. A special shout out to @Abdullah Nasim1 and @Gagandeep on your absolute newbie drive. I really do hope you gained some confidence from this drive and that we did not scare you too much, moreover, we really do hope to see you again in the sand very soon. A big thank you to our sweep @W a q a r you did an amazing job my friend keeping me well informed every step of the way, so thanks it was a comforting knowing you were back there keeping the tail end of the convoy safe. A big thank you to our center forward @Imran Asghar, you did an amazing job as always, your calm demeaner and professionalism as you swoop into action is second to none. Loved the electric jack and glad you got to play with your new toy not once but twice And last but not least a huge thankyou to @Frederic for being my second lead. Always a pleasure to have you sign off on my milestones, as it all started with the first one of a master class way back in 2021 when I first met you. It has been a journey my friend and a very pleasant one learning my craft from your good self and all the other Marshals and support team members @Carnity thank you one and all. I hope each and everyone of you have a fantastic rest of your weekend and that we get to see you al again very soon out in the sand pits of the UAE

Hi @Davie Chase I'm in. See you tomorrow morning. Thanks.

Niiice! See you in the send then mate

@Mark B indeed it appears I’m in