Leaderboard

Dear Desert Wanderers, @Frederic, @Rob S, @Abdullah N, @khlief @Renier Venter, @Shiju Raju, @Shinebabu, @Julien Recan, @Xavi Moyano, @Jitin, @Ben Lee, & @Abdul HannanThank you one and all for making my last lead of 2023 such a memorable one. We had it just about all today, starting off with a beautiful display of hot air ballooning floating overhead to great us as the sun rose and just before we set off. Next we got buzzed from above by several Para planes that probably came closer than I would have liked but they managed to glide just above our flag tops and did not land on top of us Next we had several sightings of Arabian sand Gazelles coupled with some rather large camel caravans, luckily during this last sighting no one got the hump (including the farmer who was watching us with his beady eyes lol) The terrain was heavily cross tracked and had some thickish vegetation in places, with dampish sand in the morning making way to soft top with a harder under belly later in the drive. The convoy managed all of this extremely well as we meandered through the desert, only encountering a couple of Minor stucks that were quickly dealt with by our superstar support team member @Rob S. who also played a blinder at sweep keeping me informed all the way around of what was happening at the rear of the convoy. Always pleasure and a comfort to have you in the convoy my friend. My second Lead @Ben Lee did a Stirling job smoothing out the lines for the convoy to follow. great job and look forward to having you in S/L again in the near future. Our C/F of the day and award for best use of a small hand brush with little to no affect during a stuck situation goes to my good friend @Frederic, thank you for bringing your own style to a recovery and giving us all a good laugh as usual. Truly an honor and a pleasure having you support one of my drives. I hope you all have a great rest of your weekend, and I would like to wish you all a very happy new year. Whatever you are doing this weekend, please do it safely so you are able to join more of our fun packed drives in 2024 HAPPY NEW YEAR one and all :):):)

Swift inflate and made it back home by 12! Allowing me a quick turnaround before brunch! Thanks @Davie Chase for another great lead through the sands, and a great last drive of the year! Top job @Ben Lee for SL and thanks @Frederic for joining and securing the convoy in the middle. Shovelling (and brushing) when needed. @khlief and @Jitin only one refusal for each of you I think on your second drive. No shovels needed, well done to you both. Shovels required for @Shinebabu a couple of times but this gives greater opportunity to learn the car, and how to recover from stuck situations with only shoveling in key areas. Self recovery was made little difficult with the slightly damp sand in places but once your were able to master full left and full right steering with the right balance of throttle it became much easier. Well done and no gym required this weekend. Sometimes recovering yourself from stucks is more satisfying than having an easy drive! For the guys at the back, some of the ruts in the track got quite deep in places. Always be careful not to carry to much speed and aggressive steering in this situations. Often it can result in pop-outs, though non today! Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and happy new year.

RSVP is now closed and expect there could be few dropouts so maybe the convoy gets slightly smaller, if not well done you! @Stumpy Paj, @Frans M, @george charbel, @Issam Atra, @H3 Joe, @Gurcharan Mehta, @Shahid Mehmood, @Lala G, @W a q a r, @Rk ram, @Emanuel, @Ishak, @Mahmoud Taha, @Bjoern, @Pacific It's an experiment and thanks for joining as experimental subjects. Few would have driven much in this area because it's very technical. Be VERY SURE of what you are getting into and bail out before it's too late because IT WILL be a Technical Overdose. If everything goes well, then you might find it meditative with long tranches of silence on the radio else; lots of digging and tugging. We will toil on Ch 2, and this is the convoy order. Let's hope for the best for the next year on this last drive of the year. Wishing you all a very happy new year.

Dear team! Please assist me with the following plan. My 7 year old wants to stay up til midnight tomorrow but there’s no way I’m letting him get that late and grumpy. I believe the first fireworks will start at 9. I will be setting my phone to show midnight at that time. Please join me in shouting HAPPY NEW YEAR at 9 pm so I can then put the boy to sleep in the car so I can then enjoy the evening in peace!

Very much so…

Thanks everyone for the great drive ! And sorry for being late but stupid me forgot the flag and returned back to take it . Thanks to our leader @Davie Chase and the support team @Rob S @Frederic @Ben Lee. Thanks to you team i think i have improved in reading the sand state and applying the required throttle. Happy new year everyone !

Greetings of the Season and Wishing all a very Prosperous and Serene New Year. I may not be able to join this drive, family and friends have plans for going to RAK and authorities have imposed a last entry to RAK at 1400hr which will make it quite difficult to manage both for me. Since the RSVP is already closed, I am not removing myself in the hopes that in case of my plan changes I may be able to join at the start time. @Looper Hope doing this is acceptable. Have fun guys and enjoy.

Hi, Is your Pajero is 3.5 or 3.8? So I can advise u effective external deflator accordingly.

The issue I personally see with these is that the driver uses it when trying to communicate and cannot get close enough to the mic, this results in hardly audible comms that the trip lead or support team, or any other member of the convoy for that matter are not really able to hear what is being said. This can obviously lead to safety issues as we rely on good communication via the radios during the drives. so if you have these mounts please take the radio in hand and use it close to your mouth in order that the comms are audible to all. And as @GauravSoni points out it is all too easy to leave it attached to the mount when you exit the car. I always prefer a breakaway lanyard around my neck.

A simple solution is to get a lanyard and put it around your neck… fast closer to hand, no loosing during sticky situation… it will always be on you.. in or out of the car!

Hey @Frederic, thanks for arranging this, i will come with the family and we are planning to camp there.

@Mike M. this is a super helpful framework! Maybe the best next step would be for me to explore the car in other capacities apart from dune bashing, and see what’s the sweet spot accordingly. That would definitely help me narrow down the decision long term!

Congratulations @Julien Recan enjoy the new Level

Good morning all ! For the ones interested in spotted the various fireworks across Dubai, this is the overview: 1. NSHAMA Townsquare: 4.6km away, at midnight. 2. Global Village: 11km away, 8pm until 1AM, every hour. 3. Dubai Marina and Bluewaters: 22km away, at midnight. 4. Burj al Arab: 23km away, at midnight. 5. Burj Khalifa: 25km away. at midnight. Let's hope for clear skies on New Year's eve

Congratulations @Issam Atra enjoy the new level 😀

This is a typical case and we all have gone through several hundred and thousands of dhs quote. My suggestion is don't touch anything in your Prado suspension if it's a daily driver, you will highly regret by firming up the ride for 1-day benefit and leaving you with a sore back for 5/6 days commute. Instead, just remove the lower lip of front bumper and/or trim them safely as much as you can and this same Prado can get you through Newbie and Fewbie level drives easy. And even to an intermediate drive, but with caution. If you have really decided to continue offroad for a long time, then spend the same money on the second car so that: You can have the best of both world (firm + soft) You will always have a backup car Your daily driver will stay clean - always Your offroad ride will be packed up ready always Maximum damage (if happen) will be the cost of an offroad car only You will be more comfortable pushing cheaper offroad ride to redline Distributing the load on two cars will extend both car life significantly

HI guys, unfortunately I need to drop out. Some emergency I need to attend right in time for New Year But let me use the opportunity to wish all of you an amazing start into 2024 and a great new year! All the best Björn