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Congratulations @Emanuel for reaching the Expert Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you grow 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. EXPERT This level will be the most essential in your off-road development as you will start leading and managing drives independently with the support of other senior advisors. And also you will help in developing new advisors to pass on the knowledge, experience, and skills for managing adventurous yet safer off-road drives. The expert level will offer you continuous improvement in your overall development by alternating between the lead and supporting the drive every week. This way, you will still learn and advance your knowledge by supporting other trip leads in different terrain to understand the complexity and challenges involved and practicing independent lead and convoy management. Carnity Benefits Full access to Carnity without any paid subscription. Join any drive in the “Manage” tab. Carnity Contribution Committed to driving with Carnity off-road club only. Lead a minimum of 6 weekend drives per quarter (3 months). Forum contribution to earn Carnity points. What you'll learn Navigating with or without GPS on the fly. Trip planning, safety exits, and recce skills. Response to vehicle breakdown and accidents. Skills required A resilient, calculative, and rational thinker. Self-reliance, positive attitude, and forward-thinking. Kind, selfless, and considerate of others’ concerns. Car Worthiness Capable 4x4 vehicle with a low range gearing. Suitable approach and departure angle. High profile tires. Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor, tool kit, rated recovery rope and 2 rated shackles, GPS, Floor jack and jack board, tire repair kit, toolbox, tie-down straps, fluids. Drive teamwork Lead Fewbie, Fewbie Plus, Intermediate, or Extreme drives. Inspect the vehicle for safety before the off-road drive. Support all other level drives, proactively. Drive Joining All Levels. Forum participation Active participation in the forum. Share drive experience + feedback. Share drive pictures in the gallery. Post trip report after the drive.

Thank you so much @Gaurav for sharing this wonderful news! I'm truly grateful for the trust, support, and patience the marshals have extended to me throughout the years—especially during the recent Carnity leadership program and lead drives. Their guidance has been instrumental in shaping my journey, and I've learned so much from their experience, wisdom, and dedication to safe and enjoyable offroad adventures. I'm incredibly excited to now be independently leading convoys and exploring the diverse terrains the UAE has to offer while continuing to learn and develop my skills. Looking forward to creating more memorable moments together in the sand, always with safety and fun at the forefront. Thank you all for your kind likes and comments—can’t wait to see you out there again soon! Thanks @Ishak. I'm very happy to have shared this recent journey with you and @Luke K P. Lots of great memories there for the three of us. Also, and again, happy 100th drive yesterday!

Totally deserved @Emanuel ! I've seen you improving every single drive, and your calm approach and teamwork attitude makes for a super pleasant drive experience! Spread your wings and fly my friend!

you should see mine... basically that's one good reason to have a snorkel (contrary to the popular opinion that it is used for water wading). Sand will always be there. And at the bottom of your oil pan too, which shows that the fine sand actually gets into the engine causing slow but visible damage to bearings. The only way to reduce that is to remember to change your air filter (cleaning alone is also good, but that does not mean you can keep the air filter for 10kkm - not in these conditions!), clean your intake after heavy drives and don't follow regular 15kkm oil change, keep it as short as you can: 6-7kkm for those who run extreme drives is a must. And don't even think about any sport or cone filters...

awesome drive @Emanuel, congrats on your lead skills progress and hope to see you leading some more advanced and aggressive drives in the future! a few pics in the gallery: https://carnity.com/gallery/category/2361-fewbie-al-ajban-abu-dhabi-9-aug-2025/

@M.Seidam Thank you kindly, Doc - looking forward to the regular Friday fixture.

Congratulations 🎉 Well deserved!

The PCV is an interesting one - the connector on the Jeep gives a very firm and positive lock, but the female end of the connector is wide and does seem to gather sand. I was doing some work on my Jeep over the weekend and had it open - and was surprised to find oily sand there and a small amount on the face of the throttle butterfly.

Brilliant Emanuel! Well done you nailed it!!

Congrats!!! 🎉

Sand in air filter neck near throttle body, the main reason is Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) pipe, either clogged or worn out. Clean air filter neck + throttle body while changing PCV valve and breather pipe that goes into air filter neck. Also note, in some cars (like mine) there is an additional soft rubber sleeve over the pipe to prevent wetness and attract more sand seeping from that area.

trust me... it was there. And it looks very similar after every intense drive (yet not carnity ones ). The amount of sand on the "dirty" side tells the story. With filter packed so much, the air is trying to get in any other way - around the filter, over the seals... This photo is just to show the scale of the problem.

@Emanuel Congrats!! 🎉 🎉

Congrats mate well done!! The hard work paid off!!! 😁👏👏👏 Hope to see you on the sand sometime soon!

that was... kinda long overdue and just a formality, right @Emanuel ?!

@Ale Vallecchi Many thanks again for a great drive yesterday. We had some long periods of really good flowing lines and the convoy moved at a good pace. It was also a treat to find so many fresh ridges which gave us some very easy going rides with the sun sitting low on the desert. @Warbs, @Sam Selim, @Glenn W it was a pleasure driving with you guys - you tackled so much of the terrain with a good mindset and no dramas. All our recoveries were followed well and we worked everything out without having to step out of our cars - great work and meant that @Aser and I got to sit back and enjoy! Hope to see you all out there soon!

Good afternoon Desert Explorers, Thank you all of a wonderful lead experience this morning. Ten of us were on time and ready for briefing; however, we had heard from two of our convoy that Google maps had thrown them a scenic route and added about 20 mins to their journeys. We had a variety of terrain to experience today and patches of it was challenging terrain due to vegetation and or soft sand. @Davie Smooth_Operator provided us some excellent support as Second Lead. Thanks for the tutorial and examples using Minnie Me of how to properly conduct cross overs and getting onto ridges. Newer Fewbies and the rest of us are well served by reminders on good approach lines, getting up onto a ridge steadily and ensuing weight transfer has stabilised before shifting to the other side. It's also very important to remain in control of your car. As Davie mentioned in both briefings, having wheels off the ground plus the inappropriate speed is a recipe for accidents, which none of us ever want. @Mehmet Volga nice seeing you again and thanks for a super Centre Forward. It allowed me to focus on things up front knowing you were there to support the rest of the convoy. @J-P L thanks for a great Sweep. You provided me with regular updates on convoy movements from the rear and keeping us together. It must have been pretty churned up for you back there though you didn't have any issues dealing with that from the 11 cars in front of you. @Danie @Zahid Sharif and @Ana you all drove really well today through what must have been quite challenging terrain for you. I have see some progress in recent drives and this will continue as you progress as each drives learnings about terrain, your can and it's dynamics will add to your skills and capabilities. @Krinesh glad to hear the tire adjustments have added to your cars capabilities and you were able to gain some new experience from our drive today. @Myrko @Andrei S @Jose Luis Campos and @Marek good to see you guys again and hope you enjoyed the drive. Below is our drive for today. Surprisingly for me was that we covered about 46 kms through that range of terrain over 3 hours and 40 minutes. Have a great rest of your weekend everyone and see you next time.

Yeah it was unexpectedly a fantastic drive and every one did more than great especially @Suneedh Wrangler the only NB who performed really well. it was also very good to see @Simon D and thanks pal for last min show up . True pleasure 🙏 rest of the team @topgear @Andrew John Melvill @Mahesh_ @Michael asir and @Faraz94 nice accompany , lovely chitchat and equally enjoyable drive with you guys . cheers for the next week Seidam