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@ChrisW!

Have a blast @Andrew John Melvill

Congratulations @Simon Thomas for reaching the Fewbie Level with Carnity Offroad Club! Looking forward to seeing you growing 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. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. FEWBIE Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 5 Newbie drives are required within last 3 months for Fewbie promotion. What you'll learn Basic dune and sand reading Self-recovery techniques Shoveling at right place Crawling out of difficult situations Blip Blip - Coordinate steering and gas control Basic side sloping and hill climb Basic ridge riding and criss crossing Basic control over technical dunes Slightly faster pace desert driving Ability to manage stuck/refusals with radio Learn to control and avoid fishtailing Never fight or challenge gravity Skills required Enthusiastic and positive attitude Willingness to learn and help others Presence of mind and attention to detail Car Worthiness Any 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor. Drive teamwork Manage second lead and sweep positions upon request Intuitive and proactive to support Trip Lead Observe recoveries and offer help, when needed Drive Joining Join Newbie and Fewbie drives Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Good afternoon Frederic and Carnity comunity! This will be my first run with you! Previous experience off roading didn/t involve sand and dust so i will not count on it! Did plenty of routes at the Pirinees but that was long ago! Took the car to Al Rowaiyah to test different pressures and modes. managed not to get stucked or blow any airbag. Vehicle is a BAIC BJ40Pro 2026. I have previous off road experience but i don't think it applies to sand and dunes. Hooks are confirmed but still waiting to get the specs form the manufacturer. Happy to pull but probably will wait for the data before attempting a 10m kinetic youtube style recovery. Equipment im waiting for the Radio and the Flag. any particular store or online store on where to find them? is the spare wheel rod a good enough point to attach it? Looking forward for Sunday drive! Sergio

Good afternoon Frederic and Carnity Team! I'm very excited to have joined! Vehicle: 2011 Nissan Xterra Silver Experience: I have never driven off-road myself, but have been a passanger when my dad drove with Carnity. Tow hook: Yes, this is my father's car, he has driven it with the club. @Yerem Davtyan Radio & Flag: Have both. Video: Watched it!

Hello @Mountain Welcome to Carnity family.

All the best @ChrisW

Some quick reflections on being reminded that deliberate technique is key to confidence… Recently I changed my Jeep’s suspension setup from the Teraflex Falcon 3.3 system to King 2.5 shocks, tuned specifically for offroad driving. Objectively the vehicle now handles better. The damping is firmer and more controlled, the Jeep feels more planted and precise, and the overall composure is improved. The vehicle also sits slightly taller. What surprised me though was that my confidence in my offroad driving initially reduced…! 🤦🏻‍♂️ Not because the setup is worse…quite the opposite. But because the vehicle now reacts differently, particularly when crossing ridgelines and during side-sloping transitions. The roll, settling and weight transfer characteristics have changed enough that I have had to recalibrate what “normal” feels like. It has been a good reminder that offroad driving is a continual learning process. Even experienced drivers can become subconsciously tuned to how their vehicle behaves, and when that behaviour changes, confidence takes time to rebuild. More importantly, and the main thing I want to share, is that it reinforced that the fundamentals are what matter. For example in Carnity we teach drivers to approach ridges at a deliberate angle, let the vehicle settle, then steer off the ridge smoothly while maintaining appropriate speed and momentum throughout the manoeuvre. Those techniques will always work, even when the car behaves differently from what I expected or I am used to The answer is not aggressive corrections or forcing confidence. It is to slow down mentally, trust the fundamentals, apply deliberate inputs, and allow yourself time to adapt to the vehicle’s new behaviour. Capability modifications can improve the car, but confidence still comes from understanding, repetition and disciplined technique. Still learning…

@Zubail I went for the remote reservoir adjustable shocks. These were tuned initially by the garage (specific shims and valving setup inside the shock), and then you can use the red valve to choose how many clicks towards firm or soft you want. …also, a small edit to add…none of these mods are necessary for Carnity drives! The other part of this hobby I enjoy is messing around with the technology and mechanics…so this side of things is more for the sake of it than out of necessity.

Fantastic write-up @ChrisW and something i have been going through myself with the Trooper. In the early days i had the car, it felt planted and behaved quite well in the sand, but since i moved from 33 to 32 inch tires, and installed a winch in the front, something started to feel off. The car would nose-dive and bounce a lot but i could not immediately find a root cause. I started to experiment with a few different models of shocks. There are not so many options available but i think by now i've gone through 3 or 4 different models, even adjustable ones, and still could not get the predictability on ridges my Pajero used to have. Now recently i've upgraded the torsion bars from OEM to Ironman Heavy Duty and finally i am getting back to a somewhat normal behavior. Now also Bilstein shocks entered the game (basic model) and the progressive dampening is helping the front to settle a bit. I made a few mistakes from spending time on US forums about Isuzu Trooper, where the majority of these people set them up for crawling or overlanding, and choose very stiff shocks (KYB Monomax came as recommended). This did not work well for me. Long story short, the way we are in tune with our vehicles is key, and whenever something changes we need to adjust our senses and listen to what the car is telling us. This might mean doing some lower level drives, or the exact opposite. Whatever works for you. I've been lucky to be able to drive and test different offroad vehicles over the years and they all feel different. In the club we always encourage people to learn by using their stock suspension, and i still stand by that statement, but the amount of vegetation has forced many of us to look for better shocks. Either this or visit the chiropractor every week