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To update on WL position at the moment. @AlexPol - was not WL as this is 1st drive of the week. @Shehab Alawadhi - made if from WL to confirmed @Lakshmi Narasimhan - made if from WL to confirmed @Thomas Varghese - still on WL: Likely we will extend to accommodate, but cannot confirm at this time. Will be moved up if someone pulls out of the drive for any reason. Reason for not putting you straight in the drive is to keep the length of this, a newbie drive, reasonable.

Thank you for the kind wishes @Chaitanya D, @Danish Mohammad and @Shehab Alawadhi

@prajupramod congrats!

Congratulations @prajupramod

Congratulations @Shehab Alawadhi

Congratulations @Niki Patel

Congrats @Niki Patel. Well deserved!!

Hello @Wadepat2 and welcome to Carnity and it’s Offroad club. I wish you a pleasant start and happy progression as you climb the Offroad ladder in sand driving. See you soon .

Welcome @Wadepat2 to your only complete car enthusiast group in the entire Middle East. Yes we do have our off-road club, surely it's to do with cars, right? You loving to work on your car would really help in this part of the world, as we have lot of crooked mechanics around. We are the only Off-road club where you can track your own progress with a structure in place. With the different flavors of our many leads and different terrains on offer here in the UAE you'll find us addictive. Thank goodness there are no institutions yet to get you over this addiction. Hope you enjoy learning and polishing your off-road skills in the UAE dunes with us.

Alex. You're in. IM are welcome on all drives.

@Danish Mohammad thank you!

Yes @Goutam. The drive is still open with 1 more spot after the one you took. Welcome to........ (mystery 😆)!

Hi Kareem, Thanks for your note and letting us know in good time that you are not going to be at the drive. Indeed, this opens up opportunties for the waitlisted.

Thank you @Emmanuel really can’t wait for this anticipated epic and more than that is the pleasure of meeting you for the first time ( my Deja vu worked ) 😄

After avoiding the obstacle ( by stander ) shouldn’t have attempted to force it to stay on course ( fight gravity ) . Alternatively could have accepted that exiting down and turn again with bigger simile. I guess he realized it just while it was irreversible which explains his smile after the flip 😄

Ive never had any heating issues with my Pajero, but to be on the safe side, I just want to monitor them so I can take necessary action if during monitoring if I see the temps going high, Ive read on the forums that the guages in the car rise up when its already too late. Any specific obd scanners you would recommend? Regarding lighting, it makes sense, i'll come for a few night drives and then add them if necessary.

In your model of Pajero there might not be any issue of AT overheating. This is a more common problem in newer model Pajeros. Having said that, ensure that you don't outrun the life of the fluids and keep checking them. If you are running water jn your radiator it might be a better option to shift to coolant. Regarding additional lights, I second what Chaitanya says. But if your lights are dull and faded it would be worthwhile to get some high wattage LED lights. Options depend on your budget, but I would recommend Toby's high wattage spot LED light. You would turn night into day 🙂

1. Yes a OBD sensor should help you. I read you have a SWB Pajero and hence overheating should be less of a probability if you use tiptronic gears and lesser weight means lesser strain on the engine/transmissions. Some senior members here have installed a extra fan on their pajeros for better cooling which is switched on while off-roading . ( For my car - Xterra there is a hack to get the engine temperature in degrees which helps to keep the heating checked) 2. Not mandatory to have off road lights, high beam with fog lamps should be okay as you will be following the car in front of you. Totally your comfort and choice to get an additional light, which is always helpful nevertheless on a night drive. My two cents, I am not a Pajero expert. Other members will shed more light for sure in due course

Thanks Wrangeld, this all sounds great and I really like that the group is focused on keeping beginners like myself and stock vehicles as a main focus. Learning off-roading techniques, enjoying the outdoors with like minded people, and using 4x4 for what it is intended is what I am after. Long gone are the days of my extreme off-roading. To much work keeping those things going. If I cant drive my car to the meet up , have fun on the drive, and then drive it back home, Im in the wrong place.

@prajupramod congratulations well done

As we have been respecting authorities guidance & Carnity COVID guidelines to resume desert drives with caution by keeping social distance and wearing mask at all times outside the vehicle Unfortunately few off-roaders have difficulty in understanding and abiding these guidelines. As published in the national newspaper of UAE, everyone need to understand that still there are no gatherings allowed and authorities are issuing fine for 10,000 AED for host and 5,000 AED for attendees. https://gulfnews.com/uae/health/people-caught-violating-covid-19-safety-instructions-prosecuted-1.1591381059748 If you spot anyone stepping out of the car not wearing a mask, please remind them on the radio immediately. As we all are in this together, so we all have to help each other to remind. Failing to abide below list of restriction will result in an immediate ban from Carnity Off-road Club: FIRST WARNING Minimum 1 month ban from joining any Carnity off-road Club drives. Written warning will be issued on your Carnity profile. SECOND WARNING Minimum 6 month ban from joining any Carnity off-road Club drives. Written warning will be issued on your Carnity profile. If you do not like these restrictions, please stay at home and do not join for any off-road drives. Every Carnity Off-road Club Member has to COMPLY WITH THESE COVID19 GUIDELINES FACE MASK IS MANDATORY, WHENEVER YOU STEP OUT - NO EXCUSES. LEARN TO CONFIGURE YOUR RADIO, before the drive. Nobody will teach you or exchange radios like before. Read the detailed instructions posted here - to configure. If you still cannot configure, ask on forum ahead of time. Click "TOTALLY AGREE" Emoji here before RSVP any drive or else trip lead will remove your name.

Absolute Newbie Drive It's the most basic and elementary level of offroad drive. Designed for the sole purpose of getting an "Absolute Newbie" a comfortable and safe introduction to driving in an offroad terrain. It starts with 30-45 minutes "Absolute Newbie" comprehensive brief on how to drive offroad along with the 4x4 vehicle familiarization and other safety tips. And followed by a drive for 2-3 hours. Who can join: Anyone with a 4x4 vehicle having 8-10 inches of ground clearance and front & back tow-hooks. Preferred area: Al Aweer, Tawi Nizwa (Pink Rock), Mahafiz (Fossil Rock), Al Qudra. Newbie Drive It is an easy level of offroad drive to get newbies comfortable with the most basic concept of going up and down the sand dunes. Doing small sideys or rainbow arc along with convoy. This level of drive helps them to master the art of controlling acceleration while negotiating the dunes. It has a bit of introduction to ridge riding, side sloping, crisscrossing the broad dunes and in a safe and controlled manner. Who can join: Any Absolute Newbie with a 4x4 vehicle having 8-10 inches of ground clearance and front & back tow-hooks. Preferred area: Al Aweer, Tawi Nizwa (Pink Rock), Mahafiz (Fossil Rock), Al Qudra, Sweihan, Faqaa. Fewbie Drive It is a moderate level drive, in which drivers will learn and practice ridge riding, side sloping, crisscrossing to a greater extent and learn all the possible actions involve without fighting with gravity and understanding the vehicle limitation. This level teaches you to be more sensible and calculative than just being a good offroader. Fewbie level drive pace, challenges and terrain are few notches above the newbie level drives. Who can join: Any Fewbie and above level off-roader. Preferred area: Al Aweer, Tawi Nizwa (Pink Rock), Mahafiz (Fossil Rock), Al Faqa, Al Qudra, Shuwaib, Lisalli, Margham, Murquab Fewbie Plus Drive It is an extension of a Fewbie drive but for more experienced Fewbie level off-roaders who want to practice Fewbie challenges at a higher pace and with increased difficulty level. Fewbie Plus drive bridges the big gap between Fewbie and Intermediate level, so that offroader transition will be as smooth as possible. Who can join: Any Fewbie Plus and above level off-roader. Preferred area: Tawi Nizwa (Pink Rock), Mahafiz (Fossil Rock), Al Faqa, Al Qudra, Shuwaib, Lisalli, Margham, Murquab Intermediate Drive This drive involves all of the above skills to be practiced and mastered in technical dunes (small dunes) that requires a very high level of tolerance and special skills to negotiate the terrain without damaging the car. This level also introduces some very tall dunes and how to negotiate those big set of dunes and continue to drive on top of them by connecting the path. This drive level demands serious discipline, tolerance, and a level head at all times to drive at faster pace than fewbie level. Who can join: Any Intermediate and above level off-roader. Preferred area: Bidayer (Big Red), Area 53 (Pyramids), Iftar Bowl, Super Bowl, Al Faqa, Nahel, Sweihan, Bu Tais, Liwa etc. Extreme Drive This drive involves all the above skills to be practiced and mastered in an extremely fast-paced drive. This level is for "selected few" only as chances of a damaging vehicle and the driver is quite high in such extreme drives. This drive offers the maximum adrenaline among all the types of drives and also demand very experienced driver with the fully protected 4x4 vehicle. Who can join: Selected - Intermediate, Advance and Expert. Intermediate and above with minimum 5 Intermediate drive experience. Final selection will be based on Crew and Marshals feedback. Broad selection criteria: Performance - Able to manage Intermediate drives regularly and without any repetitive stuck or refusals. Experience - Able to keep constant focus at high pace driving with caution and yet courageous. Vehicle - Able to do continuous long hill climb without any gearing or power-to-weight issues. Safety - Able to drive without fishtailing, ride the ridge and crisscrossing safely. Skills - Able to manage high speed maneuvers without slowing down the convoy. Preferred area: Bidayer (Big Red), Area 53 (Pyramids), Iftar Bowl, Super Bowl, Shuwaib, Al Faqa, Nahel, Sweihan, Bu Tais, Liwa etc. Exploration Drive This drive involves an exploring an unknown area to either mark a route for future drives or just for fun. This drive offers the maximum amount of surprises than any other drive - spotting a ghost town, lake inside the desert or any other unimaginable surprises. Who can join: Intermediate, Advance, and Expert driver with a 4x4 vehicle having 8-10 inches of ground clearance and front & back tow-hooks. Preferred area: UNKNOWN.....!

Hi All, Quick intro. My wife and I moved to Dubai about 3 years ago. Decided to live without car for awhile and enjoy the city. Now we are looking to enjoy more of the desert with some easy going offorading. I purchased and old 100 series Land Cruiser and have begun refreshing it to last another 20 years. I have always wanted one and they are not as common where we are from in US (Louisiana). I have had 4wd vehicles my whole life but have only done mud and rock crawling type trials. Also really enjoyed working on my own cars but no so easy in Dubai Marina:). Never been in the sand and would love to learn. Really looking for a club that offers some easy going type rides and not so much dune bashing. Few old pictures of my modified Jeep rock crawling in US (Oklahoma). Current Land Cruiser 100 series. Drivetrain and Steering fully replaced or refreshed with Toyota parts. Have Radio, ARB comp, deflator, tow rope, recovery boards, Rear Factory locker, Installing TJM front locker. Will not be adding Lift since I would like to keep it as stock looking as possible. Still need shovel, flag, and check recovery points. Looking forward to going on a newbie ride soon and seeing if Carnity is a club that fits for us.

Hi guys, with summer approaching, what are the steps to prep our car for summer drives? I can think of the following, 1. During day drives, it will be crucial to monitor engine oil and coolant temperature, whats the best way to monitor this? can someone recommend a OBD2 reader with an app? (Edit: Is my vehicle even OBD2 compliant ? I'm not able to find this information on Google, I drive a 06 Pajero) 2. For night drives, is it mandatory to add additional lights, if so can you suggest a few options?

@Tbone looks like short convoy!!! Expecting a fast paced drive with my head rocking left right on the awesome bowls!!!!

Thanks @Wrangeld, shall I RSVP now?

Thanks @andy_macdxb for the update. Enjoy the trip.

Hi @Gaurav - I note you had listed Armada (off-road version) on the best 4x4 discussion as a good vehicle to buy. How do I identify this model from the regular model? Is there anything distinctive that can be easily recognized?

Congrats @Niki Patel!!

@Shehab Alawadhi great to see your progress, well done and congratulations 👍

Super congratulations @Niki Patel. Well done

Thank you! hopefully we can drive together soon Thank you! Allah ybarik feek! Inshallah ill get to learn more about recoveries and helping others! And yes it is all about the driver! Thank you @Rahimdad inshallah we get to drive together soon! Id love to support you on a drive or just go on a drive and ill bring @Arman with me but his car is currently being fixed so he probably wont be on a drive for a week or two . Safety is always important I don't want to get hurt or other people to get hurt.

Congratulations @Shehab Alawadhi on your promotion. Just reminded me how much I miss you and @Arman on my drives. Love that you take things on the lighter side, but when it comes to safety you're taking it seriously. Improving your driving skills is more important than any mods in the world. Love the way you're progressing and looking forward to riding along your side soon.

@Kailas, yes I would like to join. Kindly keep me in the waitlist for 2nd drive. Thanks!

Welcome @Wadepat2 looks like you bring a wealth of off roading experience with you and we look forward to welcoming you into the Carnity fold. You'll find that we are all passionate about getting out there in the sand and that it's much more about having fun and the community (perhaps) than being able to drive our vehicles full tilt up Moreeb dune [there are other clubs for that]. It's the standard axiom - you get out what you put in. As a club we will support your getting to know the sand safely and gradually. As a member, if you like teamwork, meeting people from lots of different places and seeing how all sorts of different (mainly stock) vehicles perform in the sand it's likely the place for you.

Alain Canivet-Abikhalil @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil kolinrrj @kolinrrj Yawa @Yawa TT_Dubai @TT_Dubai Niekku @Niekku Kareem El Fouly @Kareem El Fouly Ishraque Ahammed @Ishraque Ahammed Pacific @Pacific @Lakshmi Narasimhan (still waitlisted) @Shehab Alawadhi (still waitlisted) It's shaping up to be a very nice, experienced newbie convoy - so we should be able to have some fun and get to places that maybe you did not yet reach. Qudra is such a large and expansive area there are multiple different types of challenges so in a roundabout way, we are going to start at the start point and see where it leads us. If you think that you are not coming - please let us know now. Tomorrow the waitlist opens and Lakshmi and Shehab are waiting to join in the fun. At the moment, there is space for them ... but if more 1st drive members sign in and bump them out, they are going to be mighty unhappy to find that one of you pulls out last minute and they miss their chance to drive. It's also going to be quite an interesting convoy if it stays this way in terms of the vehicle mix. So let's see where the week takes us. See you soon in the sand.

Welcome @Wadepat2 onboard. You are on the right platform to have fun and enjoyment and great learning with utmost safety.

Welcome @Wadepat2 to Carnity and its off-road club. You will surely have loads of fun here depending on your appetite as you keep growing in ranks and asking for more and more. Sand offroading is totally different than rock or mountain trails and once you join the absolute newbie (we have one every Friday) drive you will understand that. These drives are designed for people who have never driven in sand before and it start with easy introduction to sand driving and then gradually head towards the dunes with an easy pace and lot of breathing time in between. For sand offroading diff-lockers are not must tbh, as much as they are critical for rock crawling. Over 90% vehicles in sand don't have rear diff-lock (let alone front) and still self-recover most of the time with help of LO gearing and central diff-lock. If you already have factory rear-difflock then it's a blessing in self-recovery. You really don't need front lockers for sand here, so you can save that money and decide to spend on other mod after your first few drives with stock LC100.

you're welcome! V8 land cruisers are a lot of fun, you're gonna have a great time

Thanks for the welcome Shehab. V8 auto

Hi Mr @Tbone I have applied for intermediate ranking If its approved I will join you on Friday

@Zed I somewhat agree with @Mohamed Seidam. I had a Disco 1 and managed to damage the side steps, so removed it instead of repairing or replacing them. It turned out eCh one weighed in at 30 Kgs, total of 60 Kgs reduced. With the soft suspension of the Disco 1 the vehicle seemed to be lifted and felt lighter to drive. This is from my experience and can't guarantee you'll get the same results. If you want you can try removing and checking for the feel, you can always put them back on if you don't feel the difference. I am sure RTA will not bother if your car has the running boards or not. But beware that any bumps and damages taken by the running boards will now be taken directly on the body of your vehicle.

@Joe Biju Josephsure I will

Sorry Barry, you missed optical illusion on above pic that Zed, played, lollllllollololol. It's not the same car with same height. One without running board is highly lifted with bigger size (added lift) offroad aggressive tires (to look badass). @Zed removing these will not bring any difference in getting stuck or not, as its just outside the car what you see. What you don't see is under the car and that ground clearance limitation will remain same and that's what make you stuck or not depending on your skills, angle, approach, and the momentum. As far as I know RTA has no say with these (I think, not sure though).

@Luca Palanca Falsini managed to RSVP in time, fingers crossed hope to drive with you Friday morning 🙂

Thanks Luca, I am on the drive this afternoon hence the request to be on waitlist, as I know slots fill up within a min or two 😂. I will subscribe as suggested. Thanks.

Congratulations on reaching this new level!

Amazing to see such a diversity in the club. I guess we all have one thing in common: We made the UAE our home away from home, and as an expat we need to get out, explore, travel, and meet friends, colleagues, buddies, that makes us feel as our home is here. I feel very blessed to have met so much amazing people yet, and look forward every day in meeting more !

@Javier M you are correct on all counts. Feels good to have such observant people on board. My main intention to post these is to educate people and not repeat the mistakes made by a few.

Perfect analysis @Frederic Nuyttens correct on all 3 points. Others please feel free to share any other points you think might help to avoid the incident in the video.