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Thank you all for joining the drive today. The sand was still very compact from the rain in the previous days, so the conditions were generally favourable for the climbs and the ridge riding. the drawback was that the dunes were becoming slippery after a few cars, making the track a bit more difficult for the back of the convoy. The first portion offered high dunes with long ridges, perfect terrain to practice ridge riding, sometimes a bit impressive with the deep void on one side or the other. Concentration and precise steering were key, as a wrong line was immediately inducing fishtailing. Crossing the sabkha, we climbed that massive dune, with a succession of small bowls, step by step until the top. Everyone was focused, getting the required momentum for the next climb, and the 12 cars reached without refusal, a nice performance! The rest of the drive was a long run going West, crossing a large portion of desert staying high on the dunes as much as possible to avoid the bushes. with open dunes and white sands, until we reached the exit on the E75. No stuck, a few refusals, great driving for all of you, including the 1st FB+ drive for @Stan and @Mahmut. Still we could see a lot of fishtailing and uncontrolled ridge riding. We have discussed this on the sand, so you where to improve. It will come with practice. Thank you @Mohit Gurnani for the SL, correcting my lines, @Mark B for anchoring the convoy from the middle, and @Zulfikhar Naiyar for watching the back, @Shaun J @Stan @Mahmut @Julien Recan @Rk ram @Deepak Eswar @Cristian @Ishak thank you for excellent spirit and participation. We can program the same drive at the end of June, to add heat and soft sand for a more complete desert experience !

Dear Desertnauts. After some deliberation, find below the meeting and deflation point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vvS1S3mdsbHBsMaA9 From here we'll head to Lisaili, then down toward Faqa (via the infamous Chimney Route), and on to Little Sweihan before heading either to Solar Park or Ghantoot (TBD). The itinerary plans to minimize areas of sabkhas, which with the rains would have become quite muddy and treacherous. For the Sweihan lovers, that will be my next weekend's objective. See you all tomorrow Hi @Haneef Thayyil. Sorry to chase you. Do you confirm your joining tomorrow? If not I'll free your spot for the next WL in line. Thanks a lot.

I don’t know how Mazda measure the differential pressure in DPF to measure how much soot collected in DPF. If you remove the DPF without changing the configuration (disable the DPF) in the ECU, the ECU may give an error code. if you can remove the DPF, it’s better to remove also the EGR system and disable the EGR in the ECU configuration also. EGR system is to reduce cylinder temperature to reduce Nox, because nox generated when the cylinder temperature is very high. The side effect with EGR is the particulate matter will increase that is why the DPF is there to filter the exhaust gas.

RSVP IS NOW CLOSED @Brett Eicher@Lea Degner@nithish468@Matt - monkeywrench@ChrisW@Srikumar@Damian@Juzer Talib@Ahmed Farouk@JohanE@Jerry Han@lucas amat@Asif Hussain Thank you for signing up for tomorrow's drive, it's great to see new faces and reconnect with some older ones Some important pointers: 1) We would like to start our briefing in the sand by 7.15 latest, so kindly arrive before 7 so you have time to deflate and setup your flag. The weather is getting hotter each week so it's important to be able to start as early as we can. 2) Bring your offroad gears. A flag, radio, shovel, pressure gauge, and compressor will be mandatory. 3) Get adequate protection from the sun (sunblock, hat, long sleeves). We will be using Channel 4 - 446.081Mhz for our walkie-talkies. The plan is to head East direction Sweihan and try to find some clean terrain and some challenges along the way. We will then loop back to the starting point. See you all tomorrow morning !

Hi everyone, After a long fast-paced offroading session today with lots of cresting, I noticed one clip on the air box was not clipped back on. This was not clipped back after the regular service that was done yesterday. The air box had a lot of sand inside (under the filter but also some Above) and I can also see some sand in the pipe leading to the engine (this is after a 1 hour drive back home). I am worried about damage caused to the engine because of excessive sand getting in. I will be taking it to back to the service centre tomorrow either way, but just wanted to see community thoughts. Anyone have any advice/thoughts on how serious this is?

Hi @Ale Vallecchi yes I will be coming, confirmed! Edit: 4:50pm : I'm sorry @Ale Vallecchi I just read above you have changed the route, we had another drive on almost same route today morning with @DP1011 so I'm withdrawing from this drive will join on next week.

Beadlocks are heavy and difficult to work with if need to do in the field re-beading. The two alternatives I've found are the method beadgrip, and the icon innerlock. Both of these are lightweight and can have tyres installed without needing to be torqured precisely and needing retightening every X KMs. Icon features locking pins that are installed radially into the wheel stopping any sideways motion of the tyres, whereas the bread grip utilises ridges on the inner bead groove to help stop the bead slipping. Looks like the innerlock tech might do a better job at holding your tyre impact from the pressure testing performed by both companies. (See images below) Here is link to both manufacturers info: Method beadgrip: https://www.methodracewheels.com/pages/bead-grip?_pos=1&_sid=847b565ed&_ss=r ICON vehicle dynamics: https://www.iconvehicledynamics.com/rebound-pro Anecdotally, I found the beadgrips to be excellent when I was running them on pajero. Never had a pop out whilst using them compared to 3or4 on my stock rims. (Could also be sure to driving style changes...) Do you know of any other simulated beadlocking tech that's available out there. And any real world experience (good or bad) using these over standard rims or real beadlocks?

I’m afraid you won’t get a lot of technical replies when it comes to diesel issues. This is a platform located and tailored to UAE where diesel is almost non-existant. I used to drive diesels in Belgium and remember having issues with clogging up if I didn’t take it for longer drives and higher revs once in a while (was a Renault Scenic). RTV sealant is indeed used in many applications and if applied properly it should hold up fine, in your particular case it would indeed be possible that there is an OEM seal. Perhaps it wasn’t available at the time and hence they used RTV sealant.

@Frederic thanks for response. Photos would have been right to do, but did not cross my mind. I brought it back to Toyota for them to inspect, and they checked the throttle body, there are no sand deposits in there. They are confident that if sand entered the engine there would be some accumulation in there so they say do not worry. I did see sand in the intake pipe after the 1 hour drive home, but it is really impossible to know exactly how much went through. Also, I did not see them open it up myself so I’m trusting that they won’t clean it up first to cover for themselves 😅 @Frederic yes stock box

LoL that sounds like a terrible design then!

Radial pins - wont these keep hitting the tread inner side on full compression of the tyre during jumps or in case of puncture? I have had a look at the inside of a friends tyre , after around a year of usage i believe (but not ICON) ...there were damage spots corresponding to the pin locations on the inside of the tread

Hi @Looper, change of plan, will not be able to make it tomorrow morning. My bad for not been able to inform any earlier. Wish you guys a wonderful drive tomorrow

@Zak_ @Wilfredo Perez @Prithvi Raj @lucas amat @Nizar Shawwa @Jad Moussalli @Faraz94 @Haneef Thayyil @Mahesh_ + @Benjamin + @Islam Soliman - Please note the convoy order as below ! See you 6am or earlier . We will use Channel 2 : 446.031

Dear Desert Drivers, @Mohit Gurnani @Shaun J @Stan @Mahmut @Julien Recan @msa @Mark B @Rk ram @Deepak Eswar @Cristian @Ishak @Zulfikhar Naiyar Last update for tomorrow Meeting at 6:30 am at https://maps.app.goo.gl/jJFZW3efvbMw73629 The convoy order will be We will use Carnity Radio Channel 5. Enjoy the evening, take a good rest and, and see you tomorrow morning!

Hey @Looper, sorry for the later notice but unfortunately I won't be able to join tomorrow's drive. Car went into the shop about two weeks ago to get fixed, and due to the rains, it's still not ready yet. Was really looking forward to the new level, but will have to pass this one. Enjoy the drive!

Apologies @Looper I have to remove myself as I now have family arriving on Sunday morning 😩 have a great drive, hope the sand has dried out 👍

@Emanuel, @Alphin Aloor, @Zulfikhar Naiyar, @Gurcharan Mehta, @Ranjan Das, @Anoop Nair, @Amir Amiri, @Mahmoud Taha, @Stumpy. I will be driving for the first time on an Intermediate drive with some of you. The drive plan is to march straight to the end of the desert as fast as we can safely and turn back. In between we will climb all the dunes we encounter. Hope the desert sand has dried up a bit in the meantime. We will plough on Channel 2 and following is the tentative convoy order:

New also to the whole 4x4 and desert riding - this seems to be a great place to find info on UAE specific stuff! I have a background of motorcycle adventure riding and camping in Europe and looking forward to see what UAE and Oman has to offer. Looking into getting my first offroad capable car that should also double as a daily driver(no long distance mileage commute), i'm mainly looking at an older Pajero LWB 3.8 or a Nissan XTerra right now - for the offroad part i'm more inclined in exploring mountain roads and wadis but i never tasted the desert driving (except for some crazy dune riding with a tour company few years ago) so i would like to have that option available. My main focus is on enjoying quiet places and taking photos, i will add some from my camping trips back home. One question i have is posting into the Advice forum seems to be unavailable, is that restricted for new members? Some camping trip photos from back home:

Fredy advise is a money saver indeed, but you should never forget that HT tires have a limited role to play while off-roading. You can't deflate lower than 14 PSI You can't self recover like others running on AT tires You can't compare the performance of HT with AT tire - Huge difference. However, as you just starting so you can continue with newbie drives with HT tires, but try to switch to AT as soon as you can if you really wanna enjoy and learn "safer" off-roading. Many have pushed this bar too far to prove a point or two to others or to themselves, but it invites unnecessary risk of damaging car transmission and engine, fighting gravity stupidly - sliding all the way to the point of flip or roll over, getting stuck often as you can't deflate below 13-14 PSI, frequent pop-outs, zero self recovery possibility on simplest of a stuck. Tires are the first contact between sand and your vehicle, and that should be the first ever upgrade or mod anyone should consider for sand off-roading after buying the shovel.

The 3 things that are gonna affect your lighting is function (flood v/s spot v/s combo), location (bumper, hood/windshield, roof), and price. LEDs (especially strips/bars) are cheap and give you the combo. Otherwise you need to do some mixing and matching. If I wanna super honest, the location is more about aesthetics. The most functional location is a smaller (20 inch) bar on your bumper, you can very optionally support that with a couple of hood/windshield lights for spread (you need to angle them outwards). The price is more connected with the longevity than performance. You'll find a lot of really bright lights for cheap, but they don't come with proper warranties. My approach is dualistic: Get cheaper ones and try them out so that if I regret a location or level of brightness I can replace parts without too much crying in the corner. Commit when they break down and I have experience to buy expensive stuff. I'm also a "balance form with function" person, so I'll admit to sometimes compromising to get a better look. For example, I have roof lights that create a higher drag on the highway, but I love the way they look. Let's face it, if I wanted aerodynamics, I wouldn't have bought a brick with wheels. My setup is in the pics, I can tell you where I got the lights from if you're interested, but putting 2 of the roof lights on your bumper is more than enough, what I did was overkill for the balanced look. That said, don't skimp on installation. The wrong angle (especially for roof lights) will give a strong hood reflection and mess up your view, no chance of that with bumper lights that you can probably install at home (that's how i tried my first set but the wiring took a while the first time)

I have to step out, see you next time

Hi everyone, unfortunately I am going to have to drop out of this drive. After a long session today, I noticed one clip on the air box was not back clipped on after the regular service that was done yesterday. It seems that a lot of sand might have been sucked into the engine as I can see sand above the filter, as well as in pipe leading to engine. I will be taking back to service centre first thing tomorrow to asses. have a great drive, see you on the next one 🙏