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Dear desert warriors , You have all driven well and i personally enjoyed the company and the laughs with you all. As you may have noticed that this drive had several stages , starting with a slow easy pace followed by easy Technical terrain spiced up by straight down dune crossing to give you the ability to recognize better your car dynamics. Mid drive we have increased the drive pace with some side sloops followed by some ridge ridding and finally putting everything we have practiced into the test I thank you all for your discipline and punctuality for being on time . Great S/L @Emmanuel you have a good reflex and reaction @RiadJL, @Martin M you did really well for your first Fb keep it up 💪 @Jad Moussalli you really controlled that beast pretty smoothly well done 🚙 @Sandeep Nayar, @Faraz94, @Shiju Raju @Danny G, @Prithvi Raj,it was a pleasure driving with you guys keep it up @Sunil Mathew and @Cha thank you guys for the great support you helped me focus on the path . I hope you all enjoyed and learned something useful from this drive and looking forward to see you on the next drive

Dear Desertnauts I am looking forward to returning to the sand after a few days of absence and following the rains of the last weeks. It is in consideration of the latest heavy precipitations that I have not yet published the meeting and starting point for the drive. Considering its length, and the fact that I have been travelling for a while, I'd like to evaluate the situation of the various areas and terrains, before deciding where to drive. I will publish the final meeting point by Saturday afternoon. The choice will be between the souther part of Dubai's desert (Lisaili/Faqa and/or Solar Park/Qudra areas) or Sweihan's section closest to Dubai (say from Pac-Man dunes to Nagra/Nahil). In the meantime, the convoy order that I'd like to line-up will be the following: @Aser in Second Lead @Sviatoslav at #3 @RiadJL at #4 @Zak_ at #5 @Andrew John Melvill at #6 @Batuhan Kulac at Center @Johannes Roux at #8 @Mahmut at #9 @Hani Howeedy at #10 and @Luke K P in Sweep. Let's reconvene here on Saturday to share the meeting point. Enjoy the end of the week.

No long til the weekend 😁🙏 see you all Sunday..

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!

Dear team LMQ ! , @Zak_ @Wilfredo Perez @Prithvi Raj @lucas amat @Nizar Shawwa @Jad Moussalli @Faraz94 @Haneef Thayyil @Mahesh_ Thank you for showing your interest on tomorrow's drive ! I, @Islam Soliman and @Benjamin are looking forward to seeing you tomorrow ! Some points for tomorrow's drive ! - Be on time ! 6am ! Please dont be late - The briefing will be held inside the desert and not at meeting point - so if you are late , you will just end up with a short drive from home to meeting point and back home ! - Meeting point : https://goo.gl/maps/khH7pHF3DipEsapN9 - from this, just get inside the entry road. Please note the meeting point is just on the highway, so slow down as you approach about 500mts of meeting, once arrived take left. - Get your gas tanks full !! : There is Emarat and EPCO station just before the meeting point while coming from Sharjah/Dubai and EPCO on other side if coming from Abu Dhabi. - Please make sure your radios are fully charged ! and you dont forget the mandatory off-road gears ! - Please do carry sufficient water - Its getting hot and highly important that we keep ourselves hydrated. also do carry light snacks for yourselves ( for others also is not prohibited ) - And also fill up your patience tanks fully - It will be a drive of patience and resilience too - considering the recent heavy rains, hence mixture of exploration + technical and lot of vegetation too - which of course we will try to avoid Passengers are highly not recommended for this please , UNLESS the are used to long duration drives. Convoy order will be published in couple of hours ! See you all tomorrow !

My pleasure to be CF. See you all Sunday 💪

@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:

Good morning all Getting prepared for tomorrow's drive @Mohit Gurnani @Shaun J @Stan @Julien Recan @msa @Robk @Rk ram @Deepak Eswar @Frans M @Cristian @Ishak @Mark B You are confirmed. Please let me know in case you changed your plans. As we have still 2 wait list members a no show would be very disappointing. @Zulfikhar Naiyar @Mahmut, you are still on the wait list for now, let's see during the day how it goes. The itinerary for tomorrow may be a bit long (80 to 85 km), be sure your car is ready, and refuel not too far from the meeting point to avoid stress at the end of the drive. (the next petrol station is about 20 km after the exit point). I will issue final attendance and convoy order by the end of the afternoon

Noted @Frans M, see you next time @Zulfikhar Naiyar, I have added you

Amazing!!! Is anyone planning this year?))

It’s going to be a muddy drive, but let’s try to drive through some seldom used tracks so that we have a bit of decent experience. We will also try to avoid cross tracks as much as possible. Climbing tall dunes should be slightly easier, due to better traction. Normally we come come via the service road but suggest we take a U turn from a bit ahead of the meeting point, will perhaps be tad bit quicker.

Taking this opportunity to show more global charts: 1. Which day? This one shows from start on September 25, 2020. As our weekend used to be Friday and Saturday, I have a lot of Friday drives as well. Having said that I was always on a Monday to Friday week since I came to Dubai - now it makes me wonder how I managed so many of them Friday drives 😁 What time of the day? Clearly Moring and Afternoons. Number of drives by drive level - I drove a lot at Fewbie level. and very less Fewbie+; till April 2023. Now adding up those Fewbie+ & Intermediate drives to balance them. Drives by Driver level: I spent a very little time as Support Team member but a lot at the advisor level, a lot more than what others do or did from my observation. Expert is my current level. Drives by Participation role: Obviously a lot more drives as an attendee than in support or lead roles. Average drives per month: May seems to be my favorite month. Also happens to by my wife's birthday month - I don't know if it has anything to do with my excessive drives. August is my birthday month 🤣. number of drive a month. There are a couple of months when participated 10 drives in them and there are 3 months when i took sabbatical. A couple because I was off and one just because. Following two are my vehicle analysis: Car Brands of the participants (excludes my drives) Car Models by current participants (excludes my drives): Some analysis of leads (DISCLAIMER: this is my own personal experience and is not a good matrix) Number of drives by leads (obviously excludes mine) Average distance covered and speed. Ale is the king of both. Average drive time and moving ratio. (Obviously with those leads with whom I have supported a lot of (absolute) newbie drives are going to be slower on average than those with who I have done mostly Intermediate drives.

Welcome to your first Fewbie drive @Martin M and @RiadJL. You and the rest of the convoy drove well. Looking back every now and again we were mostly evenly spaced out and moving nicely. Here is a Relive video of our drive. https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOdXPeBAkO It was driving with you again @Simon D @Sunil Mathew and @Cha. See below drive stats

Thanks @Simon D @Sunil Mathew & @Cha for a great drive. Lots of technical terrain and some side sloping practice while avoiding the abnormal vegetation caused by the recent rain The whole convoy did very well with only a few minor refusals. Great to meet you all Great S/L again @Emanuel See you all again soon

I’ve had superb reception everywhere with Etisalat. Correct about the waterfalls. All are in short driving distance around Salalah, we visited several places in one day. Most places are around 20-40 mins from the city, you can spend 1-2 hrs at the waterfalls, explore a bit, and then head out to the next destination. Only at the main entrance of Wadi Darbat it was very busy with long queues hence we decided to find another route (the one I posted) which was a nice gentle 4x4 trail.

Some Photos Continued: Wadi Darbat Bottom: Becoming more challenging here: Wadi Darbat Hike and Wadi Trail: https://goo.gl/maps/MnAjvjHvznTCvrM79 Thumrait to Rakhyut Canyon Road: Unforgettable.... Fazayah Beach: https://goo.gl/maps/8EkfwGxVaM4XxAQm6 Ain Khor Waterfalls:

Difficult to tell with all the rattle and shaking in my in my car Jokes apart - I have not experienced this scenario, what can happen though is like with any other wheel you can bend parts of it, in a beadlock wheel notably the outer rim is usually prone to it. Other issues I’ve heard about are finding a jammed bolt, but this is something you can mitigate through proper maintenance, for example when assembling the wheels the first time, and every time you service them, request to apply anti seize lubricant to the bolts, Coppaslip or Loctite copper grease are examples …I carry my own in case the garage has run out of it and I also make sure they use a torque wrench, at the recommended torque setting for the wheel, instead of using a power tool.

Sorry for the late entry. Ballon tire started with Tisamia (means 900 in arabic) 900mm is the height = 35.4 inches since 2002. Later Sumitomo launched Shaheen in 2012, then a few more companies later on. They are primarily designed for the soft sand track, climb, and general desert usage with an "UNUSUAL" aspect ratio of up to 85-95 profile - 245/85/R16 to even 245/95/R15. This means when deflated you will have a "SUPER AWESOME" footprint due to a lot of rubber between the rim and sand. Along with a higher aspect ratio tread is a straight line that enables sand driving and climbing more easily and higher. However due to straight-line treads, self-recovery sucks big time, and cars with balloon tires are sitting duck even on the slightest of stuck. Yes, they are legal. Yes, they are highly unsafe for the wet road. Yes, they are very tipsy on curves.

BF Goodrich KO2 are 10 ply sidewall that will barely pop-out ever. You can deflate them at 12 PSI and drive for few drives to test. If you have continuous pop-out on every drive based on your drive style, then get these bead lock or else I am 90% certain you won't pop-out BFG at 12 PSI - EVER. Unless you make a planned jump (as advertised) or unfortunate accident.