Gaurav

Well that made up scale is based on real-life usage of BUYING and USING 4x4 for dune bashing rather than sitting on a laptop like a duck and watching tube and judging 60 - 80 hp/ton - Underpower for dunes - Not own, but driven few times 80 - 100 hp/ton - Borderline OK - 2002 Land Rover Discovery 100 - 120 hp/ton - Acceptable - 2003 - Land Cruiser GXR and 2006 Nissan Patrol 120 - 150 hp/ton - Good - 1999 Mitsubishi Pajero 150 - 200 hp/ton - Very Good - 2009 Chevrolet Trailblazer 200 - 250 hp/ton - Excellent - 2012 Land Rover Range Rover Thanks for your valuable input for Armada, I think Expedition also falls in a similar category. Will research both and add them in the list. Off course these numbers are to benchmark performance, but car overall condition really dictates the capability. As I remember buying 5.7 or 5.2 Magnum Jeep Grand Cherokee and spending money to make a project car, but every time I hit the sand in 4x4 gearing it starts heating up. Sold within 3 months.

Thanks @edouard for your scraper suggestion, feel free to add with whatever you can. Every contribution matters. What I really want someone to contribute if they have spare time is to research all the above models and get their power-weight ratio. That can help a lot of new buyers in identify Good and Very Good 4x4 than borderline/acceptable 4x4 in terms of offroad performance. Especially in sand higher the power with lightest of weight is better. Find the exact weight and hp of each car from Wikipedia or other credible sources and then divide hp by weight. Example: 1999 Pajero weighs 1.7-ton Kg and GCC specs has 225 hp = 132 hp/ton Power-weight ratio benchmark for DUNE BASHING for STOCK cars: 60 - 80 hp/ton - Underpower for dunes 80 - 100 hp/ton - Borderline OK 100 - 120 hp/ton - Acceptable 120 - 150 hp/ton - Good 150 - 200 hp/ton - Very Good 200 - 250 hp/ton - Excellent

Remember you are talking about 10 years old car in either case and being a German luxury segment expect a high maintenance cost on both vehicles. That's why you are getting at 1/10 of its face value. I was in similar research a few years back and Cayenne better reliability wins as per online research. Then I start seeing few X5 and Cayenne and saw the repair bills from owners that outweigh the Cayenne option hands down. It was based on 5-6 cars viewing for X5 and Cayenne in Dubai. X5 all owner had several sheets of bills from AGMC during the warranty and just after the warranty period, whereas Cayenne owners had very little repair bills. I myself had 2006 Cayenne Turbo from 2012 till 2015 and the only thing I remember spending for repair was one of the headlight cornering light failed, that forced me to change whole left side headlight unit. It was maintained at Nabooda throughout and if I remember correctly cost approx. 2000 for minor service and 4000 for major service. I think these service rates are pretty standard for most of luxury SUV in the UAE, as I'm paying a similar rate for my Range Rover now.

@Frederic if I'm not wrong L200 and Hilux cannot be registered for private use and only registered for companies. Isuzu, super duper rare. All German 4x4 from Touareg, Q7, Cayenne are delicate darling for regular offroad use. They are good for occasional beach trip or khawaneej level dunes, but not for regular dune bashing. @edouard I have added Discovery, LR3, Range Rover in the list. Thanks for the suggestion I have also added Nissan Patrol and Land Cruiser - "so-called" king of the desert @Praveenmp thanks for Nativa suggestion, but I have driven the same in the past and due to a 3.0-liter engine on LWB heavy chassis it's slightly underpowered for regular dune bashing and struggles a lot on cross tracks, soft sand, and long climbs.

Here's our new Velociraptor in action on his first lead. Well done @Emmanuel and Jawaher (Xterra) Emmanuel First Lead.mp4

The list is made with practically available cars than looking for a rare find and wasting their time, still, I will add it now.

I really hope that guy who put the insulation tape as a temporary fix (shady mechanic), secured it nicely and informed you to not rev too high. If this tape goes inside the engine, it will burn instantly and leave nasty plastic marks on cylinder walls (not good). Instead of insulating tape, he could have used broad duct tape that is stronger and harder to get it in and then secured that duct tape with cable ties on unbroken crease section.

Congratulations @Emmanuel for your first lead with Carnity Offroad Club. Leading an intermediate level drive from Pyramids to Iftar Bowl yesterday was totally amazing. At no point, we felt that it was your first lead and your choice of dunes, sideys, and climbs was brilliant. It was like a Velociraptor chase from Jurassic Park movie, where they first time experiences the run in the wild.

Congratulations @Brette for reaching the fewbie level with Carnity Offroad club. Within last few newbies offroad drives you have shown tremendous progress and well deserve this new offroad rank. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Fewbie: Number of drives 10 (16 regular drives) Level of drives Willingness to learn + Enthusiasm + Basic dune reading Off-road gear Flag, deflator, tire gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio, compressor (recommended) Drive teamwork Observe recovery from a safe distance and offer help when needed Drive posting/joining Join newbie and fewbie level of drives only Forum participation Active participation on forum. Share drive experience + feedback on forum and pictures in gallery Social media sharing & inviting friends & family to join an offroad club is highly recommended for faster upgrades at all levels.

I think you need to learn to drive the car in 1st gear in tricky climbs, soft patches, and cross tracks. When I have driven your car it seems it has enough power to do massive sideys let alone the newbie level climbs and cross track. Every offroader should drive in D in high gear about 75% of the time and the rest 25% of the time you need to manually select 1 or 2 gearing as per required terrain. For air filter torn neck, @Srikumar doubt is quite right to check all the mounts as apart from that there is no other reason you can tear that neck in spite of having so much play in 6 creases on the neck.

List of all capable and best 4x4 cars in UAE that you can get under 10,000 and 20,000 Dhs in UAE. I have been asked this question on every off-road drive, so let's build a list with collective experience and knowledge: Best 4x4 cars in 10,000 Dhs 1999 - 2004 - Nissan Pathfinder 3.3 L / 3.5 L 1997 - 2006 - Mitsubishi Pajero 3.0 L / 3.5 L / 3.8 L (SWB is better than LWB) 1991 - 2001 - Jeep Cherokee 4.0 L (Finding clean one is extremely rare) 1999 - 2004 - Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 L / 4.7 L 1989 - 1998 - Land Rover Discovery Series I 3.9 L / 4.0L (1995 - 1998 year is better) 1998 - 2004 - Land Rover Discovery Series II 4.0 L (Average offroader) 1995 - 2002 - Land Rover Range Rover P38 4.0 L / 4.6 L Best 4x4 cars in 20,000 Dhs 1996 - 2006 - Jeep Wrangler TJ - 4.0 L 2006 - 2010 - Mitsubishi Pajero 3.5 L / 3.8 L (SWB is better than LWB) 2002 - 2009 - Chevrolet Trailblazer 4.2 L / 6.0 L 2005 - 2010 - Jeep Commander 4.7 L / 5.7 L 2005 - 2010 - Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7 L / 5.7 L 2008 - 2009 - Nissan Xterra - 4.0 L 2006 - 2010 - Chevrolet Tahoe - 4.8 L / 5.3 L / 6.0 L 2006 - 2010 - Hummer H3 - 3.7 L 1996 - 2003 - Toyota Prado VX - 3.4 L (SWB is better than LWB) 1998 - 2004 - Land Rover Discovery Series II 4.6 L 2004 - 2009 - Land Rover Discovery 3 / LR3 4.0 L / 4.4 L 2002 - 2006 - Land Rover Range Rover L322 4.4 L 1997 - 2005 - Nissan Patrol Y61 4.5 L / 4.8 L (Finding clean one is extremely rare) 1998 - 2003 - Toyota Landcruiser 4.5 L (Might be just little over 20K range) 2006 - 2010 - Nissan Armada 5.6 L (Offroad version - Ranchos shocks, skid plate, tow hook, trimmed bumper) Please, guys, keep on suggesting more options based on your offroading experience, I will keep on updating this list DISCLAIMER: I don't intend to put the price of your ride or contest the "ballpark" value that I suggested. The used car market is subject to huge fluctuation due to demand and supply based on season and offroad 4x4 cars in UAE will always sell for a higher premium in winter (Oct-Mar). P.S. Having said that, if you have any constructive suggestion to edit the list - I will accept that. This awesome scrapper pulls the average price daily and update in single excel

@Barry the bottle jacks are very easily tumbled in offroad due to the uneven surface and while fixing the pop out we shake and clean the wheel and tire. I totally agree on jack support to be used always as all jack can fail sometime or other, that's why while doing the popout repair we only reach the tire from outside and not underneath. And in some extensive work, if we have to carry, we use two jack or spare wheel under the car to save the day.

This might be the longest thread of Carnity if everyone starts pouring with their experiences, ill limit myself to 3 only: Broke my Land Cruiser front differential in a stupid self-recovering attempt in my learning days. Then just to drag uphill 1 tall dune with 2 cars tugging at the same time we took 4 hours and broke few tow ropes because of dragging the dead weight of 2.5 tons uphill on a dune. Most painful and slowest recovery I have seen. @baselsm83 stuck in the weird pocket of soft sand where his Patrol front and back is hitting the dune. Wasted lot of time in recovering uphill, as goin down the soft sand was tricky to get two car stuck at same point. Finally, a bunch of locals came with an intelligent technique of going down and flattening the soft sand to make a path first and then give a gentle tug to Patrol to change his orientation. Less than 30 minutes out for which were struggling for 2+ hours and taught us something new to how to flatten the soft sand patch and use it in our favor. @Asif Hussain Ford stuck in the wedge next to iftar bowl (one of the tallest dune), to change the orientation of his Ford it took me more than 20-30 tugs due to the weight constraint of my SWB Pajero vs LWB pickup. Later we discovered that all gear oil leaked due to an impact and revisited the next day with mechanic, oil, and parts to fix the car and bring it back.

HAHAHHAHA, I couldn't agree more. I love Jack too @Frederic you focus on bringing Belgium chocolate for all of us in your suitcase and I will pay for your jack, but the weight of the jack and chocolates should be the same.

My experience with friends always ended up with there choices to stay, bbq, live cooking, than actual drive. Hence since the beginning, I was very happy with club discipline that everyone gets together to drive and nothing else. Off course after drive we do chill, cook, bbq and relax but not during the drive. No matter how much you plan and organize with friends but one guy wants to sit back and enjoy so the whole group has to suffer. I have endless stories with guy change his mind and opted to do the photo shoot of his wife, kid and car and leaving all of us to wait for 3+ hours in the best dunes. Other time, one guy change his mind to stay overnight on one island, so I have to split and drove the rest of the way alone to keep my hotel booking during Eid holidays. As everyone mentioned, with clubs you will explore more places and learn faster due to collective experience on board and in offroad you can never learn enough. I and Rahimdad still leaning after decades of experience. The second best thing with clubs is you get to meet different nationalities and talk to them about there country offroad experience, try their cuisines, share jokes and know more about there culture that you rarely get to see with friends and families. In Carnity I guess we have over 20 different nationalities in the offroad club and I always look forward to sitting with them in the end. I rarely eat my own food, as I love trying different cuisine while listening to their own interesting and colorful stories. You will actually see how cheerful people are in offroad rather than at work culture because at work everyone is serious and busy with their routine but in offroad it's more of a vent out and relaxes for everyone so you will enjoy there jovial side more often. Thirdly in most of the offroad clubs here in UAE, safety is paramount so chances of you getting into unsafe recovery/mishap are very less, as they always have trained Marshals and Crew to take care of extreme recoveries and accidents. Looking forward to seeing your clan and don't worry about the noisy animals as Jungle is already filled with many.

Brilliant article and sharing the real knowledge @Javier M, wish I can give 100 likes for this contribution. The only thing I like to add with my little experience for people to decide which is the best jack for offroad use is the one that covers the maximum surface area on the ground as in offroad - be it sand or rock you will never find a perfect ground like Tarmac. So for that reason, even fanciest scissor or bottle jack is out of the league. I have seen the bottle and scissor jack losing balance after few seconds and dropping the car down much before the repair work starts. Best is the floor jack, stable, reliable and safe to operate under any load or position. While getting floor jack you also need a stable wooden board to place the jack to even increase the surface area (only for sand). To avoid the cons mention for a floor jack, instead of buying 3-4 ton humongous jack you can get 2 tons jack but with a swivel neck and it lost around 150-200 dhs only from DM. 2 ton size is not huge and plus good enough to lift any ONE side of the vehicle as in 4 ton Hummer H2 any one side will not weight more than 1-1.5 ton. So using 2 ton is practically enough as we only need to work on one wheel at a time. I have used Pentax 1.5 ton floor jack for good 6-8 years and then upgraded to JZX floor jack 2 years back. They almost last forever if you are placing them properly and not in rush in some weird angle that will bend them slightly and loose its lifting strength. Exhaust jack, I have seen leaking after some time as underbody of the car is extremely hot in summer or stone or rock can easily puncture them too plus they are expensive compared to the floor jack.

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