Gaurav

Get ready for real mountain exploration drive, without the tarmac road and still reach some awesome viewpoint on top of Hatta Mountain range that span from Hatta Dam to Wadi Shawka. I have done this route almost 10 years ago and just found the old waypoints for entry and exits. If they are still accessible then we are in for a great surprise as drive up to the top will test your mountain climbing skills, 4x4 handling, low gear power, braking and starting on a steep incline with slipping stones and sweaty palms. Plan to start from Al Munay area on Sharjah-Kalba road and detour towards Qur and then start climbing up and reach to the top and have some amazing views of UAE on one side and Oman on another side. We plan to end the descend near Buraq dam and visit that place if water still there. I also have plan B and C, in case if an above plan fails and that's why I'm calling it an exploration drive. When: 14 Dec 2018 Meeting time: 1:00 PM, a convoy will move sharply at 01:15 PM Where: Al Munay's Mosque GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/sUpbcCpQo492 Level of a drive: Fewbie - Intermediate All level Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance Please RSVP on the Calendar

Congratulations @Julien V for reaching the fewbie level with Carnity Offroad club. Within last 4-5 offroad drives you have shown a 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.

Thanks @Rahimdad for leading a wonderful newbie drive and thanks to everyone for great participation. @Frederic Nuyttens has made an awesome video of yesterday's drive

Yes only buy Prado V6 and not V4 (highly underpower for your use). In 40-50k range you can fetch 2008-2010 easily. I highly prefer a direct owner with their name on the registration card and not private dealer saying my friend left country and bla bla stories as a middlemen. If you can't get a clean car with a private owner, there is no harm in trying reputed used car dealer but be prepared to shell out a couple of thousands dhs extra for finding a clean car - really worth the money in the long run - provided if the car is genuinely clean. Try car that has the full-service history or even a partial service history as close as a current odometer to eliminate doubt of deferred maintenance and odometer reversing case. @desertdude those odometer reversing is now thing of past, as since 2015 or 2016 RTA is recording all car kms in every renewal test and any discrepancy needs a proper justification. Btw, good choice for Prado as it has the best resale value so you can never go wrong with this choice and always knock off within few days for a good price whenever you wish to change or upgrade.

FJC started production from 2008 and not 2004, I am suggesting as latest as she can afford in 50k range - maybe 2014-2015 Prado shares everything of LC except the boat size length and weight, which is a BIG BUMMER in wadi, mountains, and desert. I had LC100 for 2 years and use to skip all tall dunes as it never use to climb up. For mountain steep climb and sharp steering, I need to reverse 4-5 times to articulate that beast uphill due to its length. It's just not fun how bad turning angle Toyota has designed fo full size 4x4. Prado she can get the older shape or even newer shape, both are built great although older version will be a tad lighter and less bloated to keep it nimble for offroad.

Welcome to Carnity and thanks for asking an educated question than just - I need a car. All your reference and background give me enough idea to make a perfect recommendation, but before I get on to that I like to get few tricky things clear based on my experience of owning and driving offroad for over a decade. 7 seater and a capable offroader can't go together in one sentence. For offroad - car power to weight ratio is king (google this to understand what I am saying). Higher the power to weight ratio you will enjoy that 4x4 more for offroad. Focus on buying a daily commuter + capable 4x4 than putting the Africa road trip into an equation to limit your option. You can (or should) always rent 4x4 for such special requirement than pushing your daily driver way too far, as it's just a one-off expedition you are planning (If I'm not wrong). For offroad category, sand and mountain are TWO DIFFERENT WORLD. Excellent mountain climber can be a waste in sand and vice versa, so here you need to decide which is most needed and if you need both then you will limit your choices for handful 4x4. Prado's are much better than Land Cruiser as it's tad lighter and less in size. LC is a boat and good for everything except hardcore dune bashing, if you limit to beach sand and newbie level drives you are fine with LC. Converting LC gearbox are way too out of the league to even talk about. Nissan Patrol falls in the same category of LC - heavy and reasonably good for everything except hard-core dune bashing unless you do some crazy mods and then get in trouble with RTA. Land Rover LR3, LR4, Discovery can be awesome for daily commute + mountain + beach sand but not for dune bashing. Jeep Wrangler has it all, but too small for sleeping, even unlimited one too. Xterra and FJ Cruiser are the only actual all-rounder 4x4 that you can do mountain + Sand + hardcore dune bashing + daily commute + sleep in a car. Pajero's are third best due to their limited approach and departure angle if you go this route only buy 3.8 liter and get the rear bumper metal plate to kill the sand scoop (will explain if you go this route). Once you get to the hard-core dune bashing, you can look into lifting it a two inch for better ground clearance. Now here is the tricky part, you choose what you want: Prado will give you much comfy ride for daily commute and also do whatever you want but in a long run slightly more expensive to maintain considering regular offroading. Xterra and FJC little less comfortable for the daily commute, but less maintenance in the long run with regular offroading as they are made for such use in first place. Toyota (Prado and FJC) will hold better resale value than Nissan Xterra. Xterra already discontinued and you may get spare parts for another 5-10 years or google how long Nissan committed to supporting Xterra parts. FJC is smallest of all suggested to not to best fit sleeping in car criteria. Xterra is slightly bigger than FJC and Prado is the biggest among these 3 choices. Best is to view a few cars and see how rear seats fold, to visualize if you can comfortably fit along with your offroad gears. How nice and comfortable it drives, as every person has a different definition of comfy. Hope you got enough food for thought, good luck.

You can contact Jabal Tokyo for all your Mitsubishi Pajero used parts in Sharjah, amazing and helpful. https://goo.gl/maps/u8QUTionn1N2 Ahmed: 056 9675230