Gaurav

With the weather getting better it's time to have an absolute newbie or newbie level drive. All first timer absolute newbie will be given a proper introduction of sand off-roading before they start from seasoned offroaders having over decades of UAE offroad experience. Idea is to make an absolute newbie comfortable with sand off-roading and in some of the most approachable set of sand dunes in Tawi Nizwa side. It's a perfect drive for people aspiring to start dune bashing or offroading in the sand as a new hobby. And wish to explore the UAE offroad natural beauty and unleash the hidden power of your 4x4 vehicle. For newbies, it's a perfect drive to learn more and advance to fewbie level and start enjoying more advance level drives as per your offroad grades. All experienced members are requested to join in helping newbies by imparting their off-road expertise. When: 02 Nov 2018 Meeting time: 1:45 PM, a convoy will move sharply at 2:00 PM Where: Tawi Nizwa shops GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/KKBUhkQ2y382 Level of a drive: All are welcome Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance Plan: Easy drive from Tawi Nazwa to Pink rock and relax with snacks, bbq, drinks, and chat. What to bring along: Loads of snacks - whatever you like with little extra to share, water, liquids, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 7 PM Please RSVP on below Calendar

This Saudi plate number car scamming is very old one and I'm surprised as it's still continuing, wow. The first time they approached me in white Lexus LS400 (Saudi plate) sometime in 2012 and said they have no money for food, I asked him to come with me to an adjacent supermarket and buy whatever he wants and he runs away - proven fake. After that spotted Arabic lady in an abaya, talking very softly in Arabic and then switching to English to convey the message that she needs money for food. The most dangerous scam and not begging like above is the buying cars with dud cheques by playing it a weekend or my card got blocked bla bla and guy comes in an expensive car like Range or Bentley and issues the company dead cheque for the major amount and little in cash. I think this off lately very well captured by RTA and Dubai Police that they can roll back car ownership in the system in case of fraud within three days - I think. On the other hand, people selling useless pens and perfume, I do buy them for 10-20 dhs and give their pens back as at least he is making an effort of selling or doing something rather than scamming people. And smile you see on those faces are really genuine and comforting that you have done some good deed for a needy person.

Every offroad convoy has to follow these rules to keep moving the whole convoy safely at all times: Follow the car in front of you all the time. And also follow the path taken by that car (STRICTLY), until you learn to lead. As an occasional exception, if you see the car in front of you struggled or churn up the path, it is advisable to drive little left or right and then follow the same path again. Keep 5-10 cars distance all the time. Keeping it too close you will risk an accident and keeping it too long, you will lose the path. If you cannot see the car behind you, please stop and notify on the radio so that the leader can stop until they all catch up. Stick to your convoy numbering at all times, if changed due to some situation fall back to the same order as soon as you can but safely. If convoy is not moving due to some stuck / refusal, please be patient and stay safe at your designated position. No playing, side sloping or any breaking the convoy activities will not be tolerated. Radio communication is PRIME, listen and respond to it promptly all the time. Convoy positions Leader: The first car who leads the drive and everyone has to follow the leader instructions precisely with respect. Second lead: The second car in a convoy, who drives behind the leader and avoid or fix any unforeseen situation as it may happen. Everyone in the convoy needs to follow the "second lead" path like a magnet - at all times. Sweep: One or two cars at end of the convoy to help and recover stuck vehicles or advise the correct path after the refusal. Flying Sweep: This car can be anywhere to do the sweep duties of recovering stuck vehicle or coordinating the convoy movement.

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.....!

Thanks, Barry, you have summed up very nice and yes Kamran when you join the "Absolute Newbie" drive we do the quite comprehensive brief for 30-45 minutes covering on all basics of offroad and your 4x4 vehicle familiarization session. Every 4x4 car should always drive in HIGH gear first and if you face any strong resistance or stuck then only engage LO gear. And yes no need to listen to the general public who swear that LO is the best, as every car is different and you need to explore all options step by step than believing people with closed eyes. 90% offroad drive should be in HIGH gear and 10% in LO when you are stuck or needed to counter some impossible situation or going steep downhill. Disabling Traction control is mandatory for sand driving, but not for rock climbing or crawling. In sand, the vehicle should able to spin wheels slightly to gain the required momentum and traction control prevents that a lot. You should also google and find out on how to disable your airbag (SRS) while offroading as in some modern car they deploy with a sudden change of vehicle angle, little proactively but it ends up with an expensive repair without having an accident or insurance coverage. Locking front / rear differential is only needed when you are stuck and you should never drive while front/rear diff lock is engaged. However, in a sticky situation or in a long hill climb you can engage the center diff lock that helps to distribute power equally to front and back without locking the differential gearing.

Totally agree with @shadow79 comment that if you can explain what issue you are experiencing and what all has been done then here a lot can be discussed with so many car experts that can help you save thousands of dirham in future. 9 out of 10 people opening the whole story to the mechanic and then come back to discuss their bad experience only. If you discuss first then you can make out if a mechanic is faking or not and save a lot of trouble, hassle and money. I have even come across a mechanic who said my V6 Pajero running on 4 cylinders as 2 cylinders have gone bad and he has to change those two cylinders and I need to leave my car for a week and it will cost me 1,000 dhs for "replacing" those 2 cylinders. Anyone who has little car engine knowledge knows that these cylinders are cast in a metal block and not installed like gas or Nos cylinders individually that you can replace them. You either change the whole engine or repair the engine to make faulty cylinder work. Fake guy wanna waste my time and money. Anyways if you know what you really want, here are two good rated car business in Abu Dhabi in Carnity Business listing:

Indeed it was quite s surprise today to see the rain as soon as we started our Friday drive. Lovely surprise

Lovely set of dunes @Asif Hussain you found, looking forward to exploring them soon.

So basically information shared within Xterra WhatsApp group should "ONLY" help Xterra WhatsApp group members?

Indeed it's a waste, unfortunately, as they are discussing tech talk and not 10% life and death - save me now, matters.

And I was referring to post all Xterra tech talk in online open, searchable place so anyone can reach whenever they want. You are referring to 10% life and death matter and I'm referring to 90% tech talk that forms any user educated decision on upgrades, modification, repair, service etc.

This is what everyone thinks about themselves first without realizing that someday they do need that free searchable information when they are stuck high and dry. Btw, in today's day and age people search Dr. Google first before even calling their wife that they will be late coz of stuck. No google search will ever result whatsapp discussion or FB discussion and only show the forum or DIY sites results. In your safari days, back in 2000ish you must be calling friends but now people searching google for quick relief.

In case of emergency too, information shared, posted and stored on forums will be 100% searchable and accessible round the clock than the WhatsApp group that majority of WhatsApp user treat like a trash bin due to 90% forwarder traffic and only 10% meaningful information. Maybe Deepak or Ayman can start the Xterra club here, and link all users that shoot instant notification when someone post's something.

Please post this in classifieds section

Why do Mercedes G wagon need two antennae on top like a horn in today's modern world where all GPS, radar, hunting gear antennas can be very well concealed in the body?

Very nice thread @EmVarlet switching off the traction control / vsc / tsc / etc is already mentioned in the brief and I personally advised all drivers to spend 5 mins to google and find out on how to switch off the traction completely for your car. Without which they will just crawl and not being able to spin the wheel. For O/D off, it's a good suggestion but not a show stopper like a traction control and it's very helpful in long hill climb when you want to delay the upshift as much as possible. I do have OD off in my Pajero and use it only 5-10% of times and not always. Again different cars react differently and we will add this point too in the brief next time. More importantly, I feel that every absolute newbie driver who comes for the drive should need to read the basics in advance and discuss the issues here well in advance and figure out the instructions, shortcuts, and procedure to switch off traction, OD etc. Doing a side workshop is indeed sound nice but delaying the convoy of 20 cars by 3 hours is not a practical approach if we have 6 newbies x 30 mins for each car in googling how to switch off traction, OD, pulling fuses, SRS disabling etc. So every newbie either discuss these points in the forum and find a way out in advance. OR agree with Marshal / Crew to come half an early so that we can help OR spend half an hour after the drive so that we can help in figuring out this stuff. My two cents.

Thanks, guys and I wish to see more and more members crossing this 1000 likes milestone in the coming year as Carnity has started the likes system in 2015-2016.

Prado indeed is a good buy, and I'm glad that its V6 so it can be equally good for occasional offroad unlike V4. Get the Engine checked properly being 300K, and if it was maintained well in the past then you should be fine. In my company, we have Prado and LC's crossing 500k with very minimal wear and tear.

I agree I'm waiting desperately to see the UFO too. Why all UFO goes to the US only and not in the Middle East or in UAE. Can someone please tell extraterrestrial beings that they do have a good fan following here too.

You can call below scrapyard in Sharjah as they all deal in Mitsubishi Scraps.

Do you mean this @ayman_khateeb wink wink.....?