Srikumar

you will need a PCR. DPI test I think are no longer conducted.

@Arman @Mario Cornejo @Mus_hus78 @Pacific @Rawad @varunmehndiratta @Ilya @Lawrence_Chehimi @Jorge Stepniak Felippe @Ranjan Das @Gaurav @Rizwanm2 Thank you for signing up for what should be a pretty exciting 2021 Season Finale Drive. Few pointers as a preparation for the drive : 1. Keep your car as light as possible with only your offorad gears and required eatables. 2. Try to avoid carrying any extra weight, and if you can avoid passengers it would be even better. 3. Ensure that your car is in the best of shape for this drive as we would be revving it continuously through the entire course of 4 hours. 4. Please ensure that you are at the meeting point at 6:45 AM, a little early would be better. Since its 31st Dec we all would want to get back home to our friends and family in time. 5. Tyre pressure would be critical as we would have long hill climbs, so please ensure that at the start of the drive you are running on the right tyre pressure. To answer the queries raised by Varun: 1. Last week I came to AD, and the time needed for the EDE scanning is just a few seconds while you sit in your car. However, if the test is inconclusive they will do a Free Antigen test which would take about 20 mins. So my suggestions is to plan this 20 mins in your drive to the meeting point 2. The offroad route taken would depend purely on the convoy response as well as the nature of the dunes. So for the moment, I have kept multiple exit options and will be deciding during the course of the drive. However, the approx drive time back to Dubai would be approx 2 to 2.5 hours. 3. The nearest gas station is approx 40 km from the meeting point, and we will need to drive a further 15 km before we hit the dunes. So my suggestion is to carry atleast 10 litres of extra fuel (unless you have a very big fuel tank). The nearest gas station if coming from Abu Dhabi or E11 route is https://goo.gl/maps/RD51i4iwZ4yAAThF6 . If you are coming from the Al Ain side, then the nearest gas station would be https://goo.gl/maps/H6KiuMiH1a9zSFWc9 4. Camping is safe as long as you stay away from bushes and trees. But I would be driving down in the morning. I dont wish to carry the camping gears for just a 2 hour drive from Dubai.

@Frederic I think you know this car a bit, right?

Drive Info Hope everyone had a wonderful 2021, and we wish you all a Healthy and Prosperous 2022. To cap of a fantastic year at the Carnity Offroad Club, lets celebrate by having a 2021 Season Finale at the majestic Bu Tais Dunes in Abu Dhabi. You will find tall dunes, huge bowls, razer sharp ridges and massive sideys that will ensure that you get the right dose of adrenaline to celebrate the New Year. General Info This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions Ban from Carnity Off-road Club Two Way Radio Guidelines Drive Details Level: Intermediate and Above When: 31 December 2021 Friday Meeting time: 6:45 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/fVbkTyK3hEu75nvE8 Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 11:00 AM THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE UNLESS YOU HAVE A COMPRESSOR. ANYONE ARRIVING AT THE DRIVE WITHOUT A COMPRESSOR, FLAG, PROPER SHOVEL AND DEFLATION KIT WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. ALL TOW POINTS WILL BE CHECKED BEFORE DEPARTURE. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP THE BELOW IN THE EVENTS CALENDAR

Please find your convoy numbering below We will be using Carnity Channel 1: 446.006'25 In case of any emergency please call me at +971 55 9567471 @Willie @Anthony Tan @ASAD. @Osama M @Jean Jarjoura @Sharat Nambiar @sertac @Derius Olivier @Imran Kashif @Julian Patterson @Goh KP @Dinesh Kumar A @Jaap @Adnan Halepota Srikumar Green Cherokee Willie Pajero SWB Red Anthony Tan Nissan Patrol ASAD. 2010 Toyota Prado - V6 - White Osama M Infiniti QX80 - White Jean Jarjoura Hummer H3 Sharat Nambiar Jeep Rubicon 2017 Sertac 2012 Xterra S(Peppino) Imran Kashif Toyota Prado 120 Julian Patterson 2021 GMC Yukon - AT4 - White Goh KP Pajero SWB- White Dinesh Kumar A 2014 Toyota Prado V6 Silver Adnan Halepota 2012 Toyota Prado 4.0 white Jaap 2015 Nissan Xterra White Derius Olivier 2009 Land Rover LR3 - Blue

We will be using Carnity Channel 1: 446.006'25

The general rule of thumb is if you go 2 inch high you go 1 inch wide. But this depends from car to car.

You don't need to do a PCR, they don't even check the Al Hosnnapp. You need to drive to the checkpoint, and they will scan your forehead with their mobile device. Once clear you are free to cross the checkpost. If not conclusive, you will be asked to do an Antigen test which will take about 20 mins.

The meeting point has been updated on the drive post as well as the calendar. See you on Friday

At the moment we are waiting for some further clarity on how the weekend would be announced for the majority of private sectors and accordingly we would then alter our weekend schedule as well.

The reality of the entire world !!

Yes, this Thursday evening drive is part of the weekend drive planning and hence comes under the One Drive Policy till Wednesday

General Info This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions Ban from Carnity Off-road Club Two Way Radio Guidelines Drive Details Level: Newbie and Above (All Levels) When: 24 December 2021 Friday Meeting time: 7:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/G8pisy5s3pfzgApL6 Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 11:00 AM THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE UNLESS YOU HAVE A COMPRESSOR. ANYONE ARRIVING AT THE DRIVE WITHOUT A COMPRESSOR, FLAG, PROPER SHOVEL AND DEFLATION KIT WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. ALL TOW POINTS WILL BE CHECKED BEFORE DEPARTURE. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP THE BELOW IN THE EVENTS CALENDAR

Convoy 2 Trip Report Firstly, I want to thank the patience of the entire convoy for exiting out twice well ahead of time. To say that the drive was difficult would be an understatement. The entire area of Sweihan has still not recovered from the bulldozers that have ravaged this beautiful terrain 2 months ago. In fact it seemed like fresh tracks were made with no virgin dunes available. All of this contributed to a sick passenger. It's good to know @munkybizness that he is feeling better. For a brief moment after we exited the first time, we had some small stretch of virgin dunes were we could do a bit of side slopping and criss crossing. But that's when I heard a loud sound from my rear axle after a crisscross to only realise that my both side rear leaf suspensions were toast and the shocks just holding up the car. With no possibility of continuing the drive we quickly exited out. Sorry guys, as this was not what I had in mind when we started this morning. To add to an even more frustrating day, the recovery took the dirt track instead of the tarmac to reach my car, resulting in him getting stuck in the sand. Such days makes one realize that in offroading, you are venturing into the unknown and there are always the possibility of things not going as per plan. But it's important to keep a calm mind and with an excellent team things can get resolved. I look forward to driving with this group another time in a better terrain. Till then take care.

Just keep the cool box a little further away from your campsite 😂

14 psi is definitely high for a Geolandar. 12 psi should be fine for the front and maybe you can try 11 psi at the back. Also, pop out has a lot to do with drive style, so if you avoid fishtails and hard bumps you can probably go down to 10 psi as well.

Unfortunately I don't think there is an easy solution to this problem. Omani hack and Unichip..., we have members that have suffered quite badly due to this. @Warren Flay the issue is that once the speed reached 50km/h it will upshift in the 2011 Pajero, so no amount of extra hp or free flowing exhaust would help. @Gregory in my view there are only two options - Live with it, or you will have to change the car. Anything else, and you might spoil your existing engine. Another point, is that such climbs are only about 10% of the entire drive, but yes the most fun 10%.

If it's just about a steering rack then I would say continue with the LC. But if you are looking to change your off-road vehicle, then 5k -6k seems a good price. When you say housing do you mean the engine and gear mounts?

To start off, I absolute love my Manual XJ for driving either on road or offroad. So I am going to try and keep my bias aside and give you as Neutral an answer as possible: Good Points This version of the XJ has minimal electronics, and if you look around within our Club as well, you will notice the amount of electronic failures that keep happening on newer cars especially Wranglers. So from the electronic angle, there is very little which can go wrong. The engine, gear (both manual and automatic), transfer case and differentials are super reliable and I will bet my money on this than even a Toyota or Nissan The car does have a border line overheating issue, which will need an upgrade of radiator, aux fans. But once added, you will not face any troubles either on engine side or for transmission, unless there is some other underlying issue Car is pretty simple and there are things that can be fixed by yourself if you have an interest. Today, I can change my steering pump, tensioners and few other basic things, Parts are relatively easy to get and the aftermarket supply from US is enormous. Negative Points Firstly, we need to realize that we are buying a car that is about 22 - 23 years old. So you will have to change all the bushing, rubber parts, etc as they would be completely worn out by now. So you will need to be patient and consider it as a Project. Steering components are a bit of an issue, and a bit of misalignment or worn tyres and you can have the famous Death Wobble which you seriously dont want to experience at 100 km/h. As with all Jeeps we are more eager to modify it by lifting it, putting bigger tyres. We tend to do this less on Japenese cars. Such modifications do change the drive train angle causes additional wear than in stock condition The automatic transmission does have an upshifting issue from 1st gear to 2nd gear once you cross 50 km/h. So the automatic version is not a big dune climber like the Manual version @sertac suffered mainly on the air conditioning system of the car and had multiple repeated work which was sad to watch. I bought my car for AED 11.5K in 2017, and have spent till date approx AED 30K on it over the past 4.5 years and this is with pretty heavy offroading. And I have Zero regrets till date.

Few questions : 1. Is it a GCC Spec or a US import 2. Manual or Automatic 3. What is the price 4. Do you have an interest to fix small things in your car by yourself?

Trip Report That was an action packed drive - Fast pace sideys, criss crossing, a challenging recovery (in another convoy), technical dunes, shoveling, tugging, you name it, we had it all. I was driving with most members for the first time. So it was personally a challenge to set the right drive pace based on an unknown convoy strength. But the entire convoy was on the top of their game throughout the drive. We started off with a nice easy pacd in the long range dunes playing and circling on some nice virgin sands. That's when we got a call from @sertac's Fewbie convoy in Qudra, that had a vehicle stuck at a nasty angle. So off we went to help out in any possible way. When we reachwd the vehicle was already well secured and all it now needed was some careful manoeuvering. With some good team work from both convoy members and with Sertac behind the wheel, the car was recovered pretty quickly. From this point onwards the pace that was set was something every drive partipant should be proud off. With the convoy performing very well and us covering most of the long range dunes, I felt it's time to throw a different challenge, Technical dunes (closer to Little Sweihan). With patches of powder soft sand, the going started getting increasingly difficult. But what we didn't cover interms of distance, we compensated by some excellent teamwork. I am sure by the end of the drive every one had done their fair share of shoveling. As @Daniel Rodas mentioned I am still old school, rope is an option only after shoveling fails. An excellent SL by @Naveen Raj who still amazes me everytime with a 3.0 LWB Pajero and thanks to @Felix Obst for helping out with all the sweep duties. To the rest of the convoy members @Tom V @Alexanderrr @Daniel Rodas @Enrico Biscaro @Joji varghese @Rsjiv Samuel some brilliant driving and it was a pleasure driving with all of you. Till we meet again on the sands, take care.

You might get a feel what happens to the people behind after your boat goes through.

Convoy Numbering 1. Srikumar 2. Naveen 3. Tom 4. Faisal Alhashimi 5. Alexanderrr 6. Daniel Rodas 7. Enrico Biscaro 8. Rsjiv 9. Joji varghese 10. Felix Obst We will be using Carnity Channel 5 for tomorrow's drive. See you at 7:00 AM