Srikumar

After the last few drives in terrains that had plenty of red sand, its time to change the game a bit and have a drive through the lovely white sand starting at Lisalli and ending Qudra lake. This area offers some nice medium range dunes that would offer plenty of opportunity for side slopping and ridge crossing. Also, if lucky we would be sighting gazelles and oryx the closer we get to Al Qudra. Once we reach Al Qudra, we can sit down for a nice chat around one of the lakes and have barbecue (if interested). When: 1 Feb 2019 at 1:30 pm. Convoy will move sharp at 1:45 pm. Where: First Emarat Petrol station on Dubai - Al Ain Road after Outlet Mall. GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/WCDCa7tHwxL2 Level of drive: Fewbie Newbie+ and Above. No absolute Newbies Plan: Drive followed by BBQ (if anyone is interested) Approx drive finish time : 7 pm What to bring along: Snacks, water, liquids, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. If anyone is interested in BBQ, then charcoal, wood, lighter fluid, meat / chicken. Please RSVP the below calendar event

Seems like he is driving on two wheel drive mode.

So currently the plan is that me and Emmanuel would be reaching near the meeting point on Thursday evening around 9-10 pm.

Am planning to leave around 6:00 pm and have dinner along the way and reach Liwa by around 10:00 pm. Setup the tent and get some good night sleep.

I intend to camp near the meeting point on Thursday evening. Anyone else interested?

@Jocreative welcome back. This is Intermediate and above.

Rav is in hibernation this winter. So it must be your imagination

It's better to open it first and then buy the parts. You might find that some of the seals might need replacement. Better to then buy all original parts at once. Other than the parts, labor would be in region of AED 800-1000 depending on the work.

Generally garages in Sharjah and Ajman would be cheaper than Dubai. But the million dollar question is whether it's a good mechanic or not

@hossein regarding the concept of selling the items from Carnity at this stage I don't think that would be possible as we don't keep spare inventory of these recovery gears. But based on previous experience we can most definitely recommend a certain brand and store and brand which can be a reliable purchase. Finally, the decision on how much each member would like to spend for building this set of recovery tools is an individual choice. You might have a person who would be ok with an acceptable quality shovel from Sharjah Industrial Area, and you can have another person who would prefer to buy it from Ace Hardware. So we can only mention that places from where to get the equipment. The choice of selection is always yours.

Nice thread, Barry. Here a few fromyside. Jump start a car Change an air filter

Boy, the hair has definitely reduced a lot...

Sorry to hear that. Check if you can get 3.5 litre engine. It might just be your lucky day.

I also had this noise on cold start only. Then when I changed the oil to Castrol 10w40 Full Synthetic I have not noticed it. Will check once again tomorrow morning and update.

An update on an old post. I had tried the cotter pins solution for about 9 months, but the pins used to cut the rubber bushing and I had to keep replacing the bushing from time to time. Further, the shifting was never precise. So finally I bit the bullet and bought the Boostwerks Engineering Transfer Case. This transfer case linkage works only with the XJ and not for the Wranglers. You have multiple options depending on the type of transfer case and the gear box. I bought it and the landed cost was approx USD 95. It took us a couple of hours to remove the existing transfer case handle and linkage and do the new installation. The linkage is so firm and precise that it you get a good click when it engages in 4 high or 4 low mode. Earlier, my XJ would continuously pop out when driven in the 4 low mode. The last Friday, I tried driving it on 4 low mode and it never popped out even while driving over some bumps. I have attached a picture of the linkage. So far it seems absolutely worth the purchase and I do hope that it lasts a long time.

@hossein did a trial of installing a kill switch an it's mentioned in the below post on the last page. You can check with him if it worked on the last weekend desert drive.

I think someone pointed it out. If the oil is in the original packing, it can stay for even 10 years and it won't have an expiry date. It chemically can't..as simple as that. However in your engine, transfer case and gear box you do tend to have moisture ingress plus some other foreign elements. These can accelerate the degradation of the additives only, and not the oil. That's the reason why there is a possibility of a so called expiry date on the used oil.

@Shafiq used to work.

Looking forward to hitting the sand this weekend after last week's miss. One of my favourite areas.

Hi Sajith, welcome to Carnity Off-road Club. 1. Regarding the radio it is a Motorola MT777 which you can get in the B Section of Dragon Mart for approx AED 160. 2. Post a desert drive, Incase you have disabled ABS and Airbag by pulling the fuse then just check if all the ABS and Traction Control is enabled. You don't need to clean the brakes. It's however good to give your car a nice steam wash once in few months, i.e., after a few drives. 3. For the flag pole there is a dune buggy shop near the exit of the EB Section of Dragon Mart. You would get there the flag and the pole. The suction cup is available in just the opposite hardware shop. Don't recollect the shop number though. 4. We would definitely be having more newbie drives in the upcoming weeks. The fewbies drive might be a faster pace in a slight more challenging terrain. So it would be good that you first understand how to control the throttle and how to manouever your vehicle. We are all sand crazy people, and we have drives on every weekend throughout the year, be it winter, summer or even Ramadan. Though during those periods we have night drives which has its own flavour and challenge.

For me, the simple deflator (Point 3) is the best way to deflate. I just feel the released air pressure on the back of my hand to judge when I should put the valve back in. Have got it reasonably figured upto an accuracy of 1-2 psi. Kinda makes my work easy instead of checking each tyre with a pressure gauge, though this method has failed me in the last two drives and I did have to take out the pressure gauge.

My interest in cars is something new and hence earlier my knowledge on cars used to be practically zero. I joined the Carnity Offroad Club about 2 years ago, and that developed an interest or rather a hobby of understanding how a car works and operates. I started my offroading with a 2010 Pajero and though I loved that car frankly today I would call it boring. After driving it for about 6 months, I realized that offroading was no longer a weekend interest but had literally became a part of my life where I used to think about it continuously during my spare time. Thats when I decided to have a proper offroader and despite advice from many of my friends went and bought a manual Cherokee XJ (1997 model) First let me explain the problems I faced with it, and then I would come to why I absolutely love this car. As overheating was a common issue with Jeeps. I immediately installed extra fans in front of the existing radiator. Unfortunately, whiel returning from my very first night desert drive with the XJ, I slept on the steering wheel and banged the car in front while cruising at 100 km/ h.That result in a busted radiator and some damage to the front. On a lighter note, I am still reminded by my close friends of this incident every time I am on the way back home from a drive. So after the accident, I installed a 4 core full aluminium radiator, installed additional fans, put in the Toyota Coolant (Red Color) and have never had an overheating issue till date even when I have pushed the car to its limit. I credited this to my good friend @shadow79. Though the overheating issue was resolved, then came the problem of me burning my clutch which happened twice till I finally got the hang of it. And the final major expense came when I installed Crown engine mounts and in my very first driveDuring this course, I gave the XJ a nice 3 inch lift by installing harder springs from the scrap yard. There is a also a 1 inch transfer case drop which ensured that there are no driveline vibrations. I have recently put in 31 inch tyres and now the vehicle has a nice presence. Why I love this XJ The car has costed me a lot to change the radiators, the clutch plate, etc. Contrary to what many people say about Jeeps and their reliability, my major repair work has been due to my own doing rather than its own failure. But all this repair has also generated a major interest on how to do some amount of self maintenance and small DIYs. I have had times when the transfer case lever was no longer working, but being a very simple car I would crawl underneath and be able to shift the car into 4H or 4L manually. Before every drive, I check all the fluid levels, even the differential and gear oil levels (this can be done only from underneath the vehicle). For a guy who knew nothing about a car, this is a decent achievement. To work on the Jeep has become the favourite passtime for me and my son. When it comes to offroading, though it doesnt have a very powerful engine (only 190 hp), its light weight (1400 kg) and manual transmission has made climbing really steep dunes a breeze. I do intend to do some minor improvements on the XJ from time to time with the main intention of learning something new along the way. The XJ is completely devoid of any modern day luxuries, but it has own charm and character. Even today when I drive it to the nearest supermarket it brings a smile on my face.

This is exactly what we need on Carnity