Rahimdad

@desertdude The one we saw together in Garhoud belonged to Naushad and was robbed of everything. It was truly in a sorry state, but the one we saw in Al Aweer was in very good shape, however the showroom guy was asking for AED 30K which was very steep for me at that time. Even if it was a replica, it was done by LR themselves and I have a special place in my heart for them. @Gaurav If you would pay anything Mitsubishi will surely do it from ground up for you, if they won't let it be a project car and we will figure out a way to make it look better. BTW I think diesel engine not performing in desert is a misconception, as the earliest 4x4s to step on the UAE desert when there were no roads was the LR 1 which was diesel engine with a 3 speed manual gear box, they did amazingly well and some time back in Maliha they used to use LR 1 for some noisy desert safari. I saw one yesterday near Deira City Ceter, it was restored to very close to original for some free ride to some traditional restaurant. LR carry history and thanks to @desertdude for introducing me to some of the most awesome vehicles in this world.

@Digital yes the weather is looking like its going to be amazing after the storm last week. @jason200 Now the group is looking good with a promise of some amazing fun.

Looking forward to your wife's approval @jason200 This trip is going to be awesome in your company. Missed you dearly on the last drive.

Welcome back @jason200 It is a relaxed family drive and we will be extra careful that none of the family members feel any discomfort. The last drive became more challenging because of the extreme weather conditions. I will keep a close eye on the MET office and if the weather is going to repeat from last week we can postpone the trip.

Thanks for sharing @Barry but it is not my cup of tea. Full respect to the Land Rover as I had a Discovery 1998 model for about 5 years and cherished every moment and miss it a lot. One of my friends who owned the same wanted to change the suspensions and the front left suspension was slightly bigger than the rest, when checking we found out that the engineers at LR were so accurate that most time the car would be driven by the driver that that suspension was made slightly bigger and better than others. Further inquiry showed that the front right suspension was the bigger, stronger one on the right hand drive models. the comfort of driving a LR is next to none, and once you have acquired the taste for the LR nothing else gives you that pleasure. However I have seen these in some of the garages in Sharjah and sell for peanuts, in fact maintaining these is so easy and at times cheaper than maintaining a Corolla just because the cars that come from Japan are hardly used and cannot be sold as right hand drives in UAE, so parts are being sold by taking these vehicles apart. If I would really like to have one I would not spend over half a million dirhams to acquire it, I would rather invest in the ones found in Sharjah and have it as my project car to restore it my way. BTW my favourite ride is the Land Rover Discovery which they used for the Camel Trophy, i found one very neat and clean one at Aweer Market for AED 30K, I wish i had bought it than. It was in full original form with the original Roof Rack, the Lights, Winch and all the works. i have not seen a Camel Trophy version in over 5 years.

Wow, this sounds incredibly like a hollywood o bollywood movie scene. I am sure you are right that it was an inside job, or else how they would know what kind of forms were required to enter security gate without detection or suspect and do it twice. Than they drove of with £3 million worth of engines through the same security gate. Do you think they will get caught? I am sure such factories will be insured, but in such a case do you think insurance companies will pay up? Do you think that this was a delibrate action by LR due to failed engines which they want to recover from insurance and start working on a fresh project? Conspiracy theory.

@desertdude Mitsubishi Outlander, hahahahaha, we are all aware that the Outlander is not even a proper off-road vehicle and this is what I have said, clubs accept all kind of AWD on their trips instead of making the owner aware that it is not meant for the desert. @Digital the Pajero rear bumper is known to be a sand digger and every possibility of losing it during any type of drive due to the petrol tank being small compared to the Prado and the wheel being on the back of the vehicle. In case of Prado, either you have the spare wheel at the bottom just next to the bumper not allowing the Prado to carry sand, or in cases where the wheel is on the back of the Prado means that it has an extra petrol tank, in either case the bumper does not get affected by carrying sand. However, there is no denying that off-roading is an extreme sport and you have to be very careful, if you follow the instructions handed out by the seniors you should be able to make it in and out of the desert without any incidents, but the desert is an unknown territory. I too use an older vehicle for off-roading because it hurts you less if you end up with any damages during the trip, they are cheaper to maintain, older technology is simpler to use and repair, if God forbid it goes for any repairs you still have your daily driver to take you to work and back, lastly because small dings ans scratches will not affect you as much as a newer more expensive car. But I believe this decision should be taken after you have done a couple of drives to see if you are really interested as buying a second hand car also costs you money, and better to be sure how much you want to do in off-roading to know which kind of older vehicle will suit you and your driving skills and requirements the best. If you have a Prado and it manages well at newbie level and you decide that you do not want to go out into terrain any tougher than this, than keeping the Prado and bringing it out occasionally for a newbie drive is the way to go. But on the other hand if the sand bug bites you and you want to improve your skills and venture out in to the unknown and do a little bit more every week, than its best to go for a suitable off-road vehicle which will not cost you an arm and a leg.

Thanks Carlos, it was team work and everybody got together to recover from such an incident in testing weather. I would like to thank all participants to actively get involved and help us in this incredible recovery. Great thing was the car was driven back on its own to the Police station and back home. Hope it will recover soon to be back in the sands with us over the upcoming adventures with Carnity.

Very nicely put Gaurav bhai. I did not mean to blame the driver, I am sorry if it has come across that way. My main aim was as you have mentioned to discuss and educate fellow brothers on the importance of following the advise given during the briefings. Once again you are right when you say the conditions during that last quarter were not favorable and visibility was at a minimum. I have seen much worse from much better and experienced drivers so I am thankful to God that the driver was unharmed and the car just suffered some minor dents.

Wow Radhika, nice pics and a pleasure to have you guys on trip with us once again. I am sad to hear that you will not be able to make it for the family drive, but looking at the success of our drives through Carnity I am sure that there will be many more to follow. looking forward to having you guys on another adventure soon.

Let me start by saying, what a challenging day and well managed by everyone. This trip report will keep you glued as it has all the makings of a thriller not anything less than a roller coaster and a few lessons to be learned. It all started on a chill Friday morning with crisp morning breeze, a fantastic tea by Mujtaba to start our day. We were a bit delayed as we waited for a couple of cars to join in and we were on our way. As the drivers briefing was given and convoy numbers being handed out by Gaurav Bhai, we were off to a terrain I must have been to 100s of times, but with the rain and sand storms the face of the desert had been changed yet again. This route being used by a lot of desert safari vehicles and most of the desert clubs is normally filled with tracks all over the place and it is very difficult to find any virgin dunes. But this Friday was different, most of the tire tracks had been covered with the recent weather. As we drove on some hard sand due to the rains, but under that hard surface were soft patches which could be seen after a couple of vehicles had gone over a path, this was expected. With not a single stuck we reached the base of Pink Rocks and it was time to gas up and see what the drivers could manage along with their rides. I must say it was impressive and all vehicles made it to the top on the first go. On the top we were greeted by some hard blowing winds that could have easily flown any of us away. The group had managed well and it is heartening and encouraging to see that everybody was managing so well on their only second trip in similar terrain. We managed to get some shelter behind the Pink Rocks where we stopped for breakfast and some well-deserved drinks, thanks to Gaurav Bhai for the Aloo Paratha’s (potato embedded bread), Laban and some cold drinks, Ravi had got Poha, and Joseph had a bag full of sandwiches, with a little Carrot Halwa from my side to end the breakfast session. The best part of our trips so far has been to stop midway, relax while having some food and drinks and the discussion of the trip till that point. Somehow you can gauge the excitement of the trip as a whole with the great excitement of having learned and managed the terrain up to that point and gives us the energy to move on. As we drove past the Pink Rocks there were a few refusals and slowly we managed the refusals and got everyone up to a point from where we would be heading to our playground at the Big Red in Badayer. Half way through we were treated with some cold hard blowing winds and once again the tire tracks had been all covered as we slowly but surely made our way through. It was about that point that I was made aware that we had one of the cars flip and I rushed back to the scene. Gaurav Bhai being the sweep had a very clam head on his shoulders and handled the situation well asking the gentleman to switch off his engine and use the sunroof on his vehicle to make his way out. As we walked around and came to a decision on how to get the flipped beast on to its belly and find out the amount of damage and how to manage it from there. An agreement was made to tie the car to mine and I would try to flip it back to its belly, challenging as the conditions were, while trying to pull the vehicle I got myself stuck as it was some very soft patch. However as Gaurav bhai looked around he noticed that there was some hard ground, now Gaurav Bhai’s beast was connected to my vehicle which was connected to the affected vehicle. As Gaurav Bhai slowly but surely pulled me out, I could feel my car come out of the soft stuff and I could see the affected vehicle come back to its own 4 wheels from my rear view mirror. Part one of the recovery was done, as we looked around we thanked God Almighty as the damage was not all that bad as the car had just tipped over very slowly and it had not rolled, and the main thing to thank God all about was that the driver was unharmed. As we started the car we saw some white smoke, a bit concerned we knew that some of the oil had gone in to the plugs and this is what was burning up. We tried to reach and open the plugs to be able to get the oil out of the plugs area, however we soon realized that it would take some doing as to reach the plugs we would have to open a lot more than just the cover on the engine. So the next step was to get out of the desert in the shortest and least challenging route, with just about 4 kilometres to the tarmac we started and accomplished the mission within 20 minutes. As all others said good bye and left with smile, the affected vehicle, Gaurav Bhai and myself headed towards Madam to inflate our vehicles, get something to give us energy, we continued to the Police Station to help get the Police report and as we left I was glad to see this gentleman with enthusiasm saying, I am in for the next drive, the only thing is I would be hitching a ride if I don’t get my vehicle by then. Great to see such a wonderful spirit. As we tried to learn from him, his recollection of the events that caused the flip, this is what we found out: He was out of place in the convoy, he was assigned number 3 position in the convoy, at the time of the flip he was behind me, that means, he was number 2. I would like to emphasize to stick to the convoy discipline by keeping your number in the convoy and each position has a significance. The 3 most important positions in a convoy are the lead, second lead and Sweeper. The lead car trying to make a safe route through the unknown to suit the level of the convoy, the second lead has to be also experienced person as just in case the trip leader falls in to any difficulty the second lead can take over and avoid the obstacles that lie ahead, and the sweeper who not only keeps the convoy moving but also makes sure that all cars ahead of him are safe at all times. Second mistake was he came too close to me which did not leave him the space to manoeuvre his vehicle in case I got stuck, as I slowed down to make up my mind which way I was supposed to go he was very close to me and he did not have a chance to take evasive action. I would again like to emphasize the importance of distance in a convoy and the approach to any dune, the distance between any vehicle should be at least 3 to 4 vehicles at any time, while approaching a dune make sure the car ahead of you has climbed and gone over before you make your way, leave some gap between a dune and yourself to gain momentum before approaching a dune. Nobody is going to leave you behind, the sweeper will take care of that, he is the last car in the convoy. As he lost momentum when he tried to slow down as he came close to me, his car fish tailed to the left, since I went right, he tried to defy gravity by trying to force his car to the right when his car flipped. Once again the lesson to be re-taught here is do not fight gravity, it is better to be stuck than to be lying down on your side. As promised a trip full of excitement and thrills, but at the same time an incident to learn from. As Gaurav Bhai puts it, learn from others mistakes. Let’s continue to have our fun and avoid incidents by learning from this experience. The desert is an open terrain and one can easily get carried away after doing well for some time, but in this open environment it is more important to follow simple rules and convoy discipline to avoid such incidents. The weather could have been wet and sandy and cold, but the spirits have not been dampened, in fact spirits are high and enthusiasm for learning out in the desert is undying. All in all a challenging trip, well managed by all and thanks to everyone’s effort at every step of the way that reinforces the feeling of the building of a very strong team. Thanks to all who joined for being a part of one of the most challenging drives I have ever faced.

@Digital Thanks Himanshu for joining. Your name is on the main post. Looking forward to sharing some awesome time together.

@Digital Since this is a relaxed drive and due to Friday prayers the time has to suit most people to get there without any hassles. Plus with the sun setting nowadays after 6 pm gives us enough time to have an enjoyable drive without pushing too much. Anyone who wants to leave early can do so, as we will be having our BBQ close to the road and easy access to an exit. The drive time and level remains unchanged, I am still hoping we would have the pleasure of your company.

Hi @Digital, welcome to Carnity. This is your forum and feel free to dig any old post or post any queries you may have on a new thread. Having a new expensive car off-road can always be a point of concern and your question is a very good one. You can always join us a for a trip as long as it is a newbie drive if its your first time in the desert. the Prado VXR is one of the most comfortable and capable off-road vehicles around. Simply follow convoy disciplines which are explained before every drive and you should be fine. The next drive which is on Friday 10th Feb is anyways a relaxed family drive and ends with a BBQ. So you are most welcome to join. Looking forward to your company. Hope this helps.

Great information shared by @Barry and @treks

Thank you Srikumar for enrolling. My salute to your never dying spirit. you are most welcome to join as passenger in case you do not get your trusty beast in time.

Wow absolutely awesome pics by @Gaurav and Girish aka @presism. Great job guys, trip report coming soon.

Thanks for joining Mujtaba, seems like the twins are having fun.

Thanks bhabhi ji for joining with Iraj, your names have been updated on the master list.

Thank you to all the active members of Carnity who have supported the drives by coming out in numbers and have shown the enthusiasm and the will to learn, As you would notice after this weeks drive that I am trying to pick the level slowly so that every one gets the confidence and the know how of how to tackle different dunes in different situations. I'm pleased to announce the upcoming drive on 10th Feb, Friday afternoon to let the members of Carnity experience the ultimate terrain in the UAE. This drive is going to be slightly more challenging than our previous 2 drives and will be an addition to your learning curve which so far has been impressive. The beauty of this area, the wide open dunes, and with the occasional sighting of wildlife like gazelles and oryx are all resons to set your pulses racing. The plan would be to meet up at 2:30 pm as per the below link and than head out to have some awesome fun through terrain that will leave you wanting more, and we will end it with a good spot to sit around and have a BBQ session with chats about the drive, general talk and share some jokes. When : 10 February 2017 at 2:30 pm Where : First Emarat Petrol station on Dubai - Al Ain Road after Outlet Mall. GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/KD4Lath3cB42 Level of drive: Newbie/Fewbie Plan: Drive followed by BBQ What to bring along: Stuff for BBQ like grill, charcoal, lighter fluid and BBQ meat or chicken, water, liquids, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time : 9 pm Note : Drive level can be changed if required to suit the level of the convoy.

@Radhika and @presism most welcome., it would be a great pleasure to see you guys after the wadi drive last year. Your names have been added on the first post.

Hi @chutz any luck with the cabin filter, were you able to get it fixed?

With Thunderstorms predicted for today and tomorrow, I would urge everyone to drive safely tomorrow in case of wet roads. Start early or keep me informed if you are getting late. Do not speed to reach on time and take any kind of risk. We will gauge the conditions tomorrow and everyone will be briefed according to the conditions at the time. Stay safe. https://services.dubaiairports.ae/dubaimet/

This is good to look at, but where is Mitsubishi and can't make out the most searched car in UAE?

That is your choice @hAwX, you can buy them from the parts section at the workshop itself, or buy them from a shop that deals with genuine products for your vehicle. If you stay in or close to Sharjah, the Industrial area has a lot of spare part shops. You just need to give them the Mulkiya of your car and they will let you know the price, you can pay by cash or by credit card and you're done.