Rahimdad

Congratulations @Federico De Chirico, hope you continue to enjoy learning the art of off-roading at this new level.

@N@ved on the Calandar instead of Change RSVP it will show you leave event, just click on that.

Congratulations @Aravind Padmaraju on your promotion. Hope you continue to enjoy learning the art of off-roading at this new level.

Congratulations @Luca Bregni, continue to have fun developing and practicing your off-road skill at a Fewbie level.

@Tero Vallas I believe Prado is an All Wheel drive all the time, so on the road to give you the traction when starting off it would be 4WD and at around 40 KPH it would switch to RWD to save you on fuel economy. However in the desert we have very few times when we can go above 40 KPH so it will keep you engaged in 4WD. You will only press the difflock button when stuck and advised to do so preferably in 4 Low. Just remember t keep your traction control button pressed until you see 2 yellow lights come on and enjoy driving, together we will learn ad put in much more reliable content  together on the Prado to help future owners.

@Hassan Almousa thank you for sharing the video. I get the logic behind their thinking, with cross tires in the air those are the ones spinning. By jamming the rear free tire more power goes to the wheels which are stuck close to how a difflock is supposed to work. However the vehicle for one is the old box shaped Nissan Patrol which is solid as compared to our newer rides with crumple zones, if you are tying it to your recovery point and with excessive force will you end up damaging your own vehicle? Another point is when he gets himself stuck, he is front heavy and trying to reverse it out which would never happen and only dig a hole, he never once tried showing what would happen if he drove forward. After applying his rope trick and after some digging in from the car would have recovered anyways. So I will not beleive that 100%. As the second time around when he did it to pop his tire back in he made it rear heavy and drove in front to dig a hole to stable his vehicle. Once done he used the air compressor to pop the tire back in and drove out back in reverse from a similar position as the first one with a deep hole and oil coming out of the hole without applying the method for the rope trick.

I think with the age of internet, videos and viral social media there are people who show some good authentic stuff and some people who just try to ride the band wagon with their own videos. Sure we can try this stuff out with your vehicle, so have your tow strap, a tie down cable, a rated shackle, solid tow points and a disclaimer to say you are responsible for any damages caused to your vehicle and equipment in case of anything goes wrong. Oh yes, I forgot to add someone to take a video so you could start your own youtube channel.

@Alexander Alcala sadly @Gaurav bhai and I have watched one such painful death come to a camel in the desert. We cannot emphasize enough that there are living things to whom the desert is their home, we are their guests and we should not leave litter behind. As the camel is big and heavy and was struggling we could not get close enough to help it without risking injury ourselves. After the camel's struggle was over and we could get close to it, we opened the camel's mouth and guess what we found in there, a plastic water bottle that got stuck in his throat which meant he could not breath. Every year before Covid19 we used to have a desert clean-up drive, but we could only take care of a very small part of the desert and still get tonnes of trash out in just over 2 hours. My belief has always been to educate people about the dangers rather than doing a desert clean-up drive every year. I am very happy to see the media channels now picking up on this and shouting out and educating people. These people on radio and televisions are people with the power of followers, nobody knows me or tries to emulate me, but these media heros could make the difference we have been striving for all these years. Kudos to them.

Different surfaces have different effect on the many gadgets available to us in our modern cars. Remember all the people I have repeated told today's cars are learning from you as much as you are learning to drive them. We at Carnity encourage all makes and models and encourage you to try out different exercises in your cars to see what a difference each thing can make in different situations. That is why getting a refusal or a stuck means that it is learning opportunities for all of us. The video does give you a good idea, but on solid ground with cross wheels in the air, plus I am not even sure if he is keeping that TC button pressed for 10 seconds to completely switch of the TC, thus he finds out that TC is not completely off. It is only when you learn and let your car and your persistence surprise you that you can help newer member to learn and grow within this environment. I love this community and all the members who strive to learn and share, a recent trend that has really touched me is the sharing of information for specific type of vehicles which will be documented and stored in an organized manner which will help the newer members around.

Thank you @Atif bhai for sharing this interesting video, maybe someday we can go out to the sands and make our own video by trying out the certain options available in your car. It will be so much more helpful for the conditions we drive in.

@Danish Mohammad welcome, I will take care to make this drive as family friendly as possible. With the weather getting better it a wonderful time to bond with the family in the wilderness of the desert.

@Mohamed Seidam we have tried using hand brake, but its not recommended for prolonged periods. Best way would be to dig, use the blip blip @Gaurav bhai tradenark and steering full left and full right 5 times. If nothing works than tug the poor vehicle out.

To have a clear picture, open diffs means that each wheel has different power depending on how your vehicle requires it, so in the instance of going in a circle, the tires on the inner side will rotate fewer times than the tires on the outside of the circle. With open diffs the vehicle in case of stuck gives more power to a freely moving wheel and takes away power from the wheel which is stuck. When you apply the difflock the vehicle provides the exact same power to all the wheels irrespective of whether they are free or stuck. This helps us to create a little movement when stuck, which allows us to rock the car until we have enough momentum to come out of the stuck position. Try turning a circle with the difflock engaged, you will feel one side of the vehicle skip as all tires are rotating at the same speed.

I would personally not recommend to climb any dune with the difflocks on, on a straight up you may engage the diffloc as @Gaurav bhai put it in high gear and not low to get a little assistance, however if you are unable to make it to the top turning from the height with locked diffs can have a lot of load on the shaft of the vehicle. So stop and reverse back all the way. I would not at all recommend doing sideys with the difflocks on as some amount of steering is required to manage any sidey.

@Gaurav bhai's Pajero is special and has both rear and central difflock, it is from an era when Pajeros were ruling the Dakar and most of the technology made it to the top end models. The newer Pajero only 3.8 liter version comes with rear difflock only. Central difflock locks from the middle thus giving each tire the same amount of power. Pajero with the rear difflock means it only locks the rear wheels, which means the rear wheels power is equally distributed. However I would highly recommend using difflocks in case of stucks only and not while doing other maneuvers or climbs.

For climbs I would recommend you give yourself and your vehicle some time. We normally approach a big climb or play area after doing some desert driving, even if all the readings show normal there is some heat trapped somewhere which kind of eats into the power. While you are waiting for your turn open the bonnet of the car, switch off the engine for a while. Check your tire pressure, as after about 1 hour of drive you might have gone up 2 or 3 PSI on tire pressure. Adjust your tire pressure. Open and inspect your air filter and make sure it is clean, just gently tap against your tires to make sure any dust is off. Start your car and try to climb, it will give you much better result than just using the difflock for an easy climb. If I remember correctly @Atif bhai the last time we were at Faya you took it head on and succeeded, there is no comparison to making it to the top with just the steps as I have described rather than putting unnecessary toll on your car components. You cannot beat me at being a loser as I can never climb up Faya or Iftar Bowl straight up, that is why I choose to make myself some cheat routes.

How about doing twins with @Gaurav bhai and @Frederic bhai.

https://tnydu.biz/DOzSnn

@Thomas Varghese it will be my pleasure to have both your son and son-in-law join us for a boring drive. I will announce the frequency along with the convoy position on Thursday.

@Srikumar you are a little off with your years, let me put this correctly.

Wrangler TJ : Till 2000 - 2004 (TJ Model) - 4.0 i6 engine - 5 speed manual / 4 auto - Awesome car if you can get it clean

Wrangler TJ : Till 2005 - 2006 (TJ Model) - 4.0 i6 engine - 6 speed manual / 4 auto - Awesome car if you can get it clean

Wrangler JL : 2007 to 2011 - 3.8 V6 Engine - Reliable engine but has some heating issues and the engine is not powerful enough

Y61 of the old used to come with 4.5 liter engine with a pathetic gear box, and the newer Y61 with the 4.8 liter engine and great gear box is damn expensive, specially during the season. Plus they would 99% be abused.

My favorite years for Wranglers personally were from 2000 - 2004 TJs manual, which were built to last, although the TJ continued through to 2005 & 2006, but manual came with the 6 speed instead of the 5 speed on my favorite models. Off-roader did complaint about the 6 speed manuals, however automatics should be just fine. If you are going manual you will take a few outings to get the right gear and clutch use, lucky you can learn from the very best of @Gaurav, @Srikumar and @Frederic. Plus older models are cheaper so should give you some extra cash in pocket for any repair jobs. @Wrangeld can help you with what to look for in SWB Pajero, I would recommend a 2014 model or later for the gear upshift issue with the automatic in the previous years. Like before I would again recommend the Prado SWB 6 cylinder 4.0 if you can find one in good condition. A Prado too will hardly loose its resale value.

@Niki Patel im impressed that you have bothered to read and post from the owners manual, it a bit rare. Its always better to be safe than sorry. An early oil and filter change is not really going to have any negative effect on FJC, buFJgetting late in a service can have a bad effect. A dumb a$$ once said oil and filter is cheaper than your engine, sadly he was correct. A few extra Dirhams spent every six months will only protect your investment.

I would rate a weekly drive as regular off-road. If you have a respectable and reliable garage who can do the job for you, you can buy the original engine oil and filter and get it done outside. This should not void your warranty, I'm sure @Gaurav bhai can shed more light on this subject.

I will let the FJC owners take over from here. Off to you @Ale Vallecchi, @Ahab Shamaa, @Pickey Singh and more i can't remember.

@DANIEL NOGUEIRA please don't mind me, I was just pulling @Ahab Shamaa legs and did not mean to hurt your feeling. Ram is one of my favourite trucks and I true hope for a speedy recovery. See you soon buddy.

Dr @Chaitanya D your second point on the second set of instructions, if you cannot secure with another car, if you have some heavy equipment like a spare tire you can secure the car by sticking it behind the rear wheel to avoid slipping back. Just a thought, hope it helps.

You should keep an eye for your coolant temperature. Most cars do not have a transmission heat gauge, but if the transmission is heating the warning light will come on. I like @Srikumar's explanation, if light is orange it means beware, red light means stop. Always keep an eye on your instrument cluster, and announce on radio and stop. Eventually we will figure out the issue and get you sorted and moving again. If you're really interested there are OBD II readers with mobile apps to show you live data about your car. Nowadays they are very cheap and available in Bruce Lee Mall and Bezos.ae but be sure that they are compatible with your model vehicle.

@Thomas Varghese you will have plenty of opportunities to learn and develop towards the sweep position. For this drive I want to keep you close to me and would love to learn and pick up things from you.

Wow @Atif bhai, what a thought provoking post. many people would wonder about these things but never ask. That was not much of a fishtail, just a little bit due to the jump and the FJ settling in. It is a good practice to steer down as soon as you start to feel the fishtail, you are absolutely correct in doing so. That threshold of you acting as soon as you feel the fishtail will develop and a delay will automatically come to you as you get comfortable. There is a very fine line between fishtail and a roll over, its always better to react early rather than being too late.

Another one of your questions is would turning down due to the bump would be a good idea when fish tailing, as I see it that would be the safest choice, it is always advisable to make a big turn and reduce speed as you are coming down. However I do not feel it was that big a danger in this case.

Any vehicle being raised by 2 inches has to be dangerous as it changes the center of gravity, however increasing the base by an inch with a proper wheel spacers should take care of reducing the chances of a roll over. From how I see it the jump at the start his vehicle was pointed up and not on a sharp angle so did not pose the danger that you see it to be. However at Carnity we do take extra precautions to make sure the Marshals ride out the sideys first and advise fellow members regarding the dangers and bumps to avoid.

When this Electric vehicles started popping up to reality I was really put off by them, I did not even give them a chance. I was in love with my V6 and V8 and could not imagine myself being caught with and Electric Vehicle. The past couple of years have however changed the way I think, I was not all that interested when the Tesla Cybertruck got announced, but when I first saw the Rivian R1T it caught my imagination and compelled me to follow the progress of this amazing truck. More recently the Hummer EV has caught my attention and I am caught struggling to imagine which one I would go for if in a few years time I had no option but to go Electric.

Tesla Cybertruck to me looks ugly and when on the launch event the windows of the truck were smashed by Elon Musk who claimed these would not shatter, I had little faith in these. Plus the bad press that Tesla easily attracts like the problems incorporated with the different Tesla models and the very poor after sales service for these vehicles I am put off by the Tesla name altogether. Although it is a joy to watch a Model S or Model X to be sighted on the UAE roads, but lots of negative media kind of puts me off the Tesla vehicles. That being said, I do understand they were the first company to launch the Electric cars and have the best infrastructure in place to charge these vehicles.

Rivian R1T was the first one I saw a couple of years back they have not gone overboard with their design like Cybertruck, it looks like a proper truck and has some elements to it which give it a unique look like the stadium type lighting. Extra storage space between the passenger cabin and cargo bed is an awesome spot for a quick lie down and rest before continuing on long trip. It also impresses me with the skateboard platform on which the battery pack lies and is secure from any bumps on the way as these battery packs are dangerous to catch fire or explode if ruptured. Another thing that impresses me is the range on these vehicles along with the towing capacity. Surely these cannot carry as much load as a battery pack can never give the kind of pulling power a combustion engine provides, thus reducing the range by a big margin if you are towing heavy stuff. I guess that defeats the purpose of a truck, unless you just want to look good. I recently saw the renditions of the Rivian R1S which is just as impressive, however is a full 7 seater SUV rather than being a truck.

Hummer EV is something that caught my eye this year and seriously got me thinking as to which one I would put my money on if I had a chance. The Hummer brand was discontinued during the last recession as America lost its appetite for a huge SUV or truck running V8 as the trends changed. Hummer remained a brand for the wealthy who wanted to make an impression on entry rather than use it for what it was meant to be for, off-roading. The Hummer EV brought back a lot of amazing memories and one of my friend had a Hummer H2 supercharged and rode it like it should be driven, jumping dunes and destroying any trees in the way. It was fun to watch, but a nightmare to recover if ever he got himself into any situation. As per the original figures released to the press it seems very capable and definitely more iconic than the Cybertruck.

So my first choice if money is not an issue would be the iconic Hummer EV as I think it looks good, Chevrolet has some infrastructure in place for EV vehicles and reliable after sales serve with their service centers spread right across UAE. However my heart still pounds for the Rivian R1T if they have proper support and infrastructure in place here in the UAE. Let me know which one you would prefer and why?

Wow, so impressed with you @Desert Dweller, I guess we will have to give you a PHD with honors in off-roading as well.

@Arman it is always good for a lead to know that the participants are enthusiastic enough to ask. On my drive @Shehab Alawadhi pointed that out that he likes to be in sweep. After getting good reports from all the Marshals he has driven with, I decided to allow him there. Again he has been very expressive to try out the second lead as I have promised him after seeing him this Friday. So mention what you feel like and if we find you to be able to concentrate on the drive and take care of others we will give you that chance too.