Rahimdad

Somehow for me electric and beast don't go together. When you say off-road there are different terrains, I'm sure it is electric and would not be good for water crossings or driving in the mud. What about long soft dune climb?. Till we do not have one in our hands to test it out in different terrain I will just keep me quiet.

The Islamic New Year is supposed to be falling on Thursday, 21 September, so lets take advantage. Plus with the weather getting better it will be only cooler on top.

The RAK mountain range which always are few degrees lesser than the other areas. Get ready to enjoy some of best snaky curved road making up to the to this grand Hajar mountain range. With last time's experience we can reach close to the top to enjoy the view from both sides of the mountain and enjoy the sea view. This drive will offer plenty of photo opportunity for the shutterbugs, so make sure to carry your best camera and long range lens.

Plan is to start late afternoon and finish whenever we feel we have had enough to escape the heat and yet have our holiday dose of fun and adrenaline. With this timing we will also eliminate the usual rush at this newly developing tourist site. So please be on time, as we are really pressed on time so if you are late then you have to catch up by yourself.

If anybody would like to bring along snacks, drinks, BBQ, playing cards, music box or any means of entertainment and fun is most welcome to join.

Mine and Rahim bhai visit to Jabal Jais - Jan 2014

When: 21 September 2017
Meeting time: 2:45 PM
Drive Start: 3:00 PM (SHARP)
Where: Adnoc after Tasjeel Village on Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Rd (E311) - Sharjah
GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/wytcqzvgCtF2

Level of drive: All levels
Plan: Scenic drive with plenty of stops on route to top
What to bring along: Camera, drinks, water, snacks, smiles, stories, enthusiasm, BBQ and willingness to learn.

Approximate finish time: Flexible

I'm in, sounds like the kind of relaxing drive after the awesome dunes we caught last week.

Hope to see you @Atif

What can I say. We met, we headed to the start point, we deflated and we totally conquered Faqa. It was all ours and we loved it to bits. There was awesome side sloping, ridge riding, ridge cutting, steep climbs, sharp decends, soft sand patches mixed with some very challenging terrain. Out advantage was having 4 cars with enough experience and sense of adventure to fly through some of the best we've done so far.

Thanks to @Gaurav bhai for posting and leading such an excellent drive, plus some awesome sandwiches. Thanks to Asif bhai for showing some amazing skills to keep the convoy alive, the tea, the spicy peanuts and so much more. Thanks to Srikumar for a flawless performance with his newly acquired XJ.

Did I forget to mention the sand storm. Oops. We were caught in one right in the middle of the drive, but everyone did exceptionally well to ride the storm out. We would have normally stopped somewhere nice to sit and enjoy our snacks and drinks, thanks to the sand storm we kept going and only got to food and drinks at the very end. Kudos to a team which makes me very proud. Thanks Carnity for bringing us together and giving us such a great opportunity.

On 06/09/2017 at 6:55 PM, umarcrespo333 said:

@Rahimdad Good place to buy good spacers? Just the rear ones. I am having trouble finding them online because I am having a hard time reading them. I only understand width numbers nothing else.

Try AEV in Al Quiz. Last I heard they keep stuff only for Keep Wranglers. JK.

I'm in but not to Camel Rock or Faya. You will have to drive all the way up to Lisali, take the underpass for the flying club, head to Tawi Nizwa, cross the road to Pink Rocks and continue to Big Fall. Since there is a barrier now you need to take the round about and you are through to Camel Rock and Faya. Sounds like a full day off road event.

@Barry if your ex girlfriend treated you to 6 months of free chicken, I don't think that is trouble. Plus crazy is the new in thing. We guys love crazy chics, don't we? Haha haha.

Home made spacers which just invite trouble. I remember one time driving with on of my off road buddy and his wheel started to wobble. I stopped him and it seemed one of the nut had come loose. We tightened the nut and moved about 7 - 8 kms before it started to wobble again. He finally told me he got wheel spacers installed from on of the Iranian shops. We removed the spacer and put the wheel on again. Surely he has a little rubbing issue, but at least he did not face any major damages driving at high speed on the highway with his wheel coming off.

@Barry you hit the nail on the head. Night desert drives it makes a lot of difference. In road actually you can face a problem passing the car with LESs on.

So many people curious about the trip and want to know what went down.

Firstly my hats off to all for being on time and meeting up on time as it is essential with a long drive and limited time. We drove all the way to the said area and were surprised to have a gate installed with a guard and another uniformed guy with a gun. From what we understood that some rich fellow is trying to build a castle for himself on that island, so we commoners have one less natural place in the UAE to explore. Thank God the spirits of the group were not dampened, in fact we came to find out later that while Abdul Basit and myself were scared of the gun, our very own @Gaurav bhai was amazed by the finishing of the gun.

So we headed to the closest spot we knew, close to the Sir Baniyas Island Ferry Station. It was a great place to settle in and have a few good stories, recap, laughs and much more. Special thanks to Abdul Basit for the delicious biryani, @Gaurav bhai for the amazing Idlis and chutney, while I brought along the butter beer from Harry Potter. A little walk in the sea was refreshing and as the weather got better it was time to pack up and leave.

The night was not over. As we drove back and after a quick refueling stop we headed to Last Exit. It was amazing weather and even better company as we all refueled ourselves to drive back home with sweet memories of the day. I will add my pics to the gallery to give you a better feel of the drive as a picture is worth a thousand words.

@umarcrespo333 you can find them in Naif Road opposite Hyatt Regency. You can also find them at Dragon Mart.

@umarcrespo333 you should always try out your ride in the desert, that way you realize what you need before making any mods. There is no thumb of the rule that applies. I am not a big fan of wheel spacers, but in some 4x4s it becomes mandatory to do it of you lift the vehicle, but make sure you get branded reliable wheel spacers rather than the Iranian's make shift job that makes your vehicle more unreliable and dangerous.

@umarcrespo333 thank God you are safe. Beginners luck, at the same tie 18 PSI is a bit too much but better safe than sorry with the Grandtreks. Hope to see you soon.

Thank you @Gaurav bhai. Great outing on many accounts, firstly a chance for the newbies to experience our favourite area while learning how to float in the soft stuff. Both @Sidshk and @Richard did well and special thanks to Richard for trusting me with his machine to climb Faya to the top. It took us close to 3 hours to get to Faya and all on top. Once on top we had some chilling weather, with some sandwiches, banana and soft drinks.

Once we came down and we headed to the road to say good bye to Sid and Richard. After bidding them farewell The fantastic 4 were on the back of Faya and heading out to Fossil Rocks from some awesome dunes. It took us 45 minutes of absolute best driving skills and some awesome selection of dunes by Gaurav bhai to achieve that fear.

What's more heart warning is 2 firsts for Carnity. Firstly 2 drives posted on the same week. Secondly someone other than Gaurav bhai or me. Congrats Basit on his first drive post and congrats to Carnity for the achievement.

@Abdul Basit Khan well thought of and congrats on your first post. I'm in with full support.

Wow @Gaurav bhai. Good thinking. Start from Faya around 4pm to miss the rush and idiots, wonderful play time and loads of learning opportunity, some great dunes on the way to Fossil Rock and some play time there too to be able to put what we learn to practice. I'm totally in for this one.

@Abdul Basit Khan in that case I'm in. Post the drive so I can sign up.

Love the idea and we'll done Basit for a fantastic homework. I would have loved to join, but both Thursday and Friday is out of the question for me. I could join if it was on Saturday as we have some off days for Eid.

The best night out ever. Started with meeting up a couple of guys who were huge fans of Mitsubishi Pajero. So we joined them for a quick drive down to the side of Fossil Rock, sat there for some time while waiting for Sree. In this time we shed tears and inhaled some smoke due to the bon fire and enjoyed some Argentina Green Tea and some roll away cigarettes. Soon Sree was waiting in Khatam, so we said good bye to our new friends and headed out to get Sree.

Now it was time for the real stuff, so we drove high and we drove low all the way to the top of Fossil Rocks. The steep fall was really in bad shape so we decided to go around waving at our new friends again. Between Fossil Rock and Camel Rock I lost my bearings and we ended up in some really nice virgin dunes and at the back of Camel Rock. It was a bit tricky to manuevre between the 2 rocks to come to the front side, but we made it without any issues.

We were in good luck as from Camel Rock to Data we again got a patch of virgin dune on the top which connected with another and another. We never came down from the rolling dunes till the back side of Faya. After a bit of a struggle and heading slightly left of where we were, we ended up straight in top of Faya. We settled in with the amazing cool breeze and enjoyed Aloo Parathas thanks to Gaurav bhai and some cold drinks.

Loved the drive and finally other clubs have come out to play since the weather is getting better. Loved the drive, the company, the food, the smiles, absolutely everything about this drive. As briefed to the participants gear up because a selected few would get to enjoy the best fun in about 4 months time.

We are all looking forward to some easy relaxing drive and what better than our very own sand box. So let's rock the Maliha/ Kalba area without any time restraints.

When: 24 August 2017
Meeting time: 10:45 PM, convoy will move sharp at 11 PM
Where: Adnoc Petrol Station Maleha Road

GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/mzb26kxzte72

Level of drive: Fewbie - Expert - Advance - All are welcome (absolute newbie and newbie as passengers only)
Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 10 inches of ground clearance
Plan: Night drive from Muhafiz to Camel Rock to Faya and further if time permits
What to bring along: Loads of snacks, plenty of water - whatever you like with little extra to share, water, liquids, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

Approximate finish time: Open

List your name and mobile number in this drive thread and RSVP the below calendar:

Welcome to Carnity.

Where do I start. A few people got a bit late for the meet up, and were not well prepared, so we started almost an hour late, with a late meet up of 4:30 and the sun to set at 7 pm we were pressed for time. We headed to the deflation point and after a quick deflation and a driver briefing we headed in to realize one of the vehicles was not properly deflated. After a quick remedy we again started and spotted a few Gazelles right at the start. Had a feeling that it was going to be a fantastic day.

After about 10 minutes in to the desert we had a pop-out, after fixing the pop-out we realized that another vehicle had low pressure on one of the tires, so we tried inflating it, but less then 2 minutes and the radio once again echoed that the same tire was running low pressure again. After a little inspection we determined that the valve must be faulty or leaking air due to sand caught in the valve. So we changed the valve, inflated it again and after a few minutes the same issue. At this time we tried to change the tire but did not have the tools to do the same, so we inflated it to about 38 PSI and headed out through the track. As we came out to the road we checked again and it was 36 PSI, the conclusion now was that there was some sand stuck in between the rim and the tire which was deflating when the pressure was brought down.

After a quick conference we decided to inflate and head to the Qudra Lakes by road. We came to a good spot, the Qudra Lakes seemed fairly enpty. Quickly we got the fire going and the chicken was up for the BBQ from my side and from Saleem. Thanks to Basel who helped with the BBQ and did a very nice job. After enjoying some soft drinks with the BBQ chicken we sat around and chatted till very early the next morning. Being inflated we just had to drive out and back to our homes. In short a very short desert drive, but well compensated by some delicious BBQ and relaxing chat.

Thank you to all participants, I really had fun.

Wow, what a heated debate. Don't know about Awafi, |I thought that was for drifting, if you want action close to the road, either Big Red in Bidayer area on the way to Hatta, you can even rent quad bikes there. Or Faya, on the way from Sharjah to Maliha/Kalba, you can rent quad bikes there as well.

All the very best, hope to see you soon on our drives.

@Richard Mellish In this part of the world there are mostly mechanics who have learned the trade from their piers and its mainly a trial and error situation. They do not understand the vehicle and where the problem is originating from, just try to make repairs for it to run for a time without problem and than there is a bigger problem to tackle. When you go back they will justify by saying that this problem was not there before and how could they fix something which was not broken then. As a result you end up paying twice for the same job. Among the very few I have come across who actually bother to tell you where the problem is originating from and needs fixing before the issue at hand can be fixed, start from the very bottom of the problem and work up. It is in my nature to thank and appreciate their work. Although I have not had the pleasure of meeting you, but @Barry and @shadow79 are 2 of them on this forum who really impress me.

Looking forward to meeting you soon @Richard Mellish, seems like we can really hit it off well.

12 hours ago, Barry said:

Eek I hate doing cooling system flushes. It's simple but time consuming and customers know it's simple so they expect it to be cheap and argue when it's not but what they don't realize is that it can take you a full day of messing about between doing other jobs, filling it, bleeding it, running it up to temperature, draining it, scalding your wrists in the process and doing it all over again 5-6 times.

@Barry, I have just recently seen @shadow79 get down and dirty with cleaning the lines on my R50's AC lines to make sure the new (used) compressor will not face the fate that his Rav4 went through and I can totally understand. I hope Saleem Bhai considers me to be one of his better customers.