Frederic

TRIP REPORT With the knowledge of having some rain that passed over UAE the last couple of days, I was a bit worried of how the FAQA area would be upon arrival. I had been making some contingency plans but in any case not one involved heading back home @Shamil and @Emmanuel were both well on time and we were all looking forward to a beautiful morning. @Javier M was probably still snoozing in his little nest. We missed you buddy. After dipping our toes in the sand it confirmed that the sand in that area was very compacted so we decided to deflate to 12-13 psi instead of the regular 10psi. After a quick chat we headed into the dunes and started exploring the area. We kept a steady pace and all managed well. At one point I attacked a small dune from the front but found a nasty pocket on the other side, that surely woke me up. Thanks to @Emmanuel for quickly reacting on the radio and notifying @Shamil to not do the same thing. A bit later we came across some old farm fences with barbwire still exposed and laying in the sand. Rerouted a little bit by heading deeper southwards into the dunes. Definitely an area to be careful with during night drives. 24.70738, 55.53992 Because the convoy was so small and we made quick progress, after a quick break and a smoke we decided to leave Faqa and start heading north direction Maktoum Solar Park. I've been there camping before and Emmanuel spotted some nice dunes up ahead. So suddenly this became an exploration drive. Having spotted a group of cars parked on the plain sands we noticed these were falcon trainers. After seeing the "creamy" dunes as Emmanuel called them, we entered and enjoyed the medium sized dunes with odd formations, but some areas became muddy holes at one point and soon @Shamil found himself stuck a few times. We met some friendly locals that also got stuck at some point with their Super Safari. But all was quickly resolved and the shovel saved us a few times that day. We will definitely be coming back to this area, which we now called "Little Sweihan" 24.67943, 55.36813 Throughout the morning we had a nice combination of side-sloping, ridge crossing, and attacking dunes of different shapes and formations. @Shamil you drove good, but keep working on getting that confidence level up. Around noon, we reached the Solar Park Tower. A great spot to inflate and have a chit-chat before heading back home via Al Qudra. 24.76008, 55.35989 For a first official lead drive, I found myself thoroughly enjoying, and the small convoy gave us the possibilities to explore new grounds. Thanks guys for joining, I truly enjoyed it and hope you did too !

Not really a fan of those things for the following reasons: 1) Haven’t seen them in floorjack model, which is the only model that works on unstable ground. The first model you displayed is a bottle jack model, which might sometimes work, but maybe only in 40% of the cases. 2) They are rather fast, and that’s wat you don’t want during lifting a 4x4. You want to be able to slowly position it in place, and then gently lift up the car. The hydraulic floor jack is much better for that. Like Emmanuel pointed out, shoveling is far more intensive than lifting a car. Maybe consider buying an electric shovel ? 😂😉

I did not notice it during that time. But then again, maybe you are right. I will also check the manifold heatshield.

Congrats @Thomas J

Congrats @Ale Vallecchi !!

Congrats @Mikhail Lukichev ! Love your positive attitude and drive snaps ! See you soon in the sand,

It’s all about the passion for cars and that’s what Carnity stands for.

Hahahahaha, yeah 220kph with a Pajero would be suicidal. The car was in for major maintenance just 3000kms back which included all fluids, filters, and drive belt. After this maintenance everything was perfectly normal until the last couple of days. Thanks. There’s no stuttering or jerking at all while driving, and no misfiring. I’ll have a chat with the workshop guy and keep you all posted. It doesn’t seem serious but I’m kinda sensitive to these things (OCD) 😂

Wifey’s Pajero started sounding a bit rougher when starting. While I initially thought this might be with to do with the slightly colder mornings, now i noticed the car has a kind of resonance vibration that can be felt inside at around 2200rpm. After revving further it disappears again. Note1: I am revving in P, so drivetrain can be excluded already. Note2: car sounds normal in idle, no vibrations and very stable idle rpm I will give it a Redex treatment to start but anyone has any idea what this might be ? I was thinking engine mounts maybe ? 🤨

bumpers: check lift: check gnarly tyres: check You should hit the sands again @desertdude. You might see this Pajero flying around.

You could always bring it to this guy in Belgium: https://www.meor.be/ He restores old Mercedes cars and sells them. Even Sheikh of Qatar is one of his customers. Check the cars for sale and how they are restored. You can eat off the floor in that workshop.

Sounds like an interesting project ! Having all these things done in one single workshop is gonna cost you serious bucks i am afraid. Alas, here are my two cents: 1) Chassis correction: can you be more specific ? Is there any specific damage ? 2) Chassis repainting / rustproofing. There are specialised companies who do this. Not so very expensive. 3) Body panel correction and full repaint: Can be done in a bodyshop (i think @Gaurav found a good one recently). 4) Electrical system overhaul. These cars are made in a very simple way, so the electrical wiring that i'd look at overhauling is mainly located in the engine bay were temperature can have created some brittle wires. Inside dashboard or something i would not even touch as it might become a can of worms. Maybe have the main starter wires and battery wires / grounds replaced. 5) Nuts and bolts galvanized. Get them blasted and either galvanized or just painted. Many small workshops do this. We work with Gopinath in Ras Al Khor for the bigger blasting and painting jobs.

Thanks @Srikumar I am also looking forward to that !! This would have never been possible without the guidance of people like you and others who have set up this amazing offroad-community and are giving their best efforts and dedication every weekend to enable people to learn these skills in a safe and motivating way.

agree. Same as Harley Davidson that has electric bikes now. The one thing should not exclude the other.