Lorenzo Candelpergher

So very true.. And I'm an engineer too... 😂😂😂

I always drive in D, except going to M for these two cases: a) I want to avoid automatic early upshifting, typically from 2nd to 3rd gear, in the initial stages of a climb or to avoid upshifting at all, by remaining in 2nd gear. b) I want to force early downshifting from 3rd to 2nd or 2nd to 1st gear to maintain a better revs/torque regime. This, with Jeeps, is tricky as WOT (wide open throttle) downshifting is prevented by the ECU software, so downshifting can only be achieved by feathering the throttle, which is not always easy to achieve, especially if you find yourself on a bumpy climb. The Rubicon has a "Off-Road+" button that changes the mapping of the engine / gear shifting to achieve higher revs and more sustained short gears. It is quite effective in helping with the above but I totally avoid to use it: if activated, this feature is equivalent to drilling a hole in the tank as the car burns fuel as if there was a massive leakage.. 😂😂

Dear @JeromeFJ, congratulations for your well deserved promotion. Looking forward to the next thrilling climbs and bowls toghether!

I don't do anything on the fly, except occasionally marking dangerous or remarkable spots by adding a waypoint in the current location and then editing it after the drive. In any case, while I drive I just drive: if I need to touch the screen for anything else than zooming in/out or recentering the map, I stop, do what I need to do and move again. I learned the hard way with my Patrol that when you are in movement you need to look at where you are going and keep your hands on the steering wheel with no exceptions. What you see in the snapshots are all waypoints that had been created before the drive to help my navigation, ie to have clear target points to aim at while driving. I just dropped the car at Jeep to have it checked and understand what REALLY happened. Right now, I don't know what happened.. I just know I had ABS, ESC and TCS warning lights on and no other error messages, but had, discontinously, only rear traction despite being in 4H Part-time (which is, despite the wording, a permanent 4x4 mode) and, at a certain point, the gearbox locked in 2nd gear, with no up/down-shifting possible. After a battery reset nothing changed, whereas after a forced reset via OBDII the warning lights disappeared and the shifting was again possible. I still felt I had no front traction as I struggled a lot to climb out of the last bowl, but nobody could visually confirm I was on 2H. I'll keep you posted about the feedback from Jeep.

Dear Desert Wanderers, Some videos of today's 1st big bowl: This is @Ruan van den Heever: This is @Xavier Treasurer: This is @M.Seidam: This is @JeromeFJ: What a great bowl it was!

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, Today's drive in Sweihan was for sure one of those I will remember for long time, as it was one of the most problematic drives I've ever had. It all started in a perfect way: a nice, fresh breeze welcomed us in the twilight before sunrise, at the meeting point. We acted a bit later than planned, anyway by 6am we were on the move. The start was nice and easy, a warm up in preparation of the big bowls to come. We made our way through the bushy dunes and, as we headed west, we found our way through the multiple fences partially buried in the area. When we reached the first bowl, the theme of the day was clear and exciting for all drivers. Certainly the first bowl wasn't the easiest one, but it was the perfect heads up for everyone to realize the beauty and the dangers of these mighty bowls, which deserve to be taken absolutely seriously, with full focus and without any compromise for safety at all times. If @JeromeFJ was not fully awake before this bowl, he was certainly afterwards, as his first attempt was as spectacular as scary for us watching his fishtailing on the way down.. A good lesson for the rest of the drivers and for Jerome himself, who then drove brilliantly for the whole drive. The first 2.5h of our "bowling expedition" went very well as we steadily proceeded west, making our way from one big bowl to the next one. @Xavier Treasurer was having some issues at the back with the poor traction of his H/T tires, which caused him several refusals, especially in the super soft and churned up sand that the guys at the back had of face. After moving to 3rd position in the convoy, Xavier did much better. The plan for the day was to hit 8 bowls heading west and, depending on the pace and the time, to hit some of them again on the way back. A great plan, in theory, which turned out in quite a different drive in practice.. Here's the overview (the green waipoints are the bowls I was targeting): In the end we hit 7 out of 8 bowls, which isn't too bad, considering the total mayhem we had to go through due to my car's annoying troubles. It all started with an innocent ABS malfunction error on my dashboard... Then came a TCS error, then an ESC error. Nothing to worry about, in theory, as all this stuff in the desert is useless and for sure it was some sand bothering some sensors.. But then, towards the end of the drive, it felt like I had forgotten how to drive the car.. Every climb was a struggle.. What the hell was going on? It was then that @Mus_hus78, a brilliant 2nd lead today, noticed that while climbing my rear wheels were spinning but not the front ones.. Apparently my 4H was occasionally disengaging and leaving me with an endlessly fishtailing 2H drive! After some attempts turning off and on again the ignition, it was decided to disconnect the battery to see whether we could force a reset of the electronics of the car, but nothing changed, so we decided to continue a little more and see if things would get better or else to exit earlier. Despite the challenge of driving more often in 2H than 4H, our "Bowling plan" continued and in the end we certainly enjoyed a couple of really nice rounds: Everyone did extremely well around these big bowls: @Mus_hus78 proudly led his Pajero in and out every bowl in style, once again squeezing everything the car could give. @Farouq Owdeh looked like he was driving in his backyard as he new every bowl in details. Every bowl came nice and easy for him. @Ruan van den Heever and his passenger certainly had a good chance to enjoy the "naked" version of the JL, but I feel it may have been still a bit too hot towards the end. @Xavier Treasurer found his balance in 3rd position, with an excellent 2nd part of the drive. @JeromeFJ was the fastest guy in the group today. Once he got acquainted with the size of the dunes, a novelty for him, he was always one of the highest reaching guys. @M.Seidam at the back was cool as a cucumber, enjoying the ride and always with a vigilant eye on the (few) refusals at the back. @Rizwanm2 was experimenting these giant bowls for the 1st time as well, I believe. I'm sure it was great fun. He tried to steal the stage with a stuck at the last bowl requiring a tug by @M.Seidam, but today the stage at the end of the drive was all mine.. 😭😭😭 Due to my intermittent 4H/2H traction (or plainly because of my own mistakes) in the last 20 mins I got stuck once (thanks @Mus_hus78 for tugging me out), had 3 or 4 refusals and eventually had a pop-out, which we struggled fixing at the bottom of the last bowl, after we had already decided to exit earlier due to my car and my son's conditions. Right after the popout, however, I found out my car was not only in 2H, but also stuck in 2nd gear.. 😱😱😱. No shifting at all... Therefore not enough speed to build momentum around the bowl nor enough traction by downshifting to climb up straight and get out of it... In my attempts to climb up of the bowl without shifting gear I eventually collected the 2nd pop-out of the day. This was a nasty one, as the TPM sensor damaged the bead of the tire so much that it would leak air and the pop-out could not be fixed, which meant the spare wheel had to be put in place.. A great team effort made the fix much easier, while @Farouq Owdeh tried via OBD a software reset of the car's electronics, which gave me back at least the gear shifting, but not the 4H. It was enough anyway to circle around the bowl and find a reasonable criss-crossing point, allowing then a quick exit on the south side dirt track along the fence and then back to the tarmac on E16. A massive THANKS to everyone for the great help and the even greater patience during today's drive, in which we experimented all sorts of issues including, cherry on the pie, my son having the smart idea to have his breakfast in the midst of the drive, which his stomach didn't appreciate at all... 🤮🤮 Kudos to everyone for going through these mighty bowls safely, with great discipline and without any major problems. My special gratitude goes to @Rizwanm2 and @M.Seidam for their great support today, even though, I must say, everyone was helpful at all times, with the best @Carnity team spirit I could ever desire. Overall we drove 57.4km in 4h 16', of which 2h 23' moving time, at an average moving speed of 21.7km/h, for a total ascent of +1406/-1435m. See the details below: Next drive in these bowls will be hopefully smoother. Despite the difficulties I personally had fun, I hope it was the same for you. See you soon in the sand again!

Congratulations @GauravSoni, great achievement and well deserved promotion!

Dear Desert Wanderers, this RSVP is now closed. Please find below the convoy order for our drive: @Mus_hus78, @Hasan Wahlan, @Farouq Owdeh, @Rizwanm2, @Ruan van den Heever@Xavier Treasurer, @JeromeFJ, @M.Seidam, this drive is going to be thrilling and exciting, but also very demanding from a technical point of view, both mentally for the drivers and mechanically for the cars. It will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, especially when we will reach elevated positions on steep slopes, so make sure you come well rested and hydrated and that and you don’t have any reason for being distracted. Also, please consider carefully if you wish to bring passengers along with you. We will be using Carnity Channel 4 (446.08125Mhz) Our meeting point is confirmed: E16 Al Taf Road -https://goo.gl/maps/rwPsW39SNAKqi63U9 See you tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already caffeinated, deflated, flagged and briefed) by no later 5:45am (sharp), so make sure you make it to the meeting point at least by 5:30am.

Dear @Dodi Syahdar, well deserved promotion, congratulations! See you soon in the sand!

Congratulations @Alex Raptor! Looking forward to our next drive toghether

Dear @JeromeFJ, I believe, given that we have only 5 participants, you can be already confirmed for this drive. Please feel free to plan for your PCR in due course.

@Mus_hus78, I thought it was just the bumper!! Sorry to hear the news.. You'll tell me all about it when we meed on Saturday. For Chapter II, we'll make sure you fly even higher but land your Pajero unscathed 😉

Dear @ShereenMK, unfortunately this is a Fewbie Plus drive and your rank in @Carnity doesn't allow you to join it. I have therefore removed it from the RSVP, I hope you understand this is for your own safety, especially in this particular drive that entails going through some very large and deep bowls and across some very high dunes. I'm sure you'll sure make it to Fewbie Plus soon and look forward to having you in one of the next drives.

OK. We have a deal 😉👍

Congratulations @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, a very well deserved promotion. Your big smiles at every stop during the drives, your prompt response at every request for help in shoveling or any other need tell everything about your enthusiasm for offroad and have been a great reward for me everytime we had a chance to drive together. Keep going!

Drive Brief For those in @Carnity who are used to off-roading mostly in Dubai and Sharjah, this drive offers the opportunity to discover, toghether with the Abu Dhabi based members of the Club, the breathtaking beauty of the landscape, the amazing heights of the dunes and the incredible depth of the bowls in Sweihan, one of the most coveted off-roading destinations in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. For those coming from outside the Emirate, enduring the hassle of getting a Covid-19 test will be largely rewarded by a memorable experience: we will start from E16 Al Taf Road heading West, in the opposite direction than 2 weeks ago, with the sun rising behind us, gently riding the first dunes to get acquainted with the landscape. After the initial warm up we will start tackling the big dunes that make Sweihan such a renown off-roading place, enjoying all the climbs, the crests, the ridges and - above all - the large bowls it offers, moving a series of high and complex dunes in an exciting sequence of climbs and rides around some of the biggest and deepest bowls to be seen around before completing our loop back to E16. General Infos This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions Ban from Carnity Off-road Club Two Way Radio Guidelines Drive Details Level: Fewbie Plus Above (All Levels) When: 18 Sep 2021, Saturday Meeting time: 5:45 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: E16 Al Taf Road -https://goo.gl/maps/rwPsW39SNAKqi63U9 Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm, willingness to learn and your own compressor for tire inflation. Approximate finish time: 9:45 AM End Point: E16 Al Taf Road Limited Spots Available: Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP ON THE BELOW CALENDAR EVENT

Dear Desert Wanderers, @Arman, @Mario Cornejo, @Lawrence_Chehimi, @Danish Mohammad, @Ilya, @varunmehndiratta, @Ranjan Das, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, @Hisham Masaad, @Pacific I regret to inform you that, due to unforseen urgent family issues, I will not be able to lead tomorrow's drive and that, as no other Lead would be available to replace me, the drive will be canceled. Given the unfortunate circumstances, I have agreed with @Carnity Crew and Advisors that all those who responded the RSVP for this drive will be allowed to join any other drive of their choice, even if on short notice. I also thank all leads for their availability in allowing this to happen. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience: I was really looking forward to this drive, as you all, I'm sure. I promise I'll post it again very soon and I'll make sure it will be a great one. See you soon in the sand again.

Sorry to hear that @Shehab Alawadhi. Unfortunately I had no alternatives on the timing for this weekend's IM. It will be for another day. @Pacific, if your are still interested, you may join. L

Dear @GauravSoni, sorry to hear that. You'll be missed. @Looper, you are now confirmed.

dear @Shehab Alawadhi, dear @Arman it is an afternoon drive. The title of the drive was correct, the one in the calendar was wrong but timing and details were correct. Now the title in the calendar has been as well amended. Sorry for the inconvenience, I had missed the typo. My bad.. Just to make sure everyone gets it straight, I'm tagging all participants: @Arman, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Mario Cornejo, @Lawrence_Chehimi, @Danish Mohammad, @GauravSoni, @Ilya, @varunmehndiratta, @Ranjan Das, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, @Hisham Masaad.

Dear Desert Wanderers, Thanks for responding to this RSVP, once again fully booked in just a couple of minutes. @Arman, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Mario Cornejo, @Lawrence_Chehimi, @Danish Mohammad, @GauravSoni, @Ilya, @varunmehndiratta, @Ranjan Das, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, you are all confirmed for the drive, which will be supported by @Hisham Masaad. @Looperis waitlisted for 1st drive. Looking forward to our drive!

Drive Brief The stretch of desert between Faya, the Sphynx, Camel Rock and Fossil Rock offers a great deal of opportunities for off-roaders to roam across a beautiful landscape and to be challenged in a great terrain. This Intermediate drive is designed to take the best of Faya in a non-stop "all-you-can-drive" route that will take the move from S153 Mahafiz - Al Faya Road, will take the convoy wandering around the big Faya dunes, then coasting along the edge of the eastern end of the red sandy dunes overlooking Mleiha mountains via the Sphynx and Camel Rock and further north to Fossil Rock and Tawi Khatimah play-area, from where the route will again head south in a long loop that will will eventually take the convoy out, exiting again on S153. Starting and ending in Faya, we will have every opportunity to get a full immersion among its beautiful dunes, indeed indulging around ad libitum. General Infos This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions Ban from Carnity Off-road Club Two Way Radio Guidelines Drive Details Level: Intermediate and Above (All Levels) When: 10 Sep 2021, Friday. Meeting time: 2:00 PM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: S153 Mahafiz - Faya Road - Al Tahady Motor Cycles Rental - https://goo.gl/maps/kBcvN7E2LeAd8y2F9 Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm, willingness to learn and your own compressor for tire inflation. Approximate finish time: 6:00 PM End Point: S153 Mahafiz - Faya Road - Al Tahady Motor Cycles Rental Limited Spots Available: Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP ON THE BELOW CALENDAR EVENT

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, Sweihan is one of those places where, even after driving for four consecutive hours, one would never stop.. And today's drive was no different! The meeting point was quite crowded this morning, with two other convoys gathering there as well. With that confusion, we were able to make our move to the sand by 5:45am, a bit later than planned. We warmed up on the nearby tall dunes in the twilight before the sunrise, roaming around for the first few minutes. We then started what was then meant to become the leitmotiv of the day, i.e. climbing as high as was reasonably possible, driving around as many bowls as we could find and throwing in, here and there, a bit of more peppered stuff, with some daring criss-crossing or complex passages as a proper Fewbie Plus drive demands. One one side the Dubai lot of @Carnitymembers and in particular @GauravSoni, @Arman and @Mario Cornejo, who are familiar with my spaghetti-climbing drive style in Intermediate Drives at Area 53 in Sharjah, probably today felt we were doing the same on steroids as far as the terrain was concerned, which was totally new for @Mario Cornejo and @PaoloMaraziti. On the other hand, the Abu Dhabi lot of @Carnity members got the opportunity to drive once again in a well known area but under a new lead, experimenting a different driving style. After just 25 mins in the drive, when, warmed up and with full daylight, we started a sequence of sustained slideslopes, @PaoloMaraziti had a very unfortunate pop-out on his rear right wheel, probably due to an excessive fishtailing on a right-curved long dune. Having a rear pop-out is fairly rare, but I guess it was the first time that @PaoloMaraziti faced such high dunes and a moment of hesitation caused a nasty wrapping of the tire, with a double cut on the inner side wall. After replacing the tire with the spare one, it was a wise decision by our unfortunate friend to bail out, certainly not an easy one given the efforts made to be there (PCR, drive from Dubai, early wake-up) and the amazing terrain we were in. After leading @PaoloMaraziti to the dirt track, we headed back in, fiercely climbing every dune and riding every bowl we could see around. As we proceeded east, the convoy got progressively accostumed with the pace and I felt comfortable to spice up the level with a few all-but-trivial criss-crossings, where we had a few refusals and reattempts but only three real stucks during the entire drive, two sorted out by self-recoveries by @Farouq Owdeh and @Xavier Treasurer after some team shoveling and one requiring a quick winching from a nasty crest for @Hasan Wahlan The drive was fluid, intense and high paced, which was particularly appreciated by @Ruan van den Heever and @Mus_hus78, apparently. This was possible thanks to a great convoy where every driver chewed as a pro whatever I would throw under his wheels, even at the back where the sand was constantly churned up.. Everyone did extremely well today. @Arman was an excellent 2nd lead, promptly rerouting when I asked some adjustments to my lines. Apparently he ended the drive with very low fuel.. We certainly pushed our throttles today! @PaoloMaraziti was really unlucky today. I'm glad he took the whole thing with a positive spirit and, most importantly, that, even after just 25min drive, he fell in love with Sweihan. @Hasan Wahlan certainly didn't spare his Landcruser, always pushing it as high as possible at every climb, which caused some overheating issues here and there, all well managed, though. @Farouq Owdeh's roaring engine had every chance to play its "music" throughout the drive. Impressive how his tire marks were very often the highest ones on the high climbs. @Mario Cornejo, excellent Center Forward, for sure enjoyed every minute of today's drive, discovering Sweihan dune after dune, apparently driving most of the drive in 4LO. Curious to know how was his fuel consumption. @Mus_hus78 certainly squeezed every bit of power from his Pajero today, climbing aggressively every slope and driving around every bowl. I am afraid the front bumper didn't enjoy the drive as much as the driver, but I hope it can be easily fixed. A moment of distraction costed @Ruan van den Heever his first pop-out ever, again a rear tire, but it was fixed in no-time and we were on the move in less than 10 mins. Other than that, an impeccable drive in churned up sand. @Xavier Treasurer didn't disclose until the end of the drive that he was having overheating issues to the extent that he drove most of the time with the heating on to help cooling down the engine. This costed him some power, which combined with the soft and churned sand at the back made his life all but easy. Even more deserved, therefore, a big kudos for a great ride at the far end of the convoy. Closing the convoy with sweeping elegance was @GauravSoni, a certainty at the back and great support with @Mario Cornejo in the few stucks / pop-outs of the day. Overall we drove for 4h 5', covering 82.9km of distance, even if the last 15km were on dirt track to facilitate an easier exit given the fuel consumption concerns of a couple of drivers (who was saying his fuel gauge isn't working?). Our average moving speed was 28.7km/h, but recalculated excluding the last fast stint on tracks, it was in fact 23.6km/h. We were in motion for 3h 5' with 58' of idle time. The total ascent exceeded 1600m. A great drive, a bit special for me as it was my 70th drive with @Carnity and 30th as a lead. Even more special considering that I was in Sweihan the 1st time just 11 months ago in an Intermediate Drive. Thanks to everyone for the fantastic company, congrats for the great performance. I hope everyone enjoyed as much as I did. Looking forward to the next one!