Looper

@Gaurav Soni Congratulations on your well deserved promotion.

As @Ilya mentioned you need the lift for if not fo the ground clearance - at least to accommodate larger tyres. I drove once without the lift but with larger 285 tyres. I faced few rubbing issues. @Kailas has been driving without a lift and 285s for months. He is an expert so he manages the rubbing issues a lot better than I could ever do, but they persist. Anything over those puny 245s will help. A 1.5" spacer lift kit for 285 or 2.5" for 305s will help a lot on the clearance without putting a lot of money into it. 305s perhaps are the sweet spot - to think of it with any lift other than the 1.5" spacer lifts. With my research, I definitely wasn't going anywhere, and my biggest fear is the "buyer's remorse" - and that meant sticking with agency stuff. Obviously there were stuff I got or tried to get done outside the agency but stuck with Mopar the lift kit at the end. And it was an easy way out for most of the way, there wasn't too many things to go wrong, except for the bank balance. with 2D JLs these tyres don't add any more weight than the engine can not accommodate with ease and the wider tyres more than compensate for their weight with more traction anyways.

uh oh my Jeep is in service center - while they said they will try to give it back to me by afternoon (today being half day) there is a chance that they might not. I have vacated my position in the drive as of now so that I do not become a no show tomorrow.

You can do it yourself, see this: Last month when I had the lift done I was asked to bring it again for a alignment- cost ~900. At this moment not sure what all they are going to do but I think they will reprogram the car as well. Today I have a service appointment and I’ll have more info on it. I’ll update in the afternoon

Totally agree. That’s why I mentioned the fact that I have been driving a lot and practiced, including keeping to line and a few more aspects. In every drive I pick up a driving skill to learn and practice doing it properly. One can drive without lift or wider tires but, having said that the wider tires and lift helps driving a lot.

I did mine from Jeep directly. I put spacers at Jeep(1550 outside 1100) but would have avoided if I could. I bought tires outside (750 ea) and Mopar 2” lift (~9.7k). Tomorrow I’ll have the alignment done at Jeep (~900). I’ll have reprogram the car for larger tires, tire pressure etc. Alternatively similar setups can be done outside approximately half cost. My Jeep ride quality is like stock set up now, and the wider tires and lift has tremendously helped my desert driving experience. I feel more confident in cross crossing and ridge riding. Before it used to scoop a lot of sand and loose momentum and fall off the ridges. I however used to loop back on track hence the name. The wider tires provide a lot more traction which helps me to get out of soon going to be tricky situations quickly. Having said that I have constantly focused on eliminating my trouble areas while driving. So a great deal of desert driving also helps.

Thanks I am in

Please waitlist me for this drive. Currently it is the first drive of the week. I’ll however take up a Saturday morning drive.

I am in 👍

Roger that

Please waitlist me for the 2nd drive of the week.

Thought this was going to be on Saturday, my second drive for the week ☹️

It was an awesome drive as usual with you @Lorenzo Candelpergher, Thank You! A big shout out to @Yousef Alimadadi and @Luca Palanca Falsini for keeping the flock together and helping the recoveries. The initial bit of the drive was a nice warmup with technical dunes, and the fun began when we reached the long-range dunes, where everyone did exceedingly well without much trouble. It was a re-run of my very first drive with @Lorenzo Candelpergher on 17th April afternoon Intermediate drive. In the rear end of convoy few of us did not seem to have any issues, maintaining radio silence, but that doesn't mean we were not in trouble. It's just with more experience one learns to recover with little effort and without breaking the momentum of the drive. It will be a matter of time when everyone driving with @Carnity having more drives under the belt will get that experience. @Matt.T was excellent during the drive - had almost a flawless drive in his Jeep. Congratulations on your promotion, it is well deserved. @imranaasghar81 had to loop a few times but didn't face any issue that couldn't be handled easily. I had 2 half chances to slip off the edge but managed. I am getting increasingly comfortable with the lift and the wider tyres, and the setup is helping navigate the dunes much more comfortably and confidently. @varunmehndiratta behind me was cool as cucumber and there was nothing that was going to break his streak. @Shehab Alawadhi was targeted to be stuck at any cost () - he manged to remain unstuck for most of the time but at the end he ran out of luck. As rightly coined by @Shehab Alawadhi the "Lisaili Garage" where we had to work upon three cars with tyre issues - had one more car in it which was not evident at that time: mine. I inflated one of the tyres by a couple of psi in "Lisaili Garage". Sand got into it and was leaking air over the weekend - had to get it cleaned today. This is the link to map of my Gaia GPS recording. Hope to see you all soon in many more drives.

Congratulations @Matt.T well deserved promotion.

I am not able to open this link, it’s showing my own home when I click it. PS: This problem only occurred on phone. I can see the location on the computer. so i'll just map it from there no issues.

It was pre-covid days (2018/19) when I "tried" to drive there, and it was supposed to be a return trip without camping. I was driving my Santa Fe, and I missed one exit. Google decided therefore that a way through the back side of an Airforce Airfield is the way to go. I am a wuss - unsure if I wanted to proceed any further, I reversed back on to E11 and drove a bit towards Saudi and crossed then under construction Nuclear Power Plant and spent some time at a secluded beach with turquoise waters. 160 km/hr was a bit scary on a lightweight wobbly Santa Fe but, boy was it not fun. I am sure you will enjoy it in your Merc.

PS: do I regret - no. Did I need it, yes kind of - I came to a level of my driving experience where I started to feel the need of a wider tyre and consequently a need of a lift kit. If I could get away with just the tyres I would have. I tried to do what @Kailas has done. Drive in 285s without a lift. It had slight rubbing issues in the desert but otherwise fine on road. But the handling was not that good on road frankly - somehow didn’t enjoy driving on road that much. The lift or the adjustments Jeep did while installing the lift made day and night difference to the handling on road. I once again love driving the car on road and it behaves much better.

I took the plunge for the Mopar 2” lift kit. My car is a daily driver, and the only car in the family currently. Wife drives it half the time. I needed something that’ll behave close to the stock vehicle which she is used to driving. Well that’s what I tell myself to reason why I spent a fortune on the car. Blame it the wife’s driving habits.

Congratulations @Rizwanm2 well done 👍

Congratulations @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, it is a well deserved promotion.

Margham area looks airy due to its low elevation dunes but in fact it is a very difficult terrain to drive on due to its uneven dunes sprinkled with vegetation. Also it has some very soft sand patches that appear unexpectedly. It demands a lot of concentration from the convoy and did we not have it? The long patches of radio silence is testament to fact how engrossed everyone was while driving. Hats off to @Anish S to make the drive seem so easy, and facing all the refusals all by himself. Reminded me of this pic while driving: With @Hisham Masaad at 6th position and @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ driving with @Abdul Rafay-S at 7th position, I didn't have anything to do, rather than drive in tranquility, as they managed all the issues - though they were few. @munkybizness - Oh boy you have no idea. The benefit I had today driving as Sweep++(effectively both the cards in front of me were doing the same thing I was.) - I looped twice as i slipped off the ridge and did not have to disturb the momentum of the drive, quickly joining back at the back. The one refusal @S Jacob had - It seemed to me that you were not turning the wheels left/right enough, with a little more wiggle you could have perhaps self recovered. But may be you could not. Otherwise you drove very well through out and the displayed the power of SWB cars. Otherwise everyone drove fantastically well. @Naveen Raj seemed to be observant of what @Anish S was doing. It was great to observe @Aisha S and @Abdul Rafay-S driving their Jeeps like seasoned professionals. @munkybizness looked like you enjoyed the drive as well. This is a map of our drive today recorded on Gaia GPS

I have booked with Rashidiya only. There is a spill over effect due to Shk Zayed running on truncated size.

Due to the demand in Bronco, dealers are adding dealer margins. The prices here are too steep upto AED 30-40k more than the RSP in US. Further - If a winch is installed on Bronco - it blocks the front radar system in the car. This will make the adaptive speed control feature useless.