Ahab Shamaa

Hey @Niki, good to hear about the noise; or the lack of it 🤣 Rattling noises drive me crazy and ruin my concentration 😀 Yeah, let’s hear back from you after you put the new baskets to the test 😀

Great addition to the car @Niki 👏🏻 Looks sturdy. Any issues with noise of aluminum rubbing against plastic? Hey @Hisham Masaad, the Molle on the backdoor cannot be secured to the plastic part of the door. The garage/you, will need to fabricate a metal/aluminum backplate, that bolts on to the metal part of your door. The plastic panel is then put on top for aesthetics (plastic won’t be supporting weight). With a metal backplate to support the Molle system, you’ll be good to go adding gear and equipment. Last thing to consider; the backdoor on the FJ has two hinges. The top one is heavy-duty and can take on the additional weight. The bottom one however, is light duty and will not take on the added weight (it gives/bends, and messes up the alignment of door), and therefor will have to be replaced with a sturdier one… Happy spending 🤣

@Lorenzo Candelpergher, thank you for all the support and teachings you’ve given me and the group as a whole! I tell you this; no matter what driving level I’m at, I’ll always bring my pampers on your drives 🤣

Thank you @Gaurav, and thank you to all the leads I’ve driven with, who have taught me so much and helped me get to this driving level 🙏🏻 I still have a lot to learn from everyone, and I look forward to many more drives with Carnity at all levels 😀 A huge thanks to Carnity, to whom I owe all the adrenaline rushes, the awesome desert drives, and the privilege of meeting and becoming friends with so many cool people 😀 I look forward to giving back and supporting our lovely community. With that, I hope to see you all on the sand real soon 🙏🏻

This was a fantastic drive with fantastic people 😀 @Islam Soliman, a great choice of route and dunes that catered to all the levels of the drivers your convoy. @Emmanuel, it was a pleasure seeing you again. I love your calm attitude and reassuring tone! Thanks for keeping an eye on us and helping us with the crucial reroutes. @Lawrence_Chehimi, great second lead and attention to detail 💪🏻 You will make a great lead once you decide to go for it 😀 Keep it up my friend. @Watteau, great seeing you again and great support in the back. We’re lucky we didn’t have to use your beast to fix any pop-outs in this drive 😂 I enjoyed listening to you detail your future upgrades for your beautiful truck 😀 @Humayun Ghias, @Darren Brooke, @Ruan van den Heever, @Ranjan Das, @JeromeFJ, & @Lakshmi Narasimhan, I think you all drove extremely well and it was a great pleasure driving with you. @Gaurav Soni, it was great seeing in the drive bro! You always have something new to teach me, and you make the drives all around funner 😀 Hope to see you all on the sand again real soon 🙏🏻

Thanks @Islam Soliman! See you all on Saturday 🙏🏻

Hey @Islam Soliman, please waitlist me for this drive 🙏🏻

Hello my dear fellow Carnitians; interesting thread you started@Lorenzo Candelpergher😁 @Niki @Hisham Masaad , you guys have as big an appetite as I do for upgrades. I just had to steer you in the right direction 😂 @Watteau, you have a great system on your car and I’m more impressed that you did the work yourself 💪🏻 Back to the topic at hand, as far as the deflation goes and in my opinion, the Apex valves are the best thing out there since sliced bread 😀 They truly work very well, and are the fastest solution I’ve seen on the market. It literally takes about a minute to deflate all 4 tires from 40 PSI to 8-9 PSI. Once you’ve used them for a while, you can kind of gauge when to stop deflating at the right PSI. As for inflation, I believe Hisham’s solution is the most convenient out of all the Carnity people I know. Attach 4 small hoses to each tire and voila! I’ve seen however a similar system to Hisham’s, where the inflation/deflation system (4 small hoses, each to a tire) is attached to an ARB double piston air compressor, where inflation/deflation happens from the convenience of the car, using an iPhone! It is brilliant, because by the time we finished the drive and reached the inflation point, the gentleman had already inflated all 4 tires (while driving). He then removed his flag and off he went. Didn't step out of the car for the inflation; only to remove his flag! One last word, I found that the tank doesn’t speed things up much on the ARB system. Instead, I opted to install two in-line ARB compressors in the car and managed to cut my inflation time by half 😀 Something to think about @Hisham Masaad and @Niki 😈

Holy moly! My heart’s racing just reading @Lorenzo Candelpergher’s post. I can only imagine how the actual drive is going to be. I’ll have extra diapers just in case 😂 See ya’ll bright and early on Saturday 🙏🏻

I love your Covid compliant, pre-brief @Wrangeld! To the point and calls a spade, a spade 😀 I wholeheartedly agree with the points you mentioned. I would like to add: - Don’t be late; aim to be moving @ 15:00. This translates into more driving time and more enjoyment - Don’t bring passengers if you think they might get sick or distract you. Exiting passengers is a waste of time and a buzz killer. Newbie/Fewbie drives are more suited for an IM Carnitian to bring company. If the aim is to impress family/friends, take a video of the drive, and boast about your amazing driving skills later - Don’t attend the drive if you suspect your car has any mechanical issues. The IM drives are more demanding and will amplify any issues with the car - Don’t fight gravity and watch your speed; IM is not a license to go crazy, and IM certainly does not mean you can’t roll over 😬 Finally, let’s have loads of fun! See you all on the sand Saturday 😘

Hey @Kailas, May I join your drive tonight?

Can’t wait to see all the awesome upgrades you’ e made my friend @Hisham Masaad! How is the Pedal Commander? 😀

I hope you guys have an awesome drive 😀 At least my baby is back together now... 17:48; I’m still in the garage on a job that was supposed to be done this morning 😳

Hey Dr. @Chaitanya D, I’m at the garage and it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting my car on time to join the drive. Have fun everyone and drive safe....

What can I say my friend @Gaurav Soni, the FJ’s in the garage for upgrades quite a few times. She’s into cosmetic/enhancement surgeries. You’re just jealous because I have easier finance ministry approvals than you 🤣

Hahahaha! @Rahimdad the Padmini Premier is exactly the look I’m going for. When I’m done with it, Carnity will have the only FJC Padmini edition 🤣

As of this afternoon 😳 No comment 😀

Sounds like a great summer plan @Gaurav! Looking forward to these drives with Carnity 😀

Hey @Gaurav, now that I have auxiliary lights on my car, I often wonder how I ever managed to drive without them 😀 After you install off-road lights, you start asking the same type of questions like “what did we do before cell phones, or the Internet?” 😂 My last drive with Sri ran into the night, and it felt like I was driving blind, even though my car had fog lights and Vision X off-road spot lights. I had to drive at night in the desert to finally understand what pitch black means 🤣 All I remember is driving close to the car in front of me to take advantage if his lights 😀 As to buying option, I believe it’s worth investing in good lights if you decide to install some. Many good brands out there; Denali, Rigid, Baja, etc. I went with the Baja Design https://www.bajadesigns.com/Products/LP6-Pro-LED.asp because they have a cool running daylight, and have a high and low beam setting. This is not to mention the 5 year warranty and the interchangeable white/amber lenses. The main thing to have in off-road lights, is two lighting patterns; i.e. lights that have spread beams to illuminate your surroundings, and spot beams to illuminate the path in front of you. Luckily, most good brands make a light that has both beam patterns... The cost of good quality lights is still high, but it pays off in the end because you don’t have to keep on replacing the cheap ones 😀

Yes sir Dr. @Chaitanya D; I’ll keep you informed! I know you just wanna use me for my auxiliary lights, and I’m cool with that 🤣 Seriously though, if they deliver the car as promised on Thursday morning, I will certainly join. I even took Thursday off from work so that they don’t bother me 😀

Hello doc @Chaitanya D, I would love to join. My only caveat is that I took my car to the garage because I thought this drive was postponed 😀 They promised to finish it Thursday morning, but you never know with mechanics... With that, I leave it up to you to decide whether to include me or not. I’m fine with whatever you decide 🙏🏻

Sounds great Richard @Wrangeld 😀 I’ve never driven at night in the desert, although I’ve attended a few Carnity afternoon drives that extended to the night...

Hello Doc @Chaitanya D, please waitlist me for this drive 🙏🏻

Hello Richard @Wrangeld, please add me to the waitlist of your night drive. This will be my second drive for the weekend. Thank you!

Hey @VipinShetty, the exact thing you’ve described happens to me after the desert drives. The car vibrates once I start driving on the road. I’ve experienced the vibration with my old wheels and Yokohama tires, and my new wheels and Cooper tires. From my experience, desert driving does affect the balance of the tires... The severity of the after desert vibration varies from drive to drive. I’ve also had instances where I don’t have vibration on the road after a desert drive. Go figure! I swear, the last bit is just to confuse me more 😂 In any event, you’re not alone in this, and unfortunately, I don’t know why this happens...