Cha

Thanks Brette!

Thank you @Srikumar for taking up a fewbie drive in area 53, the experience is entirely different than any other fewbie drives, and never expect to be the SL for my first drive in area 53. The sand in the area is softer, and I have to use 2 of my prevous HT tires due some serious damage to the AT ones, I felt the reduced traction after first few small climbs and the refusal, I further aired down to 11 PSI. After hitting a tiny pocket's rim, I of course had my first ever pop-out to one of the 11PSI HT tire. With the help of the team (many thanks to all of you!!), the pop-out got fixed quickly. It was really surprising to see so many cars in the same area of a desert at the same time, perhaps there were nearly 100 cars in the area? I got to see a wild blackout Armada leading a covey, a crazy loud FJ covoy, several of the American Toyota specie 4Runner bouncing in Middle East desert, and Wranglers that look like pros but have zero knowledge on momentum and gravity. I think it is definitely not easy to drive behind me this time, refusals and all that. If I were myself driving behind, I would be cursing the me in front already. @Aisha S has surely done well, and did not get disturbed much. This drive has indeed challenged my cofidence and made me doubt my ability, but the learning is tremendous. Hopefully my next visit to area 53, I will bring more solid cofidence and ability to tackle this area. It was good to have you all in this drive and special thanks to the support team member @Nivin and rescue mission team leader @Hisham Masaad See you next time! Few pics uploaded. @Charbel can you whatsapp me for the video of you climbing the iftar bowl? 0528402096

Thank you Fred, this is a very informative article about compressors, I have spent a week and got pretty much the same information on certain points. Addition: Working pressure - This is should be understood as the efficiency of the air pumping into tire. Below is my observation to validate: single cylinder, air flow volume 150L/min, max working pressure 150 PSI, 3mins+ to fill up factory sized tire twin cylinder, air flow volume 300L/min, max working pressure 150 PSI, 1.5mins+ to fill up factory sized tire A shop clerk in DM told me if the golden camel logo is a sticker on the box, it is the "fake" ones I went to those shops myself and found out the same🤣, even a pc X-cessories with melted hose in display. Vitaly ones come with 1 year warranty I guess is because they know too well that the golden camels roughly stop working after a year. Basically you are spending 100 AED more for the warranty. So I decided to try my luck and got a golden camel single cylinder, thinking that single cylinder should produce less heat than the twin cylinder one while the working pressure remains the same, only the air flow volume is halved, im ok with it taking 3+mins to fill up each tire while chitchating post drive

Thank you Chaitanya

Thanks Nivin

Thanks Lakshmi. See you soon Thanks Gregory, see you soon Thanks Ale, looking forward to more learnings with you! 谢谢！

@Hisham Masaad @GauravSoni @Zed @Chinthaka Ruwan @TT_Dubai @Ranjan Das @Frederic @Russ @Abdul Rahman AK @PaoloMaraziti Thank you friends, and its always my pleasure to drive and learn from you all !! Iook forward to seeing you all on the sands.

Congrats Darren 😀

Thank you Gaurav and all the leaders who have taught me on the way! Thanks Sunil, I will see you soon😁

I have been wondering this for some time already... y61 and lc70s have proper lights at back, and manufacturers only activate the additional ones on bumper.... weird stuff

The engines are with turbo already, producing around 220-230hp and 370-380 n.m torque, but I think the bigger issue is the turbo lags, I have not tried those cars but I know turbo lag is the issue for the Chinese designed turbo engines. Not sure about this one, but definitely there are tons of aftermarket parts avaiable in China for those mentioned cars. if you plan to have a look of the BJ40 in UAE, dont. BAIC ridiculously supplied the CVT to BJ40 in UAE

In addition to your list and Rubicon, lc70 series also have the option with part time 4wd and F&R locks, for part time 4WDs, when 4H/4L engaged, power to F&R is locked at 50:50 already hence no central diff lock is needed LC70 series In China, people are so obsessed with locks, they consider more locks = better offroadability, hence there are several options in China with part time 4wd and F&R locks, the costs from 130k AED Great Wall Haval H9, positioned against Prado Great Wall Tank 300 BAIC BJ40, BAIC used to own Jeep's factory in China🙃 They all proper 4x4s with frame and low range gear, but only 2.0T/2.3T engines with power to weight ratio more or less around 100, which is considered as underpowered in desert driving. All those cars indeed beat their competitors (originals) in most of offroad scenaries just because of the locks. Tank 300 is a recent product and I think the engineers probably thought about desert driving under extreme heat: Central display setting to keep engine fan rev high all the time Thermostat can be taken out without removing any parts, just like removing a fuse from fuse box Havel H9 & BAIC BJ40 are also available in UAE, without lockers sadly 0-0 (I didnt see the car but neither of dealers marketed diff locks as selling point)

It is my first time being round Suwaydan and Faya after nearly 20 drives with Carnity, Thank you @Frederic . I never expected this much of trees and scenery in a desert, and I had the luxury to enjoy it as it was a newbie drive. Good to know that my v6 powered 2.2 ton pathfinder is able to climb that hill in Faya, and still has some spare power left, Fewbie drives in Faya area definitely will be interesting. Felt covered already when I saw @Hisham Masaad @Ranjan Das @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ in the support team! The newbies in second half of the convoy indeed did a great job, I believe they are all ready for more challenages in fewbie level😁, see you soon！

Smaller convey is always fun. Thank you @Jeepie for the selection of terrain, it was an good opportunity for me to improve the momentum control in faster pace technical areas. Driving on the north side of the big red was indeed enjoyable, could have pushed for more fun if the transmission overheating didnt happen. I think @Hisham Masaad should open up a "Hill Climbing Master Class", it is now not surprising anymore that the black FJ alway reaches the highest point of hills.🙃 Always feel good to have @Ranjan Das and @Hisham Masaad in the support team and thank you @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil for being a wonderful SL. Driving with familiar faces relaxes me, good to see you all again and wishing for more to come @Sunil Mathew @darren thompson @Chris Wing Till next time~

Congrats Danish

Congrats Ranjan!

@Frederic Hi Fred, I see there is a open spot and no WL, so I added myself in, hope its ok?

@Enrico Biscaro I am only nearly 2 months old in the club, but I think the car's cooling ability should also be considered, especially in this hot hot summer. I drive pathfinder and in the current summer I do not use AC for either morning nor afternoon drives, because the coolant temp. will reach 100C if I do so. And I have seen similar heating complaints from other Xterra drivers (pathfinder and xterra are twin brothers). Similarly I have also observed few Wranglers faced heating issue that the ECU limits the Rev But not yet any Toyota (mainly FJs I have driven with) driver complained about car geting overheated that AC must be compromised. Xterra FJ and Wranglers are all power offroaders, and I have seen Marshals doing miracles with them, the above is only my opinion and I personally like Toyota a alot, altho I drive Nissan🙃

@Anish S please WL me for second weekend drive, in case there are some massive drop out 😜

Hi @Vanessa8580, please WL me, 2nd drive