Rob S

This one is from one of Ale’s midweek drives!

Taken me a while to catchup with the last week! Thanks for a Fantastic drive last friday @Ale Vallecchi! 
 

never been that close to the solar park tower, and what a cracking experience for my passenger over from UK, he had a cracking day!

Well done to everyone else in the convoy!

0503180363 for me please

@Jaro Tuzinsky completely forgot you were following me with the camera! Can i get a copy of the video?

Hi all! 
 

fantastic drive today, thankyou @Hisham Masaad. 
 

congratulations and well done to everyone in the convoy. A few “oldies” and “newbies” at this level but thoroughly impressed by everyone today. 
 

only a couple of minor refusals in the convoy and all handled well, with drivers choosing to “loop round” rather than fight gravity, allowing the convoy to continue moving. Well done again, @Looper you have a couple of candidates for your stickers 😛

@imranaasghar81 great to see you after so long, please consider bringing two different size flags in future 🤣

Yalla, count me in! 

Congrats on the new car. A good bash plate is all you really need with the FJ!

Dobinsons MRR is great setup, had on my prado and also FJ. But its not a necessity for FJ.

on newer cars, most people change wheels and tyres to reduce wheel size from 18/19 down to the common 17inch wheel, allowing a higher profile tyre for better deflation. The FJ comes with 17inch rims and 265/70 tyres as standard, so no need to swap here. I am running method rims and geolander tyres but exactly same size as stock!

Great drive today, thankyou @Rizwanm2 for finding some awesome routes through the sands! 

Good to see old faces @Fabien Monleau and @Mahmoud Taha.

First time driving with @Jona and @Benjamin both if you did fantastic, riding the ridges with good control! 

@Imteeaz @Patrick van der Loo and @Sam K its always a pleasure to see you guys on the sand!

Enjoy the rest of your weekends all

Looking forward to it, I have changed car now so will be in FJ if you want to update Car list. It should be changed on my profile now.

Hi All,

though I had been out on a Newbie and a fewbie, this was the first "proper" outing in the FJ and I could not think of a better group of people to enjoy it with! The old gang and Prado boys @Asad and @Waqas Parvez, and fellow class of winter 2021  @Chris Wing and @Mohamad Anwer. And this time we had both teachers @Islam Soliman and @Hisham MasaadThanks everyone for the patience at the beginning and the energy and encouragement during the drive!

Nice to meet new faces @Archibald Jurdi and @Werno , not forgeting @Senthil Kumar!

@Archibald Jurdi I hope you and passenger have no lasting effects from your incident and the car gets a clean bill of health from the garage. 

@Islam Soliman I hope car issues can be swiftly resolved and join you on another drive soon!

Randomly tagging @Vaibhav because he missed an amazing drive  

Regretfully, i have to withdraw from the drive. Still got a few things to sort with the motor and wont be back in dubai now till thursday. Want to avoid a last minute cancellation and give someone on the waitlist opportunity to prepare! Im sure it will be a great one! 

Is there a camp spot for the Friday night? I am in Saudi next week, so need to plan now!!!!

Been waiting for a @Hisham Masaad intermediate Yalla push drive for a while! Gutted i cannot make this weekend, but also wasnt near the internet at 1900 on monday either 🤣. Im sure it will be a good one! Enjoy all! 

I don't think there is much more for me to add after @Srikumar 's drive report, and @Foxtrot Oscar, @Tom B and @ASAD. 

I didn't realize on the day, but this full day drive was my 60th drive with Carnity . . . . . who could imagine less than 14months ago I had never got behind the wheel of a 4x4! Testament to the skills taught and learnt during Carnity drives and the amazing Toyota Prado (with only minor modifications!).

@Zed I hope you are doing well and see you again in the deserts soon. @ASAD. fantastic job as SL and hope the car is repaired swiftly!

@Vaibhav shame you were unable to join us, its been a while since we had the whole gang on one drive. @Waqas Parvez great job supporting through the various challenges! 

 Thanks again @Srikumar, look forward to joining your next adventure!

PS. @Srikumar I have your initial pajero bowl escape but its to big to share on whatsapp! 

Hi @essam ibrahim, 

For newer Prados, they tend to have lots of "eco" settings that make it more challenging to extract the best performance. As you experienced, using "S" in the desert instead of "D" can help to remove some of these Eco settings. When in S, always make sure the dashboard says "4". If the number changes, the best way to reset is to move the stick to D and then back to S. 

Once you enter the desert, make sure you disable traction control and set "S" mode.

Thanks @Hisham Masaad for leading us through the sands, and great to see you after last few weeks!

well done to @Davie Chase for a fantastic job in managing the refusals and filling the important Centre Forward role! 

Well done to @MikeSpillane at SL and great to meet a number of new faces in the convoy.

Look forward to seeing you all again soon, some photos added to the gallery. 

Hi all! 

Sorry for the delay in my comments! I had busy couple of weeks after the YT but after last year's filled attempt at newbie level, I returned as intermediate to conquer the YT!

Everyone drove well, and thanks to @JeromeFJ to lead us on the journey! 

Great to meet some new Abu Dhabi faces aswell! 

@Sunil Mathew photos finally added to the gallery!

Hi all! 

Just a quick note before I jump on a plane. Was great to see so many of the team that I learned off-roading with, and some of the older carnity crew who I learnt from and planted the seed of off roading. Every venture into the desert is a learning one, but this one definitely lots of learning! 

Thanks to @Gaurav and @Frederic for the course. Thanks to @ASAD. and @Waqas Parvez for the food and the rest of the crew for the questions, comments and discussions. Look forward to being out in the desert again soon.

Sorry @Davie Chase I don't remember any football on Saturday  

27 minutes ago, DP1011 , Deepak wrangler said:

How to recover from a crest without a tug - Can someone please record a video of this being done  @Rob S , even better if the entire drive is recorded with script @Looper ?   ? 

 

The more "a drive is not to be missed" the more it is inversely related to "my Ability to join the drive" !  I will be among those unfortunate ones to miss this one, and wait eagerly for next one with a hope of not to miss that ! 

I believe we were both skilled at getting crested in out early driving careers, we did dig you out on a few occasions. As you will be absent, ill happily take your place if a subject is required to be “crested” 🤣🤣🤣

attached was my last experience with mr @GauravSoni we managed to dig 2 of them out!

I'll be repping the white Toyota's 🥳

I will aim to arrive around sunset and pitch up camp by start point

3 hours ago, DP1011 , Deepak wrangler said:

Dear @JeromeFJ - Apologies, My co passenger wanted to join the yellow truck drive, and unfortunately she has some commitment hence I will miss this, and do next day YT drivez, will miss the driving with this fantastic convoy though...

☹️☹️☹️☹️

2 hours ago, Vaibhav said:

I would like to thank in advance @Rob S @ASAD. @Waqas Parvez @MMansoor for the churned up tracks 😆

Most welcome, look forward to making your drive a little more entertaining

Cracking drive yesterday! Everyone drove well, no pop-outs, no overheating cars, just two crestings (mentioning no names :p) that were resolved with a rope. First time my shovel has stayed in the car for a while!! 

Thanks @Islam Soliman for great drive, well done to @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler at SL and @Zixuan Huang - Charlie in the middle. 
 

great to catch up with some old friends and meet some new faces @Beide Worku and @Gok Krish

see you all again soon

Sitting at the airport thought i would finally type quick article on my experience on prado suspension.

I drove stock up till drive 6 or 7 of fewbie plus level, but started to feel the rear end was very “bouncy” when driving over multiple bumps. So, my aim of suspension focused on better “dampening” than going for “lift”. However, afterwards, i did notice benefit of the lift with ridge riding being much more fun without ploughing through the crest but riding above/on it!

Because i was after better dampening mainly, and watching used prices of remote reservoir kits holding their value whilst traditional “twin tube” plummeting in value i decided to “invest once” and went for remote reservoir models. The added benefit here was that i could adjust to harder setting for desert, and softer for the road! WIN WIN!

TYPES:

”spring lift kit/spacer” - cheapest option but doesnt help with dampening, so i cant recommend this option. Also, dont know a prado owner that has gone this route.

”twin tube” - a few options, the dobinsons ones are bright yellow so you cant miss them. Stronger that factory, usually matched with a stiffer spring with around 2inch lift. Around 3-5k dhs. 

“remote reservoir adjustable” - kings, radflo, rogue, dobinsons, pro fender all have options and range from about 6k-20k. My budget narrowed me into dobinsons or rogue, both around 9/10k. Low speed, high speed and rebound adjustable which i feel very important if car is also your daily driver! 

“Long travel” twin shocks - didnt even check the price or consider, but sometimes seen on prados but more often FJs. For these you need also lower arm kits as you have 2 dampers per side on the front setup. No real comments here as no experience. They do look cool though!

THE EXTRAS:

the main reason for actually writing this article, choosing the suspension was the easy part! Ill focus on dobinsons here as this is what i fitted but i believe its similar amongst others.

Upper arms - lots of confusing info, do you need? General guidance was required if 2.5inch lift or above. Beneficial if over 1.5inch lift. As i went for 2inch lift i was caught in the middle. Benefits are: better clearance of springs for more “drop” and correction of caster angle. I felt having correct vehicle dynamics was important to me, so i went for a set! 

Diff drop - again, lots of confusing info, required for 2.5inch lift of above was the advice, though some garages say not required for 2.5inch. I went without and no issues or concerns as yet!

tie bar spacers - very little about these “added extras”. 250-300dhs i think. Recommended to avoid tie bars clashing with other parts after the lift. I opted for a set of these too. After fitting garage told me they are very important. 

after 4-6months i can say i am really happy with the offroad and onroad performance and no regrets, 

Hope the above helps! tagging @Waqas Parvez and @ASAD. for their input having going through similar exercises!