Sergio Big Dawg

6 hours ago, Pieter Potgieter said:

Unfortunately 2 fines for me 😳🙈

I got 4! Anybody dares to beat me?

Beyond the bad surprise on the radar, thank you Varun and team for an amazing drive. Faster than I'm used to (which I loved) and for the first time I tried the ridge riding. Definitely a lot of learning still to be made there, but today was a good first glimpse.

6 minutes ago, Federico Galbieri said:

How many of us got flashed from the speed camera on the way back because we didn’t know we were in Abu Dhabi?? 

Plus one! This is going to be a drive Abu Dhabi police will be very happy about

10 hours ago, Gerrit Bus said:

For my fellow dune bashers @Alfred Alinazar @Suresh K @Jose Thomas @Haitham Khattab @Sergio Big Dawg  @Michel Van Woudenberg @KKIRAN @Beide Worku at the below link you will find some Gladiator POV videos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/toWZ5fWZhTTfTqecA

Thank you for sharing! 

Thank you @JeromeFJ for the fun drive ans the detailed and spot-on recount! 

Unfortunately I can't come guys. I just left the event formally too. Have fun!

Thank you @Jeepie, I loved the drive. Looking forward to even more technical ones 😉

Guys is this drive on even in spite of the recent rain (and the forecast)?

Thank you, looking forward to learn more 😊

@Chaitanya D thanks for the tip on the skidplate, the Safari is now better protected (and looks nicer too 😉)

I'm reviewing the videos, I'll keep on adding on this post:

Here we have some interesting drops and Asif parking in the crest 😂 : https://gopro.com/v/62geQ7Q04kr6o

Arrival at the yellow truck: https://gopro.com/v/KRqk6o0lyZrRa

Quite a big drop: https://gopro.com/v/8vgyB7V5onaXX

Difficult climb in soft patch: https://gopro.com/v/lrzQl33Zr3EV5

Fun climb and drop: https://gopro.com/v/zPopXBX1PDzp1

Fun sequence: https://gopro.com/v/zPopD65Kl67ZK

Thank you @Asif Hussain for the amazing lead, @Chaitanya D for the incredibile support and @Simon Dawood for sharing the experience with me.

Here is the only pic I can share directly  (from my phone) videos will take a bit longer.

9 minutes ago, M.Seidam said:

I don’t know how safe but circling the camp site with a circle ⭕️ of diesel can help prevent creatures from crossing over . The question is what if they cross from under the circle ?!  Common frequent camping sites usually don’t experience presence of deadly creatures as they tend to stay away from ppl and their bonfire  🔥 

Apparently the diesel is an unpleasent smell and those animals tend to stay away, but I don't know how effective it is. An if there are alternatives I'd rather go with another method

2 minutes ago, Frederic said:

 

Thank you, I had already checked that amazing post, and even acknowledged it in mine. My doubts remain unanswered

First of all I'd like to thank @Chaitanya D for this amazing post on dangerous scorpions and vipers.

My question is twofold:

1) is there any valid prevention strategy to keep critters away while camping in the desert? I heard some guys bring a bottle of diesel and they make a circle around the camp. I don't like the approach and I'm asking for alternatives

2) in case of being stung/bitten it's important to visit the closest clinic/hospital. I'm trying to come up with a full list of sites that actually have anti-venom. I called DHA, was bounced to 1 million phone numbers and emails, but I have not found a list. Does anybody have it?

On 8/20/2018 at 10:29 PM, Frederic said:

I've recently read a few stories on the net of people that encountered spiders, snakes, and scorpions during their camping trips. Even a British expat that got stung in 2013 by a black scorpion:

https://www.thenational.ae/business/travel-and-tourism/british-expat-in-uae-warns-campers-after-scorpion-sting-left-him-in-a-coma-1.477595

When i go camping with friends and family, we always keep a close watch on our surroundings. A few months back i was in Al Qudra late in the evening and was surprised to see a humongous creature which to this day i am not fully sure if it was a big camelspider or desert scorpion. It was easily 15 cm long and pretty fat. I quickly walked back to the car and did not return on my steps

What are your experiences, stories, and hints that we can take along on our next trips ?

- UV Lights ?

- Boots ?

- How to train children to avoid lifting stones and searching in crevices or rocks.

TIA

I'm surprised this post received relative little interest. I'm quite interested into understanding how we can prevent serious consequences. I'll open a new post on the same. Meanwhile a suggestion I was given is to carry a bottle of diesel, and make a circle around the camp to repel snakes and critters alike. I don't particularly like to approach. Any alternative? 

I will be camping there tomorrow. is there mobile coverage at the meeting spot?

Looking forward to this!

@Asif Hussain is the drive still on in spite of the fact that only 3 people subscribed? Will we merge this with the other full day newbie drive happening in the same day?

Second question: does this count as 1 or 2 drives, being full day, in relation to the newbie to fewbie "promotion"?

1 hour ago, Lorenzo Candelpergher said:

DRIVE REPORT

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

It was a nice and chilling dawn when the convoy met yesterday at 6:30am.

Everyone made it to the meeting point quite on time and after an extensive briefing we were ready to move by 7:05am.

We warmed up crossing a long sabkha heading north east, then entered an area of nice long range dunes, where we spent quite some time roaming around and practicing some fun sidesloping. 

The sand in the area was very churned up and with many tracks, which made the exercise way more complex, but worth it.

To the surprise of most in the convoy, we encountered several rock formations, which made the landscape, in the sunrise light, even more fascinating. 

As we moved further deep into the desert, we managed to get some distance between our convoy and the other two that were roaming in the area, one of which led by @M.Seidam.

Quite early in the drive @Vishal Nair's Pajero, if I am not mistaken, showed some transmission overheating problems, so we stopped to address the issue. As discussed, most Pajeros suffer from transmission overheating which is often solved by installing a small additional fan in front of the dedicated radiator. Many Senior members in the club will be able to help on this. Our Marshal @Vanessa8580our Expert @Mehmet Volga or@GauravSonifrom the Support Team will be surely able to give you some advice. 

As the convoy was doing very well, I decided to raise the bar a little and to throw in some more fun stuff, including a few straight-up / straight-down dune crossing. 

It was approaching a high crest, followed by a long and steep descent, that @Asem Rashwan got crested in a moment of hesitation, giving Russ the chance to demonstrate to the whole convoy how a proper rope recovery is done.

The stop and regrouping came handy to review some basic concepts about sidesloping, dune crossing and fishtailing, after which we were again on the move. 

With a few more refusals here and there we made our way further North, approaching the area of the Mighty Lisaili Dunes, maintaining a nice and fluid pace. 

Too good to be true, me and @Russ were thinking.. Then it happened: @Asem Rashwan's Ford Explorer, after a severe overheating caused by repeated attempts to recover from a stuck situation in supersoft and churned up sand, totally lost power, with no chance to get the engine running. 

Given the situation, as @Carnity's motto is that we never leave anyone behind, it was decided that we would attempt to tow the Ford Explorer out on the tarmac using my winch first, to get him on the flat, and then the endless horsepower of @Russ' beast.

Winching uphill a dead load was hard but it worked out, so the towing was next, but probably the tow point (a bolted one) had been taxed enough and it collapsed as soon as @Russ started to pull. Luckily no one was injured and nothing was damaged by the steel projectile and we are all here adding this story to the many adventures of our off-road memoirs.

Having explored in advance the best route out, the convoy had an easy exit to the Sabkha and eventually to the tarmac on D63 Seeh Al Salam Road, where we reached at 11:05am, exactly 4h after our departure. 

Everyone in the convoy did extremely well

@Marcin Wronowski was an excellent 2nd lead. Always responsive to my instructions for small deviations.

@Premjit Vappala did very well with his Pajero. With time you'll learn to be less shy on your throttle and get addicted to flooring it 😂

@Mawy followed in a very disciplined and focused way, with a brilliant performance. I also appreciated his many smart comments and useful suggestions on the radio. Well done! 

@Simon DawoodDawood had sometimes the temptation to fight gravity while sidesloping. Practice will help you control your fishtailing with the right combination of gas + countersteering , which will ultimately lead you to sustain longer sideslopes without challenging the unbeatable gravity. 

@Vishal Nair proved to be more efficient with manual shift than his automatic gearbox when it comes to preventing transmission overheating 😉. Other than that, some refusals here and there were all part of the game, especially in non trivial terrain as the one we drove through yesterday. 

@Asem Rashwan drove overall very well and had his good share of Desert Adventure for the day, but all is well what ends well. As @Russ recommended, please do not join any other drive before replacing both front tow points with proper ones, adequately strong and rated to withstand harsh tugs as happen off-road. 

@Usman Basit had a moment of concern when he heard some weird noise from his front left wheel, but it disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, so he could continue the drive and get a full blast of fun with the rest of the convoy. His hesitations here and there will fade away with time and practice. 

I had less visual on the cars at the back, but both @Rouaj and @Muhammad Qasim leveraged well their capable FJ Cruisers, struggling here and there in churned up sand, which was however quite unavoidable yesterday. 

@Sergio Big Dawg certainly showed he has a few more drives outside @Carnity under his belly. Also, his legendary Y61 is, by definition, almost unstoppable.. 

@Tom B at the back led his capable Land Cruiser, a great (but heavy and thus not easy) off-roader. Coming to terms with counter-steering to control fishtailing will take time and practice, but is particularly important on a heavy long wheel base ride like his. 

@Mohamad Ziad Alhennawi was comfortably at the back with his giant Hummer. As he noticed, the heavy weight of his beast requires a lot of ability in never losing momentum, as gravity won't make any discounts on an H3 😂😂.

Overall we covered 43.6km in 4h net, moving for 2h 33' and stopping for 1h 27'. While in movement, we kept an average speed of 17.1km/h, which means it was a fairly fast paced drive as most of the terrain allowed for a fast ride. 

Congratulations to all, very well done but, most importantly, special thanks to @Russ who was all over the place, tugging, shoveling, giving instructions, providing valuable guidance, making my life way easier. Look at him at the top of a long slip face descent, guiding the whole lot down:

A perfect support and an excellent towing exercise at the end. Bravo! 

See you soon in the sand! 

That's an amazing, super detailed and personalised report, thank you for the time. In Italian "grazie per lo sbattimento! 😉 "

So here is what we did:

And attached is the gpx file 

New Track 26_11_2021 07_03_29.gpx

Thank you @Lorenzo Candelpergher for the amazing lead, @Russfor the incredibile support, and the whole team for the fun drive! I'll be posting shortly the path we took in Gaia GPS compatible format.

@Lorenzo Candelpergher and especially @Russ who was closer to me during the drive, any feedback is more than welcome, feel free to PM me 😉

thank you very much @Mario Cornejo! Any advice on the dongle to buy? I've read several stories about incompatibilities...

I bought this thing: 

The reviews are a lot and all good, and it's quite cheap. So I gave it a try. I've not tried it yet, will let you know as soon as I do

Newbie question here. I searched in the forum and wasn't able to find the topic in subject addressed.

In my 2021 Patrol Safari I got TPMS. The thing is that it shows only the alert in case the pressure is low, but it does not give me the indication on the actual value.

I was wondering if I could read the value through the OBD port. I also checked on that part of the forum and did not find anything.

I was hoping to leverage what the car already comes with, instead of replacing the TPMS and get an alternative system to read the tyre pressure.

The aim is not to use it during deflate time, it's just to keep an eye during the drive

After trying the rapid tyre deflator (brand Lele) and struggling a bit due to its unreliability, I'm now happy with the following simple deflators. I screw them in, 1 min, unscrew, and adjust the last 1-2psi manually, checking with the gauge.

Plus, I have to say, they make a very fancy key holder 😄