ASAD.

@Ale Vallecchi wife had a small accident, will have to sort it out and wont be able to make it on time for drive unfortunately. My apologies.

@Rob S guess you forgot to mention how you got convinced of those dobinsons?? 😂😂

Thanks @Gaurav and totally agree there. I feel its important to share experiences that can help others with their own decision making. Again these choices are very personal so anyone who chooses a certain upgrade may have a good enough reason to do so. And just to elaborate i didnt get the beadlocks but sort of hybrids called beadgrips which have inner grooves that grip the tyre and not allow it to slip off the wheel when deflated. Why would I have chosen differently or lets say not choose at all? 1. they are the same size as my stock wheels i.e. 17”. So I got no advantage when it came to side wall. For others who are looking to change rims, downgrading size from 19 or 18” to 16–17 wheels may be one advantage they are looking for. 2. The beadgrips allow you lower psi but not as low as beadlocks, and by low i mean you are not very far off from what you would have in stock wheels anyway. If you are too low, there is a risk of sand going into the grooves and then the tyre starts leaking or worse you risk a popout if it hits a hard bump. Anyone whos had experience with getting the beads sit back on the grooves will tell you what a nightmare it is. They are easy to fix in a tyre shop with high pressure compressors no in the middle of the desert. So yes, i reduced the risk of a popout but now I run a risk that if I do have a popout or leak I might as well just swap the tyre rather than trying to fix it. If you are looking to change your wheels anyway the beadgrips do provide a good alternative to beadlocks in the same price range as other normal aftermarket wheels. But my reason to get them was just to avoid popouts, that can still happen if i am reckless. The advantage that i think they did provide is they have a 1” offset which compensated well when i got the suspension done. Didnot need any spacers.

Great topic @munkybizness. I would argue that there is no such thing as purists in off-roading, every offroader has had to in your words either had to augment or modify depending on his/ her or the cars needs. Therefore the judgement on whether someones driving stock will also depend what the other person thinks is essential for offroading and that stems out of mainly 2 things: tyres and suspension. I will come to these later. Another factor that I believe plays significantly is the state of your car. E.g. like yourself, many members in our club have bought new cars and how much they can tamper with the stock car depends on how much modification does the agency allow for it to still cover warranty. This i believe plays a big part in decision making. For others like me, who are driving older cars can go crazy with any modification possible or pick and choose as they like without thinking much of how you will deal with the agency. I started offroading with my 10+ year old car and having already clocked +250K Kms. Even then, i wanted to keep my car stock for as long as possible. The 8mm bash plate and flag mount were the first enhancements i got done, i would call them essentials even if you like to hit the dunes occasionally with light offroading. For me, after the essentials came the bumper trim. The essentials hardly altered the look of the car so I tried to maintain my stock bumper look and front skirt for as long as possible thinking it would be ok if i was careful. And up until my fewbie drives, it was perfectly fine but as the pace went up so did the risk of hitting the bumper. It came to a point where i was more worried about damaging my bumper than enjoying the drive and thats when i decided to have the bumper trim. The bumper trim opened the flood gates for me 😝. Once the car lost its family looks, i could basically do whatever i wanted with it. I did get the some offroad lights with the bumper trim. My next upgrade were the wheels, this was only triggered after a few pop-outs. I went on to get the method beadgrips just for this purpose. Though if i were to redo this, i wouldnt have changed my wheels in the first place, i bought them out of only frustration of having pop-outs, a couple of them only btw but they were enough for me to think the problem was the wheels rather than the way i was driving. My last upgrade was the suspension and safe to say the most satisfying one. I wont go into details as this is the most widely discussed topic in offroading communities as well as in carnity, the choice of whether a suspension upgrade is required or which one suits you or your car is very subjective and depends on how much you can or want to spend . But all i can say is that it has given me the confidence to push the car more and not worry about it bouncing everywhere, so in a way it has added to its protection.

Sri no race for the fastest internet speed this time pls, we need to get priority 🙏🏻😅

Great drive @Srikumar, sorry it had to be cut short but hopefully you will have your car sorted for our next dose soon @Waqas Parvez you did amazingly well as 2nd lead, keeping up with Sri is no small feat @munkybizness great show of your skills all round, no wonder you have have been inducted in the support team and bet wont be long before you start leading as well @Matt.T & @Ranjan Das thanks for helping me out with the refusals and finding the way back when i took the wrong turn @Vaibhav @Zed @Mus_hus78 great driving guys, hope to catch you all again soon.

I need to keep reminding myself not to look left or right, just follow the white dot infront.

No worries @Thomas Varghese & @Looper was just joking about me being invisible 😂. maybe @M.Seidam can still add me since he created the drive. Would be good to have it counted 😊. Doc hope you are feeling well and hopefully will see u in the next drive.

Great drive @Shaaz Sha, lots of learning on as you mentioned and thats the beauty of any sports. It was wonderful to be amongst such experienced driver especially @Looper our sweep, @Ranjan Das,@Ashok chaturvedi & @Thomas Varghese. @Thomas Varghese always nice to listen to you and read your report. But you didnt mention me. Just because the Prado had a relatively uneventful drive doesnt mean u ignore altogether 😂 @Tom B was a pleasure following u, u were brilliant and remained calm in a tricky situation. Its imp u reflect on what went wrong but get the event out of your system and not let it affect your driving next time. Hope to see u soon. @Mohamad Anwer i hope the Mrs is well now, wish her a speedy recovery. To the rest of the gang, was great meeting you all. Hope to catch up with you next time.

@Shaaz Sha any chance i can still be added to the drive. Was supposed to join sri’s night drive bt havent been able to go thru that one as well

Wish you a speedy recovery doc.

I busted my bumper also though was an easy fix for me. Seems like we ticked all the boxes of a madmax drive 😂

thanks a lot for sharing the videos @Simon Dawood @Daniel Yangcouldnt figure out where the crack is but are you sure it wasnt there before the drive? hope its not a costly repair.

haha was joking hisham. It was tiring but was just the best drives ive had as well as a great learning experience for me. I feel i am intermediate++ level now 😂. Will be an honor to be your 2nd lead anytime.

Haha ya sure did my friend.

There were 6 going and by the time i clicked rsvp was full. @Srikumar you better add the waitlisted guys 🙏🏻🙏🏻😅

My vote for madmax 2 also. But someone else take this role pls 😂

Sorry to hear Anoop. Wish you a quick recovery.

@Simon Dawood i think if you are on waitlist on more than one drives and you get accepted in one, the system automatically takes you off waitlist from the remaining ones. Ive had this happen to me once so maybe same thing for you as well. nevertheless, good to have the pajero back 😂

Get ready @Simon Dawood

with @Hisham Masaad leading and the set of drivers signed up in the convoy, this already has makings of a memorable drive. Will have to count days for the rest of the week now 😂.

@Gregory Well deserved buddy. Im sure you will love this level.

@Hisham Masaad confirmed from my side if im added to the drive

@Hisham Masaad thanks, saw the new rules. Will wait and see what happens till Friday.