ChrisW

Thank you all - was a real pleasure to have my first experience leading a convoy with you today. We had a good mix of terrain, with some tighter technical sections, faster stretches through the long range dunes, and a little play time off the end with the large crescent shaped dune. Everyone drove well, with instructions followed well in recoveries and feedback taken as we went along. You’ll have all seen today how critical tyre pressures are becoming in the soft sand, and the need to adapt distance between cars depending on terrain and speed. Last and not least - thank you @DP1011 for your support and guidance today.

Ahh, would have loved to have you along @Glenn W but thanks for letting us know this afternoon. Revised order:

RSVP NOW CLOSED. @DP1011 @Lukas Wii @Wayne Momsen @Steve Farmer @Steffi @saumik1989 @Glenn W @Danie @Jerome @Krinesh @Cristian Hey guys - hope you're all looking forward to tomorrow morning's easy cruise through the fun dunes of Faya! The ride order will be as below. We will use Channel 7 (446.156-25). Let's aim to be aired down and start the briefing together at 6am...rough plan will be to step a little way south before cruising east towards the sun through the long-range dunes of Faya, looking for a bowl or two, a stop at the Fox Dens, and some play areas. We will aim to exit onto the E20 around 09.30 or so. The temperatures are up, so do check the fluid levels on your cars tonight (oil, coolant) and yourselves (bring plenty of fluids!).

It’s certainly worth looking at - I would suggest asking your garage for a quote for repair vs installing a re-conditioned engine.

Have a blast @Andrew John Melvill

Many thank you’s to offer here… @Ale Vallecchi Thank you for a well led drive. We had a mix of terrain, some good adventure, some challenges too - really enjoyed it. Thank you @Glenn W and @Giacomo for the support. Great to see you both stepping into the role so well. And finally thank you @Rajath Shetty and @Jerome - you did very well this afternoon and kept the pace fantastically. Last and not least, thanks to the desert for giving us this amazing sight…

Yeah, if it’s both camshafts (and you take the opportunity to replace lifters, rockers etc) it’s a fairly extensive job. You’ll be looking at comfortably over 10-15k AED at least. You should also ensure the garage does a full clean out and flush so you can be confident there’s no debris hanging around in the oil channels etc.

See you Friday

As we enter the summer season, @Sam Selim and I have been watching the gauges on our Jeep JL 3.6L 4x4's - which quickly raises a question...what does normal look like? Our hobby means we push cars harder and in unusual conditions, often in ways for which they were not directly designed. A quick glance will tell you if everything is OK (i.e. all the needles are below red-lines), but over time many of us develop a gut feeling for what looks normal and when things are outside of what we would expect to see. I decided on today's drive with @Mark B to snatch a few data points and look at things with a bit more detail: Couple of major points to relate my gut feelings to what you see: The oil pressure on the Pentastar engine varies with RPM, with typically around 30 PSI below circa 3000 RPM, rising to 70 PSI when revving higher - the key point is just to ensure you don't have too low oil pressure (<<30 PSI). Oil temperature is a leading indicator: if you push hard, it moves up quickly, and vice-versa. This is to be expected, as engine oil has the dual job of lubricating the engine as well as drawing heat. Coolant temperature is a lagging indicator: The coolant temperature rises when pushing the engine, but at a slower rate - it also cools down less quickly too. Also on the Jeep JL, the fan will kick into max power at 110 degC and pull the temperature down again. If you see the temperature going beyond 110 degC and can't hear the fan (or the temperature keeps rising), it's time to do something (like come to a stop!). Transmission Temperature: It's a slow mover with plenty of margin to the limit value. However my suspicion is that once this gets hot, it will take some time to cool down again. What does normal look like on your car, and what are the big red flags for you?

@Zubail I went for the remote reservoir adjustable shocks. These were tuned initially by the garage (specific shims and valving setup inside the shock), and then you can use the red valve to choose how many clicks towards firm or soft you want. …also, a small edit to add…none of these mods are necessary for Carnity drives! The other part of this hobby I enjoy is messing around with the technology and mechanics…so this side of things is more for the sake of it than out of necessity.

Some quick reflections on being reminded that deliberate technique is key to confidence… Recently I changed my Jeep’s suspension setup from the Teraflex Falcon 3.3 system to King 2.5 shocks, tuned specifically for offroad driving. Objectively the vehicle now handles better. The damping is firmer and more controlled, the Jeep feels more planted and precise, and the overall composure is improved. The vehicle also sits slightly taller. What surprised me though was that my confidence in my offroad driving initially reduced…! 🤦🏻‍♂️ Not because the setup is worse…quite the opposite. But because the vehicle now reacts differently, particularly when crossing ridgelines and during side-sloping transitions. The roll, settling and weight transfer characteristics have changed enough that I have had to recalibrate what “normal” feels like. It has been a good reminder that offroad driving is a continual learning process. Even experienced drivers can become subconsciously tuned to how their vehicle behaves, and when that behaviour changes, confidence takes time to rebuild. More importantly, and the main thing I want to share, is that it reinforced that the fundamentals are what matter. For example in Carnity we teach drivers to approach ridges at a deliberate angle, let the vehicle settle, then steer off the ridge smoothly while maintaining appropriate speed and momentum throughout the manoeuvre. Those techniques will always work, even when the car behaves differently from what I expected or I am used to The answer is not aggressive corrections or forcing confidence. It is to slow down mentally, trust the fundamentals, apply deliberate inputs, and allow yourself time to adapt to the vehicle’s new behaviour. Capability modifications can improve the car, but confidence still comes from understanding, repetition and disciplined technique. Still learning…

Great write up @Chema - thank you for sharing. It’s been great to see some new brands arriving on the sand. Having a variety of cars available to us is always good. I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as a 100% dune driving car, there will always be some area of advantage and compromise. Sounds like the 212 is nicely balanced however!

Thank you @Mark B - that was a nice blast today. An easy start and warm up in familiar terrain, moving to the larger sweeping lines of Sweihan as you move towards Faya. I enjoyed it, everyone drove well and the sand was very forgiving again today. Was a pleasure supporting alongside @Bjoern and @JC_E. Took a very short video when we stopped for a break - nice to see everyone sharing advice!

Thanks again @Frederic - that was a perfect, relaxing morning drive in the desert. Good work in second lead @Amr A - you helped straighten out a few rough spots for us! Was a real pleasure to support with @J-P L and @Aser too (…and loved to see the daft dogs too!). Today’s sand was nice and easy but none the less, well driven by everyone - good convoy spacing, sensible lines and prompt radio comms. Perfect!

Just as a brief follow up… On today’s drive in technical dunes the Starlink established and maintained a very stable connection whilst driving, easily good enough to have a video call in HD resolution with low latency with another member of the Carnity gang! On average it could hold 100 Mbps down, 30 Mpbs up and 25-30ms ping. Being mounted under the roof seems to be totally fine as well:

Well, as you know @Zed I am a massive gadget geek…so I finished installing a Starlink Mini terminal in my Jeep last night 😂 Step 1: Remove roof, install Molle panel between the roll bars and place terminal Step 2: Reinstall roof… It fits quite nicely - the antenna face is about 10 mm clear of the roof liner. The Jeep roof is composite, and seems to be quite transmissive for this wavelength. Step 3: Test I’ve been very impressed. A few thoughts: 1.) I am using the Roam package. You get 100Gb a month which can be used from any geographic position. 2.) Data service while in-motion is currently restricted in the UAE. I did manage to get the device transferring at around 100 Mbps whilst moving slowly, but as soon as it notices you’re on the move it stops the data service. As soon as you stop it’s there again (minimal activation time). 3.) In terms of use case…nothing desperately essential, but a few major ones come to mind…backup in case home connectivity goes down, ease of communication when out in the desert (and elsewhere), and very occasionally I’ve needed connectivity to enable some apps to work for eg extended ODB features if faced with a car problem. For long range drives across eg Liwa there are some more obvious benefits. I’m happy enough to experiment for now. You can quite easily pause subscriptions.

Well done @Mark B! Has been a pleasure supporting your drives.

Congrats @Sam Selim!

Thank you kindly guys! Really looking forward to learning some new things with @Gaurav and @Sam Selim, and sharing more Carnity fun with you all.