Report - Offroad Training Day at Kelambakkam Quarry

[neoranjit]

View from the top .....



... from groud level


The Rock


Waiting to go..


Mandeep and Majorpayne pushing a boulder into the water

[pdev29]

Wonderful!!!!! it seems you had Blast.

[dwaraka]

With the introduction of Team-BHP to off-roading by Arka in Chennai, we jeepers in Bangalore invite the members of TeamBHP from Bangalore to join us for an off roading coming up shortly. Will post the schedule on this thread.

Warm regards,
Dwarak

Mod Edit: Don't quote the entire post.

[Samurai]

Hi Dwaraka,

That is nice of you, kindly start a new thread in the 4x4 & Offroading section when you are ready to announce it.

[tifosikrishna]

This is a question for all who rode on that day - Do you think it would have been easy to drive a jeep through such a terrain with clutch setting like our normal car.

i felt the jeeps were very well setup for offroading, it is just enough if you just steer clear of the obstacles not worrying about engine stalling. just modulate the accelerator according to the situation.

when i saw arka in action i noticed that his left foot was well planted on the floor, he also advised us to use clutch and brakes as little as possible.i feel it would not have been possible for me without such a clutch setting.

[Samurai]

I only drove Arka's MM540. The clutch was setup such that it can be used only for changing gears. There is no scope for half-clutching or controlling the speed with it. But that is a good habit to have even on our cars. I try not to use clutch for anything other than changing gears.

Originally Posted by tifosikrishna

i felt the jeeps were very well setup for offroading, it is just enough if you just steer clear of the obstacles not worrying about engine stalling. just modulate the accelerator according to the situation.

I am not so sure about that, aren't all diesels are like that?

[pjbiju]

Wonderful report.
Samurai and others, can you describe some of the techniques you used or learned from Arka? I think using the clutch and brakes as little as possible was one of them. Again, you spoke of starting the jeep in the gear without using the clutch. Won't that stall the jeep?

[nitrous]

Whatever one talks here, its not possible to learn off-roading techniques by reading.
Its more about driving by feeling.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I wasn't there; I've never driven this kind of vehicle, but hey!...

Isn't it more a case of seriously low gears coupled with seriously high torque?

[tifosikrishna]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I only drove Arka's MM540. The clutch was setup such that it can be used only for changing gears. There is no scope for half-clutching or controlling the speed with it. But that is a good habit to have even on our cars. I try not to use clutch for anything other than changing gears.

I am not so sure about that, aren't all diesels are like that?

I too use clutch to the absolute minimum, but definitely my setting is not similar to what MM540 had. I am not to sure about the cons of having such a setting on a car for our normal use.

Experts... what is your take.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Just went back two or three pages and caught up with the posts... the brilliant photos, and the nothing-short-of-gripping write-ups.

Fantastic stuff, gentlemen.

I really don't think I even have the arm-muscle for the steering, even!

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by tifosikrishna

This is a question for all who rode on that day - Do you think it would have been easy to drive a jeep through such a terrain with clutch setting like our normal car.

i felt the jeeps were very well setup for offroading, it is just enough if you just steer clear of the obstacles not worrying about engine stalling. just modulate the accelerator according to the situation.

when i saw arka in action i noticed that his left foot was well planted on the floor, he also advised us to use clutch and brakes as little as possible.i feel it would not have been possible for me without such a clutch setting.

There is no way we (at least the newbies)could have done anything like that, the brakes would have gone for a toss.

Arka (If i heard him right) actually said do not even touch the clutch except to change gears, yes these jeeps were setup quite brilliantly.

Originally Posted by Samurai

I am not so sure about that, aren't all diesels are like that?

No, the regular diesels will stall at those speeds.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I really don't think I even have the arm-muscle for the steering, even!

And that is the most important requirement for this event.

@ neoranjith - those are absolutely gorgeous snaps. Loved them

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

There is no way we (at least the newbies)could have done anything like that, the brakes would have gone for a toss.

Arka (If i heard him right) actually said do not even touch the clutch except to change gears, yes these jeeps were setup quite brilliantly.

E_L, if I recall correctly, in the long uphill out of the quarry, that's what I had do to. There was no use touching the brakes or clutch, and I didn't. I was only tapping the acclerator (never keep it pressed). Ok, a little harder than Arka liked, it was what he called as flywheel driving, being a newbie I couldn't keep it as low as possible, but I was only riding the acclerator on the way back. I did stall it a few times, but recovered without touching the clutch.

pjbiju, most of those techniques sound controversial if you are not doing it yourself. As Nitrous said, it is by feeling, listing them here won't help much.

[esteem_lover]

Here's a video from my digicam (No audio)

YouTube - Team-BHP Offroading @ Kelambakkam

and another one

YouTube - Team-BHP Offroading @ Kelambakkam - 2

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Hey, that was me.

E_L, Krishna, don't forget all this was in 4L mode, surely your cars don't have that mode. The engine won't stall that easily in 4L mode even when you are super slow. Only a complete stop would do that.