[desertfox]

My Maruti Gypsy King 1.3 has arrived. Next OTR in this one!

[Torque-ative]

The ability of the Gurkha to follow a super light Willys MB up a narrow slippery trial was astonishing to say the least.
The two most expierienced off-roders RBS and SSS Mods deemed the Gurkha one of the most formidable stock off-roders of the pack. I guess the only weak link at this point is the tyres. Grossly inadequate to handle slush. Need a more agressive MUD tread and a lighter foot to get this one thru.

A word has to be reserved for the fly-boys (rally prepped Gypsy's). They are a different breed. Not a lot different from you and I probably when we were 10 years younger !!
The sound of the rev limiter on one hill climb was pure ecstacy !! However restrain is reccomended while off-roading in the back yard of the villagers who are kind enough to let us tread around their back yard.

Gaurav,..your Red MM is a beast man !! However must admit was confused as to why you had to revv so much being a torquey diesel unit (2.6L scrop unit) . I guess you could have prevented some damage by crawling rather than blasting thru on the first hill climb on badshahpur !!

Yogesh, you spirit is what makes it all worthwhile. Wow driving 8 hours just to attend this meet.

Lastly but most certainly not the least RBS and SSS mods. We are eternally indebted to you for keeping us together and in check !!

[ex670c]

Hi NCR off-roaders,

Exciting terrain and good OTR action .

Regards,

Arka

PS - waiting for some more pics & vids.

[Ym-enjn]

Originally Posted by GoSlow

Great Pics Yogesh!! Kudos to you for coming down from Jaipur. We are honoured to have a true enthusiast like you amongst us.

Special Thanks to RANDEEP for marshalling such a big group. Lot of people may not realise but it is a very tough job!!

Thanks to the MODS for a super OTR.

this was my best OTR ever. I had a flat in the OE tyres once as well but these performed way better than the H/T radials that I had on earlier. I was very happy with them (thanks again to Arjun).... before I risk sounding like a actor who has just won an award I will stop thanking any more people!!
Cheers
Ankit

Thanks Ankit, the pleasure is all mine. I like the spirit of NIOC and also the simplisity with which they organise such great OTRs, I feel part of it right away. Plus its a big learning experience for me on such diverse terrains in a safe manner along with big experts like RB sir and SSS sir.

Yeah Randeep and Amit did great job as it was a big group and tough terrain with many having troubles. Hope they also enjoyed and hope Randeep clicked pics?? Where are they buddy?

Originally Posted by desertfox

My Maruti Gypsy King 1.3 has arrived. Next OTR in this one!

Congrats.

Originally Posted by Torque-ative

The ability of the Gurkha to follow a super light Willys MB up a narrow slippery trial was astonishing to say the least.
The two most expierienced off-roders RBS and SSS Mods deemed the Gurkha one of the most formidable stock off-roders of the pack. I guess the only weak link at this point is the tyres. Grossly inadequate to handle slush. Need a more agressive MUD tread and a lighter foot to get this one thru.


Yogesh, you spirit is what makes it all worthwhile. Wow driving 8 hours just to attend this meet.

Didn't the Gurkha have Yoko Geo on it, why the need of a different tyre?

Thanks Naveen, regarding driving 8 hours as I said above we at NIOC keep it very simple with no marketing gimmicks (like annual OTR or event or challenge or stuff like that) I must compliment it was not just another meet, it was a great event and I had a feeling that it would be like that..

[rhandle]

Originally Posted by Ym-enjn

T
Didn't the Gurkha have Yoko Geo on it, why the need of a different tyre?

Yes the GUrkha has Yoko Geo AT+ but the grooves are not big and thus tires go bald as soon as they enter mud. We had been able to clear parts of slush with momentum but as soon as the speed is less the tires give way. Guess with MT it would be a different story!

[Ym-enjn]

Originally Posted by rhandle

Yes the GUrkha has Yoko Geo AT+ but the grooves are not big and thus tires go bald as soon as they enter mud. We had been able to clear parts of slush with momentum but as soon as the speed is less the tires give way. Guess with MT it would be a different story!

I would suggest don't bother about changing them. They have been getting good feedback as one of the best overall offroad tyres in India. Specially for your vehicle which you use a lot to travel long distance on road. Plus every mud terrain tyre will also get stuck at one point or the other in Mud. The theory is if you test your limits then you'll get stuck, which is not wrong if there is no risk involved.

[Torque-ative]

Well said Yogesh !! The best jeep to handle slush was without doubt the light MB replica with those maxxis mudzilla tyres. The jeep cleared the deepest part of the slush at 700 rpm. It was almost floating where others were getting stuck. Skill is very important too ! The trick is to ensure there is no wheel spin,..gentle modulation, a light weight body and a versatile tread (such as NDMS) is a winner on most terrain including slush. The gurkha is heavier and has performed admirably on all terrains except slush. The weight and tyres were the deterrents. This can be helped with tyres that give better traction.

[RedMM340]

Originally Posted by Torque-ative

The ability of the Gurkha to follow a super light Willys MB up a narrow slippery trial was astonishing to say the least.
The two most expierienced off-roders RBS and SSS Mods deemed the Gurkha one of the most formidable stock off-roders of the pack. I guess the only weak link at this point is the tyres. Grossly inadequate to handle slush. Need a more agressive MUD tread and a lighter foot to get this one thru.

A word has to be reserved for the fly-boys (rally prepped Gypsy's). They are a different breed. Not a lot different from you and I probably when we were 10 years younger !!
The sound of the rev limiter on one hill climb was pure ecstacy !! However restrain is reccomended while off-roading in the back yard of the villagers who are kind enough to let us tread around their back yard.

Gaurav,..your Red MM is a beast man !! However must admit was confused as to why you had to revv so much being a torquey diesel unit (2.6L scrop unit) . I guess you could have prevented some damage by crawling rather than blasting thru on the first hill climb on badshahpur !!

Yogesh, you spirit is what makes it all worthwhile. Wow driving 8 hours just to attend this meet.

Lastly but most certainly not the least RBS and SSS mods. We are eternally indebted to you for keeping us together and in check !!

Hey Torque-active,

I happen to think that a redlined 2.6 turbo diesel with free flow exhaust and intake sounds even more like pure ecstasy than a redlined 1.3 Gypsy motor. So why the discrimination? Maybe next time you should give the Jeep a test drive and try revving it to feel the beastly power under the hood.

The way I look at it if you don't end up with any damage after a day of hard off-roading, you just haven't been pushing your rig hard enough. I still think that I could have done that steep climb in the sand pit. Well that will be my challenge for the next OTR!


@Yogesh,

Thanks again for the assist with the flat tire. I would have been up the creek if you didn't have the tools to swap my alloy wheels.

[Torque-ative]

Originally Posted by RedMM340

Hey Torque-active,

I happen to think that a redlined 2.6 turbo diesel with free flow exhaust and intake sounds even more like pure ecstasy than a redlined 1.3 Gypsy motor. So why the discrimination? Maybe next time you should give the Jeep a test drive and try revving it to feel the beastly power under the hood.

The way I look at it if you don't end up with any damage after a day of hard off-roading, you just haven't been pushing your rig hard enough. I still think that I could have done that steep climb in the sand pit. Well that will be my challenge for the next OTR!


@Yogesh,

Thanks again for the assist with the flat tire. I would have been up the creek if you didn't have the tools to swap my alloy wheels.

No discrimination at all Garurav its like this.

That hill climb you tried was a mammoth move and kudos to you for trying that. This move needed you to revv.. as you would not have had the momentum to clear it or get as high as you did. So revving your big block diesel was okay to extract that last ounce of bhp/torque
The engine note while trying this is pure ecstacy I agree

However when you were crossing a moderate obstacle (the first hill climb), with boulders and rocks strewn all over,.. intermitant revving was not such a good idea as you were either not in the correct gear (low 1 or 2) or were trying this obstacle too fast. Each time you pump the throttle (in rapid sucession) you were constantly varying your power / torque curve,..meaning your jeep was not getting the constant controlled push it needed instead it would bounce all over the place, resulting in more damage which could be avoided.
Your engine note while trying this terrain felt as if the engine is not producing the power it needs , and that is making you revv to keep it in the power band (which is far from the case in your Jeep).


Just a different POV thats all

[RedMM340]

Originally Posted by rhandle

Yes the GUrkha has Yoko Geo AT+ but the grooves are not big and thus tires go bald as soon as they enter mud. We had been able to clear parts of slush with momentum but as soon as the speed is less the tires give way. Guess with MT it would be a different story!

rhandle,

Your Yoko Geo AT+ are decent tires. The problem was that the mud at this OTR was very, very slippery, and had a good amount of clay content that tends to fill up the tread rendering the tires totally slick.

I was running mud terrain tires and had serious traction problems in this mud also. The only type of tire that would really make a difference would be hard core mud bog tires that just cannot be used on the street.

Your Gurkha Trax is just awesome. It was the first one that I have seen in person, and it just way better than any Bolero/Scorpio/Safari. I really want one now.

Regards,

Gaurav

[willys MB]

Dear Jeepers,

We thank you all for making the OTR a grand success. Its the team work which counts. The weather was an Icing on the great OTR. We had a good collection of jeeps and very well experienced jeepers like Gaurav with his very well modified MM340. We also thank Yogesh and his fellow jeeper to make it to the OTR from Jaipur and we hope you guys enjoyed the OTR. Yes, the Gurkha really performed very well. Thank you all once again for a great OTR and looking forward to many more.

Cheers

Sarvinder

[GoSlow]

Some Pics from my side. These were taken by my friends Sumit & Eshu:

PART 1

[GoSlow]

PART 2 - sorry not many action pics as the photographers were too busy watching the jeeps and forgot about the camera

[GoSlow]

FINAL PICS: This is one OTR I will always remember with or without the pics - THANKS to NIOC mods, marshalls and members!!

[dwaraka]

NIOC offroaders, You have got a great spot there. rain has blessed you all with slush and muck. more pics please