[danny2599]

hey guys is one of the videos from my side.....enjoy

YouTube - the gypsy plunge

[DKG]

The conditions seem very different. The sun is shining and blue skies are evident from the video. What we encountered that day was a heavily overcast day, wet run up, slippery slopes. My hunch is that both Shahnawaz and I didn't make it up not on account of lack of power. Its open diffs. If we had lockable diffs we would have made it up. I had power 2/3 up but the wheels simply spun and obviously in such conditions the torque gets reduced at the wheel. I tried twice and then gave up as it did the same thing, going up 2/3rds and then spinning

The only thing we didn't try was doing it slowly, but I doubt that would have worked. We would have ended up spinning 1/3 up the slope, which is where the 540/550's struggled to reach with all their weight !

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by DKG

My hunch is that both Shahnawaz and I didn't make it up not on account of lack of power. Its open diffs. If we had lockable diffs we would have made it up.

Shahnawaz has lockers in the rear diff.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by mohan

Gypsy,Jeep and a Gurkha couldn't make it, the Scorpio could ,in the 1st attempt, 4H 1st.

Originally Posted by ex670c

But there are TWO advantages which the scorpio has, any guesses?

I think the Driver's experience and Skill, it what took the scorpio up that slope.

Baah!

Am a novice driver, but it's very evident. The terrain and the surface was very different, morning, night, week or months apart this was done.

Khan i told you so, come summer we can crawl lol Good thing, soft slush made it safe, no humpty dumpty he he

[mohan]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Baah!

Am a novice driver, but it's very evident. The terrain and the surface was very different, morning, night, week or months apart this was done.

Thanks for enlightening me Sir ! I will surely look up which month; or perhaps months, this video was taken....(I had taken this video myself)

Oh BTW Sir,this is the same Scorpio which braved the remaining half of the Lonavala trail.
It climbed slushy ascends without any issue,where Jeeps and gypsies found difficult and took quite a while to negotiate. Some had to be towed..

[AVR]

For starters, it was an awesome introduction to a latent passion (so far limited to ogling at Tbhp excursion threads) and cursing my luck at the lack of such options in Ahmedabad.

One fine day, I found Kunal and Tejas bring up the idea of AKC/EXAMM and I remember mailing Tejas of happily (and lazily) booking myself as a passenger. I clearly remember Tejas mentioning that guys were driving down from much farther than I would have to and I guess I took the hint and decided that this roadtrip (a total of 1600 kms) had to happen! Decision taken. Now the details. Notified my boss about a non-negotiable leave period and then went about fussing over my rather stock 540. At the cost of a lot of weekends, threads, queries and a super-ticked off fiance, I was finally all set to take the road trip!!


The road trip was great and is a separate topic. Thursday night around 12 we reached Lonavla and once the night stay place was found, we went looking for food and there was only one place open. Now I am a guy who stares wide eyed at every 4x4 that passes by as long as its visible. Having a chai and smoke, I see 3 jeeps pass by. Arka, Patrick and Ventak step out and I meet Arka, someone I knew as a FB friend till then! We get talking and its slowly dawning on me that my first OTR is finally happening. We crash by 3:30 and are up by 6:30 and raring to go!

We reach the meeting point and what a sight! Have never seen so many beauties parked in such proximity before. Ogle time begins and goes on till we are ready to go!



Obstacle 1:
Am a bundle of nerves. Never taken my jeep into something even half as crazy before and I see a lot of vehicles struggling. "This is it, Am just going to go back on the road and start my first OTR from the next obstacle". That's where Arka expressed a lot of confidence in the 540 being able to do this obstacle! So in Mr. Branson's words "Screw it, let's do it!" and I go into the obstacle and voila! Next thing I realize is I am stuck! And to top it all I don't manage going back in a controlled fashion so Bam goes my rear bumper. Now that there was no way out but to climb it, I started putting together all the awesome advice I was getting from Arka, Vinay and the likes and I finally make it in my Nth try. My first obstacle in a stock 540 with arguably skinhead tyres and I made it!

Obstacle 2:
Fairly simple and we go through it in a breeze, brimming with confidence.

Obstacle 3:
So we reach the famous descent and all the confidence gained so far is gone. While it seemed very exciting, I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it on my own so rather than taking the plunge myself, I asked Sharath aka Samurai to drive the 540 down. It was quite an experience with us gaining momentum with time and eventually sliding down and finally sliding down sideways! Thankfully, the slide was countered by steering control and we reached the foothill. I think the jury's still out on whether it was a 1-L or a 2-L descent. Video posted on page 1 of this thread! After this leg-raising descent, climbing that creek was another task! With the 540 screaming its lungs out it finally managed to do that too!


Obstacle 4: This was dicey as we had to cross a slightly sideway slope with a 20 ft drop into a stream on the right. The Thar had already gone and made another way but we all decided that its poor lookalike and country cousin (my black 540) should take the original route. So with a light foot on the accelerator and a jeep slowly sliding towards the drop, Patrick, Arka and Vinod helped me cross this one!

Rest was easy and people were having a blast before a delicious lunch awaited us! A memorable thing there was Patrick guiding his son through the water. I was very impressed with the way Patrick's son drove the jeep through a few places!


By now, I was seriously amazed with the kind of abuse this vehicle can take. The respect for the 540 had gone up a million times!



Lunch was at a beautiful spot and totally loved the location and promised to come back someday!



Post lunch, I think a few of us ended up spending a lot of time crossing that incline. Waited for more than an hour for some vehicles who didn't stop trying and finally we decided to avoid it and take the "scenic route" to catch up with the rest. This is when Vinay walks up with Arka behind him saying I should take the incline. Had seen a lot of vehicles with much better tyres struggle and frankly wasn't sure if we had make it. Vinay takes over the jeep and in our 2nd try we have crossed it. Can't recall but i think it was 1-H or 2-H. Respect goes up a million times more!

After that we got lost and finally caught up with a few other jeeps and suddenly we realised that it was just 1 Mahindra Recovery Marshal, Venkat's CJ and us left with failing light to catch up with the rest of the gang. We all got a bit tense as we really didn't know the way around and went about executing all the obstacles (especially that steep descent) in a hurried fashion without really treating them as self-inflicted OTR style obstacles and instead treated them as obstacles on the path of survival

Finally we catch up!


There was a very interesting S-curve slippery ascent which was just almost taken in 2-L but I guess the tyres acted up and right when it reached the top it started slipping. The Mahindra guys were pretty prompt in connecting the winch and before the winch could be used, thanks to the winch giving some directional control to the Jeep, we made it to the top!

A few obstacles later we were finally at the hotel! Glad to have gone through everything while getting to know some awesome people with a common passion!

For a "newbie", it was really nice to have people like Arka, Vinay, Vinod and Sharath guiding me all the way. Sometimes encouraging, sometimes challenging and sometimes showing me how to do it! Thanks a lot guys Mucho appreciato!!

They say you never forget your first time and its so true! Will cherish the experience and look forward to seeing so many of you guys again in random places around the country!

Cheers,
Adi

P.S. @Patrick, will surely have M/T tyres next year! Though I still think the current set didn't do bad at all!

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by mohan

Oh BTW Sir,this is the same Scorpio which braved the remaining half of the Lonavala trail.
It climbed slushy ascends without any issue,where Jeeps and gypsies found difficult and took quite a while to negotiate. Some had to be towed..

Saar a heavy Invader did it in style too he he he Everybody said wont climb without momentume, we just stayed putt spinning for about 30 secs and climbed up without a fuss. So whats the point?

EDIT: Would the scorpio climb that day where the CJ and Spidey failed? That's the only answer i need.

[pdev29]

No matter what we say but it wasnt possible when we went there,

first there was no place to gain momentum,
Second it was raining & the terrain was in really bad state.

[xtreme power]

Originally Posted by pdev29

No matter what we say but it wasnt possible when we went there,

first there was no place to gain momentum,
Second it was raining & the terrain was in really bad state.

this statement id say is highly debatable:

when mohan and myself did it, it was raining but not that slush
but when we did it , about four days prior to the event it was the same exact condition

devang bhai u tried it in ur 1 litre

even that slope at karjat could not be conquered with your mudterrains
wheres the 1.3 mpfi with all terrains(gsferrrari) did it without a fuss
sometimes power does play a roll

chalo let it rain a bit more, we will go and try it together


edit: these statements are in relation to my gypsy not my scorpio,

[pdev29]

Originally Posted by xtreme power

this statement id say is highly debatable:

when mohan and myself did it, it was raining but not that slush
but when we did it , about four days prior to the event it was the same exact condition

devang bhai u tried it in ur 1 litre

even that slope at karjat could not be conquered with your mudterrains
wheres the 1.3 mpfi with all terrains(gsferrrari) did it without a fuss
sometimes power does play a roll

chalo let it rain a bit more, we will go and try it together


edit: these statements are in relation to my gypsy not my scorpio,

cool we will go once it starts pouring, we will try it in your 1.6 if you can do it then my 1l will be yours if you cant then have some respect for your WORDS and give me my BUMPER.. its still invisible

[headers]

Chill guys::

Try these different combinations:

1. same driver - different vehicles - same terrain
2. Same vehicle - different drivers - same terrain
3. same terrain - different drivers - different vehicles

IMO, the Gypsy 1L is pretty potent in most offroad situations. All the extra power of the 1.3 / 1.6 is only for the high speed runs !

[xtreme power]

DONE

and for some strange reason, i feel that ibrahim will also manage it

Originally Posted by headers

Chill guys::

Try these different combinations:

1. same driver - different vehicles - same terrain
2. Same vehicle - different drivers - same terrain
3. same terrain - different drivers - different vehicles

IMO, the Gypsy 1L is pretty potent in most offroad situations. All the extra power of the 1.3 / 1.6 is only for the high speed runs !

precisely my point vikram,
lots of momentum is required at this particular slope cause traction is a major issue

[rhandle]

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Some nice discussion & theories going on here but unless the scorpio tried it in similar conditions as the jeeps/Gypsy's (or jeeps/gypsy's tried along with the Scorpio) we can just speculate -- but this is in no way taking anythign away from the skills of the scorpio driver & the power of that machine.

One more data point: even this small ditch was literally impossible when it was wet & slippery that afternoon. IIRC, only DKG's CJ3b & my Gypsy were able to do it at that time -- don't know if other vehicles tried it later in the day.

Attachment 381541

If it were dry, almost all vehicles would have just walked over it.

Has the pic in there been edited? looks slightly out, though familiar!!

Originally Posted by ex670c

I think the Driver's experience and Skill, it what took the scorpio up that slope.

It was an interesting obstacle, which all the Chennai JEEPers missed.

Regards,

Arka

Originally Posted by xtreme power

the gypsy did it in one go in 1st low, cause of sheer power i should add hitting the revv limiter

also during the recce is mohan remembers the gypsy went up with loads of ease when the gurkha did not
guess power talks
need arjuns dcm 550 here

regards
allan

I am confused by the two above different point of views from two very experienced people. Guess this debate wud remain answered. Though at this time I would go with Allan ... May be 5 years down the line when I get enough experience my views might change

[xtreme power]

Originally Posted by headers

Chill guys::

Try these different combinations:

1. same driver - different vehicles - same terrain
2. Same vehicle - different drivers - same terrain
3. same terrain - different drivers - different vehicles

IMO, the Gypsy 1L is pretty potent in most offroad situations. All the extra power of the 1.3 / 1.6 is only for the high speed runs !

Originally Posted by rhandle

Has the pic in there been edited? looks slightly out, though familiar!!





I am confused by the two above different point of views from two very experienced people. Guess this debate wud remain answered. Though at this time I would go with Allan ... May be 5 years down the line when I get enough experience my views might change

dont get me wrong rahul
drivers skill 100 percent counts

if say an "X" very experienced driver manages to do it with my gypsy does not mean he will mange it with a 1 litre
he might get further up the slope then a newbie in the same 1 litre

what arka meant if im not wrong is that a non skilled driver may not have managed it

power plays a significant role but there has to be skill involved

[pdev29]

that terrain will require more torque and speed so 1.6 and 1.3 will surely have an advantage but situation at that time looked nearly impossible.

we will try to do it once again for sure.