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-   -   Repeat EXAMM! The ghost of 1st low vs 2nd low descent haunts us again... and how! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-excursions/87952-repeat-examm-ghost-1st-low-vs-2nd-low-descent-haunts-us-again-how.html)

T'was raining cats and dogs when a small group of us madmen decided to go to lonavla again and try to repeat EXAMM under crazy wet conditions.

The group consisted of the usual suspects:
- Jay (Jaysmokesleaves)
- Neville (Satan)
- Amol (Sun_Chaser)
- James (Whicked_Wheels)
- Tejas

A newbie (3rd OTR):
- Ravi (4x4cruiser) - MM550 NGCS

& a first timer:
- Rahul (Rahuls) - Gypsy

We start off from time from Bombay, get stuck in a crazy jam on the expressway. But thanks to Amol, we manage to take a shortcut through the expressway and save nearly 40 minutes.

We reach the EXAMM venue soon and inspect the terrain.



The first place we stop was the decent that all aborted but only robinson had tried (blue arrow).

However, we take the descent as shown by the red arrow.



Next up we reach the "famous descent" made notorious by the 2nd low incident during EXAMM! We stand and observe. It looks that it is too slippery.



It's then decided that Amol will go down in his now 4x4 qualis powered kaiser first before the rest follow.




He comes down fine. Although it was faster than the jeeps during EXAMM day, it was much slower than the speeds at which the Thar and AVR's jeep came down.

From here he takes the customary approach to exit and predictably gets stuck. Note the terrrain is now atleast 5 times more difficult than during the examm day due the fact that the rains unleashed their full might the full 2 months.






A random shot of my Classic:


To be continued...

Now, i'm get busy trying to recover Amol's kaiser.



In the meanwhile, Rahul decides to come down in his gypsy with Satan guiding him. He slots in 1st low and the first 1/2 to 3/4 th of the descent is fine but the last 1/4th, the gypsy picks up speed and a little panic leading to pressing of the brakes makes him veer off and dash in a small tree which saves him from going into a ditch. There is slight damage to the front left side of the bumper which is gets pushed back and hit's the front left tyre.



The gypsy is stuck with the front two tyres hanging at the drop into the ditch.



Jay (4x4 Safari 2.2) and me had decided it's not prudent to get our vehicles down this way and take the tarmac road down. However, Ravi is still up there with his MM550 NGCS and we are down trying to recover Amol and now the Gypsy.

It's now decided that we abort this descent and carry on. So we shout out to Ravi to wait and not to come down.

I try to pull out Amol just using a towing method but there is just no traction.

I needed to move my car a lot of distance away to a better spot and amol would winch himself out. Once that is done, he would winch the gypsy out.



Thus, all the spotters came down to help out, but all this while Ravi is still up there... all alone. The way that the decent was and the way in which the gypsy was stuck, one could not see the gypsy from top.

To be continued...

hi tejas , great to see you all writing the examm again..

Oh oh, that one is lil tricky alright, with rains and the grass it would have become super messy also for the vehicles to find traction. I think its high time we adapt a winch down method for such mad inclines :)

Doc post the rest please.

Moving on...

I'm back attaching the winch cable to my Jeep when all of a sudden we hear shouts...
"No"
"What the"
"STOPPPPP"
"OH $%@&^^"

Look up and see that Ravi has decided to come down the descent with the gypsy still stuck.

He's making good speed (still not crazy speed like EXAMM 1) and all of a sudden he sees that the gypsy is stuck down there.

So at 1/2 the way down he decides to turn slightly away from the gypsy. However, this causes the wheels to loose traction. So his next instinct is to brake. Oh OH! Trouble. Rear slides out, complete control is lost and the car slams into the gypsy!







We rush towards them and see the damages:




My Observations:
-If he had continued down the same path without trying to change directions, he would have missed the gypsy and no incident would have happened.
- After turning, if he hadn't pressed the brakes, he would have slammed straight head-on into the gypsy and caused more damage and maybe the gypsy would have fallen in to the ditch
- Since he pressed the brakes, the rear came out and the imapct was more sideways and thereby the impact was lesser in intensity.

On asking Ravi why he came down, he said he didn't hear anyone's shouts not to come down and since he couldn't see the gyspy, he assumed all is fine and came down.

Mistakes:

- His because, he did not get out of the car to see if all was clear before attempting the obstacle. Since he was new, he should not have tried it without a spotter.

- Ours because, since he was a newbie, one of us should have stayed up with him and we should have double checked if he heard us not to come down. I take full responsibility for this incident.

Thankfully no one was hurt.

If you see this pic:

The impact is such that the jeep's left front fender hits the gypsy's rear right side, it them bodily pushes the gypsy and the jeep's rear left fender hit's the gypsy's rear left side.

Surprisingly, there is more damage to the jeep than the gypsy.

The fender collapses which inturn pushes the fuel filter inwards> This hits the fan shroud which hits the fan and breaks a couple of blades. Thankfully the radiator is not punctured. Even the clutch linkages of the jeep break.

very very tricky, it really becomes extreemly technical, thanks to these pictures, it really helps in the aftermath

we experienced similar challenges in the Mitsui drive @ Della - Rajmachi

Rahul lost his virginity :) but i think Ravi could have seen the gypsy from Top yaar.

anyways it happens not a big deal.

Guys one advice, no matter how many OTR you do in your life its a good practice to get down of your vehicle and see the track before you start.

Dont take assumption that you will make it from a GAP if you think something is on your way then just give headsup to anyone. We are lucky that nothing happen.

anyways we will do this trail again next weekend because the best part of this is still pending and no one has done it except Tejas and Allan.

The bullock cart trail is gonna be bad and how!!! Just after the pre-monsoon showers, two jeeps took 2hours to cross the 2 kms patch. So now just imagine!!!

We will only go with a few vehicles and no big vehicles since recovery will be difficult for the biggies.

Will continue my report of the yesterday's incident later in the day... the recovery of these two vehicles took quite a while...

Superimposing the pics... see the amount by which the gypsy moved.

Superimposing sure helps know that it must have been quite an impact! I think 2nd Low and any steering input (happened in both incidents) is a fairly lethal combination on this descent.

Am glad no driver/passenger/audience was hurt in the process. If I remember correctly a smaller collision had happened in EXAMM-1 also post this decline where all the Jeeps were standing. Don't remember details though.

EXAMM 2011 I need to do this right!

Adi

This was 1st low only. 2nd low would have been suicidal in my opinion. However, this fact has been debated to death earlier!

That was the calcutta jeep banging into the gurkha.


EXAMM 2011 will not be held here. What's the point of doing it again? Next year will be more challenging with less traveling between OTR spots with a centralized hospitality area.

Tejs

Tejas awesome fun with you guys.
Gypsy going for new 2 rear side bumpers.(Pretty strong)Ripped the mahindra

Amol /tejas
Thanks for recovery

Devang

Next week i am cming aur tujhe neense main uthaoongalol:

Yikess!!

I think we all are responsible for JINXING / Nazar Lagaoing Ravi's immaculate NGCS 550 lol:

Glad that no one was hurt.

I hope to do this decent with no dramas too.

regards,

Prasad

@Prasad: You decided to put new tyres on the classic?