[garrett_t16]

This year , the republic day started off early at 6am
Mahape was the place to be !
and what an otr , something just clicked , and it was loads of fun , good people , good cars , some breakdowns but a brilliant otr in every sense

Me and Allan went for the reccee yesterday and found a trail
let the pictures do the talking , frankly i am too tired to type anything else.

aome pictures are from the reccee , others from the OTR

[V-16]

Awesome OTR. Even with a sprain, from a trek a couple of days ago, i made it, with a designated driver in case it was too bad but meeting with the gang again made me forget the sprain and off it was. Great trail Allen. Fantastic actually. Discovered hidden potential of the CJ. Pics please!!

[speedy]

Rocking OTR, excellent trail, and had a complete blast with the gang. The Fortuner seems to amaze me each time and makes things look so easy and simple. The mud express lived upto her name yet again . Please post more pictures.

[gsferrari]

Fantastic OTR which got off to a great start but I wasn't around to see it through to the finish. Kudos to Allan and Manan for charting out a nice fun trail with enough difficulty to be challenging without getting frustrating. Got to meet a few new faces and some old friends.

Geoff started off brilliantly and most of the obstacles seemed quite easy behind the wheel of this modded Gypsy. Trouble was that after the Alibaug OTR I had a feeling that my king-pin bearing was about to go (for the 3rd time) because the front left wheel was visibly cambered more than the right. In one of the obstacles this morning things went from bad to worse.

It wasn't a difficult climb but the crested top made it difficult for a low GC vehicle like the Gypsy to crawl over without bottoming out. I was not worried about bottoming out thanks to the transfer case guard and on the first attempt, thats exactly what happened. On the second attempt I gave it a little too much gas and the combination of diff-locks and the MT tires resulted in an almighty wheelie and a hard landing on the left front which just knocked the king-pin bearing into pieces. The left front was now clearly damaged and there was no point continuing and making things worse. I finished one more climb which I had to do in order to get out of the obstacle and then hightailed it back to Allan's garage.

End of the day's off-roading for me and the Gypsy is grounded for at least 2-3 days until I figure out what the hell is different about my Gypsy that the king-pin keeps breaking. The first time it broke (this time left front) was at Palar and it broke without any jump...went into a pit slowly and snap! The second time it broke during regular road use (this time right front). Now the third break is again on the left front.

I am tired of having this reliability issue and want a stronger/tougher solution. Yes my technique could have been better but I still need to get to grips with the capabilities of the vehicle and at the moment I think the traction is not being complimented by the ground clearance for certain types of obstacles.

Not sure how to move forward on this one...

Better quality bearings? which ones?
Replace the bearings with bushes / needle rollers?
Check the front axle tube for a bend?

Anyway...fortunately these things are cheap to replace on the Gypsy.

[danlalan]

Extreme Offroaders Republic day OTR, A pretty good turn up. And some good trails.

Heres some pics.

[genesis]

Mahape again! Dirty slush and horseflies nipping at Thomson and Thompson (you know who you are ) just because Tejas does not have a jeep to go and recce Lonavala.

Those were the faint thoughts at the back of my mind as the better half and me drove towards Mahape. (She on her part was very happy that the commute time was 1/4th that of Lonavala). But the thought of meeting everyone again was a bright prospect and it was that which actually motivated me to get the jeep back on the weekend from Mohan's place at Alibag where it had been resting for the past 3 weeks (but that is another story)...

And what a day it turned out to be...

Hot chicken patties early in the morning...check! (Thanks Imran S)
Most of the usual suspects showing up...check! (Thanks Thomson and Thompson)
Making fun of Devang for showing up late...uncheck! He was there bright and early!
Tejas falling into a pile of slush...check!
Wow! A totally new trail...check! (Thanks Allan for the brilliant routing)
Having cheap thrills at the expense of newbies in shiny new white gypsies...check!
The curse of Mahape claiming vehicles...check!
Lunch of hot vadapavs and chai at 3pm...check!
Having a great time and experiencing camaraderie all over again...check!

Bol Bolero to post his snaps...still to be checked!

[BolBolero]

One word to describe the day:- AWESOME!
Thanks to the Extreme Offroaders gang for organising this event.

Some snaps for now, more to follow.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by genesis

Tejas falling into a pile of slush...check!

What??!!! No pics, no proof!

[Cyrus43]

ARGH!! Everytime you guys go for an OTR, I get jealous!! You wait till I come back!!

And someone please put a pic of tejas's bum covered in muck!! BAHAHAHAHAA!!

[gsferrari]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_YWbeJGUc

This is how I broke the Fr.L kingpin bearing on Geoff. Fed-up of this thing breaking so easily while other Gypsies are jumping around without any issues. Anyone got any ideas?

[pdev29]

I went to sleep by 2am and 5.15 am i got a call from Devansh " are you awake" i wanted to tell him !@#$ but then i realised the excitement when you just start offroading. Thanks for waking me buddy

5.30 BB started ting tong now from varnil and Ramie and finally i was out of my bed. called Dan but he was not reachable.

finally after million calls and bb msgs Imran,Manan,Amit,Dan, Varnil and me left in convoy of 3 gypsies and one Mayapuri which performed well this time.

somehow everyone was in good mood. you will varnil showing some good pic from a news paper to toll guys and believe me they didnt take money :P

Reached Mahpe and waited almost 45 mins for Imran and Ibrahim (dont get confused there are 3 Imran in Extreme Offroaders)

Finally started OTR with close to 20 vehicles @ same place but new trail.

Let the pics do talking now or someone please give a proper report.

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

What??!!! No pics, no proof!

Just a small correction.
It was not slush pit it was ganda gutter ka pani. and just for your information soumya has those pics.

[Sudarshan]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

This is how I broke the Fr.L kingpin bearing on Geoff. Fed-up of this thing breaking so easily while other Gypsies are jumping around without any issues. Anyone got any ideas?

I have , in fact many of us have ,( no body dares to talk )

but forget it , get it fixed & keep another in spares ,

Things like this are going to happen . that's why the venue was changed from Lonavla to Mahape ( we know )

Anyways the jump was awesome , looks like you people had loads of fun .

good pics , bring in the FB pics too .

More pics please .


Sudarshan

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by Sudarshan

I have , in fact many of us have ,( no body dares to talk )

but forget it , get it fixed & keep another in spares ,

Things like this are going to happen . that's why the venue was changed from Lonavla to Mahape ( we know )

???? What do you mean? We wanted to break GS's gypsy? The reason for change was told to all. We did not have time for a recce for holding a good event. Why do you keep flogging the dead horse?

You guys could have come if you wanted to... Bombay guys did go to Lavasa if memory serves me correct.

[pdev29]

We have no issues to do an event in lonavala or pune but if the trail is not finalised then it doesnt make sense to ask 20 cars to drive so much and be dissapointed.

trust me pune guys wouldnt have regreted this drive but you all chose to opt out.

[BolBolero]

Some more snaps.