[invincible7]

Great Thread, feels like we are living your dream and jeep building with each passing illustration you are sharing across with us.

Kudos to your spirit and love for Jeeps...Its a Jeep thing and some guys only can understand it.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Lovely and inspirational stuff!

Do create another thread and share with us the offroading scene in the states. Would love to know their protocols.

[mac187]

Great Thread.
Fantanstic write-up and
Thats one Kick-A** looking Jeep.

A lot of us here can relate to your words, I can too. I recently bought a '94 Yezdi Roadking, when I have a car and two-wheeler at home. Needless to say my parents were not amused and worst was my friends thought I was a fool to waste my money on a 18 year old bike! When I said that I want to buy a Jeep or Contessa, my friend looked at me like I was crazy. Then they start to wonder how much money I make!

[Jaggu]

A slow and steady transformation and a very good looking and functional list of modifications. How about the transmission etc any mod was done, esp with the bigger tyres?

[Gujarati]

Originally Posted by invincible7

Great Thread, feels like we are living your dream and jeep building with each passing illustration you are sharing across with us.
Kudos to your spirit and love for Jeeps...Its a Jeep thing and some guys only can understand it.

Thank you, I am counting on you guys to understand

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Lovely and inspirational stuff!
Do create another thread and share with us the offroading scene in the states. Would love to know their protocols.

Thank you, what would be a good section of the forum to create a thread like that? I have tone of information and pictures.

Originally Posted by mac187

Great Thread.
Fantanstic write-up and
Thats one Kick-A** looking Jeep.

Thank you!!

Originally Posted by Jaggu

A slow and steady transformation and a very good looking and functional list of modifications. How about the transmission etc any mod was done, esp with the bigger tyres?

Thank you. Jeep transmission and the transfer case are plenty strong to handle tire size up to 40" Really the weak link is usually the axle. The Jeep Rubicon already comes with upgraded transfer case and upgraded Dana 44 axles. The non Rubicon Jeeps come with Dana 30 axle in the front and Dana 35 axle in the rear. We call Dana 35 a ticking time bomb as it is not good for anything more than 31" of tire size and paved roads. You can probably do very light offroading with it. Dana 30 can handle may be up 33" tires with light offroading without mods. I know some that have modified the Dana 30 with chromoly axle shafts and that will make them little more stronger.

The Dana 44 is a very strong axle and can take lot of abuse before it will break. It can take some heavy torque and still keep going. If you modify the Dana 44 axles with Chromoly axles it can take up to 37" tires without major issues. We will talk about this more in future mods.

==============================================

MORE MODS:

So after wheeling for few months I saw some interesting carnage on the trails. Most every outing I would see at least one or two Jeeps would have their tie-rod bent due to being smashed against the rocks. This would render your Jeep steering inoperable in one or both directions. This was a very common problem in rock crawling due to the position of the tie-rod right in front of the front axle differential.

So I decided to upgrade the entire steering setup, the tie-rod, drag link and all the joints with much heavy duty Currie Brand setup. While I was installing this I also learned to do the alignment of my Jeep on the floor with a tape measure.

When you are rock crawling your Jeep will be out of alignment frequently, so this can save you some serious money.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by Gujarati

Thank you, what would be a good section of the forum to create a thread like that? I have tone of information and pictures.

4x4 excursions would be an ideal place to pen it down.

[Gujarati]

After all these mods I decided my Jeep was ready for a nice 9 days expedition in the San Juan Mountains (Not really an expedition more like a camping trip in the mountains)

This is the type of Jeep trips I had in mind when I bought my Jeep. Through my Jeep club we decided we were going to have 9 days trip to Colorado (Northern state in US). I got together with 30 other Jeeps for this 4500 kms journey consisting of various terrains and mountain passes.

In next several post I will share the pictures of this trip. I had convinced my wife to let me go alone with my friends on this trip. I camped there 6 nights once I was in Colorado. If you have seen my other threads you know I now have a towing rig. At the time of this trip I did not have one. I drove my Jeep for the entire trip and I had a blast doing so.

Day 1


















Day 2

[Blur]

Guj, a brilliant, brilliant thread this.

Seeing you stand up to all the challenges that have come your way is inspiring, to say the least.

You are one Jeep owner who is just as tough as his Jeep!

[VLOCT]

Love the jeep and love the thread. Great going.

[Gujarati]

Originally Posted by Blur

Guj, a brilliant, brilliant thread this.
Seeing you stand up to all the challenges that have come your way is inspiring, to say the least.
You are one Jeep owner who is just as tough as his Jeep!

Originally Posted by VLOCT

Love the jeep and love the thread. Great going.

Thank you guys for the kind words.
==============================

So continuing from previous post. Our Jeep-A-Van (Word for a Caravan of Jeeps) arrived in the town of Ouray in the southwest Colorado. This town is at 2375 meters elevation. This town was going to be our base camp for next six days.

In Southwest Colorado near Ouray, Silverton and Telluride, the San Juan Mountain Jeep trails are among the most popular and scenic in the world.
Ouray is also known as Switzerland of America. All our trails that we were going to explore were between 2375 meters and 4000 meters elevation.

All the so called Jeep trails were essentially donkey routes (mountain passes) between the three town mentioned above. The trails were also created as an access to the gold and silver mines in the area during the gold rush.

The trails are very narrow and very steep. The elevation gain is scary. There is no room for error. The trails are constantly changing due to weather. It is especially difficult when you come across a washout and if you are not careful you go down 2000 feet below in the valley.

Indians and south Asians are everywhere in America, the smallest of the smallest towns you will find them. Surprisingly I did not come across a single Indian or a south Asian person in any of these three towns.

This was going to be an ultimate adventure for me as I had never done anything this crazy. Further down in the thread you will see how this will help me in evolving as an Ultimate Indian Offroader.

DAY 3 on the trip and first day on the trails, super scared.

[SunnyBoi]

Fantastic Pictures!

I see a Hummer gettin er shoes dirty. Now that's a sight you don't see everyday!

[Gujarati]

Day 3 continued........

[db0009]

Wow!! what a true story. It reminds me of some of the Hollywood and Bollywood movies. Hats off to your spirit and passion Gujrati. A very comprehensive review and crisp narration. The cherry on the cake is tons of beautiful and motivating pictures. A much deserved 5 star thread. You are surely making many fans including me .

[Gujarati]

Day 3 was a long day in the mountains. It was also one of the largest group we ever had of all the days we were in mountains. I was already in love with this place. I had obviously never driven on such narrow roads on such heights.

[db0009]

Wow! Simply wow! What fabulous pics Gujrati. I am sure many of us after seeing your pictures will definitely plan a trip. At least I have started to plan one for my self .