[Samurai]

Originally Posted by 007 Bond

Force motors is in process of changing the whole chassis of Trax range... from the rugged Tubular chassis to the C channel ladder type chassis.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Will Gurkha lose it's USP due to this move?

Originally Posted by 007 Bond

They want to implement it from November 07 but may take February or March 08 to complete development.

What about people who are waiting for their Gurkha by paying 2L down? What version will they get...

[lurker]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Will Gurkha lose it's USP due to this move?

Most American Chevy Pickup trucks and Ford Explorers have this ladder type C Channel chassis. Be prepared to have more body roll at cornering and vehicle gets more unstable than on a tubular chassis.

[ex670c]

Hi Samurai,

There are 3 types of Body-on-Frame Chassis.
As per 4WD application -
I'll List them according to their Strength.
1) C-Section - Strong - JEEPs
2) Box Section - Stronger - Bolero & Gypsy
3) Tubular Chassis - Strongest - Trax Gurkha & JUDO

The Flexing of a Chassis is determined by the Section Width of the Chassis (C-Section, Box Section & Tube) and the No. and type(Lateral, K & X ) of cross members on the chassis.

Regards,

Arka

[Rtech]

Does anyone have a picture of the bare chassis of a Gurkha?

[lurker]

Upon a quick google search, I find that even the Gelaendwagen has a ladder-type chassis. So it need not necessarily be bad, one has to see what Force comes up with.

But to be on the safe side, one could buy a tubular chassis Judo/Gama now provided they come with 4X4.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by lurker

But to be on the safe side, one could buy a tubular chassis Judo/Gama now provided they come with 4X4.

Only the basic Gama 4x4 with BS-II is available now. Rest is undefined.

[ggkg]

you can refer to this and other pictures in the force4x4 website there is a separate section on frame change

My SPGM gallery

[Rtech]

Thanks ggkg. I never knew it had a tubular chassis. Learn something new everyday eh.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by ex670c

Hi Samurai,

There are 3 types of Body-on-Frame Chassis.
As per 4WD application -
I'll List them according to their Strength.
1) C-Section - Strong - JEEPs
2) Box Section - Stronger - Bolero & Gypsy
3) Tubular Chassis - Strongest - Trax Gurkha & JUDO

The Flexing of a Chassis is determined by the Section Width of the Chassis (C-Section, Box Section & Tube) and the No. and type(Lateral, K & X ) of cross members on the chassis.

Regards,

Arka

I'm afraid you are not right. There are 2 types of stiffness.. bending and torsion. Fully boxed is strongest overall and strongest in both. C-section is strong in bending and weak in torsion. Tubular is strong in torsion and weak in bending.

Overall tubular chassis are cheap to fabricate and thats why they exist, but going the way of the dodo. The reason the TRAX used them is because the old Matador F305 form the 60s had it and the Firodias just copied it. All large trucks and C.V have C-sec because they dont care about bending.

Every SUV and truck and even superbike frames are boxed rectangular type.

[lurker]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Only the basic Gama 4x4 with BS-II is available now. Rest is undefined.

I was told by the Delhi Force Motors dealer that even Gama 4x4 would be difficult to obtain. I guess the Gama 4X4 is good enough, rest A/C, power steering etc can be added later. I need to order one of these beasts before the end of this year.

[agent4ferrari]

I love the gurkha in its 4x4 avtar, especially if its outfitted with tones of after market options you can have your own Desi HUMMER at one tenth the price.

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by Proxima

Can somebody please help?

You can contact the Force dealer in Chennai, "Trans Force" : and if you are lucky (which means there should be another customers vehicle available there :/-)) you will be given a TD. you can contact the Sales manager Mr. Ramachandran at 044-22201737/38/39. He told me that the owner of Trans Force had booked a Gurkha a year back, and hasn't got it yet. They do not have a quote for the Gurkha, or any 4WD version of the existing models.

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by Gurkha

Thanks for the word of support guys, now back to the topic of Gurkha. All those who have booked need to contact Mr. Firodia directly and tell them their plight, this is how I got my Gurkha and that too way back in 1999, sadly in this company, the big boss is a very nice man, but his juniors play the hide and seek game once he is not around, they are more interested in satisfying their foreign clients aka MB and MAN, as for the Indian scene, they are least bothered......

Gurkha, i think you are right on spot there. The company seems more interested in catering to the export market than to the Indian market . I had met the Chennai Force dealer yesterday, and he mentioned that there is no news from the company on the Gurkha. The owner of the dealership has booked a Gurkha but does not know when the vehicle will be delivered. Also, they do not have a quote for the Gurkha. I personally have a lot of admiration for the technical superiority of the Trax 4X4 vehicles, but in this age of customer-centric markets, i dont think i would want to wait in order to buy a vehicle, however technically good it may be. I am now actively thinking about a second-hand Safari 4X4.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

The owner of the dealership has booked a Gurkha but does not know when the vehicle will be delivered. Also, they do not have a quote for the Gurkha. I personally have a lot of admiration for the technical superiority of the Trax 4X4 vehicles, but in this age of customer-centric markets, i dont think i would want to wait in order to buy a vehicle, however technically good it may be. I am now actively thinking about a second-hand Safari 4X4.

If a Force dealership owner can't get a Gurkha, what are our chances?

I have also started considering a 4x4 Safari these days.

[Gurkha]

Originally Posted by Mpower

I'm afraid you are not right. There are 2 types of stiffness.. bending and torsion. Fully boxed is strongest overall and strongest in both. C-section is strong in bending and weak in torsion. Tubular is strong in torsion and weak in bending.

Overall tubular chassis are cheap to fabricate and thats why they exist, but going the way of the dodo. The reason the TRAX used them is because the old Matador F305 form the 60s had it and the Firodias just copied it. All large trucks and C.V have C-sec because they dont care about bending.

Every SUV and truck and even superbike frames are boxed rectangular type.

Wrong you are, tubular can flex and provide great amount of torsional stiffness as per their weight, a fact shown quite well in the Gurkha and regular Trax which is overloaded and abused beyond its capacity and still manages to outlast most. As for tubular being cheaper, the only tubular chassis used in modern truck is on the Unimog, that too in its TOTL models, only one place in Austria, thats Graz PUCH factory makes it at a considerable cost. C frames provide stiffness and thats their bane, they tend to crack when stretched, common when extreme off roading is done, the Germany 4x4 mag's comment exactly reflected that when they compared the Gurkha with G Wagen and TLC. Its true that Trax uses Matador chassis, but its not cheap to manufacture it, the Germans only transferred the tube tech in the late 80s, earlier the tubes would come from Germany and would be welded together at BTL, the only advantage we get from that is the cheaper labor. The Gurkha can take some severe pounding and not even exhibit any damage to chassis because of the attribute of the tubular chassis.