[starter]

The spare wheel cover is very much usable even after upgrading to 215s.
I had BFGs on 215 which has a slightly higher diameter than yokos and yet, i was able to fit the spare wheel cover.

Check it out.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by starter

The spare wheel cover is very much usable even after upgrading to 215s

Hey, this is news to me! Maybe I did not try hard enough for the fear of damaging the cover. Will try again. Thanks Deepak.

[SnakemanJohny]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

How about doing away with the rubber stubs altogether? Will that cause the tyre to rub against the paint of the tailgate?

Stumbled upon this thread by chance, and I think this is the simplest thing to do. Remove the rubber stubs, and if afraid of tyre rubbing on door, fix thin strips of rubber with adhesive in their place. I did this on my earlier MG410W.
ULTA rim will project outwards too much, looking odd and taking centre of gravity a little back. Will also put more load on Stepney frame and rear door, leading to cracks possibly. The Gypsy is an ultra-light TOY 4WD, not very robust. Most Police Pilot cars in WB, carry the Stepney in the HT models inside, as the FRP top portion of the tailgate cracks even though the sheetmetal lower part carries most of the weight. Loose nuts with washers are also not a good idea as even a little up-down or sideways motion of the spare will wear away the retaining bolts and their thread.

[Vikram Arya]

Friends,

As a few of you may be aware that I have bought a 2016 Gypsy King earlier this year.

Now I’m eagerly waiting for my next trip back home so that I can take her out for a couple of long trips and also carry out a few minor modification that are aesthetic in nature and few that will be functional.

Though I have contemplated this for a long time including talking to some of my friends here who have manual locking hubs on their rigs, I have finally decided to pull the trigger on a pair of Aisin Free wheeling hubs. Aisin was in fact the Japanese OEM that supplied Suzuki with free wheeling hubs for a number of platforms such as Samurai/Jimny & our very own Gypsy/King at a number of their manufacturing facilities across the world including to Maruti till Maruti Suzuki decided to discontinue the manual locking hubs sometimes in 2000s.

The hubs are made in made in Japan and are brand spanking new. I have however not been able to procure the service kit (star/ circular gasket, other misc. item) that might be required (if at all) while changing the hubs.

Would request the forum members who have changed the permanently locked hubs of their Gypsys to freewheeling hubs (irrespective of the brand, Lamda, Warn etc.) as to whether a service kit is indeed required or is it a straight swap.

What would be some of the precautions that I need to take in addition to finding a mechanic who is experienced in working on Gypsy transmission/differentials and knows what is he doing?

Thank you in advance.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

did all my services at a MASS. Changed engine oil at the first 1000kms like I do with all my new cars

Did you opt for synthetic oil?

Originally Posted by Vikram Arya

Some folks may suggest full synthetic engine oil and that is fine too. Please note that you will be spending anywhere from Rs. 3,500 to 4,000 on oil alone in that case

Would you recommend full synthetic oil over regular one, notwithstanding the cost factor?

[Sawyer]

For my driving patterns, synthetic is a waste of money; I prefer a high quality mineral, changed based on time, much before the associated kilometres have been run.

[Vikram Arya]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Did you opt for synthetic oil?



Would you recommend full synthetic oil over regular one, notwithstanding the cost factor?

Let me put it this way, the amount of money that you would spend on gas as you drive 10,000 kms (oil change interval as specified in the owners' manual) comes to Rs 70,000 (Rs 70 per litre for 1,000 ltrs of gas that will be consumed if you average 10 kmpl over 10,000 kms).

If you were to switch from a mineral to a synthetic oil you would spend probably Rs 2,400 more for an oil change (Rs 1,200 for a mineral vs Rs 3,600 for a synthtic oil change, not including the labour). This translates into an incremental spend of approx 40 paise per kilometre; money well spent if you love your car.

Having spent 22 years in the field of automotive lubricants, I continue to get amazed by the sheer number misconceptions prevalent when it comes to engine oils.

There are a number of advantages of using a synthetic formulation over a mineral one & NO, the increased oil drain interval is definitely not one of them. Please change your engine oil as per OEM's reccomendations irrespective of whether you're using mineral or synthetic engine oil.

95% of the engine damage occurs at the engine start up; mineral oils take far longer to reach the innards of the engine as compared to a synthetic oil which flows much faster.

Synthetic oil can withstand the ill effects of oxidation (heat generated on account of combustion process) much better in addition to being more shear stable than mineral formulations.

Synthetics also have a much superior ability to protect vital engine components from contaminants that are by products of the combustion process such as soot, varnish, sulphuric & nitric acids (yes these are produced when your engine burns gasoline) as compared to a mineral oil.

Without getting into any more complexity I would only say; spend money on a good quality synthetic such as Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40 or a 10W-40 synthetic blend and you will see the difference; at the end of the day it is the life blood of your engine.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

For my driving patterns, synthetic is a waste of money

Originally Posted by Vikram Arya

Without getting into any more complexity I would only say; spend money on a good quality synthetic such as Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40 or a 10W-40 synthetic blend and you will see the difference

Thanks for your valuable inputs, guys! I bit the bullet and went for Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40 for the first free service of my Gypsy yesterday - let's see how it goes. Not sure if it is psychological but I can already feel the engine noise going down and smoothness going up! Damage to pocket - INR 4,200 (4.2 lit @ Rs. 1008 per lit). This is the first time I am going for synthetic oil in any of my cars - if the results are good, will try it for my other cars as well. Not sure if it is already too late, as both of them are 7-8 years old.

Cheers...

[Vikram Arya]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Thanks for your valuable inputs, guys! I bit the bullet and went for Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40 for the first free service of my Gypsy yesterday - let's see how it goes. Not sure if it is psychological but I can already feel the engine noise going down and smoothness going up! Damage to pocket - INR 4,200 (4.2 lit @ Rs. 1008 per lit). This is the first time I am going for synthetic oil in any of my cars - if the results are good, will try it for my other cars as well. Not sure if it is already too late, as both of them are 7-8 years old.

Cheers...

Good decision cool_dube.

You may also like the fact that most of the Ferrari Maserati vehicles that roll out of the Modena plant in Italy come factory filled with Shell Helix Ultra Euro 5W-40 (different formulation but same family of oils) so you're in august company. This engine oil is also used at all Ferrari dealership service shops throughout the world.

I would hesitate to to suggest synthetic oils for your other vehicles if they are 7 to 8 years old (I'm assuming these vehicles already have more than 75,000 kms on the clock).

Vehicles that have clocked such mileage on a a diet of mineral oil usually have a lot of built up gunk/sludge. These vehicles also have hardened seals/gaskets. This gunk typically plugs all potential leaks if any.

In vehicles with such high mileage if you use synthetics there is a chance that you might see some droplets of oil on your garage floor soon after as synthetics have a higher dosage of detergent additives and thereby much superior cleaning characteristics; it will clean up all/most of the gunk in the engine that had plugged up the potential leakage points.

For vehicles with more than 75,000 kms on the clock we get high mileage engine oils out here that are typically blended a little thicker within the same viscosity range and also have seals/gasket conditioners that causes these hardened seals/gakets to swell thereby preventing any leakage from happening. I'm not sure if such oils are available in India at the moment. You may want to try a synthetic blend of the same viscosity range as recommended by the respective OEMs and get some of the benefits of a superior formulation.

Vehicles that have used Synthetic oils from the get go can use synthetics well upto 200,000/250,000 kms as there's no gunk/sludge build up in such engines.

I once had a chance to see a Buick 3.6 ltr V-6 engine taken apart at 275,000 kms that had been fed a steady diet of synthetics and it was in a shockingly pristine condition.

Now that you've moved on to a full synthetic for your Gypsy; my suggestion would be to stick to that every 8,000 to 10,000 kms and I can assure you it will run like a well oiled machine as long as long you keep it.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by Vikram Arya

I would hesitate to to suggest synthetic oils for your other vehicles if they are 7 to 8 years old (I'm assuming these vehicles already have more than 75,000 kms on the clock)

None of my vehicles have run much - my Alto has clocked only ~20K km and Safari about 50K km, both being 2009 models. Would you still recommend to NOT go for synthetics?

[Vikram Arya]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

None of my vehicles have run much - my Alto has clocked only ~20K km and Safari about 50K km, both being 2009 models. Would you still recommend to NOT go for synthetics?

Okay, with that kind of low mileage on your vehicles you absolutely can go ahead & use synthetics without a problem.

[satan]

Originally Posted by Vikram Arya

Friends,

As a few of you may be aware that I have bought a 2016 Gypsy King earlier this year.

Now I’m eagerly waiting for my next trip back home so that I can take her out for a couple of long trips and also carry out a few minor modification that are aesthetic in nature and few that will be functional.

Though I have contemplated this for a long time including talking to some of my friends here who have manual locking hubs on their rigs, I have finally decided to pull the trigger on a pair of Aisin Free wheeling hubs. Aisin was in fact the Japanese OEM that supplied Suzuki with free wheeling hubs for a number of platforms such as Samurai/Jimny & our very own Gypsy/King at a number of their manufacturing facilities across the world including to Maruti till Maruti Suzuki decided to discontinue the manual locking hubs sometimes in 2000s.

The hubs are made in made in Japan and are brand spanking new. I have however not been able to procure the service kit (star/ circular gasket, other misc. item) that might be required (if at all) while changing the hubs.

Would request the forum members who have changed the permanently locked hubs of their Gypsys to freewheeling hubs (irrespective of the brand, Lamda, Warn etc.) as to whether a service kit is indeed required or is it a straight swap.

What would be some of the precautions that I need to take in addition to finding a mechanic who is experienced in working on Gypsy transmission/differentials and knows what is he doing?

Thank you in advance.

its the best mechanical mod you can do for a new Gypsy. You wont regret your decision. Funny that we are debating exactly this on another thread. When you remove your current locked hub you should be able to reuse the gasket cuurently on. If not then you can easily get one fabricated using the hub as a stencil.

[Vikram Arya]

Originally Posted by satan

its the best mechanical mod you can do for a new Gypsy. You wont regret your decision. Funny that we are debating exactly this on another thread. When you remove your current locked hub you should be able to reuse the gasket cuurently on. If not then you can easily get one fabricated using the hub as a stencil.

Thank you.

I would have loved to get my hands on a service kit for Aisin FWH however I couldn't though the service kits are available for Warn FWH I was not keen on Warn as Aisin was the original supplier. I also read on an Australian 4X4 forum that Aisin FWH are much superior & have better performance.

Yes I was watching that thread with amusement; quite an interesting discussion happening there.

[satan]

Originally Posted by Vikram Arya

Thank you.

I would have loved to get my hands on a service kit for Aisin FWH however I couldn't though the service kits are available for Warn FWH I was not keen on Warn as Aisin was the original supplier. I also read on an Australian 4X4 forum that Aisin FWH are much superior & have better performance.

I initially bought warn premium hubs (half price of Aisins) when i bought my king but they were really high maintenace and after every offroad season in the monsoons they needed detailed cleaning to remain functional. After an accident i broke one of them so decided to replace with the OE Aisins that had served me flawlessly on my 1993 1ltr gypsy.

The Aisin service kits are available online incase you want them at the below link.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/aisin-hubs

[Vikram Arya]

Originally Posted by satan

I initially bought warn premium hubs (half price of Aisins) when i bought my king but they were really high maintenace and after every offroad season in the monsoons they needed detailed cleaning to remain functional. After an accident i broke one of them so decided to replace with the OE Aisins that had served me flawlessly on my 1993 1ltr gypsy.

The Aisin service kits are available online incase you want them at the below link.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/aisin-hubs

Thank you. Just ordered one kit; should've checked on eBay. Now the next step is to get these installed once I reach home.

To keep these & other parts of the front drive-train well lubricated I assume locking them once in a while without engaging the 4H or 4L should be good enough.

Once installed I can provide a feedback as to the difference in steering effort/any other aspect.