[TheARUN]

Originally Posted by asejwal

Hey Arun, While 'Safari bashing' continues unabated elsewhere on Tanveer's thread, you are going nuts enjoying your Safari... You instill confidence among us to go for this 'Goddam' monster with whatever niggles it comes along with. Thanks you for this...

Mate, at T-bhp, all of us hold a position of trust. If you notice, at any point of time, there are more guests on the site than members. What this means is many people research this site before they make decisions which affect their lives. What we hold is a position of trust, that's why the Mods have so many rules. Under no circumstances will I post something that is not true, and will simply state the facts as it is, without any distortion and leave the judgement to the end reader. I feel all the members here think like me.cheers:

[TheARUN]

Originally Posted by asejwal

As Trrk had suggested, a hydraulic jack is very helpful for this mammoth machine. i use this with my Sierra...

Thanks for the suggestion.

As regards the hydraulic jack, the SAFARI has a wonderful provision of placing the regular jack under the rear seats, its got its own wonderful home - the jack. Buying a hydraulic jack would make that space redundant and also leave a flying object in the dicky. Since necessity if the mother of invention, what I'm going to do is try jacking up the SAFARI with the normal jack. Plus point is a workout for my biceps and negative would be dirty hands and dirty white shirt.

If its easily possible, then avoiding converting, if not, then I'm clicking that 'buy' button on e-bay

[WanderNomad]

What is the weight of the Safari. Its a 2.0 ton jack.

[asejwal]

Originally Posted by WanderNomad

What is the weight of the Safari. Its a 2.0 ton jack.

The total weight of the Safari is about 2.0 tons. However, when you are lifting the vehicle up for changing the tyre, the entire weight of the vehicle is not on the jack. The jack has to lift the vehicle from a side and balance weight is 'borne' by the 3 tyres on the ground. That's quite basic...You can say that only about 1/4th of the entire weight of the Safari falls onto the jack.

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by TheARUN

If its easily possible, then avoiding converting, if not, then I'm clicking that 'buy' button on e-bay

I am sure it is very much possible to use the regular jack. The point was the jack did not have enough space to go under the axle after the puncture.

[Mpower]

Congrats! NIce to see your enthusiasm. The TCIC is a little low on power but is all relative...and nothing beats it for mile munching. You haven't mentioned the year, FE and maintenance etc.

[TheARUN]

• The small glass area at the rear and the spare wheel actually shield your eyes from the headlights of the vehicle behind. The icing on the cake is when the tailgate is opened, its almost like a coupe door since you can't see the frames that hold the glass. The BOLERO that was in front, it was so easy for me to park my high beams in his rear view mirror and torture him
• The SAFARI is very easy to chuck around. The vehicle is wide in the front and narrow at the rear, tapering off at the sides, its very easy to turn and your tail does not hit someone

The first niggle:
A week back, the vehicle developed a starting problem. It used to simply refuse to start in the mornings, it would take almost 15 minutes of runnining the starter motor for 30 seconds and then giving it 10 seconds rest then running again routine to get the engine started.

I was very confused and scared trying to diagonise the issue.
- I thought that the battery was drained out because I had not taken it out of the house for 10 days. We went on a 200 kms day trip and came back, I was confident that the battery would have charged completely and the starting problem should disappear.
The next day the vehicle did not start again, rather took too much time to start. I ruled out the battery issue.
- I could faintly remember Vedagiri telling me at the time of purchase that there was an issue with the 'bent-axle' connected to the starter. I was in a dilema, I did not know whether to take the vehicle to a trusted electrician or to PRERANA. Finally decided to go to the trusted electrician.
- I did the final bit of diagnostics before leaving. The vehicle was only having starting problem in the mornings, throughout the day it was fine, though starting was a bit laboured. I assumed that the starter motor was fine and something could be wrong with the heating system, since the heating light was staying on for only a few seconds.

The electrician confirmed that the heating plugs were gone. I bought new genuine MICO plugs 4 of them for 1000 bucks. Paid the electrician 100, now the problem disapperared. Started the vehicle at 5:30 AM to go to Church and it started like a dream.

Thanks again to T-Bhp for giving me knowledge and confidence to figure out issues with vehicles. Next time there is a heating issue, I'm going to fix it on my own!

[TheARUN]

The good:
For the first time in my life, I drove a 4x4. I really did not want to check the 4x4 mode, the switch used to work with a click, the lights on the dash also came on with the switch, but still did not have the guts to try it out in real life. Wanted to get it into a service, and get the mechanics to try it out. As mood would have it, thought I'll give it a shot. With a prayer, switched to 4H mode. Wonder of wonders, there was noise from the front axle, and the vehicle was behaving differently, after a few meters, could not make out the difference, but 4x4 was definitely on. The cynic in me was not satisfied, switched to 2H mode and saw the change happen again, could not wipe the grin off my face. Then there was one last test, wanted to check if the 4L mode worked, slotted it, and there it was, the accelerator was buried fully, but the vehicle was moving slowly. The feeling was pure ecstacy. And yes, the whole experiment was carried out on black tops

The bad:
Wanted to go for the DICOR 3.0 spare wheel cover, the one which is body coloured and has SAFARI written in chrome. My Brother came forward to sponsor it, so hit J C Road. Horror of horrors, the part was not available anywhere. Got price quotes in the range of 6,000 to 3,000 rupees. PRERANA was shut, so came back really disappointed. Wanted to do an exclusive photoshoot for T-Bhp with the new spare wheel cover, but will have to leave that for another day.

The ugly:
Was cleaning the vehicle thoroughly, and then in the seat cover bag found some envelopes, they were service bills. Kept both fingers crossed and started reading them. Could not believe my eyes when I read
15,000 painting,
7,000 tinkering and
5,000 front bumper replacement.
Nobody mentioned that the vehicle was re-painted. It looked like a well maintained 10 year old vehicle, but the bills exposed the truth.
I still can't belive it. Have decided to visit the garage and make enquiries on my own. For now, the vehicle does not behave like an accident vehicle, and so many trained eyes could not spot accident repair.

[HappyWheels]

Even the experts did not find about the repainting??? Just hope that these were just cosmetic corrections and nothing major.

Mmm... where was it re-painted? Seems like those guys did a good job!

[TheARUN]

Whenever I take the SAFARI out I make sure I back it up into the compound, reason being, its easy to go out without having to reverse when you are starting a trip.

I used to find it difficult backing up my earlier vehicle, for one there was an incline to deal with, and could not attack the incline at speed for fear of losing control and scraping the vehicle along the wall

I've devised a novel way to handle the situation. Now I back up the vehicle using '4 wheel drive low'. I gives me the flexibility to rev the vehicle more, and traction has considerably improved since it is no longer a case of the two rear wheels pulling the vehicle, but now it also has 2 front wheels pushing the vehicle. Its so easy to back it up. The incing on the cake is that the 4 wheel drive system will be in use everytime I use the vehicle, keeping it in good shape and avoiding the consequences of long non-usage.

[TheARUN]

Sunday was the day. Had a budget of Rs.5,000-00 for the whole set up, and visited the usual shop we go to on J C Road. Everyone said that the budget was a little low and that we might not get anything to set up.

All I wanted was a basic system, tape and FM if not for ACD and FM, and 4 speakers in the doors. Wanted only SONY for set and speakers. Researched on the net and found the range for the head starting at Rs.6,000. Anyway, decided to try my luck.

We made ourselves clear, we wanted the most basic speakers and most basic system in SONY. They price quoted was Rs.6,400 including fitting. We shamelessly mentioned our budget, the shop owner worked out various permutations and combinations but could not squeeze anything within our budget.

Finally after a lot of bargaining, we decided to settle for Rs.5,500-00. MP3/ACD and FM system with SONY X-PLOD speakers that fit in the doors, alongwith fitting charges.

Am very satisfied with the set up. For the first time in my life, I am listening to sound from the rear when I drive, the rear speakers in the SIERRA never worked, and the REVA does not have a provision for rear speakers.

Here are the pictures

[ravibhat]

Thats very good move about ICE, when Safari is offerring excellant comfort and happy days why bother about costly ICE. I liked your set up which I do the same for my cars always, buy decent things rather than fancy items.

Regards,

Ravi.

[TheARUN]

The SAFARI came with the old TCIC cover. The silver one which had SAFARI EX scribbled across.

Thereon the covers had evolved to the DICOR 3.0 one and the latest 2.2 one. Most members on T-Bhp, especially J K Das suggested I go for the DICOR 3.0 covers.

Began my search, searched the whole of J C Road and could not find a single piece. Went to PRERANA and even they did not have one. They found out from the TATAs and it was Rs.4,250-00 a piece.

I was desperate, wanted to have one at any cost.

Finally decided to search the 'Gujali' in Shivaji Nagar. My chances were really bleak. I weighted my chances, there were 3 types of covers in existence, the TCIC, the 3.0 and the 2.2. My chances of finding a 3.0 cover was 33%. Add to that the colour, there were 5 colours available, that further brought down the chances of success to 7 percent (33/5).

We searched and searched (Brother and Self). It was a Sunday to boot and 60% of the shops were closed, we aksed every soul we came across, and followed every lead

FINALLY WE STRUCK GOLD

There is was, a much used 3.0 Black cover. My Brother was begging me to hide the glint in my eye and the grin off my face because it would not help during bargaining. The seller quoted Rs.2,000, we quoted Rs.500; he came down to 1,500 and we moved up to 700. The negotiations broke off. He knew we were desperate and stuck to his guns. We made a final offer of 900 and he came down to 1,200. We walked away. We could not digest the fact that 300 bucks was keeping us away from getting the 'dream' rear look. Finally we bit the bullet, we made friends with a friend of the shop keeper and got him to negotiate on our behalf, with a lot of coaxing and cajoling, we closed the deal for Rs.1,100-00

Here are the Befor and After pics

[Mpower]

How much would it have cost to get it painted black and put vinyl 'safari' sticker??

[TheARUN]

The Safari was first launched in TCIC guise. It came with the normal SUMO type cover, which was half plastic and remaining regzine with an elastic rope to tie it to the spare wheel housing. The problem with this cover was that you could have it in any colour so long as it was silver.

The next type was launched with the DICOR 3.0 vairant. This one had the SAFARI lettering embossed on the cover and in LX form came plain Jane, and in EX form came with chrome lettering and underlining. This cover was 100% plastic and dual coloured, held with a seat belt kind of material and clip. The killer feature with this cover was that it matched the dual colour of the vehicle

Then the latest one. It is 80% plastic and 20% regzine, and holds onto the spare wheel with a zip. This cover is two tone, and matches the body colour of the vehicle. The odd part is, sometimes the whole vehicle is of a single colour, but the cover still remains dual colour.

Almost everyone at T-Bhp approve the DICOR 3.0 one, and in fact the DICOR 3.0 comes with 16 inch wheels whicle my vehicle came with 15 inchers, the members suggested that it won't be a problem since the wheel circumfrence is the same, which is true.