Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Did you take all TD cars into the forest, by any chance?

For someone used to driving small cars (me), hearing of these big SUVs scraping belly seems too out-of-the world.

It wasnt a forest, it was a dirt trail in kakkanad,and the ruts were formed in the red dirt/soil by flowing water. Actually, there was no need to go through the ruts. in real world, you would have just driven round them, or you would have placed the wheels one after the other into the rut by approaching the rut at a diagonal angle.

I did this on pupose to see if the vehicles could do it.

driving style/skill will compensate to a great deal in offroad conditions. much more than on a road/race track situation.

The trick is to know the strengths of your car/SUV/soft roader and exploit them. and to avoid exposing the weaknesses of your vehicle to the terrain.

in the real world, this dirt track would have been handled well by your wagon R

[dadu]

Absolutely, its 205mm now and was 190mm earlier.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Safari 2.2 GC is 205mm now I think, please correct me if I am wrong.

Rightly, scraping the underbelly also has to do with your driving and handling those turns or rocks skills.

Originally Posted by rippergeo

driving style/skill will compensate to a great deal in offroad conditions. much more than on a road/race track situation.

The trick is to know the strengths of your car/SUV/soft roader and exploit them. and to avoid exposing the weaknesses of your vehicle to the terrain.

in the real world, this dirt track would have been handled well by your wagon R

[suman]

Originally Posted by doctorkats

I have driven my baby up and down the nastiest of places.Mud,slush,clay,rocks,streams,mounds,gravel and silt.Never once have I been disappointed.

Doc, give him the link to that thread where you put up that picture of yoour beast indulging in some "mud slinging" lol - which thread was that on?

Originally Posted by doctorkats

What Suman was trying to tell me on my Raid question was that I would be better off in a lighter,swifter and more nimble car than a bulky beast like the Safari.

You are absolutely correct

Originally Posted by rippergeo

you yourself know that it is not an off roader. copied and pasted below is what you wrote in reply to a question from doctorkats on the raid de himalaya thread. It doesnt seem like you have much confidence in it either, as an offroader.

My friend, it does seem like you jump to conclusions without getting the perspective - the raid de himalaya does not necessarily indicate off-road ability; since you have taken the trouble of reading the thread, I think you should buy the WagonR (our member Nitin Kapoor did damn well in his WagonR on his first attempt) since that makes or doesn't make a good off-roader . I have more than 100% faith in the Safari's abilities as an off-roader (though I'm yet to take it to places that Doctorkats has ) else I wouldn't have invested that much extra in buying a 4x4 option. As understood by Doctorkats & a lot of others, what I was pointing out is that the Raid is largely about getting from Point A to Point B REAL QUICK and the terrain involves a lot of curves & corners - not the best of places to get the Safari to stick its tail out from one side to another when you can do it quicker in a more "agile" vehicle. Jeez, explaining that was a lot of work, I think I need a stiff drink

Originally Posted by rippergeo

Its only physics.

Yes, but then you've got your figures wrong cos the Safari GC is more than the Tucson's..........

Originally Posted by speedzak

Nicely put, Suman!
Your words took the very unnecessary doubt off my mind. I've heard stories of people going mud crazy with their 4X4 safaris. Then suddenly I fall into a pit where it seemed to fail before a Tucson. No! No!

Hey thanks Zak! I can digest the Tucson taking the Safari's pants off in a straight line drag but in actual 4x4 territory, hell no I would have thought!

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by dadu

Absolutely, its 205mm now and was 190mm earlier.

It was 195 mm (Laden) on the 3.0 Specs. The new safari states 205 without the (Laden) in brackets like it used to.

So I doubt if the GC has changed. They have just changed their terminology and presentation to be in sync with others, since other mfgs quote unladen figures.

[suman]

Please delete - 20 characters

[tsk1979]

In case of ladder on frame design I don't think laden and unladen GC will be different at all, unless the lowermost point is not the differential.

@suman and doctorkats
I went back and checked, I have been proven wrong, the GC is 205 and not 180 like i said.My fault.

is the tucson lighter? yes
is the tuscon more agile? yes
is it faster? yes
these were all factors pointed out by the two of you, and these factors are important to all cars, even offroaders. thats why the gypsy keeps winning.
or the SWB willys/mahindra for that matter

put the two- ie safari and the tucson in the hands of the same inexperienced driver and i think the tucson will go further.
but thats my opinion.

Boy, we surely need that poll to clarify whether the safari is an softroader or not. that would silence me.(i'm quite happy to say the tucson is a soft roader and i like it.)

still havent TDed the pajero, and I keep hoping that the captiva turns up before jan end(which is my deadline to buy)

also hoping that nissan set up a dealer closer to cochin than blore so that the X- Trail becomes a practical option for me.

if those two options dont turn up, its going to be the tucson for me.

[suman]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

is the tucson lighter? yes
is the tuscon more agile? yes
is it faster? yes
these were all factors pointed out by the two of you, and these factors are important to all cars, even offroaders. thats why the gypsy keeps winning.

Really? Where? I can only remember talking about "quick"er; the "lighter" is known to all and I'm not even remotely sure about the "agile" bit.

Well, to each his own & I do wish you all the best with your choice - though frankly I cannot understand the broad spectrum what with the X-trail also thrown in now for good measure. As Zak says, don't forget the Montero...........

[speedzak]

Test drive the Pajero! And this time, take it to the woods.
Then come back alive and write the story.

Originally Posted by suman

Really? Where? I can only remember talking about "quick"er; the "lighter" is known to all and I'm not even remotely sure about the "agile" bit.

Well, to each his own & I do wish you all the best with your choice - though frankly I cannot understand the broad spectrum what with the X-trail also thrown in now for good measure. As Zak says, don't forget the Montero...........

the montero is another 10 lacs, cant stretch that far.
The X Trail and captiva cos I was told they are also the same price bracket- around 20-25 lakhs

Originally Posted by suman

Point A to Point B REAL QUICK and the terrain involves a lot of curves & corners - not the best of places to get the Safari to stick its tail out from one side to another when you can do it quicker in a more "agile" vehicle. Jeez, explaining that was a lot of work, I think I need a stiff drink

Hey suman, did you have that stiff drink yet? seriously man, all this arguing about the safari is forcing me to take another look at it.
not that I'm going to buy it.

[suman]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

the montero is another 10 lacs, cant stretch that far.
The X Trail and captiva cos I was told they are also the same price bracket- around 20-25 lakhs

Is that right? At one time, they were touting it as being "around" the 15 lac category. I can't see it being lower than the current Endeavour pricing but 25 lacs sounds downright STEEP to me!

By the way, just so you don't have sleepless nights, the "agile" that I referred to in my earlier post was not about the Tucson, I was referring to "other" vehicles like the Gypsy - I'm not sure how the Tucson behaves being thrown around hairpins because I haven't read any reviews on that aspect yet.......

Also, lets stick to beliefs in off-roading prowess, not on the calisthenics required for the Raid OK ?

[tsk1979]

Most safari's on this forum are not off roaders. The most they can take is broken tarmac. There are very few 4x4 in this forum. Just doctorkats and steeroids safari's come to mind.

[suman]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Most safari's on this forum are not off roaders. The most they can take is broken tarmac. There are very few 4x4 in this forum. Just doctorkats and steeroids safari's come to mind.

Errr......mine is a 4x4 too in case you haven't read my LTORs- or my signature . Not to mention Ranjit (though he seems to have disappeared completely)

[dadu]

As i read somewhere, around 90% of Offroaders run on metalled roads 100% of their life, worldwide. How sad

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Most safari's on this forum are not off roaders. The most they can take is broken tarmac. There are very few 4x4 in this forum. Just doctorkats and steeroids safari's come to mind.