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-   -   How hard can it be? Bangalore to Ladakh in a Linea (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/125894-how-hard-can-bangalore-ladakh-linea-10.html)

Hi ROhit,
A damn good post, and truly inspiring for others I am sure.
I am sorry if this has been posted to you already, but did you get any sort of underbody protection for the car ?
Did the car scrape around when doing the Passes ?

-Santosh

Hello Santosh,

Firstly, thank you for your compliments. I'm more than happy answering questions related to my trip. The car was driven to Leh with absolutely NO modifications done, fortunately Fiat has provided a sturdy engine guard to all its cars in the factory itself. This does a commendable job in protecting the vital components of the engine.

The car with 162 mm ground clearance and 4 ppl plus luggage is bound to scrape its bottom on B'lore roads. So it comes as no surprise that on those mountain roads, it did scrape a lot but did not cause any major problems. The only casualty being a bent engine guard which was hammered back to its original shape in Manali.

Hello Rohit,

Man, what have you done! That's an amazing feat. Your car, passengers & you being the only driver, coupled with the difficult terrain & mega-route...all this needs a lot of courage & confidence.
That was an amazing travelogue. I read it in one sitting! Frankly speaking, A Linea standing in such terrains looks more like air-lifted from expressway roads & brought to such a location rather than being driven there. & all the praises for you to stand upto whatever the road threw to you.
The drive is & looks pretty demanding & tiring.

My best wishes to you & your family. Thanks for sharing this with us!

Best Regards,
Saket

While the 2013 August LEH plan in progress, it was wonderful to go through the log & I am now fully confident that my Linea can also do it (MJET 2012)

Just a small question: - From the list of material carried, a 3 ton tow rope is understood, but what the use of 2 D shackles?????

We get a tow hook to be mounted in front or back, where do we use the D shackles??stupid:

Its to hook the car to the rope and vice-versa. Otherwise without the shackles you will not be able to attach the rope onto the tow hook in the car.

I am sorry to repeat my question.

For Linea we got a screw type hook which we have to turn and fix in the tow hook position and the rope is to be tied or passed through the circle of the hook.

Unlike the jeeps which I saw in some images on the forum, I haven't seen any arrangement (From outside) on the Linea to mount the D shackles.

So I am still having the impression that the tow hook supplied is to be used & am confused where to mount the D shackles.

Kindly elaborate.

As this is mentioned in the list to be carried material for LEH 2013 trip and since then the confusion is there in my mind.

Read through the entire travelogue just now. Amazing one. You should be confident of doing any trip in our country after this.

Check the picture Here for tow rope with D shackles. You will see that you have attach one end of the rope with the shackle to the tow rod that you twist into position in the car and the other end to whoever is pulling the car :)

The D Shackles needs to be put in the tow hook which basically is mounted on the car and the tow rope is tied to the shackle. It is a piece of metal used with a locking mechanism. It is shaped like a loop of chain, usually with a pin or threaded pin closure. The small loop can take high loads. You can check the below link which has a small video which shows how to use a D Shackle.
http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forum...ery-strap.html

Hi All,

Thanks for the clarification.

When anybody was stating D shackles I was always imagining the RED D Shackles mounted on the front bumpers of a Jeep. And looking at the TOW hook supplied by FIAT (Image below) I was not understanding how to use them cause its complete O- type.

The strap image given in this link Here for tow rope with D shackles
has clip type ends to the tow strap & hence that confused a little more.

But after looking at the video its clear that the D Shackles mentioned here are totally different than what I was imagining.

Thanks a lot. (I was almost ready to order the RED Jeep type D Shackles on eBaystupid::Frustrati)

Brilliant travel log:thumbs up I am not exaggerating, this is the best travel log I've read. Love your style of writing (This is coming from a copywriter:)). I was glued from the beginning. Would love to do a trip like yours. Hopefully sometime soon!

Hi Rohit,

What an amazing travelogue this has been!! While reading, I felt as if Iam travelling along with you buddy :) I would rate this as one of the best I have read and would surely inspire me in making a trip to Leh-Ladakh by my Optra. I own an Optra Magnum LT and would plan a Leh-Ladakh in the next 1 year or so. Kudos to your narration skills and thumbs up to your courage:thumbs up

Regards
CrankShaft

Thank you guys for your compliments ! I'm glad that you enjoyed reading my log. I guess this August, we'll see a lot more travelogues on Leh as a lot of groups have been planning to head there. So wishing you all the best for your roadtrip :)

Enjoyed ...

I was planning to take my Linea to LEH this year, & I have not done this big trip before. So there was a mix emotion of fear & excitement. But with the detailed planning given by group, many more members joining so having people to help in case of any issue I was making my mind ready.

But after reading through your logs, I enjoyed every moment. You have described it so well clap:that I could actually feel myself & the urge of doing myself has grown so much that it is capable of suppressing any fear.

Hats off to you. Definitely an achievement.

The way you have described, it was like you took us along & showed how you did it.

Thanks for boosting my confidence.

What a lovely, brave and courageous travelogue man, simply wonderful !

The reason i say is, this being a trip done with a single driver and all old people for company, that too with only women, driving in those terrains sometimes in the middle of the night and nowhere, believe me not many would want to do a trip like this. I can only imagine a group of guys doing something like this.

Kudos to you that you pulled it off !!