[ramkya1]

Hai Rajain,

Nice Tlog with story and pictures. I too trust Phillips, lived long on my old Scorpio and now on my new one too.

Looking forward to more pictures and story.

The Ertiga is a great choice now, 2-3 of my colleagues have it now and are happy with it.

Enjoyed meeting you last time when you passed through A'bad, sorry could not meet you this time.

--Ramky
=====

[Rajain]

Day 3 Jan 28 - Baroda
Distance travelled 75 kms


Rest day at Baroda. Spending time at home with family.

Walked around the area. Did some reading on the history of Baroda. The cousins who stay in Baroda are all talking about the highways, the journey and how the in laws held up. We go around the city just seeing a the city's landmarks from a distance. A family dinner is hosted. Two cousins, their families, uncle, aunt, in laws - its a large family get together. We have planned to go to Mount Abu on 29 Jan and one cousin and her son want to come. Sure welcome abroad. The nephew bonds well and is very excited about the long journey the next day. We had also asked the in laws but they decide to rest.

This is the day I decide to get to the bottom of the vibration sound. What helps is all the bags are taken off and the vehicle has very little belongings in it. I spend a couple of hours all around the vehicle, feel out the various surfaces, check for sound but still no luck. I don't have the luxury of taking it out back on the highway but I do my best. Patience pays. Guess what is the reason of the noise - the antenna of the vehicle and the Thule roof top box's rails have the surface. One is aluminium and the other is hard plastic and they are very close to each other. When I manually shake them I hear the same sound. That same sound which has accompanied me all along. I stimulate vibration and realise they do connect and maybe at high speeds they create the exact same noise. I reset that part and increase space between the two and it pays results. I did not hear that sound ever again. My worst fears are all settled.

This is where the sound was emanating

Right below the Thule roof top box - the antena


Seen from a distance


From further away




Fuel filled - None
The MID shows 18.00 kmpl. AC 80% on Load 3-4 through the city.

For the dinner 8 family members in all board and we drive 16 kms

Another set of travel tips

a) When in the city cover the additional lights and use dipper. Most big cities and towns have some street light plus there is light from shops, establishments and the dozens of other vehicles.

b) Gujarat requires a yellow strip on the headlamps. I had read about this and before starting the journey I had it on. Turns out most vehicles have it only on the right hand side headlamp. Don't know what is the reasoning.

c) When driving in a new place understand the driving behaviour of other motorists. When driving inside a town its even more important to see how close other vehicles come, other users of the road come.

d) Scan the surroundings - holds true for both highway and city. Two dogs playing far away from the road can decide to come running onto the highway or a kid playing on the footpath can come chasing a ball or an auto can decide to turn around. Always remember what is safe from a time, distance and speed perspective for you to navigate through that tricky situation.

e) Bear in mind vehicles like garbage trucks, overloaded tractor trollies or bulldozers don't have the same braking systems as cars do. They need more distance and will always bear in mind their load while braking. This is especially true when they are behind you.

[sagarpadaki]

Very good travelogue Rajan. Liked the way you described the story. So finally the rattling is identified . Even i am like you. I cant bear any rattles and have to find and fix them. It gets to my nerves!

Do you have a single channel or dual channel RD box? How much did it cost you? Also how old is your ertiga?

[pganapathy]

Nice TL, Rajain. Really enjoying reading it. Please speed up the rest of the TL. Whenever we get good TL's and this one is good, we tend to get impatient to get to the end. We are all addicts in that way. We get high on reading good TL's and petrol head discussions.

Decent photography and your better half should be commended for that.

Yup, the ertiga is a pretty decent all rounder. Went in a friends vehicle from Bangalore to Coorg last weekend and it took a lot of luggage and was comfy for four on the highway and some surface of the moon roads.

Tell me, when people are sleeping in the vehicle, how flat are the seats. If totally flat, how safely are they belted in. I ask because of the speeds involved

[Rajain]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Very good travelogue Rajan. Liked the way you described the story. So finally the rattling is identified . Even i am like you. I cant bear any rattles and have to find and fix them. It gets to my nerves!

Do you have a single channel or dual channel RD box? How much did it cost you? Also how old is your ertiga?

Thank you. You are kind with your words. Yes the rattling was insignificant from any potential damage point of view but yes a rattle is a rattle and has to be settled. Though it took 2 days of driving and a by chance discovery. The Ertiga was booked last April and delivered in Aug. So just around 6-7 months old. The RD box cost me 19,990. I am not aware if it is a single channel or dual channel. Worth checking out. I thought the channel question is limited to amplifiers! But I should have known. Will find out.

Originally Posted by pganapathy

Nice TL, Rajain. Really enjoying reading it. Please speed up the rest of the TL. Whenever we get good TL's and this one is good, we tend to get impatient to get to the end. We are all addicts in that way. We get high on reading good TL's and petrol head discussions.

Thank you. Very kind of you. Yes the rest of the TL is coming up. Hopefully weekend will allow me more time.

Originally Posted by pganapathy

Decent photography and your better half should be commended for that.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by pganapathy

Yup, the ertiga is a pretty decent all rounder. Went in a friends vehicle from Bangalore to Coorg last weekend and it took a lot of luggage and was comfy for four on the highway and some surface of the moon roads.

Tell me, when people are sleeping in the vehicle, how flat are the seats. If totally flat, how safely are they belted in. I ask because of the speeds involved

It is a good vehicle and can soak up the good tarmac with as much comfort as the surface of the moon roads. Good question on the safety of the people while sleeping. Most of us don't use belts for those on the rear seats. The one sleeping is not belted, but because they are flat 180 degree flat and not just 150 degree, with feet facing the front the chances of injury are reduced. There are the front seats ahead. The chances of any injury would be higher if the head was towards the driver seat. It still does not compare with belted up for all passengers but nevertheless. Of course, there are almost never any aggressive manoeuvres or lane changing. I have not yet tried, but I should and see if they can be belted which would certainly be more comforting.

Cheers

[Rajain]

Day 4 Jan 29 - Baroda - Ahmedabad - Mehsana - Palanpur - Mount Abu and back to Baroda
Distance Travelled 735 kms

Having slept around midnight I was still keen to sleep at least 6 hours. The alarm wakes us up at 6.30 and quickly we get ready and depart, picking up the cousin and the nephew along. In laws drop out. On the way get tankup (tankful to tankful method shows 18.00 kmpl for average). The fuel bunk attendant asks where have we come from and he is most surprised with a KA vehicle. The route we have decided is Baroda - Ahmedabad - Mehsana - Palanpur - Mount Abu. Soon enough we exit Baroda and are onto the second expressway. I am impressed.

Two vehicles pass us by. A Toyota Corolla and a Tata Aria. It appears they are competing against each other. We continue along at my 110 kmph speed. While on a highway I just stay steady, never compete and when someone fast approaches I simply allow for them to go. Approx 25-30 kms later I see the two vehicles having scrapped past, broken a OVRM and occupants yelling at each other. No one is injured but there are certainly broken pieces and I bet egos. We continue along and soon enter Ahmedabad. I had left a note to Ramky that I would meet him while based in Baroda. Not today though. We had a target of coming back before 9 PM so that the nephew won't miss 2 days of school. My wife had already mentioned she wanted to come to Ahemdabad again tomorrow to see more and yes...shop!

We go past Ahemdabad and take the road towards Mehsana. Having two ladies and a kid along also meant a couple of extra bio break and what better place than a shopping mall on the outskirts to help along. Guess what, upon searching the maps the ladies even find a Mall. We stop briefly and get going. Traffic at Mehsana and Palanpur slows progress and its only by 3 PM that we make it into Mount Abu. Not before losing our way once on a flyover because the GPS showed the route to be through Abu Road. A local helps along - no feeling in Indian highways is better than asking a local 'what direction'. We get good guidance and with the final 25 kms in the hills reach Mount Abu. We follow directions and soon enough reach the parking of the Dilwara Temples.

From the outside it does not impress and I keep my fingers crossed. We had heard a fair bit about them but from the outside it completely camouflages what lies inside. Of course camera, mobile phone and the like is not allowed so we don't really have pictures of the marvellous temples. Google images does throw up quite a few results. I would run out of words for discribing how majestic they were. To think of it temples built 1000 years ago and still the whiteness of the marble holding good after all these centuries and I think nothing comes close in terms of architectural perfection. The intricate work on the panels, the hallways, the pillars, the figurenes on the ceiling perhaps have no parallel.

We spend the next 3 hours going through the temples. We decide against visiting anything else as the nephew has to reach home and the cousin too has office the next day. Had they not been along perhaps we would have stayed overnight and gone back the next day. After having eaten a light meals we start at 6.30 PM, stop for a photo op and finally start rolling down cautiously. Hills end and its time to park the speed at 110 kmph. Till it is Rajasthan there is hardly any traffic. By the time we get past Palanpur and Mehsana the day's traffic too has subsided and go past sleeping towns.

Ahmedabad by passed and before getting on to the expressway we have a brief bio and fuel stop. We finally hit home in Baroda close to 01:00 AM. Drop our cousin whose husband has meanwhile organised a meal (really nice of him) and we reach home close to 02:00. Yes through the day there is no more sound of that vibration. But the nephew does miss school the next day.

At several places people asked where am I from, where did we drive from, 'kitna deti hai' and the like. Up in the hills Mahindra jeeps 540 DP and commanders rule. Most jeeps are 4x4. Not a whole lot of tourists but a few expats nevertheless. Good for tourism. As we drive away from Mount Abu our conversation veers into into Mount Abu really does not figure high on the discourse around Indian tourism.

Fuel filled - 1300 (Baroda) plus 500 (Ahmedabad)
The MID shows 17.90 kmpl. AC full time on. Load 3 adults and 1 child. 25 kms of uphill.


Some pictures from the day

The scenic highway





A place we stopped - south Rajasthan







What appeared to be a water theme park



The land of the warriors and maharajas









Climbing up the Abu hills













At Mount Abu - Neighboorhood of the Temples













As I finally retired for the day, well past 2.30 AM what were the thoughts going about the Ertiga


a) The vehicle has a good curve hugging capacity inspite of the Thule roof top box the stability is good and the centre of gravity is not shaken up. The ABS proves very useful a couple of times.

b) The AC is effective in the afternoon sun. North Gujarat and south Rajasthan are warm. Its hovering 36-37 degrees in the day while the cabin is cool and nice. I do shift to fresh air and bear in mind when trailing a truck or bus to move back to recirculation mode.

c) Climbing the Mount Abu hills in the Ertiga was a breeze. Actually after climbing Ooty from Masinagudi via Kalahatty falls anything seems easy. A 25 kms distance uphill was covered in 45 minutes in 3 rd gear with an ocassional 4th as well.

d) I used the Light Force on the expressway and not a sweeper car. I did slow down and kept middle of the lanes. I missed the hi beam of the headlamps but the light force made up.

e) I wish the top end model did have an automatic climate control and rear camera. On 2 ocassions at Mount Abu I felt a rear camera should have been given. I had to get down and see the tight reversing space.


Another set of travel tips


a) Keep allowing fresh air intake every 2 hours of so. AC in recirculation needs fresh air.

b) Understand when your body is needing a break. Don't delay, find a safe parking space and stop. While at night don't forget to put on parking lights. Thats exactly what they are meant for.

c) A break also helps the vehicles brakes, tyres, engine and other components cool off. Some will argue that this is conventional wisdom and that most modern engines don't need a break. Thats also a point of view.

d) While parking try to find a spot when it is away from a curve, preferably in a side lane or a petrol bunk or a dhaba. The chances of another motorist rear ending do increase when the vehicle is closer to the high speed lanes. Who know if someone in a hurry tries to overtake a slow moving truck from far left and has little time to react seeing your own vehicle parked (even if it is with blinkers at night!)

e) When pretty tired either completely stop your journey or find the 'sweeper car' to tail safely behind. To bear in mind to find a safe distance behind. So that you have the time to react in case of an emergency manoeuvre. Personally, I don't follow this. What I do is to slow down, keep the left lane (or middle in case of 6 lanes) and have a longer open vision of the road to navigate better.

[Rajain]

A few more pictures from the Mount Abu hills and the drive back to Baroda.

Once we reached the plains it was too dark plus we hardly stopped.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by Rajain

We spend the next 3 hours going through the temples. We decide against visiting anything else as the nephew has to reach home and the cousin too has office the next day. Had they not been along perhaps we would have stayed overnight and gone back the next day.

Fantastic updates Rajain. Wish the cousin & nephew were not accompanying you or they were fine with an overnight stay in Mt. Abu. This is a place worth staying at least 2 nights, I can vouch for that. Besides the Dilwara temples (which in itself can be called the 8th wonder), there were many other places worth seeing. Listing a few here:

The sequence of sites that we saw was Shankar Math, GuruShikhar (highest point in the Aravallis Range), Achaleshwar Temple, Rabbit Farm, Delwara Temple (1000 years old marble carvings, the intricacy has to be seen to be believed), did some shopping (Jalaram Handicraft), Gaumukh, Gyan Sarovar, Somnath Mahadev, Honey-moon point & Sunset point). It was worth it, the road was dotted with date trees & various rock formations.

Apologies for piggy-backing your TL, but I couldn't resist myself. I hope you don't mind if I share a few pictures over here from my trip to Mt Abu that I did in Feb 2010. (if objectionable you can request the mods to remove them)

Rock Formation en route


Rock Formation near Ram Temple


Flowers in Brahmakumari Ashram


Another set of Flowers in Brahmakumari Ashram


Nakhi Lake - Created by fingernail tip


Sunset at Mt Abu

[Ironhide]

Lovely travelogue Rajain - crisp and very interesting ! And nice pictures. Nice to know the car performed flawlessly for such a long trip. Couple of questions though :-

1. How much did the Thule set you back by?

2. Which PND/Satnav were you using, and how did it fare on the highways & in towns?

And a picture of the bed arrangement in the Ertiga would help, if that's not too much .

Cheers !

[John]

Quote:
Actually I would prefer to take the Thule box off. It does give me some height restrictions especially in basements of malls. But alas I don't have space in my apartment to keep it. So it stays on top and I am just mindful of it being on top.

For Thule boxes, a ceiling hanger is available. You could use this to hang the box from yr garage ceiling when not in use. Check this: http://www.thule.com.au/thule-boxlift-571

[novice_alto]

Thats a neat travelogue. and yes please post a picture of the sleeping arrangement in the car.

thanks again for the beautiful write-up.

regards

[Rajain]

Originally Posted by Ironhide

Lovely travelogue Rajain - crisp and very interesting ! And nice pictures. Nice to know the car performed flawlessly for such a long trip. Couple of questions though :-

1. How much did the Thule set you back by?

2. Which PND/Satnav were you using, and how did it fare on the highways & in towns?

And a picture of the bed arrangement in the Ertiga would help, if that's not too much .

Cheers !

Thank you. You are too kind.

The car did perform flawlessly. And the one major reason I went for a Maruti brand was its service network. Plus Ertiga has the added advantage of platform of Swift and engine of SX4 and I am sure parts common with other Maruti vehicles.

1. The Thule was purchased 5-6 years ago and has been doing duty on my Opel Corsa Sail since then. I recently moved it to Ertiga. At that time it set me back by 24K. Now, when I shifted it over to Ertiga I paid another 8K just for the crossbars. The width of Opel was different and those crossbars could not be used on Ertiga. The lock was reused though.

2. I extensively used 2 navigation tools. A Sat Nav and google maps in my Andriod device. They are both very good. The user interface of google maps is slightly better. On the hand the connectivity of Sat Nav is better. Big cities, metros are certainly mapped out very well. But sometimes if a by pass or a new bridge has been comissioned then Sat Nav may not have it and one will have to wait for a map upgrade on that. I am assuming google maps keeps upgrading.

I will post a picture of the bed arrangement.

Originally Posted by John

Quote:
Actually I would prefer to take the Thule box off. It does give me some height restrictions especially in basements of malls. But alas I don't have space in my apartment to keep it. So it stays on top and I am just mindful of it being on top.

For Thule boxes, a ceiling hanger is available. You could use this to hang the box from yr garage ceiling when not in use. Check this: http://www.thule.com.au/thule-boxlift-571

Thank you. I was checking it. And I have written to them to see if this works and that it can be safe in a open basement parking. I don't have a secure lockable garage though. Thank you for sending me the link.

Originally Posted by novice_alto

Thats a neat travelogue. and yes please post a picture of the sleeping arrangement in the car.

thanks again for the beautiful write-up.

regards

Thank you. Appreciate your kind words. The picture of the sleeping arrangement is below. 60:40 of the middle seat and the last bench is flattened out. Don't miss the ad line on the truck in the 3rd picture. I wish the matteress was better!

[parassoni]

Awesome pics & Great Travelogue man! I will try this arrangement some day soon! And yeah the Scorpio mats came in Real handy, I see!! Now for a Custom Mattress to fit these arrangements(Both 60:40 and Full Flat bed)

Great Going Rajain!

[John]

[quote=Rajain;3058826]

Thank you. I was checking it. And I have written to them to see if this works and that it can be safe in a open basement parking. I don't have a secure lockable garage though. Thank you for sending me the link.



Another idea for yr Thule box.

http://aabdesign.com/2011/alta-vista...e-organization

Can be hung on a convenient wall or the ceiling, either in the basement or a balcony. You can use something like a laptop cable lock to secure the box if needed.

[Rajain]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Fantastic updates Rajain. Wish the cousin & nephew were not accompanying you or they were fine with an overnight stay in Mt. Abu.

Yes in fact we realised this the next day that if they were not with us we would have stayed over. Imagine starting after sunset from Mt Abu and driving till past midnight to reach Baroda. I am never an advocate of driving through night. Even though the headlights and extra lights are good but nothing can match sunlight. Thankfully there was just negligible traffic till we came on the Ahemdabad-Baroda section - which was the expressway part.

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

This is a place worth staying at least 2 nights, I can vouch for that. Besides the Dilwara temples (which in itself can be called the 8th wonder), there were many other places worth seeing. Listing a few here:

The sequence of sites that we saw was Shankar Math, GuruShikhar (highest point in the Aravallis Range), Achaleshwar Temple, Rabbit Farm, Delwara Temple (1000 years old marble carvings, the intricacy has to be seen to be believed), did some shopping (Jalaram Handicraft), Gaumukh, Gyan Sarovar, Somnath Mahadev, Honey-moon point & Sunset point). It was worth it, the road was dotted with date trees & various rock formations.

I am listing these down for another time. I realised Baroda is not too far from Bangalore. Just driving of a day and a half. In fact the next visit should hopefully also cover Rann and Gir. Plus it has been more than 2 decades that I have done Barmer-Jaisalmer-Bikaner-Jodhpur. And if we make it that far then Himalayas are also close by!

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Apologies for piggy-backing your TL, but I couldn't resist myself. I hope you don't mind if I share a few pictures over here from my trip to Mt Abu that I did in Feb 2010.

Absolutely lovely pictures. The ones on the rock formation and the sunset have a lovely effect and the colors have come out really nice. The colors have come out very good on the flowers one as well. Thanks for sharing.