DIY: Driver-side grab handle for Mahindra Thar for Rs 200

Being 6 feet tall, getting in & out of the Thar was a problem for me. In fact, the driver seat accessibility on my 2009 Mahindra Bolero Storm was much better.

Thanks to Sinu Kalapurayil Joseph for sending the information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP share page!

After buying my Thar 2021, the immediate miss which I felt was a grab handle. Being 6 feet, ingress and egress was always a problem. My 2009 Bolero Storm was 1000 times better in terms of driver seat accessibility. Tried changing seating positions and steering adjustments but it did not help. To install the easily available grab handle models, the A-pillar needs to be drilled, which I was really skeptical about. All those options were ranging around 5000 Rs. I was wondering why Mahindra did not offer the same grab handle to the driver seat which was available for the front passenger seat. But I could see false plastic buttons on the driver’s side which made me think that if I can source the same co-driver grab handle I will be able to install the same on the driver side too. This was how the driver side looks like.

Tried removing one of the plastic buttons to check if threads are available to install the grab handle and this is what I could see. Positive signal to move forward with the next steps.

Started searching on the Internet for the grab handle and ended up ordering the below one after looking at the detailed OEM catalogue. Interestingly, the OEM catalogue available at boodmo was showing grab handles for the right and left sides.

But ended up having a problem with the bolt shown in the OEM catalogue.

These are 6 mm bolts that come with metal washers and since these washers are too big they won’t go inside the grab handle bolt slot. Also, the washer is fixed on the bolt and cannot be removed. Another issue was that no spanner can be used to tighten the bolt since the grab handle bolt slot is very narrow. From the local market, I could find a similar bolt with a smaller size washer, but the overall length of the bolt was a little less which was ok.

T-spanner which cannot reach the bolt head to tighten it.

I was feeling lazy to search again for the right size tightening tool and decided to do some jugaad! Cut the bolt head so that I can use a flat screwdriver to tighten the bolt. I did not have a workbench too so used a player. (Try this at your own risk)

The finished bolt was looking like this.

Looks like all issues are sorted out and let's move on!

Final product.

This grab handle is not as good as the one on the A-pillar in terms of positioning, but it really does its job. This simple one eliminates 90% of my ingress and egress struggles.

Here's what BHPian dhanushs had to say about the matter:

Great job! Just a suggestion, if available and possible try and use stainless steel bolts for all aftermarket fitments. Will come off easily if you want it to. If not available, at least TVS, STL or similar good quality bolts. Never use "Naadan Bolt" meaning locally made ones.

Here's what BHPian DicKy had to say about the matter:

For a company with a good number of tall vehicles, Mahindra seems to have an allergy towards grab handles mounted on the A-pillar.

Have seen a number of next-gen Scorpio test mules sporting A-pillar mounted grab handles on the left side only. And am pretty sure they will remove it in the production version, as seen in the most recent scoop pics.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.