TADA Stunt - Mahindra Classic

Indian Jeepers pride Mahindra Classic and me had a great experience yesterday in TADA. I was with Chennai Photography Club (CPC) guys for photo trip in TADA.After crossing the forest check/toll post for entry fees, we were driving in 1 jeep and 2 cars(SX4 and WaganR). As a jeep enthusiastic, I had all my plans set for an solo offroad done at the forest range. While everyone was in cars, we four guys accompanied in the jeep already got to know the essence of open top jeep.

I noticed a civil work to create new water channel on the way towards parking lot in TADA. The canal was around 25-30ft deeper and they cut the water channel live V shape. One side of the V cut was filled with loose soil and other side was white colored rocks. That is what attracted me, I remember the lessons learned during my Kelambakkam trip with Jeep Thrills. So, no more further thinking and my jeep was all set descending into the deep channel, The people around thought it was accident and I had a big crowd around. Some people said(thought?) it was some shooting as all of my CPC team guys had cameras.
Jeep went well on the descending path which was loose soil, after which the water crossing then I have to climb up on the other side, you know what it was too steep.. Once I was really afraid if I can make it, also none from the group know offroading fundas(otherwise I don't have option). Somehow I made my mind and started climbing upwards. once during the climb in a place my tyres started spinning hence I put on reverse gear and went little back and came up again and again three times and the third time the jeep picked up and I was on the right movement. Ohhh my luck didn't stay with me for very long when my jeep about to reach to top the clutch was suddenly became dead and I was totally out of the clutch but managed to reach the top. I'm in the forest side without clutch and no one can help.. I couldn't figure out the issue on that location. hmmm so I made my mind to try the real hard offroading now steep descending and ascending without clutch. The whole team started seeing the scene with climax effect.. If I can't make it, the jeep will be left in the water channel till I can bring a mechanic from 20kms outside the location.
I put the jeep in 4WD low and 1st gear, and cranked the engine and started moving, Listen carefully I just engaged the gears before starting the engine and started moving down no issues and everything went well on the descend path. While crossing the water channel I noticed the loose soil side near the water channel was too high for the tyre to climb and I had no clutch, so no much time to invent alternate path. so I rushed the jeep accelerator, the wheel started spinning in the loose soil and water made my way to get traction, wow jeep is on the ascending path.. I felt the thrill now and started pushing the acceleration little high. Probably now that is made a negative effect as the wheels started spinning on the climb, The spinning wheels made me go down on the back side in sliding mode, I was about to hit the water with the jeep and before the last second again the wheels gained the traction and started going upwards Ohhhhhh ooooohhh jeep is now going smooth and reached the top.

After coming up.. using the same technique I drove the jeep towards the parking lot and you know what, I became half mechanic with one more mechanical engineer's assistance (who was part of our CPC). We both went under the jeep finding the issue and found the yoke rod that is fitted between gearbox and the chase rail lost the nut and it was hanging. That is the issue, as i tcouldn't provide required tension to the clutch assembly to work. So we tried ourselves to fix the issue and hurray .. We were on the success path after an hour long under body mechanical work.

There were lots of videos and photos of my TADA offroading taken by folks traveled with us, as I was driving all the time, picture and videos were made out my CPC friend's cameras, will update the pictures and videos as soon as getting the emails from my friends.

Have Fun!

Mahindra Classic - Tools collection

Time is running like the light, the most awaited offroad challenges that I have been waiting for the past three years are nearing soon. I asked myself and the offroading related clubs that I'm associated and got some answers. Hence the whole exercise of building the essential, enhancement and recovery tools for offroad challenges. Do i need a binacular yes who knows if i visit a good green hilly side, won't I need a binacular? (Never mind I have the Nikon Binacular as part of my Jeep accessories)
The first and and for most thing is my mandatory tool kit as suggested in the user manual of the Mahindra Classic. (You all have noticed that I have already stated in my previous blog about the hydraulic jack, hence I have not included in here but it is part of my jeep)
Since it is a jeep anytime anything can happen ;-) hence I wish I shouldn't stand in the dark night or on a highway without few things. Classified them here, A head strap attached tourch, a blinking flash light, reflective jacket, work glows, a hazard flag and compass. (A GPS device and maps are also found and it will be show cased when I start using them in the jeep as currently I don't find any map suitable for all the land in India)The mini axe and shawl tool is the import from Singapore. It could be folded and put it on the waist belt with the cover provided. (see the green colored cover under the tool)I found it when I was visiting a trekking accessories supplier. I remembered in my last quarry offroad where I had to switch off the engine due to a hindrance created by a plant with lots of needle like stem. I had to protect myself from the needles while handling the open top jeep with windshield folded.Hence a mini axe and few cutting objects are necessary on offroad ground also a shawl to do something on the ground under the tyre.Now comes another thing which I thought I need when I was first floated on the beach sand. I heard my jeep mates saying I should deflate the tyre to get broader surface to float on the sand. I asked myself what happens when I come out of the sand ? will the deflated tyres help me reach my destination, who knows? running the deflated tyre on the hard surface may cause fatal to the tyres. So needed something handy to inflate whenever required. Thus, I asked my friend who was returning from US of A to bring me a good inflator that could work in the jeep's 12v adaptor.

I'm not so fit and confidence to use hand or foot pump to inflate the tyre, so the electrical compact compressor with 250psi capacity. It took around 15mins to fill my empty tyre to fully inflated one. The electrical wire is length enough to pull the box around the 5 wheels in the jeep(including stepney). The box is too good as the wire and hose are tied around the compressor box.

I still need to buy a hand tow strap with hooks attached (Currently I'm using a heavy steel cable but looking for something lightweight), A highlift Jack, A good strong tool box and A Winch to fill up the whole recovery kit. Hmmm they are big budget grabbers so will take some time to bring them under the jeep's hood.

Mahindra Classic - Service for better driving

Its been some times since I started observing few issues from the Jeep for settling down. I have categorized them in 3 options and few parts got changed for this categories too.

1. Enhancement


Since the wiper blade was keep on slipping during the rain, I found the factory fitted type milling on the wiper assembly where the Wiper arm connects got issue. Got is replaced with the ones comes with HM Ambassador cars. They are screw tightened and gives better grip to the arm.

2. Repair work for Security

I had issue with the oil circulation pump which comes in the rear side of the alternator which caused oil leak in the air vacuum rubber tube and subsequently spoiled my new break booster. Also noticed oil leak in the break booster MC cylinder stem. Already my break pedals got stiffer due to this issue, so i have replaced the whole booster kit with a brand new one.

3. Riding comfort


As I have seen the steering play and minor shake while applying break found few issues in the steering as one of the nut was missing and got replaced. The shaky ride during break is due to some issue with the tie-rod ends. So the original RANE steering tie-rod ends were replaced too.

Mahindra Classic - Farm and Forest safari

Last week turned out to be a safari week to me my jeep. The trip to my farm ignited an idea to my mind for visiting the “Jawadhu Hills”. The Mango farm which I have is in the western side of the hills and is a scenic place for the eyes. So just to spend my weekends I geared up in my Jeep to the farm.Since it was a cloudy day there were lighting and thunderstorm hitting the area, while I was looking at the scenic place, all of sudden a lightning attacked a green palm tree and the next second the tree was burn to death. Look at the video below

Ever since I landed in the farm, my mind was set on the hills and its thick forest in the background. Though my farm is right under the hills but the motorable path to the hill top is around 100+ kilometers from my farm, but the passion to explore the hills boosted me to drive all the way 100kms to the motorable road.
It was really nice view on the mountain roads with lots of hair pin bends and scenic green fields everywhere. The Jawadhu Hills are a famous mountain in the eastern guards and there are few tourist attractions here along with an Asia’s largest observatory, it is located in a village called Kavalur in Jawadhu Hills... The main village in the hills is called “Jamuna Maruthur”.Since it is a forest with lots of sandel wood there is couple of government offices such as Forest department office, Block Development office, etc found in this village.Last weekend also seems to be a kodai festival for the villages here; hence all the surrounding villagers came together in Jamuna Maruthur. The most attracted event was the 50CC bike race; I had a terrible time with the small bikes with altered exhausts to produce more sound so the villagers feel as if to drive a huge Bike.
The hill roads often get some small road branches that are taking path to the small mountain villages.
The tribal people staying in mountains are very friends and their life style is totally different than ours.
The Jawadhu hills got animals like “Leopard”, “Elephant”, “Fox”, “Python”, “Beer” and “Deer” etc. But none of them could be spotted on the road side as this forest is too thick and huge. Also the Jawadhu hills are famous for delicious Jack fruits, Bamboo honey and Tamarind. I enjoyed my whole trip with the jack fruit dipped in the wild honey…wah what a taste.My trip with in the hills to the Vainu Pappu Observatory became a failure as the observatory opens to public only on Saturdays.
The trip was so much of fun driving back in the down ways of forest surround hill roads.

Mahindra Classic : Offroad @ Quarry

Today another great day with Mahindra Classic, a real offroad session organized by the local Jeeper's club called Jeep Thills. As the name says the club got lots of thrilling activities to feed the adventure hungry jeeps.
We have gone to a quarry where the blue metals were extracted from exploding huge hills. Basically these quarries use dynamites to explosion and break the stones that could be used in the crusher machine to produce blue metals used in the civil industry. We had real adventures offroad session today to climbing up hills and going down with a loose soil, it was a wow experience.

Since the whole things was in the hills we got lots of opportunity to testify the jeep's capabilities. Altast for all of us, it is a wow thing with the jeep.
The quarry was drilled so deep about 100-200 meters deep and we went uphills to watchout the whole quarry in our jeep. It was an awesom experience to trek with jeeps.. lol. See in the below picture and spot the jeep that I'm driving.
For those automobile enthusiastic personals who visit my page, I request you to visit my Yamaha RD350 restoration blog in this url: http://yamaha-rd-350.blogspot.com

Mahindra Classic - Offroad @ clay land

I could hear my explorer crying yesterday night, I know the reason too. looked like explorer wanted to do some serious offroading trial. From hardcore offroader perspective it is my jeep's right to go for offroading. Since there is no immediate company to come with me for a trial, I had to try with the road work debris to test drive the jeep.
Then I took the jeep to Velachery marsh land. This is the place behind Pallikaranai marsh and near to the Velachery MRTS. Wow, it was amazing and I was totally thrilled with my explorer.
In a particular situation were were got caught into the clay but it was only for few mins hard try and explorer could find its way out. No one to push or pull but the four wheels!

Mahindra Classic - Highway cruising

I was visiting my home town(Tiruvannamalai) last week and here are some pics., see the hill in the background which is the holy hill for Hindus and considered as Lord Siva.I took in the highway which goes through the rural India.
This trip back to my hometown also helped me filling the steering wheel with the jeep theme color.
This is how a jeeper feels in Mahindra Classic at highways, play and enjoy the video here.

Mahindra Classic - Offroad @ Beach

Here is one of the offroad pictures taken during first sand floating session.

Chennai is too hot during summer, this is how jeeps get relaxed!!Proud owner with the machine

Lonely warrior
~~~Fortune Friends~~~
At the end of my OTR the Future Sailor, pointing me the path to go on road...... My son Adhava (one and half year old) who is always excited with jeeps and I quote him as saying "my compass".

Mahindra Classic - Driving comfort

Last week jeep had few updates for comfort driving. Got the four shock absorbers replaced, while replacing the shock absorbers found the rear wheel had a oil leak. The root cause is being identified as damaged rear wheel hub and bearing, it was long process to get things right, as I had also replaced the rear wheel hub and other packing items such as oil seal and sims. After doing the break and shock absorbers, I also found the leaf spring bush was damaged due to prolonged use. Hence the whole (front and rear)shakle kit was replaced with the ones comes with nipple for grease application.

The leafs in the spring also got corrected for its positioning with each components in the leafspring assembly of both front and rear pairs. I had to replace one of the main leaf as it was already broke and hanging on the 2nd lever.

Folks in Jeep Thrills gave me this idea of nippled shakle kit.

The driving comfortablity was greatly improved to an extent after concluding the above listed work. Since I couldn't find a wire wheel for the spare wheel on the jeep, I took Maruti Gypsy rim as spare and cover it with Mahindra stepney cover to make it look better. ;-)