[ringoism]

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

Use Jeep trailer for such applications. Its useful in a sense that you can separate that extra loading bay when not needed. Unlike pickups in which you always carry loading bay irrespective of your usage. I have been using 3 different type of trailers for my different use and I am happy.

In my family growing up, we always had one, later in college we built one from the back half of a 1950's Ford pickup, dragged it halfway across the U.S. Everything you said is right.

And believe me brother, if the roads I intended to be driving on looked anything like the one in your pic, I'd have considered it more seriously. Just not going to work up here or in MZ. Not easily anyway.

Originally Posted by Arjun.hb

Won’t a Bolero Camper/Scorpio getaway or Tata Yodha Crew cab with rear overhang chopped off make a ideal replacement?

chopping would be unnecessary as we don't do hardcore offroad. But you're on the right track... :-)

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

If you can get an old Scorpio CRDe 4x4, nothing like it. It has enough torque at idle to pull the vehicle, and its a pretty reliable vehicle with minimal maintenance.

Have heard that - and that in some ways it represented a good compromise between the old pre-CRD 2.6Turbo and the later mHawks, in terms of simplicity, ruggedness, FE, and off-idle thrust.

Originally Posted by condor

The Scorpio should be a good bet for you. I would suggest this over the Getaway too, based on a brief experience with similar pick-ups.

I hadn't seen these posts till just now... but the first three, at least, could serve as a kind of confirmation, while the last is partially so, and would depend on target uses.

I guess I shouldn't keep everyone in suspense any longer:




A local bhpian up here had sent me a link for the online listing for this one about a month ago. It was a local-registered car, but the asking price was frankly exorbitant. There are only a few of these around locally -one has a commercial registration and another is from out-of-state, only one I know of is a local white-plate, and that's new enough that it probably won't be for sale for awhile. I had been driving past this listed one it four times daily taking my kids to and from school, so figured I'd test-drive it anyway.

Behind the wheel, I can say it really did feel "comfortable" - in the sense of feeling familiar and natural to sit in and drive, like something I wouldn't have to adjust myself too much to - so yes, "worthy successor" did come to mind. Seller claimed that other people were looking at it, that someone was coming from Shimla next day for it, etc, etc - asked how much I could give then and there. The figure I had in mind wasn't acceptable to him, his reduced one was likewise not palatable to me, so left it there and kept entertaining the thought of finding a nice 9 year-old NCR Duster or Terrano for 2-2.5L. Looked at a couple of those up here, too - drove 2015 models of each - first a one-owner Terrano that rattled a bit upon startup and had a "heater/coil" warning lamp glowing and a bad clutch and plenty of scrapes and small dents to go with its 1L km's. Other one I really liked, seemed almost like new mechanically and in terms of driving - a base non-ABS model Duster - but when I checked at the local Renault ASC, found out it apparently had 1L km's more than the odometer indicated...
... meaning an astonishing 170k+. So didn't move forward with that. A few people have told me that the K9K 1.5DCi is great till it starts going bad (that could be a long time, of course), and that after that, it doesn't respond well to repairs / rebuilds. Also seen in the threads and heard from mechanics that parts supply can (surprisingly) be an issue.


If it had ultimately seemed reasonable to try and live out my dreams I'd have probably opted for the combination of a somewhat modded / updated old Mahindra Utiliti 4x4 crewcab (for the classic CJ-esque appeal and rugged simplicity and of course for carrying manure and bricks and saplings and stuff) - AND a 4x4 Yeti for everything else!

But finding and modding a Utiliti to our tastes was going to take time, if it could ever happen at all. And the Yeti - thrilling, capable, balanced and supremely pleasurable to drive as I found it to be (and while it's becoming eminently affordable besides) - is just too electronic-laden and complex in its systems to be picking up as a ten-year-old, especially when contemplating long tours in remote places, and particularly if & when we end up based in the Northeast, where Skoda basically doesn't exist. End of the day, I'm at a stage where I'm trying to simplify in life, and owning (/parking /insuring /maintaining) two cars, including a rebuilder and/or anything exotic was just not going to simplify anything.

I wanted something that gave better mileage than the Marshal, but started considering/calculating, and finding that in light of the relatively modest distance we cover in a typical year, the better FE of an additional car was very unlikely to translate into net savings, against the added expense(s). Granted, we take a once-in-five-years long tour somewhere in the mainland and, well, driving the Getaway is going to cost twice as much to run that distance as an Ertiga - and that is NOT an insignificant figure over the course of 5,000+km's - but hey, such trips are rare and can be considered luxuries in themselves. These are things we plan and save for, things we want to make the most of and remember fondly: And to us, making the most of them and keeping things memorable means reducing limitations - so exploring little forest trails and lakefronts and beaches and etc... where no sedan is going to cut it, and even some AWD's (for lack of ground clearance) might struggle.

We like the Marshal so much that it had seemed better to supplement it rather than replace it - but I got feeling as though a Storme or Scorp would be redundant. And if we got another, more efficient vehicle like a Duster with simply a luggage area, then between the two, we still wouldn't have anything that we could easily throw six bicycles (I rent them out) or wood stove (used to make/sell them) or dirty stuff (firewood seasonally, farm work forthcoming) or other big loads in...

Kept wondering what compromise we could most easily live with - the difficulties in parking and securing luggage that a crewcab pickup is going to involve, or the lack of ability to carry such loads that any other vehicle would present (though I do remember one reviewer abroad commenting that he regularly loaded a half-ton of firewood in the back of his Yeti, which handled it well).

Anyway...

Had borrowed a friend's slightly modded Bolero Camper here about a year ago and people said it suited me (image-wise, I suppose?), even the wife drove it and felt it was ok. But somehow it seemed too rough and rude - no A/C, fair amount of gear whine from that WWII design T-18 transfer case (Marshal better in that way with the Borg-Warner fitted), and enough vibes from the Turbo DI (that also being worse than the Marshal's NA DI) that along with the noise, the owner himself complained and ultimately sold it. He himself was interested in finding a Getaway.

So all vehicles represent compromises, but in the past week or so had finally come back to the somewhat idealistic "one car solution" I'd looked for earlier. And these crewcab pickups seemed about the only real all-rounders. In the metros people might consider them highly impractical, but out here about every family that can afford one has a Camper - or V-Cross. If Camper was out for crudeness and the Isuzu for budget, then there was only the Getaway and Xenon, the latter of which I've heard a number of unfavorable comments (owner and non-owner) about. A couple people recently told me the Getaways are getting hard to find and commanding higher prices lately. I kept seeing them turn up in Rajasthan for sale, but goodness, Udaipur is fifty-hours' drive from here, and then there are the formalities / costs / risks of buying out of state.

Long story short, over the course of a month, the other prospective buyers never picked up this local Getaway, and I kept driving past wondering if the seller was more or less indifferent and had just listed it figuring he'd sell only if he could get an unreasonably high price.

Then, a few days ago the same Bhpian who had tipped me off to this one a month ago had gone ahead (without intimating me) and for my sake offered the seller about a third less than his price. Seller countered with a number much lower than the lowest he said he'd take a month ago. Friend told me, I drove past it another day or two, then called him. It sounded like he'd just that very day sold it (unbelievable!), but he said he'd have to confirm and get back to me. Heard nothing. So I texted him saying I'd pay cash for it that very day if it didn't work out with the other buyer. He said agian that he'd confirm.

And by afternoon called and told me I could come look at it again. By this time the car was sitting outside a local mechanic's shop awaiting a few repairs.

I drove it again, with the wife along this time, and finally offered 50k less than what I had a month earlier. He countered, saying he was going to have to spend money on these repairs... My offer was right around book value actually, so I said, "Take the car, go home and relax, and I'll give you the amount I offered in full tomorrow morning, will take the car as-is and let the repairs be my responsibility".

And it was done.




I guess this may demand a new thread, then.

Marshal is still with us, and we still like it. More than like, maybe. My nine-year-old says that when he turns 18, he wants to upgrade it and drive it. Lots of good memories in this one and gonna be hard to let go of, and I'm not sure we have to - it's all paid for, runs great, and doesn't require much to keep it going. But who needs two large 4x4's? Definitely a lot of redundancy there. Thinking all this through.

Marshal trumps the newcomer in terms of the closed luggage space, turning radius, ease of maintenance (even roadside), and I guess articulation and breakover/departure angles - and right, the classic Jeep appeal...

...but that said, the Scorpio is an obvious upgrade in every other way, much more power for effortless climbing / cruising for a change, and actually very comfy and I daresay "luxurious" to our minds. Ride quality is surprisingly soft, the cabin is quiet and rigid (we can speak to one another between first/second rows in a normal tone of voice now!), and we've got a lot of firsts here as the new family car: keyless entry, four shoulder belts, tilt steering, power windows, steering (obviously), mirrors, headlamp trim, rear defogger, A/C, etc - and to top it off, a Pioneer touchscreen bluetooth head unit, and even some auxiliary lighting.

End of the day I would have been hard-pressed to find a closed-body Scorpio 4wd of same age with 1L km's done, for the price I got this one. The CRDe power delivery is absolutely good - as noted in the quote above it'll idle away in gear from starts with no throttle input, yet once in it, you can feel some thrust coming on as low as 1500rpm in the lower gears, and at around 1700-1800 it gets properly strong. The pickup final-drive ratio might be a little lower than the SUV version, as well - it feels pretty responsive and can idle along in high-range at 10kmph.

Very satisfied with the purchase, almost had to keep pinching myself, thinking I might sadly awake from a dream... it is in truth a real answer to prayer and something we waited patiently a long time for.

Took possession yesterday afternoon, and already started work on it - the axle seal being a top priority. Sad to say, some hack had earlier beat the hell out of the axle shaft right in the seal area... so I'll need to visit a lathe shop... and these seals / bearings are not as easy to remove as the Marshal's full-floaters are...

It was turning much sharper to the right side than to the left (inept alignment technicians I'm sure - the kind who take the steering wheel off to re-set it straight, instead of getting the tie-rods adjusted right with steering on-center).

Aftermarket rims are offset way to far to the outside, so need to do something about that. Tyres are quite bald, and these came with a kind of oddball 245-75-16 size (currently 265-70-16, which is wider than is necessary / generally helpful).

Ah, well - here we go...

More later.

-Eric

[ringoism]

Well, there's quite a lot of water under the bridge here...

...both in this thread:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/sedan...ml#post5301998 (Mahindra Marshal replacement | Used Toyota Etios vs Maruti SX4 vs Honda Mobilio)


...and in various posts over the past year or two in our Marshal 4x4 thread, for example:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-v...ml#post5109435 (Our Marshal DI 4x4 NGCS)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-v...ml#post5113331 (Our Marshal DI 4x4 NGCS)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-v...ml#post5040027 (Our Marshal DI 4x4 NGCS)


There's been a lot of hand-wringing, but in my defense: How does one really go about a replacement / upgrade or even identify a workable supplement to a 2001, old-school Mahindra 4x4 that has really proved such a capable Himalayan trekker, taken us so many places (even the metros), helped create such wonderful memories, and truly (despite its lack of a given name) become part of the family? There are bound to be conflicting thoughts and considerations along the way.

I've owned only this one car the past ten years, but perhaps a couple dozen others earlier in my life, moreover have driven probably a couple hundred others since I bought that first one around forty (!!!???) years ago - So have long understood that each one represents compromises - that very few if any are "perfect" even for a particular owner.

The purchase of the Marshal had involved its own degree of hand-wringing, but not nearly so much back then in 2012, when many of our current pre-owned options were new entries in the market and in no way within reach financially. It was simply the cheapest spacious, reliable 4x4 available then, when even XD3P Bolero 4x4's were commanding 3-4 Lakhs secondhand and Scorp/ Safari would have been much more.

On one level my/our requirements have always been quite modest (Marshal "Deluxe" model had distinguished itself merely by boasting reclining seats, intermittent wipers, and radial tyres!) - and not only with respect to cars. Luxury, status, raw power have never really been in our sights at all as a family - I had all that in my former life with other cars, they're not what any of us aspires to now.

For that matter we are not highly concerned about safety equipment and ratings, partly because in the hills we drive at low speeds most of the time, also because I am cognizant of the reality that safety paraphernalia at a price point (i.e., when mandated across the board), may often prove deficient/ ineffective against the best of claims and intentions; And I have experienced this personally.

To digress slightly: On the other hand, official safety ratings often omit/overlook very important elements of design that lend themselves to prevention /causation of accidents... Have commented on occasion elsewhere in the threads, but anyway: While there are less stats and data available out there on such lines, I am absolutely sure that things like good forward / corner visibility, superior quality tyres, a high level of maintenance vigilance and close connectedness with one's vehicle, and even things like turning radius (because a tight radius won't leave you delayed at a U-turn or intersection, trying to reverse in front of traffic, etc) can all go a LONG way towards creating a general environment of safety for driver and passengers, pedestrians and everyone else out there on the roads. I'm into prevention more than mitigation, but even on those lines, how many accidents (statistically) are averted via ESC every year in India, vs. those caused by poor visibility (whether line of vision is being blocked by thick, "safe" A-pillars or blurred by a dirty / scratched windshield, or half-blinded by oncoming high-beams)??? How many wrecks are caused by the reflection on the windscreen of the sun on an immense dashboard of un-ideal surface texture? Probably very many. But until we have such data at our fingertips, all is really just opinion / hearsay, and there's a LOT of it flying around in the threads (like all the assertions & attendant complaints about rear wipers not being standard equipment on all new Indian cars, etc, etc) that I cannot rationally buy into. We seem to have often missed the forest for the trees, and having lived / moved / survived all these years on a few rather diverse continents, I don't feel a need to be hand-held by (sometimes nitwit) regulators and/or the whims & whiney demands of a largely reactionary, uninformed public for the rest of my life. And for goodness sakes, I can't bring myself to care one whit whether the headlight trim thumbwheel is 10mm lower or higher than someone is sure it should be, or if the gearshift vibrates a tad at idle! Many of us are far too bored, it will end up (as in my homeland) in a culture of neuroses.

(Okay, I've amply vented now).

So everyone now knows what we did NOT feel a need for in our next vehicle. But what did we want?

Simply (?) put, all we really wanted was a good, solid, versatile, reliable, easy/inexpensive to repair, somewhat spacious (both passenger and luggage), affordable (<4L) pre-owned car that has A/C and P/S and can travel at reasonable speeds in reasonable comfort on the highway, but which still has some grunt for the hills. Oh, and if it's to replace the old Marshal 4x4, it really ought to have all four wheels driven in one way or the other, and have decent ground clearance.

Hehehe, maybe a tall order after all! And we are not the only ones voicing a similar desire / dilemma.

All said, it's been a somewhat confusing journey full of twists and turns, having had all sorts of vehicles come into consideration, from Aria to S4+, Verito to Duster, Safari Dicor (3.0) & Storme to vintage M&M Utiliti, Mobilio to Yeti to Ertiga to Captiva to Tucson to Fortuner to Xenon and more - all showing their inevitable respective merits / demerits / compromises, all roughly within budget as 9+ year old NCR disposals.

As of a week ago, I was seriously feeling about ready to give up and spend a month and some tens of thousands installing A/C, P/S, a turbo and a 5-speed in the Marshal, get the interior redone and be finished with it, then just hold onto the thing tenaciously (the NGT be damned), and drive it till someone pries the steering wheel from my cold, dead hands... :-)

Had pretty well settled on the 85ps Duster/Terrano, despite that niggling feeling that we would end up missing the 4wd (AWD version's 110ps commonly had injector problems), and one local person's assertion that they weren't good in the snow, and a few others' testimonies that the K9K 1.5DCi, while good and generally robust, doesn't respond well at all to major repairs / rebuilding, whenever the time would come for that; And as the cars we've seen coming up from the plains lately almost all were victims of odometer tampering fraud, it seemed it would be hard to know how far or close one was from such "major repairs".

Was planning to just go down to Delhi and spend a week going around the dealers till I found a good example... we want to drive to the Northeast from H.P. for the first time this winter, and we needed to get a good car ASAP - my wife wasn't at all keen on taking the Marshal (even when I told her I'd swap out the tractor silencer for a proper one!), and while I myself felt willing to do it one way, driving it there and back seemed beyond the scope of what I'd call fully pleasurable, unless we really had a LOT of time on our hands and could stick to the secondary roads.


Long story short, at the end of it all (and in brief moments in the midst of the vacillations and general fuzziness of mind), there came this clear vision and an answer, in truth the answer to our many prayers:




(note the Umling-La sticker on the tailgate - former owner really had taken it there a few weeks ago - one claim to fame, anyway!).





Custom front bumper will have to go, at least temporarily, since outside the hill areas it's likely to draw negative attention from certain representatives of the (honorable) law-enforcement community...


In retrospect, it should have seemed clearer much earlier - but I suppose it didn't need to be till the right vehicle came up for sale here locally, a great blessing as we didn't have to invest all the time and expense and assume various risks re: buying from some other far-flung region (seen lots in Rajasthan). So this one had been listed online and I'd test-driven it, then had been driving past it daily for a month or more till seller finally came down to a reasonable price - once he had, the deal was completed within a couple hours. No complaints there. There are actually hardly any Getaways (Gateways as one often sees in listings or even written on RC's!), so it is really something like a miracle that it should have turned up just when we really needed to have it, just prior to what will likely turn into a 6,000-7,000km trip. I've got about six weeks to get everything sorted & ready, which should be enough.

Will probably put a transverse "toolbox" (as commonly utilized abroad as a secure storage in pickups) in the forward part of the cargo bed... that should suffice for local shopping trips and stowage of day-packs and valuables while traveling, probably having as many liters of space as a small hatch - while the rest of the cargo area, when not covered with whichever collapsible cover I can also work out, will provide easy loading and space aplenty for bicycles, apple crates, the occasional motorcycle, firewood, gravel, bricks, manure, and whatever else we may need for upcoming projects. Anyone who perused the thread on Gul Panag's rig (of identical color) back in 2012 https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-v...l-panag-5.html (Interesting Modified Scorpio Getaway for Gul Panag) would have seen a very nice overlanding setup; I especially liked the tent arrangement, which we too could do one day if desired. Interesting to note, looking back to that thread from twelve years ago, that my wife and I had one day witnessed what must have been Gul herself driving her "Milo" down from Rohtang Pass in front of us - we had followed that then-new truck for awhile, admiring it, and I'd noted that my wife quite liked the vehicle. Now she (my own heroine!) will be driving one herself!

On that note, will mention that (unlike the Bolero Camper 4x4's everyone has up here), this truck is actually very well-appointed and comfortable to sit in and operate. Mentioned all that in another post in the Marshal thread, so won't elaborate - but suffice it to say it's as smooth, comfy, convenient and quiet as an average (diesel) sedan, while being able to carry a LOT more stuff of various types. Turbo mill isn't very laggy, torque builds quickly from as low as 1500rpm, and there's plenty of power just a bit higher for climbing and overtaking.

On the downsides, parking, of course, is NOT going to be as easy as in a sedan/hatch, but thankfully isn't an issue at all for us here or in the Northeast as we have plenty of it available. And as we don't typically put that many km's on our vehicle in a year, hopefully the fuel costs will not prove highly prohibitive (my only real concern going into this). Maybe I can manage bio-diesel some day???

Overall, we expect the Getaway to be able to do basically everything the Marshal has been doing, and to open the door (as a "Gateway?!") to a whole lot more besides.

This particular example runs well and the 4x4 system is functional and paint and interior should clean and polish up nice, no glaring problems or anything major to be done, but that said, it does have issues needing attention, which I'm already into the thick of (it's sitting with an axle out at the moment), hopefully can be updating those interested over the next couple weeks.

Stay tuned.

Gratefully,
-Eric

[ashis89]

Congratulations Eric! So we have a new hero making an entry into the movie - reminds me of Terminator meeting Indiana Jones

Will look forward to the new thread.

[AdityaDeane]

Congratulations Eric! I'm so glad that you finally found a worthy replacement to your Old Iron Man. I wish you many many happy miles and smiles with the new acquisition. Hoping to be able to meet and drive your Gateway () someday...

I hope this brochure helps you to find out some exact specifications related to your vehicle.

[Kosfactor]

Awesome! Guess it was meant to be yours afterall.

Please revert everything to stock setup, especially wheels and tires, you can use one of those Neo wheels alloys that come as an OE accessory if needed but aftermarket steel wheels are too heavy. There will be marked improvement in ride and handling once correct wheels and tires are fitted, not to mention performance and braking.

I had a ride recently in a ~2L run farm use getaway, it needed new engine mounts but pretty much alright otherwise, never felt like we were in a pickup truck though. Stock ride height appears higher than Scorpio of that shape

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by AdityaDeane

I'm so glad that you finally found a worthy replacement to your Old Iron Man.

I hope this brochure helps you to find out some exact specifications related to your vehicle.

Thanks Adithya - Replacement vs stablemate remains to be seen, but whatever the case, without your looking out for us, it probably wouldn't have happened - so I think I owe you a test drive real soon... Let me.get my 4x4 hub fixed and we'll take both our cars up a trail /dirt track somewhere.

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

you can use one of those Neo wheels alloys that come as an OE accessory if needed but aftermarket steel wheels are too heavy.

I had a ride recently in a ~2L run farm use getaway, it needed new engine mounts

Our engine mounts are also bad and make the whole truck vibe at lower revs, but main dealer in the valley doesn't have them in stock, and claims they're different from the Scorp SUV's. Rear brake shoes werr definitely differént (considerably larger)... and really expensive compared to the riveted linings on the.Marshal. Let's see if I can find the mounts soon, it'll make the car much better.

You'll have to show me a pic of those Neo alloys so I know what to look for.

And I'll have to actually weigh one of these and see, but looking at the thickness of the center's metal, you're probably right. Unsprung weight can indeed affect ride/handling on rough roads especially, but this one feels good there thus far - compared with the Marshal it's a dream. Being a pickup the.wheels do need to be strong. My main objection is their excessive positive offset, which strains the suspension components (more leverage basically), and also throws all sorts of filth on the outer body - I want my manure in the cargo box, not on my door handles (as happened our first day out!)! I could correct that on these but will check the weight first, it may be better to trade these in than cut the welds/re-orient and re-weld them (yes, it can be done, and done well and safely).

I might even swap the Marshal's steel Safari/early Scorp wheels onto it - I know they'd be lighter and should look quite ok.

But I guess all this ought to be discussed once it has its own thread.

In fact will start one ASAP and request the mods to copy these last few posts over there.

Thanks,
-Eric

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by ringoism

And I'll have to actually weigh one of these and see, but looking at the thickness of the center's metal, you're probably right. Unsprung weight can indeed affect ride/handling on rough roads especially, but this one feels good there thus far - compared with the Marshal it's a dream. Being a pickup the.wheels do need to be strong. My main objection is their excessive positive offset, which strains the suspension components (more leverage basically), and also throws all sorts of filth on the outer body - I want my manure in the cargo box, not on my door handles (as happened our first day out!)! I

Neo wheels 'Beast' , 8 inch width is the one they used to offer as OEM accessory at the dealership. Seems like it is still in production as per Neo's website. However the OEM steel wheels are a more practical option, should be available for an affordable price. I think the OEM tyre was JK Elanzo Supra, given the utility at hand I doubt if there is a more affordable yet well tested option.

I wanted to fit those aftermarket steelies in my vehicle but after attempting to lift one that was on the rack, i realised how heavy they were. I somehow cannot compromise on performance for the sake of looks. Recently reverting to boring looking OEM tyres after the much more nicer looking AT tyres made a huge difference to all performance parameters, the very first ride afterwards in a rain storm validated my initial impressions, I'm never messing with such things on the vehicle again.

[MB4DI]

Originally Posted by ringoism

In my family growing up, we always had one, later in college we built one from the back half of a 1950's Ford pickup, dragged it halfway across the U.S. Everything you said is right.

Have heard that - and that in some ways it represented a good compromise between the old pre-CRD 2.6Turbo and the later mHawks, in terms of simplicity, ruggedness, FE, and off-idle thrust.

-Eric

Hey Eric,

Congrats

You have definitely found yourself a great truck indeed. The 2.6 CRDE tuning on Getaway is different than regular Scorpio, the Getaway tuning has got more low end torque and the drive ratio is 4.55 AFAIK, which will climb steepest of slopes very easily.

This truck is great on the comfort and spare parts availability will never be an issue, as it shares its most of the aggregates with Scorpio and Thar CRDe.

Regards,
MB4DI

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

he OEM steel wheels are a more practical option, should be available for an affordable price. I think the OEM tyre was JK Elanzo Supra, given the utility at hand I doubt if there is a more affordable yet well tested option.

Am seeing the Elanzos from one online seller offered at a paltry Rs5,000 per tyre - unbelievably cheap and they look pretty good. Unfortunately, in the one thread about them here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-...htly-so-3.html (Review JK Elanzo, a grossly underrated tyre(EDIT: Rightly so!))

nobody seemed to have a lot of good to say about them.

Found the new-ish Apollo Apterra A/T in the same OE 245/75-16 size at Rs7,500 apiece, they are likely a better tyre, but any reviews I could find on YT are very clearly sponsored, which is to say inevitably quite biased in favor. To me they appear to be primarily a highway / hard-pack worthy tyre, the void areas are far too small to be of much use in mud/snow, as we have to take into serious consideration in the HP/MZ regional contexts. But not sure I want to go to a M/T in consideration of tread life / FE, which already isn't likely to be great.

In a slightly shorter 245/70, there are a couple other options (CEAT Czar A/T) on account of that being the Gurkha's stock size.

It has 265/70-16's (about same diameter as stock but wider) on it at present, which actually would fit nicely within the wheel wells if the offset was right - and even at full steering lock, they are nowhere near touching anything at all. But these can't be good for FE or snow performance (unless specially designed for such).

UM 4x4 Bull M/T is there in 265/70-16, but on Ultra-Mile's own website they're listed at a lofty Rs16,000 each - way higher than I'd want to go for even a premium brand. The same tyre is there in a proper 31x10.50-15 at a more reasonable but still too high 12k, moreover would need aftermarket rims again, and different ones from what I have.

Any advice / experiences / options, please offer them here. The truck doesn't have ABS to help in tricky on-road situations, so would like to maximize performance - though as always, within a budget...

Am tempted to head down again to Sector 45 (Chandigarh) or Bara Hindu Rao (Delhi) where they have imported winter tyres, often nearly new, on offer at very attractive prices. Being a pickup, an LT-rated tyre would be a good idea, and the Getaway's suspension is soft/compliant and cabin well-insulated enough that I'm not the least concerned about slight adverse effects on noise / ride quality. There are a few sizes in 16" that would give me about the same 30-31" diameter as stock, albeit with typically lesser widths (actually an advantage in many situations) - 225 or 235/80-16's being one option that might be found in such markets at pennies on the dollar, so to speak... but granted, while those sizes are typical of similar vehicles running abroad (Ram 1200, Peugeot Landtrek, even earlier Monteros/Pajeros), they are probably too narrow to mount on those 8-1/2" aftermarket rims... so those are potentially problematic again, in another way.

Did see a lot of aftermarket alloys in better/worse shape in Chandigarh, wouldn't really mind refinishing some of a style we like / width that's more appropriate if it comes to that. Let's see.

The issue I have with the stock steel wheels is that (unless we want to get particularly ugly) they require wheelcovers - which are too prone to getting damaged / lost in rough conditions.

-Eric

[GTO]

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[ringoism]

I swapped rims/tyres with the Marshal just to see what they looked like...



These are imported 205/85-16's on 7"W early Scorp rims,about an inch shorter and 40mm narrower than the stock 245/75-16's. Weight-wise, as mounted - despite being so much smaller and the claims of the heftiness of aftermarket rims - they weigh in at only 3kg less apiece than the massive 265/70-16's that it came.with.

First impression is that the pendulum has swung too far to the other side, and they look narrow and sit too far inside. But it's actually a common light-truck size abroad - so not strictly undersized from a technical / safety perspective. And certainly for local use till I find a good deal on something else, they'll do.

I discovered through this exercise part of the reason the Marshal has always been so rattly and harsh - namely that these LT (light truck) load-rated tyres, besides being heavy, really have stiff, hard-riding casings... They lend themselves well to stability with high loads, also to puncture and damage-resistance - all important in light of our typical uses.




In something like the Getaway ride-quality isn't objectionable, but I can definitely feel a big increase in firmness / "jigglyness" vs. the worn-out Chinese Nankings that came off it... which couldn't have been the smoothest of tyres themselves.

If anyone hears/ knows of any good tyre deals that come up in the next six weeks, do let me know...

Beyond that it'll be a question of whether these wheels or the 8-1/2" wide aftermarket ones (modded for proper offset) look better.

-Eric

[comfortablynumb]

Originally Posted by ringoism

Any advice / experiences / options, please offer them here. The truck doesn't have ABS to help in tricky on-road situations, so would like to maximize performance - though as always, within a budget...

MRF Wanderer A/T is available in 245/75R16, for almost the same price as the Apollo Apterra.

https://m.mrftyres.com/products/tyres/27

[condor]

Originally Posted by ringoism

These are imported 205/85-16's on 7"W early Scorp rims,about an inch shorter and 40mm narrower than the stock 245/75-16's.

I had picked up a couple of Goodyear Wrangler D-Sport 205/80 R16's sometime early last year. MRP was around 7700, but was able to bargain due to non-moving stock + slightly old tyres. They worked well, though. Tyre Market has these listed for 6250 a piece.

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by ringoism

Found the new-ish Apollo Apterra A/T in the same OE 245/75-16 size at Rs7,500 apiece, they are likely a better tyre, but any reviews I could find on YT are very clearly sponsored, which is to say inevitably quite biased in favor.

Apterra AT are not aggressive AT tyres , been mounted on Bolero 4x4 since last 4 years. They are decent but not great.

Originally Posted by ringoism

UM 4x4 Bull M/T is there in 265/70-16, but on Ultra-Mile's own website they're listed at a lofty Rs16,000 each - way higher than I'd want to go for even a premium brand.

A close friend is using UM AT tyre (tread pattern is copy of BFGoodrich 4x4) on his Scorpio 4x4 since last 40,000 kms and happy with onroad and off-road performance. AFAIK your required size should cost around 8000-8500 per tyre.

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Thanks!

[DirtyDan]

I have had pretty good luck with Continentals from time to time.
German born and decent.