[Kandisa]

Originally Posted by AVR

Hi Kandisa,

I see you have put the 31" Bighorns on regular steel rims. Are those steel rims the 5.5x15 rims that are usually used on the Jeeps? Do you think its ok to go with these rims for the 31x11.5R15 tyres that you have? Am wanting to do the same on my Jeep which currently has 235/75s. Also, What was the cost of the Bighorns? Can you please let me know the price? PM me? Also would like to talk so can you please PM me your number?

Cheers,
Adi

My jeep is running on 31X10.5 R 15 tyres on standard 5.5J gypsy rims. Though few have advised me to go for alloys, i just cant afford it now. After covering the 4000km Leh trip and another 1000 within city, i 'vent noticed any problem as such. And the steel rims give a peace of mind while traversing through the no-road areas in remote places. Sent you a PM.

[chaunfa]

Originally Posted by renegade

Pardon me for forgetting the camera at the factory,i will be uploading some detailed shots soon but till then here is some from my phone.

What would something like this cost all told? Excellent work, I am wondering if a ready made one would be available?


Regards,

Chaunfa

[Kandisa]

Many dream about it and very few like late 'Alpha_kilo' , RedMM340 have done it.......journey to the land of the Lamas, Ladakh in a Jeep. I never thought it would be possible so soon, but then when you are determined to make it, you make it. So here goes the snippets from the journey lasting for 13 days, through 10 high-altitude passes & lakes, uniquely beautiful landscapes, crossing terrains containing dirt track, mud & slush, water crossings, snow.....truely a journey of a lifetime in my trusted petrol powered Jeep. We went with the 'Expedition On Wheels Group' & special thanks to my wife who is probably a more die-hard jeeper than me and travelled in the jeep enjoying all the discomforts of a jeep compared to a modern car.

Here are the 1st set of pics:

The 'clean' jeep before starting from Noida


The rear are packed with stuffs


Stickering work in progress in the breakfast break


Near Pipli


At the parking lot of Nalagrh fort, our 1st night hault


On the way to manali, the next day




The 1st pass, Rohtang, was supposed to be a trailer of the main journey, but thanks to the continuous rain & land slides, rohtang turned out to be one of the most difficult stretches. Those of you who like real time adventurous slush/mud OTR, try rohtang during monsoon!! Highlight was almost a 30-35 degree hair pin bend with muddy stretch that has been ransacked by the local tourist taxis for hours beforehand!















More will follow.....

[Kandisa]

2nd set of pics:

Morning at Jispa






Near Darcha






The dreaded barlacha la. 1st symptoms of breathlessness and it was quite a task to fuel up the jeep near the pass!






Near Sarchu












Rain accompanied us all the way and daylight was gone by the time we crossed Morey plains. Started climbing the never-ending ascent to Tanglang la in pitch dark and reached the pass around 10.30 at night! No pic of the pass as everyone was exhausted. Finally managed to reach Leh around 12.30 at night.


Fueling up at petrol pump near Choglamsar next day afternoon. This place got devastaded just after few days in the cloudburst.

[Kandisa]

Few more photos from the jispa-leh stretch, near Pang, which has some of the most unique formations on the hills.









The Jeep after getting cleaned at Leh


Next we went to Pangong Tso and encountered the mighty Chang la, probably the most difficult pass in the entire region, ever lasting climb, weather turning bad in a very short notice and more importantly drastic reduction in level of oxygen. No wonder the Siachen bound soldiers are posted here for climatization!












Near Tangstey check post






And finally the beautiful lake

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Lovely pics Soumen, hope your Jeep performed well.

Spike

[AVR]

Awesome stuff Soumen,

I think doing this trip in a Jeep has its own additional challenges as compared to say a Safari i.e. Must be quite a back-breaking journey for one but more fun too!

Anyways love the looks of your Jeep and the surroundings add to it!

Cheers,
Adi

[GoSlow]

Somen - Your jeep has become the true Cruiser that we all aspire towards. It looks too cool buddy! We need to exchange jeeps one weekend.

The reliability is just mind blowing!!

Cheers
Ankit

[gotzuk]

Wow!!!
Your jeep looks awesome Soumen.
And the excellent pics bring back memories!
There is lot more to these jeeps than being just a weekend warrior.
I am so glad that you are experiencing it the way it should be.
Keep it up buddy!

[catchkumar]

Amazing pictues Soumen, Am sure it must be a dream come true for you.
A few inputs on how the Jeep performed in the ever changing conditions would be a great insight for us.
Congratulations on the Fete Accomplished buddy :-)

[svpatra]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

Lovely pics Soumen, hope your Jeep performed well.

Spike

HI Somen,

Awesome man , great jeep, great jeeper. u made my day.
Its at all possible to install the bolero front suspension to 540 or 550 for better ride and install a stock chassis extension for power steering from bolero.

Please excuse if i sound stupid.

thanks
Srinivas

[Kandisa]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

Lovely pics Soumen, hope your Jeep performed well.
Spike

Thanks Spikey, yes jeep did pass through everything without much problems. In the span of 13 days we travelled around 3600 kms, the jeep cruised comfortably in 90-100 range all the time in the highway. In few of the days the driving time lasted till 15-18 hours, thanks to the weather and road conditions! The major problem was faced while returning from Pangong, just 2 kms before Chang la, the oxygen level that time went down so drastically that almost all the vehicles were having really tough time to climb up including the fuel injected modern cars. So for a brief stretch jeep was also refusing to go up! Towards the end of the journey once there was a problem of oil coming to the plugs. But this happened due to our mistake of putting some engine oil in leh!
Rest in general, above 15000 ft it had some performance degradation like any other vehicles and at times we had to use the 4wd even on tarmac/semi-tarmac road to climb up the hair pins in the high passes in incessent rains. There was not a single instance of over-heating, in fact thoughout the trip we didn't 've to top up the water even for once. Had to manage half the trip with a broken indicator lever and the speedo stopped working near magnetic hill during return journey. But then these are part & parcel of living with jeeps, so no complaints

Originally Posted by AVR

Awesome stuff Soumen,
I think doing this trip in a Jeep has its own additional challenges as compared to say a Safari i.e. Must be quite a back-breaking journey for one but more fun too!
Anyways love the looks of your Jeep and the surroundings add to it!
Cheers,
Adi

Thanks Adi. Well surprisingly, the jeep factor didn't add that much to the tiredness felt due to long driving hours and uncomfortable environmental condition! This is primarily due to the fact that the jeep being petrol, has much much improved NVH level compared to normal diesel jeeps. Add to that the comfortable seats. And also may be somehow we have been habituated with travelling in the jeep for quite some time. But yes, you can't ignore the leaf spring suspension hitting back everytime you try to drive over a no-road surface. Though the 31" tyres helped a lot in absorbing good portion of the abuse. There were challenges, uncomfortable conditions and moments of apprehensions, particularly for someone like me who has learnt driving just two years back, but at the end it was an experience we are going to cherish forever. And going in a group inspires some confidence.

Originally Posted by GoSlow

Somen - Your jeep has become the true Cruiser that we all aspire towards. It looks too cool buddy! We need to exchange jeeps one weekend.
The reliability is just mind blowing!!
Cheers
Ankit

Thanks a lot for the comments. Yes i do feel the time, money & effort to make the vehicle reliable are really worth. And all the modifications done in recent times have helped a lot in handling the vehicle in these terrains. Regarding exchange, no problems, even i would like to drive the nissan powered, snorkel empowered new-look gypsy

Originally Posted by gotzuk

Wow!!!
Your jeep looks awesome Soumen.
And the excellent pics bring back memories!
There is lot more to these jeeps than being just a weekend warrior.
I am so glad that you are experiencing it the way it should be.
Keep it up buddy!

Thanks Vaibhav, yes i am sure the jeep & the terrain both bring back lot of memories. Offcourse its much much more than a weekend recreational vehicle. I always thought it this way to use the vehicle since the time it was getting built and thankfully have been able to do it. This vehicle has given us some of the most unique travelling experiences so far and looking forward for some more memorble jeeping experiences ahead.

Originally Posted by catchkumar

Amazing pictues Soumen, Am sure it must be a dream come true for you.
A few inputs on how the Jeep performed in the ever changing conditions would be a great insight for us.
Congratulations on the Fete Accomplished buddy :-)

Thanks Kumar, indeed its like one of those dreams coming true. Travelling to these kind of places in a jeep adds much more to the whole experience. Talking about fete, well there is one picture i will be remembering for years. In rohtang we saw one foreigner cyclist whose left leg was amputated and he was cycling in his other leg all the way to Leh, i was dumbstruck for some moments after seeing this!!
However taking up such a long journey, considered to push the vehicle and the persons to a good limit, in a rebuilt jeep, is always a major challenge. And we feel lucky that we were able to make the journey successfully & safely just days before the natural calamity struck the region. And i 've tried to give some inputs on the jeep's performance in the 1st few paragraphs in this reply.

[Kandisa]

Originally Posted by svpatra

HI Somen,
Awesome man , great jeep, great jeeper. u made my day.
Its at all possible to install the bolero front suspension to 540 or 550 for better ride and install a stock chassis extension for power steering from bolero.
Please excuse if i sound stupid.
thanks
Srinivas

Thanks Srinivas,yes i am just trying to be a jeeper enjoying this basic but beautiful vehicle. Regarding the queries, even i am not technically sound at all, but here are my understandings. If you are referring to the front IFS set up of Bolero, that is probably going to be a mamoth task in a jeep. For better riding quality, i 've used better seats & tyres. The rear CFL type leaf springs supposedly improve ride quality.

As per power steering, the RCBT type of steering has been installed by few jeepers. However i 've installed the bolero front OKBJ set up and the steering became much much improved even with the bigger 31" tyres. Actually i don't feel the need of any PS any more. And the improved turning radilus helped A LOT in the hills.

[sreejeshmp]

Your Jeep is really a “JEEP THING” everything in a perfect manner. Amazing picture of a beautiful Jeep and nature I can feel the trill of driving from your photos. It’s really a “Owner’s Pride and Neighbor’s Envy “.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by svpatra

Its at all possible to install the bolero front suspension to 540 or 550 for better ride and install a stock chassis extension for power steering from bolero.

Originally Posted by Kandisa

If you are referring to the front IFS set up of Bolero, that is probably going to be a mamoth task in a jeep.

Why are you thinking of this mod when your Jeep is performing so well? Please don't even try this. Not worth the effort.

Spike