[Inquilab28]

I have recently purchased a Thar and overall, I am very impressed with the vehicle. It runs great, good engine, though the ride is bouncy, I kind of expected it. Its part of the Jeep DNA and its fine.

The problem - I accidentally punctured my vehicle's rear tyre. This was the middle of the night (about 2AM) outskirts of Hyderabad, but inside the ORR perimeter. So its not like I am in a village or something.

I immediately tried calling RSA from Mahindra. Though an executive answered my call, and agreed to arrange for a person to help me out of the situation, no one turned up. Upon follow up, I was told that they don't have any support till 10 AM next morning.

Imagine this, if I was with my family and stuck in the middle of a Jungle?

I cursed internally and proceeded to change the tyre myself where I discovered the second issue.

The Jack, Wrench, the took kit given with the vehicle is useless. The Jack is not good enough for the vehicle of this size, and weight, and the other tools are useless too.

And its not like I didn't know how to use this, I have changed quite a few tyres in my time. The puncture wala who was about a km away, walked all the way from his shop to check if he can help but no use, he was as useless as me.

Then I literally at the cost of the tyre, drive the one km or so, to his shop, where he used the truck's Jack to help me out and replace the tyre. The punctured tyre was useless considering the 1 km drive.

Now my questions for this group of enthusiasts are -
- What can I do about the RSA. I lost confidence I had in this.
- What tools do you prefer, suggest including a Jack to help me out of this sticky situation the next time?

Appreciate all the help!

[shankar.balan]

I suggest the following.

1. First buy a heavy duty tyre inflator. This will work perfectly in most cases and get you to the nearest tyre puncture place except perhaps where the tyre is completely slashed or has a huge sidewall cut which is profusely leaking air. In today’s world the tyre inflator works much better than the Jack in that sense because one just inflates and moves on. You will never need to destroy your tyre by driving with a flat. This inflator from Woscher takes about 20 mins to fully inflate a new Mahindra Thar tyre which has gone completely flat. I had two complete flats 2 weeks ago because of sharp nails and screws from construction debris having poked my tyres. These caused a slow leak and overnight the tyres had become absolutely flat. But this inflator was there to rescue me. When you use it, it. Is advisable to keep the engine running so as not to drain the battery.
2. For serious tyre emergencies Buy a Double Bottle Jack with a suitable load rating. It works on hydraulics and is very effective. Take care to ensure it is placed correctly under the vehicle before attempting to lift. After all the Thar weighs 1800 odd kilos.
3. Regarding the bouncy ride, you may want to refer to my posts on my suspension upgrade on the Thar. I have installed AVO and the jiggliness and bounciness and pitching and nose diving and swaying etc is gone. Appropriate maintenance of tyre pressure also plays an important role here.
4. You should take up the matter of RSA with the relevant people in Mahindra by relating your experience and sharing photographs if you have any or screenshots of any WhatsApp/ sms messages you may have exchanged with the dealer when calling RSA.
5. You can consider purchasing the emergency tool kit from Mahindra M2ALL. This comes with basic tools like pliers and spanner and screw drive and and all wrapped up in a leather tool roll.
6. I also carry 1 litre of Mahindra Maximile oil for emergencies, along with 1 litre of their recommended coolant and 1 litre of distilled water as well. All this can be accommodated in the boot area in one of those inexpensive vehicle trunk organisers with compartments which are also available inexpensively on Amazon.

(I’ve attached some screenshots for you.)

Originally Posted by Inquilab28

I have recently purchased a thar and overall, i am very impressed with the vehicle. It runs great, good engine, though the ride is bouncy, i kind of expected it. Its part of the Jeep DNA and its fine.

Now my questions for this group of enthusiasts are --
- What can i do about the RSA. I lost confidence i had in this.
- What tools do you prefer, suggest including a Jack to help me out of this sticky situation the next time?

Appreciate all the help!

[Inquilab28]

Thank you! just what i was looking for. Appreciate the quick feedback and all very good points. Will put in an order! Also, can you expand on your experience with braking? Anything can be done on that front? I feel this vehicle deserved a set of discs on the back as well..

[shankar.balan]

I also thought so at first that yes, it would be nice in these modern times, to have all four disc brakes. However, as per my experience, the brakes in the Thar are more than adequate if you drive at the speeds which suit this type of vehicle.
I have now clocked about 14500 odd kms since Feb 2021. Driven across all sorts of terrain, highways, city, hills, ghats and all. I do not exceed 110kmph in my Thar on account of its height and weight and overall dynamics. For the most part I stay in the 80-100kmph range.

I have had to slam my brakes so far on 3 occasions, while on the highway, doing speeds of about 100kmph. This was because of very sudden unforeseen circumstances involving other vehicles. I have not experienced any kind of loss of confidence with the brakes until now. All that happened was that the vehicle braked hard and halted and the emergency brake warning flashers came on. And a couple of loose items sitting on the folded rear back seat came forward and fell into the footwells between the rear and front seats. No further drama.

Originally Posted by Inquilab28

Thank you! just what i was looking for. Appreciate the quick feedback and all very good points. Will put in an order! Also, can you expand on your experience with breaking? Anything can be done on that front? I feel this vehicle deserved a set of discs on the back as well..

[jeeva]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I suggest the following.

2. For serious tyre emergencies Buy a Double Bottle Jack with a suitable load rating. It works on hydraulics and is very effective. Take care to ensure it is placed correctly under the vehicle before attempting to lift. After all the Thar weighs 1800 odd kilos.

Sir, I would not suggest these bottle jacks, especially the Chinese ones that are available around, however handy they are. They are rightly called the "widow makers". I'd suggest spend a little more and get a proper scissor type hydraulic jack or a floor jack. The valves in these bottle jacks is the weakest link in the whole system. It can give up at any point of time, leaving the vehicle rest on its belly. The whole valving mechanism works on half a thread. God forbid, if you are under the vehicle fixing up something when that happens, as it once occurred to me. Luckily, I had placed the spare tyre next the bottle jack, and the vehicle rested on the tyre when the valve gave up.

OT: Your Thar looks lovely.

[shankar.balan]

Thanks Jeeva.
Ive actually not used my bottle jack so far except to pump it up and down now and then just to give it some exercise. I rely mostly on the inflator as may be needed because the scissor type jack is quite taxing to use.

My Bottle Jack is an Indian made one - Gallop. And purchased based on a recommendation by a fellow member on this very forum. I do definitely like the proper hydraulic wheeled jack but this is best kept in the garage as it is not really portable and takes up space which is at a premium in the Thar.

In the old days there was a thing called Rapid Jack which was inflatable and which one used to plug to the mouth of the car exhaust to inflate. This one is nowadays only available at some places in Australia or America at a pretty high price. Thats a lovely thing but it takes up space which is at a premium in the Thar.

Originally Posted by jeeva

Sir, I would not suggest these bottle jacks,

[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by jeeva

Sir, I would not suggest these bottle jacks, especially the Chinese ones that are available around, however handy they are. They are rightly called the "widow makers". I'd suggest spend a little more and get a proper scissor type hydraulic jack or a floor jack

Thanks for this. Was always tempted to buy one considering the ease of use, but stayed away doubting the quality of these after market ones. If it fails, it’s a big damage - whether to car or individual. I guess will stick with the OEM scissor jack.

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by Inquilab28

The problem -- I accidentally punctured my vehicle's rear tyre.
The Jack, Wrench, the took kit given with the vehicle is useless. The Jack is not good enough for the vehicle of this size, and weight, and the other tools are useless too.

Just curious, how exactly did you manage to puncture it so hard that it is not even in a drivable condition for even 1Km.

Also, what exactly you mean by they are useless? Please be specific. Is that not lifting the vehicle, getting bent or something? I do not think any manufacturer will supply a jack which is useless for that vehicle. If so, then isn't that a serious issue that might affect every Thar out there. Thar owners - Watch out this.

[Inquilab28]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

Just curious, how exactly did you manage to puncture it so hard that it is not even in a drivable condition for even 1Km.

Also, what exactly you mean by they are useless? Please be specific. Is that not lifting the vehicle, getting bent or something? I do not think any manufacturer will supply a jack which is useless for that vehicle. If so, then isn't that a serious issue that might affect every Thar out there. Thar owners - Watch out this.

So my side wall hit a rod which was protruding from the divider, which i didnt realize and somehow managed to tear a gaping hole. When i got down, i saw a big gap. and air whistling out, with me watching in disbelief.

The jack, is useless, and what i mean by that it, it is not capable of lifting it high enough or easily enough to be effective in a tyre change. I think this IS an issue for all Thars, IMHO.

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by Inquilab28

The jack, is useless, and what i mean by that it, it is not capable of lifting it high enough or easily enough to be effective in a tyre change. I think this IS an issue for all Thars, IMHO.

Were you using the Jack at the correct jacking points recommended in the Owner's Manual?

[ike]

Did your insurance not have RSA? Might as well have tried them too.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by Inquilab28

So my side wall hit a rod which was protruding from the divider, which i didnt realize and somehow managed to tear a gaping hole. When i got down, i saw a big gap. and air whistling out, with me watching in disbelief.

The jack, is useless, and what i mean by that it, it is not capable of lifting it high enough or easily enough to be effective in a tyre change. I think this IS an issue for all Thars, IMHO.

A sidewall cut means the tyre is gone, whether you drive with it or not. No inflator would have saved you.

The jack not being able to lift the vehicle is definitely a concern, especially for a fellow Thar owner. Let me check with some other Thar owners and see what they have to say.

[robimahanta]

Sorry to hear about the incident. But to clarify, the stock jack provided with the Thar works perfectly when used with the designated jack points. Maybe it is an isolated issue with your jack.

Sharing a few pictures with the stock jack in use. Notice that with the remaining thread it can raise the Thar even more if required.





The proper front and rear jack points of the Thar

[anjan_c2007]

The tools supplied by M&M for my Scorpio were packed in a small plastic bag. The quantity and type of tools and the size of this plastic bag are similar to that supplied with my Honda Activa. Even my old Maruti 800 has much better quantity and type of tools in a much larger tool bag, other than its jack which appears to be badly designed.

The jack of my Scorpio is too heavy and is totally unfit for use on an uneven ground surface. And the uneven surfaces and bad roads are responsible for quite many punctures. The jack needs a flat and plain surface for doing its job properly. Is this a copy of some western design?

The best jack under Indian conditions is the tripod jack that was supplied with older Ambassadors and Fiats. These would be compatible for use on uneven surfaces too..

And we hope that Indian car makers think about spending a few thousand rupees more for OE tools. We buy cars worth 10-20 plus lakhs and the OE tools are a total let down, being mostly impractical and useless.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

The tools supplied by M&M for my Scorpio were packed in a small plastic bag.

My Bolero (2005) had a good quality scissor type jack with the long lever. And some soanners and screwdrivers in a plastic pack and some warning triangles too.
My Scorpio (2008) came with a good quality black bottle jack and lever and some spanners and screw drivers in a plastic pack and some warning triangles too.
My Gypsy (2014 model bought in 2021) has its OEM scissor jack mounted inside the engine bay and its lever mounted at the bottom of the front seat plus a small pack lf typical Maruti tools like spanners and screw drivers in a blue Maruti plastic pack.
My Thar (2021) came with the same Jack and lever which Robi has picturised. And I bought the leather wrapped tool roll from M&M as an additional kit. And I carry a Gallop heavy duty bottle jack and a tyre inflator as well.
My Cooper 2012 model bought in 2019 - its OEM jack and tools were not there when I bought it. So I imported a set of OEM tools including the jack with integrated lever. And I always carry a tyre inflator in this vehicle. Maybe I ll carry the plain spare tyre too from now on, at risk of compromising the luggage space.