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Originally Posted by GTO Looks badass . Your car is going straight to our homepage. |
Thanks Rush.
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Originally Posted by prateekvidya This is an awesome writeup. I think three very clear points come out |
Very well summed up Prateek. Looking forward to many more overlanding trips.
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Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93 Any reason why you did not consider a pre owned Montero or a Pajero Sport? |
Thanks for your wishes, Asit. Montero wasn't considered since most pre-owned ones are nearing 10 years mark. Pajero Sport belonged to same generation as my old Fortuner and with new Fortuner/Endeavour in comparison, it didn't make sense to me to go for Pajero in today's time.
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Originally Posted by BZ25 Wishing you and your family a very happy New Year! |
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and wishes, BZ25. I agree, Endeavour is also my favorite car from Ford India's stable. We don't have Ford Raptor range available officially here from Ford, yet I put a few decals on my car, but only once I was convinced that performance wise my machine is worthy of wearing these Raptor decals.
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Originally Posted by Sheel Truly a non-biased and objective ownership thread. In fact, this thread is unlike others as no one off-roads like you guys do [with regular SUV's]. |
Thank you Sheel. It's amazing how time flies, it feels just like yesterday when we met in March past year and had a little taste of offroad fun (among the last few rides of mine with Atlantis. Sigh!)
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Originally Posted by Sheel How hard / easy is fitting it with front lockers? |
Possible, and the one last modification I intend to do with my Endeavour at this point of time.
I have spoken to ARB Australia about air lockers for my car. Apparently, they also were scratching their heads when I told them such a vehicle existed.
Australia used to get 3.2 Everest, followed by 2Litre Bi-Turbo one; but they never had 2.2 MT 4x4 variant there.
I have supplied them the gear ratios for my car, they require more info on differential and axle ratios which I will verify from Ford India. Once this information is with ARB, they can provide me a suitable air locker for Lal Ghoda. I intend to move forward on this mod later this year.
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Originally Posted by Sheel Please keep us updated . |
Will do, thanks again for your wishes.
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Originally Posted by gururajrv It’s always nice to have the elephant in your leash, isn’t it? that’s how manuals feel like on cars. We decide what gear we want instead of what computer wants for us |
Thank you for your wishes. Exactly my point why I went ahead with this car. Not all automatic gearboxes are bad, but Ford's calibration is the issue here. We have automatic Land Cruisers and new Gen Fortuners in our group too; Toyota's implementation is far better actually, from an offroader's perspective. I haven't driven the new 1.9 Automatic V Cross, so not sure how Isuzu's gearbox is.
All said and done, I enjoy manual gearboxes a lot and in case of my Endeavour, the gearbox helps me connect well with the car during on or off-road.
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Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad Would you mind sharing how you navigate in the dunes so as to not get lost? Would love to take my bike here for sure |
Thank you for your kind words. Offroading in dunes is tricky. One needs to be a step ahead in their mind about the track and possible points when he/she may get stuck. Recoveries in dunes are highly technical in nature and require far more efforts than any other off-road conditions. To answer your question, we usually have one person from the group who acts as navigator for rest of us. Typically, an experienced member first does a trail with help from his spotter (a must!), passes the message on radio to rest of the group where we follow the track and instructions from the guy ahead of us. It is easy to get lost or get stuck in virgin sand dunes that you see in the pics here and proper planning is necessary.
W.r.t the bikes, I would say, try your hands on riding in Sam's Safari sand dunes first. Virgin dune sections are remotely located and isolated from any help. So I would highly recommend you to gain some sand riding experience in easy sections of Sam sand dunes before you move deep into the desert.
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Originally Posted by Samba I was a fan of your Fortuner. Felt bad to see the parting shot. Its tough to bid goodbye to a car with so many sweet memories. |
Gajraj has been living a very happy life with the new owner in Goa. He is equally passionate about the vehicle and has made sure to continue the legacy further. I am just glad my car is with this gentleman.
I had shared a few latest pics of Gajraj in the ownership thread
here (My Pre-Worshipped Toyota Fortuner 3.0L 4x4 MT - 225,000 km crunched. EDIT: Sold!) Quote:
Originally Posted by Samba Will love to see some video's of dune bashing! Infact you can start a whole new thread on Dune bashing! The pics are just drool. Staying in Kolkata, it looks like a distant dream for me! |
Thanks Samba. Work has been heavy on our time availability now a days, hence time constraints. In fact, I don't think Anshuman has been able to process our Jaisalmer videos yet, despite one and half month since we got back from there. I will share a few dune bashing videos as soon as we have them put up online. Dune Bashing thread is a good idea, let me see if I can take out some time for this.
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Originally Posted by Samba Wish you 1,000's of happy miles on & off the road. Rated 5*. |
Thank you once again for your wishes and rating. I am more than happy to share my experiences with TBHP family as and when time permits. Cheers mate.
I have hundreds of photographs to share though. But I didn't want to dump so many of them here. Let me add a few more for your viewing pleasure.
Climbing over a tricky obstacle in our local playgrounds.
Along side of
.anshuman's DMax. This DMax now is twin locked (air lockers in front and back diffrentials) and is beast of a performer offroad.
Another cool shot from recent trip.
Our SandYatch, the 4 litre V6 Prado doing its thing
Giving company to the world's fastest SUV, the Urus.
Alongside of old generation Ford Endeavour of a friend, Manish. Notice how soft and tamed the new one looks in comparison.
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Originally Posted by anumod Very Nice write-up .. I can clearly relate to your thoughts on Manual .. I just moved from a 2.2 4X4 to 3.2 . The 2.2 4X4 performs better in 4L . (I tried it in the same place, both the cars and 2.2 was able to clear the obstacles easily .. ) |
Thanks anumod. Yours was the only other 4x4 MT Endeavour that I was aware of in my distant circles. 4L performance of 2.2 MT is better because of really tight packed gear ratios, the car can literally crawl over so many obstacles at times! For your upgrade, my suggestion to you would have been to wait a bit more for the upcoming 2 Litre Bi-Turbo with 10 speed automatic gearbox. I am hearing some really good things about that gearbox actually. But, heartily congratulations on your 3.2 upgrade. Cheers.