Cool Jeeps You Can't Have - Mahindra of India

[Paddler Ed]

As others have said, please do updates!

I was (in a sad way) excited to see an update on the thread - also wasn't disappointed in that whilst no new photos, the conversation was interesting anyway.

More pictures please!

 

[jscherb]

As others have said, please do updates!

I was (in a sad way) excited to see an update on the thread - also wasn't disappointed in that whilst no new photos, the conversation was interesting anyway.

More pictures please!

OK, so you're not disappointed, here's a new photo.

This photo was on the Indian Team-BHP forum recently without any explanation. This Mahindra is very nicely done but it is a bit of a mystery. It appears to be outfitted for safari service - perhaps tiger safaris or maybe desert safaris. It's got three rows of seats with the rearmost seat elevated, which is how many safari service vehicles are outfitted, plus it's got a large flat bikini top to keep the sun off the tourists.

It's not obvious if it's an older MM540/550 or a newer Thar but I think it's an older model because it appears to have a solid front axle. Many, if not most, Thars have IFS.

It's got military-style convoy lights on top of the fenders, these could have been added or this could be a military surplus vehicle. The excocage is very well done, and includes extra steps for the tourists. I like the rope wrap for the side steps.

The mystery for me is that it's got an RJ 21 registration. That means it was registered at the Regional Transport Office in the state of Rajasthan in the city of Nagaur. Nagaur is in the desert fringe area of Rajasthan and there are no tiger preserves near there that I'm aware of. I don't think there are any desert safari operators near Nagaur, it's not quite desert enough to be that interesting. There are desert tours (with jeeps or camels) further west near Jaisalmer, but I haven't found any near Nagaur, so the registration is a mystery.

Anyway, if it is a safari service Mahindra, it's one of the nicest I've seen anywhere in India. BTW Mahindras are not as common in safari service as the Maruti Gypsy (a.k.a. Suzuki Samurai) for individual groups of tourists and larger Toyotas (called "canters" in safari service, and used for larger numbers of people, often multiple parties).

By popular demand, I'll try to offer new photos and other Mahindra information regularly .

 

[Blowby]

Like Paddler said,I also really do enjoy your thread and everything you contribute as it very interesting!Keep it up as there are some of us lurkers that just sit on the sidelines and are happy that there are folks like yourself that are willing to educate us mortals.

 

[jscherb]

I posted this photo of a Mahindra MM950 Military Ambulance earlier in this thread:

More information about this Mahindra: The MM950 Army Ambulance was built on the Mahindra Pik-Up platform. These were built for special order of 160 vehicles from the Indian Army. The Ambulance body was built by an external bodybuilder and certified by Mahindra. The ambulance was air-conditioned. Mechanically, the MM950 was fitted with:

XD3P, 4-cyl Diesel engine
KMT90, 4-speed transmission
T18, 2-speed transfer case
114″ Wheelbase
57″ Track (Front)
53″ Track (Rear)

A short video tour:


One of these would make a great overland camper, don't you think?

 

[AmericaOverland]

I posted this photo of a Mahindra MM950 Military Ambulance earlier in this thread:

One of these would make a great overland camper, don't you think?

Please don't do this. Don't tempt me like this... It's too hot down here to use it year-round. ?? Now, I have to meditate again to remove this unholy desire.

 

[jscherb]

Please don't do this. Don't tempt me like this... It's too hot down here to use it year-round. ?? Now, I have to meditate again to remove this unholy desire.

The ambulance is air conditioned, so hot weather wouldn't be a problem

I struggle with my own Mahindra temptations - for years I've wanted to bring a Savari back to the U.S. - I've been dreaming about putting the Savari body on a lengthened LJ chassis to have the best of both worlds - the size and utility of the Savari body and the serviceability (in the U.S.) and driveability on U.S. highways of the LJ. My wife keeps threatening to get me one and import it and so far I've managed to resist the temptation.

 

[AmericaOverland]

The ambulance is air conditioned, so hot weather wouldn't be a problem

I struggle with my own Mahindra temptations - for years I've wanted to bring a Savari back to the U.S. - I've been dreaming about putting the Savari body on a lengthened LJ chassis to have the best of both worlds - the size and utility of the Savari body and the serviceability (in the U.S.) and driveability on U.S. highways of the LJ. My wife keeps threatening to get me one and import it and so far I've managed to resist the temptation.

I can help you with that. When you reach retirement age, there is NO REASON to remain in the US as a resident, unless you have family responsibilities and ties. If you don't have such responsibilities, GET OUT... Because if you want to continue overlanding/traveling into retirement, you can do so much more cheaply here. It's unbelievable what I can do here with the money I get. I can travel AND build up savings like crazy. I have a step-brother who's going to move to México next year after retirement. It makes no economic sense to remain in America.

 

[jscherb]

You may know that a lot of my fabric designs have been picked up by Overland Outfitters. The other day they asked me about the Thar and whether I thought any of the products would work in that vehicle. Many will, but some of their most popular products would need Thar-specific versions. I grabbed some Thar images from the internet and did some quick and cheesy photo edits.

Their Grab Bar Pockets should work:

Their Roll Bar Bags would almost certainly work. Their Saddlebags are very popular with Jeep people but the Thar hardtop attaches quite differently than the Jeep hardtop and the Saddlebags use the hardtop bolts. They would probably work by making Thar-specific zipper strips. Couldn't find good images for this so did the best I could with what I could find:

Door pockets are also very popular with Jeep owners because the factory net pockets stretch the first time you use them. The Thar has roomy molded plastic pockets in the door panels so additional pockets may not be in as much demand, but additional pockets could be added:

A Thar version of the HD MOLLE Tailgate Panel could be done. Notice that unlike the Wrangler, the Thar has a convenient door release in the tailgate...

Over there Thar is much more affordable than the Wrangler is here (and an order of magnitude more affordable than buying a Wrangler in India) and it's very popular with the upwardly mobile crowd and with car enthusiasts (and even with some Bollywood stars), so there may be a market in India for these things. I don't know if OO is going to pursue the Thar and begin marketing in India but I've at least given them some things to think about to help with their decision.

On a related topic, I've got a trip to India coming up and I've arranged to rent a Thar for a few days while I'm there. I'm planning a short road trip to Rajasthan in it and I'll post photos and my impressions of the Thar vs. the Wrangler when that happens.

 

[jscherb]

...On a related topic, I've got a trip to India coming up and I've arranged to rent a Thar for a few days while I'm there. I'm planning a short road trip to Rajasthan in it and I'll post photos and my impressions of the Thar vs. the Wrangler when that happens.

In the process of arranging the rental Thar for my upcoming trip, the friendly rental company sent these photos of what they'd be renting to me. There are two different Thars in these photos, so it's not clear if I'll be getting one of these or another one like it. Doesn't matter as long as it's a hardtop.

 

[AmericaOverland]

"On a related topic, I've got a trip to India coming up and I've arranged to rent a Thar for a few days while I'm there. I'm planning a short road trip to Rajasthan in it and I'll post photos and my impressions of the Thar vs. the Wrangler when that happens."

You can DM me your details when you get close to that trip time. I'll see if I am prepared by then or not. I'm in south Gujarāt, though. Summer is about upon us (April-May), so you may want to wait until after Monsoon starts to cool things off.

 

[jscherb]

Here's something you'd never see in the U.S. - there's a thread over on the Indian Team-BHP forum about ways to keep monkeys off your vehicle. The thread isn't specifically about Mahindras, it applies to almost any vehicle in India.

One product some people recommend is a tarp with spikes in it:

There are various types of monkeys all over India and they're often a nuisance but they're also an important part of Indian culture. One of the revered deities in the pantheon of Indian deities is Hanuman-ji, the monkey god. He plays a critical role in the Indian epic story Ramayana which is a historic part of Indian and Hindu culture and folklore.

One time we were in southern Rajasthan visiting the fantastic Jain temples in the jungle at Ranakpur and when we were leaving a Langur decided to hitch a ride with us:

He stayed with us for a couple of miles and then apparently bored of the ride and jumped off.

I can see why there's a whole thread dedicated to keeping monkeys off your vehicles .

Another time we were staying in a Heritage Hotel in Neemrana (in India, Heritage Hotels are ancient forts or palaces converted to hotels) and I went outside in the morning to explore the fort and a monkey decided that I was not to pass. Never having had a monkey challenge me before, I wasn't sure what to do. He was a big one and stared me down until a hotel employee came along and shooed him away.

Another time while exploring the ancient fort at Ranthambore a monkey ran up behind me and tried to take my phone out of my pocket (he did not succeed).

Not all monkeys all trouble though, this photo was taken at the Hindu temple at the ancient ruined city of Hampi in Karnataka. Swami-ji (in saffron) feeds the monkeys cookies every morning and invited me to join him. These are the friendly monkeys there, the ones with lighter color faces (none are in the photo) are very mischievous.

Hampi BTW is right across the river from the mythical Kishinda of Ramayana fame, which is where Hanuman-ji is from, so the monkeys in Hampi (as they are in many places in India) are revered as descendants of his.

At my house here in upstate NY, deer are the main pests but at least they don't sit on my Jeeps. These are the worst pests I've had sit on my Jeeps here...

I guess I'd prefer turkeys to having monkeys all over the place.

More than you ever wanted to know about monkeys in India I'm sure. Back to more Mahindras in the next post...

 

[jscherb]

I included a photo of my Wrangler pickup in the last post, which reminded me of this image: Indians have two pickup choices and we only have the Gladiator.

I had to build my own pickup because at the time (14 years ago) Jeep didn't offer a pickup and now that they have realized that people like pickups, why can't Jeep offer us a 2-door pickup?

Mahindra has been making 2- and 4-door pickups for many years.

 

[shays4me]

I had to build my own pickup because at the time (14 years ago) Jeep didn't offer a pickup and now that they have realized that people like pickups, why can't Jeep offer us a 2-door pickup?

Mahindra has been making 2- and 4-door pickups for many years.

I have thought that if I could ever find a CJ10a tug at a reasonable price I'd build me a pickup like this one!

 

[jscherb]

I have thought that if I could ever find a CJ10a tug at a reasonable price I'd build me a pickup like this one!

As the builder of several pickups (one based on a CJ-7/8 and two based on TJs, allow me a few comments on the CJ-10a...

To me the CJ-10a is less than idea for a daily driver. Not to mention the FSJ-based frame and the outdated Nissan SD33 3.3L diesel, the cab is extremely tight to be comfortable for the average person as a daily driver. Check out how close the rear wall of the cab is to the back of the door:

If you've got a CJ, YJ or TJ, go look at how far behind the door the back of the seat is for comfortable driving.

I used a CJ-10a cab back wall for my Wrangler pickup, and I lengthened the sides quite a bit to arrive at a comfortable cab size:

I lengthened it to match both the Brute hardtop and the Gr8Tops XTop hardtop length, and Gr8Tops lent me a hardtop to test on the pickup while I was building my hardtop.

If the concern is shortening the tub, that's affordable and fairly easy to do with a fiberglass panel from Dinoot; they also provide instructions for the conversion.

And if the hardtop is the issue, a Gr8Tops XTop is easy to fit, or if you're working with a CJ, the early CJ hardtops are easy to modify into a half cab. The hardtop on the CJ-based pickup in the foreground was cut down from a factory full hardtop:

Or, with a little sewing and a few mods the factory soft top frame, a factory Sunrider top can be converted into a half cab...

I'm partial to TJ conversions, I've put almost 100,000 miles on mine since the conversion 15 years ago and I've enjoyed the relatively modern features of the TJ (as might be compared to the primitive CJ-10a).

But to each his own, quite a few CJ10a owners have done pickup conversions.

I do like the overal proportions and design of the Mahindra 2-door pickup though, I think their designers did a really nice job on it.

 

[shays4me]

I'm partial to TJ conversions, I've put almost 100,000 miles on mine since the conversion 15 years ago and I've enjoyed the relatively modern features of the TJ (as might be compared to the primitive CJ-10a).

Hmm. I do have a TJ sitting out behind the chicken shed that is currently doing nothing........