Cool Jeeps You Can't Have - Mahindra of India

[jscherb]

Stopped in a Mahindra dealer today to check out the current year Thar since my rental is two years old. I couldn't see any differences between the two. I was hoping to pick up a Thar brochure to add to my collection of Mahindra literature but they told me everything is online these days.

On the way to Jaipur in Rajasthan we made a quick rest stop and I clicked this Bolero Camper. I still don't know why they call it a camper, it has nothing to do with camping. This one I think is in the service of the highway department, seems to be loaded with gear for dealing with highway incidents and obstructions.

And in Jaipur City I spotted this "M38A1" outside of our hotel. I put that in quotes because it's a CJ-5 based Mahindra made up to look like a U.S. military M38A1. It's got an opening windshield which was never a feature of an M38A1.

The interior also gives it away, it's got a Mahindra column and gearshift and obviously not military seats. BTW check the spelling of REFUELING in the lower right corner of the photo.

But it's nicely done nonetheless.

 

[jscherb]

We did the road trip from New Delhi to Jaipur in Rajasthan this weekend. Enjoyed the Thar on the highway and in the local traffic, it's a really nice vehicle for India. My wife wants us to buy one for when we're over there.

On the highway we passed a group of 8 Thars, later we caught up with them at a fuel stop. I talked to them to find out what the convoy was about - it's a local "overland adventure club", which are popping up all over India. This group, and they told me there were about 50 vehicles in the group (not all Thars) was doing an overland adventure to Ranthambore in Rajasthan. At Ranthambore there's a huge medieval fort and the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.

We explored Ranthambore in 2018 and were lucky enough to see tigers both days we ventured into the reserve. We saw an adult female and two year-old cubs. The female came very close to the Maruti Gypsy we were riding in; these are some of the photos I took.

But neither the tigers nor the Maruti Gypsy are about Mahindras, so back on topic... today we spent in Amber, a few miles outside of Jaipur. We visited the Jaigarh Fort (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaigarh_Fort) and the Amber Fort/Palace (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Fort). We had been to the Amber Palace before, we just went there today for lunch and so my better half could visit the temple there. We hadn't been to Jaigarh before and I wanted to see that. But back to the topic - the Amber fort is on a hillside and a bit of a hike to visit. You can get a ride up to the fort and there are literally hundreds of first gen Thars there providing that service. All of them have troop seating in the back for passengers. There are so many of them they create traffic jams to and from the fort. A few quick snaps as we were leaving the fort...

The last time we visited Amber, most of the Jeeps were MM540/550 or CJ3/CJ4 variants. That as 5 years ago, this time there were very few CJ3/CJ4 types and almost all of the Jeeps were badged as Thars but I suspect some of them were MM540/550 models with Thar decals/badges stuck on to "keep up with the Joneses" as we might say in the U.S.

We're heading back to New Delhi tomorrow; I've got more to do at the OO factory, I'll report on that tomorrow.

 

[jscherb]

The other day when I was testing the fit of the OO products in the Thar there were some that fit as-is, a few that needed minor tweaks to fit well, and two Jeep products that needed completely new versions for the Thar. The master and I made patterns that day and they've sewn prototypes to test the design and fit.

The first one is a tailgate panel. In the Jeep world, MOLLE is so common that the tailgate panels OO offers are MOLLE panels, but MOLLE isn't as well used in India as it is in the U.S., so we decided to do a pocket panel. Here's the sample in place on the Thar tailgate.

I like how it looks and works. Do you think something similar would be accepted in the U.S. or is MOLLE the only way to go for the U.S.?

The other thing that needed a Thar-specific version are the door pockets. Thars have very functional door pockets molded into the front side of the door panels, so we designed a door pocket for the rear half of the door. Here's a prototype in place.

Not sure if OO is going to enter the Indian market or if they do will they turn these two prototypes into products, but it was fun designing them and seeing them at least turn into prototypes.

A few months ago I designed a what I'll now call a Multi-Fold MOLLE Kit Bag, mainly for myself, to replace my aging/disintegrating Indian Army toiletry bag (https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/barn-door-for-jk-factory-hardtops.127687/post-3077759).

OO liked it too, so they sewed a few samples. They sewed one sample in tan and one camo just to see how it would look, although if they put it in production it would probably be offered in tan or black like their other products.

Hanging on the bathroom door in my hotel in Jaipur this weekend. It's very handy, all 3 pouches are easily accessible when it's hanging.

It also has MOLLE straps on the back so it can hang anywhere there's MOLLE. I really like it - I'm keeping the camo one for myself as a replacement for my old Indian Army bag in the post linked above. They tell me they're likely to put the bag in production.

 

[shays4me]

The new Thar front bumper has me curious. Is it covering holes in the grill that were once used for turn signals on a former model? It seems like an economical way to reuse an older design grill on your new model with JL style turn signals.

 

[jscherb]

The new Thar front bumper has me curious. Is it covering holes in the grill that were once used for turn signals on a former model? It seems like an economical way to reuse an older design grill on your new model with JL style turn signals.

The second gen Thar is a completely new model, just like the JK was a completely new model from the TJ, so no, there's nothing being hidden. From an aftermarket part site, this is what the grille looks like out from behind the bumper:

We finished with the Thar yesterday, so the rental company came by and picked it up at the end of the day (service like that is common in India). We put about 1000kms on it, mostly on our Rajasthan weekend trip. Definitely enjoyed it, if we spent more time here we'd have one in the driveway for sure.

Spent all of yesterday afternoon helping OO do photos and videos of their products in it. In the process I asked them to make a few minor sewing tweaks to the Storage On the Spare system, which will improve it for Wranglers too.

OO liked the Thar Tailgate Panel so much (photo in my previous post) that they're considering doing a Wrangler version. They've asked me to do a few design drawings for them to consider. Any thoughts on the pockets? Specific gear they might be designed to hold?

 

[shays4me]

Any thoughts on the pockets? Specific gear they might be designed to hold?

I would think that the tailgate is a perfect spot for a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, road flares, etc. I would be interested if I didn’t already have a tailgate table with one of the OO cutlery organizers on it in my jk, but the wife’s is a blank canvas and I might persuade her to get one. She loves their door pockets so those might be in the works as well. Btw, thanks for satisfying my curiosity Jeff!

 

[jscherb]

I would think that the tailgate is a perfect spot for a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, road flares, etc.

Thanks for the input, that's what I was thinking too. I did a very quick sketch without much thought yesterday, I haven't sized any pockets for any of that gear, I was just wanting to see how a Wrangler tailgate pocket panel might look.

Next I'll do some research on the typical size of those items and do a drawing with more thought behind it. The Thar version, for reference:

Btw, thanks for satisfying my curiosity Jeff!

I've been curious about the new Thar since it came out at the beginning of the pandemic and this was my first chance to satisfy my curiosity too. Happy to answer any more questions about it anyone else might have.

BTW I think you're interested in trains, this is off-topic but here's something else I did on this trip... I've done quite a few articles about Indian railways for U.S. and U.K. railroad magazines and I found this interesting crane in the railway museum in Mysore and I couldn't resist documenting it. It's been accepted for publication already, this is the draft I submitted to the magazine:

 

[shays4me]

BTW I think you're interested in trains, this is off-topic but here's something else I did on this trip... I've done quite a few articles about Indian railways for U.S. and U.K. railroad magazines and I found this interesting crane in the railway museum in Mysore and I couldn't resist documenting it. It's been accepted for publication already, this is the draft I submitted to the magazine:

That crane is quite interesting. I can't imagine hand cranking five tons of load with that thing! I'd bet when it was built it was extremely handy though, especially on a meter gauge railway. My employer has several cranes at my location in 2.5, 10 and 20 ton capacity and a person doesn't really think about all the advancements that went into the designs to easily lift such heavy loads when you effortlessly push of a button on a remote control! Thanks for sharing. As far as the train interest, I try to keep it under control or it controls me!

 

[jscherb]

Jaisalmer Expedition Nov 2022...

I went to the Ambience Mall in New Delhi the other day for lunch and spotted a well-equipped Thar in the underground parking with this sticker on the side of the hood:

Curious about it, I searched and found this:


Expedition clubs are sprouting all over the country. On the way to Jaipur we passed a group of 8 Thars on the highway, they were part of a club expedition to Ranthambore (I posted about it the other day).

A Google search reveals many such club expeditions. I don't recall seeing many of this type of expedition here in the U.S. Maybe group runs to an offroad park for a day, but I haven't seen many weekend expeditions like these.

BTW Jaisalmer is a medieval city in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, not far from the Pakistan border. There are commercial desert expeditions available there, either in jeeps or on camels. These photos are from one safari provider's web site:

Safaris are available for one, two or more nights and accommodations are provided in tents like the ones in the photo above. Having ridden camels before, I definitely would choose to do the Safari in a Mahindra Thar . One of these Safaris is definitely on my India Bucket List.

 

[jscherb]

This weekend I'm heading back to the U.S. after 3 weeks in India. It's been a great trip, I spent time in the south in Mysore, time in Jaipur and time in New Delhi. I got to know the Mahindra Thar by renting one and driving it around Delhi and took it on a road trip to Rajasthan. I spent a lot of time at the OO factory helping them get their spring line of new products ready for the U.S. and I designed a few Thar variants of their popular Wrangler products in the event they decide to launch in India (all indications so far are that they intend to launch here).

I helped them get their spring catalog finalized, it's now up to 40 pages and includes 12 pages of new products. This photo shows a proof from the printer, the print run should be within a week and as soon as the catalogs are available in the U.S. I'll post about it in case anyone wants a copy.

I made good use of the Thar, having it enabled me to get a few important details tuned up a bit - this photo was taken outside the OO factory when we first installed the (SOS) Storage On the Spare system on the Thar and the folks in the photo are some of the amazing craftsmen that handcraft all of the OO products.

After final tweaks, I'm very happy with the fit and finish of the SOS products, this photo shows near-final versions on the Thar's 31" spare (31" Stepney to the Indians).

I didn't report on it, but I also got the factory to make a change to some products to work nicely in most years of Cherokees, more on that soon.

I'm looking forward to getting home, I've got a bunch of projects waiting for me, some Jeep, some not. Also have a meeting coming up with Quadratec next Tuesday, those meetings are always interesting. Also definitely looking forward to a juicy cheeseburger .

 

[jscherb]

The Indian Army used M100-style "jeep trailers" just as the U.S. Army did, and like in the U.S., aftermarket companies in India have copied the design and offer similar trailers. Military surplus M100/M416 trailers in the U.S. sell for about $1000, varying of course by condition (most are rusty and dented) and location. How about a brand new one for $735?

There are quite a few companies that make these in India, some are even less expensive.

 

[Zeep]

Maybe you could convince OO to distribute those trailers in the U.S.
Personally, I would prefer one with larger fenders!

 

[jscherb]

Maybe you could convince OO to distribute those trailers in the U.S.
Personally, I would prefer one with larger fenders!

In India these trailers (more commonly called trolleys there) are mostly used in farmer's fields, so large fenders aren't so important. But camp trailers are also made in India, here's one that's advertised for 1.25 lakh rupees (about $1500).

More info here, but you'll have to import one yourself because I won't be suggesting that OO get into this business: https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/jeep-trailers-24284690030.html

 

[jscherb]

I came across this video this morning, it shows one manufacturer's trailer. Prices are RS 50,000 to 60,000 which is about $610 to $735. Seems like a very nice trailer for the price. But I'm sure shipping to the U.S. would cost more than the trailer...

 

[ZONE ZERO]

I came across this video this morning, it shows one manufacturer's trailer. Prices are RS 50,000 to 60,000 which is about $610 to $735. Seems like a very nice trailer for the price. But I'm sure shipping to the U.S. would cost more than the trailer...

I wonder if a group buy would cut the cost im sure if you could fill a cargo container it would be a lot less