A Slushy Half-day OTR with JeepThrills

The JeepThrills team had planned a day event at the Bidaraguppe lake near Sarjapur. The lake bed presents quite a challenging obstacle course for the 4x4s while the risk of breakage is relatively lower since it's all mud. This time around it was a smaller group with about 7-8 vehicles with a healthy mix of Jeeps and Gypsies.



I had done a similar OTR in 2013 and you can read up on it here (Sunday Morning OTR - Bidaraguppe Lake).



However, if you look at the picture above, the last time we came here, it was summer and everything was dry. But this time it was very different. The whole place had transformed into a green shrub forest with slushy tracks all around.



There were small water bodies all across and we had a good time with this one where it was only a few gypsies that made it through with their high revving engines and light weight bodies.





All the jeeps just sank in the mud at the exit, including mine!



There was a lot of recovery that had to happen and the winch came in good use.





The next obstacle was a climb through a slushy incline and this is where the Jeeps could do it more easily than the Gypsies because of the low range torque.



The gypsies needed to be revved hard and taken through without losing momentum and that means there's a lot more tossing around that happens as compared to the jeeps.



Overall it was quite a fun day with a challenging trail and a lot of recoveries. Good thing was that there were no breakdowns and everyone made home safely. The weather too was cloudy and cool all through the afternoon which made it a pleasure to be outdoors. 

PS: Unfortunately, I hadn't carried my camera for this event so all I got was some phone camera pics. All images used in this post are shot by Caleb Shireesh Jacobs and are reproduced/reprocessed with his permission.

Jeepers of Bangalore OTR at Hoskote

It was more than a month since the Yercaud trip and quite a few folks were eager to go out for a day OTR. So when the announcement came for it, the attendee list was already quite long. The venue was going to be somewhere around Hoskote which is hardly 20-25 kms from my place. One of the JoB guys had done a recce and had promised us a good mud trail for about half a day, and what a day it was!



Although it was a weekend, Gozu was out for some offsite meeting, and that meant Pozu had to come along with me for the event. The little one was all excited about going offroad after a relatively long break and was eagerly looking forward to the day.



The turnout was quite good for the event and we had over 15 jeeps in the convoy. Within 10 mins of reaching the spot, we had finalized our first obstacle. The first part was an entry into a ditch and then a sharp right turn with a two-step climb to reach the top. There were a couple of tree stumps at the top which had to be avoided to prevent any underbody damage.

Part 1 - Getting into the ditch



The stock T-fort needed some help to make sure the foot boards don't get bent while going into the ditch.



Part 2 - Coming out of it





The SUVs made it up without a fuss, most of the jeeps made it fairly easy with the low range torque at hand



Some had a bit of drama although nothing sensational



The gypsies needed a bit of hard revving to get past



Pozu was strapped in her seat and we were ready for our turn. She was initially nervous but soon that changed into excitement and thereon it was only about what next obstacle were we going to try.



Next up was a small water crossing through a grassy patch.



This was a pretty easy obstacle and nobody seemed to be having any trouble getting through. So to make matters interesting, once I reached the end, I did the obstacle in reverse and again forward. The thought was to dig it up a bit and make it more challenging. And, it worked. The next jeep after mine had his wheels spinning and eventually had to be winched out - my first recovery of the day.



A little ahead we had a small technical problem with a jeep and a tree stump. Now Sidhu's jeep has a bit of history of getting stuck on tree stumps, so this wasn't anything very unusual.



The recovery team took some time to get his jeep out of the mess and soon we were on to our third obstacle. It was a reasonably steep decline with a 2 feet drop at the end. It wasn't going to be too difficult for the jeeps because of the reasonably good breakover angles but the long wheel base SUVs wouldn't have made it without risking underbody damage.

A view of the obstacle with the Jonga



The jeep guys ofcourse had quite a bit of fun with a good test for articulation (or the lack of it) as they got down. I had the right rear wheel in the air as usual and that made for some good photo opportunity.





Good thing was that there was another way out which wasn't as dramatic, so the SUV guys could take that for a safe exit. But Santy's Pajero can even make the safe exits equally interesting.



Pozu was enjoying herself thoroughly all this while, she had made friends with Tejas who was now nicknamed "naughty uncle". He did a splendid job of babysitting her while I was busy with other things.



Being a lake bed, we were all wanting to try our hands with some slush and it didn't take time to get a couple of jeeps swimming in a small pond as soon as we spotted it. But it wasn't going to be easy, the lake bed has been mined for clay for quite some years. So what they had gotten themselves into was a clay pit and there was no way that they were going to make it out by themselves.



First it was Teju's Thar that got stuck and the mighty Pajero went in for a rescue only to realize that he himself was stuck. Both of them had to be winched out to safety.



Next it was me who got stuck while trying to be a little ambitious through the slush and had to winch myself out with help from the Jonga for an anchor. But the favor was returned quickly as he got stuck while attempting to cross that clay pond and had to be winched out.



Not learning from any of our ordeals, KVK got his MM550 in as well, only to get helplessly stuck right in the middle of the pond. That's the thing about Jeepers, they just won't give up trying until they've had  a go...LOL!

Anyway, the getting stuck and being recovered cycle was finally put to an end and it was time for some refreshments before heading back home. Lunch was at our favorite Sher-e-Punjab dhaba and we were back home just in time for a birthday party that Pozu was invited to. Overall, it was quite an eventful day with loads of fun! 

PS: Images that aren't watermarked are sourced from the JoB facebook group, copyrights belong to the original owners.

Sunday Morning OTR - Bidaraguppe Lake

Post the Chennai event in March which was more like a teaser, I wanted to go out and practice a little more by myself, but a newbie off-roader like me should  never go out alone. Having some company always helps in boosting your confidence and allows you to stretch a little more than what you'd do alone. So the plan was discussed with my jeep buddies and the location was finalized to be the Bidaraguppe lake in Sarjapur. The terrain is a dry lake bed with a lot of ditches and mud, the chances of getting stuck in mud were moderate but the risk of damage was not going to be very high. But as with every great plan, even ours didn't really take off.

One fine morning, I saw a FB update by Dwarak sir checking for participation for a Sunday morning OTR at Bidaraguppe. That did it, I instantly said yes! Even though most folks were busy that weekend, I did have Abhay confirm that he'd join me so the plan was still on.

About 12 jeeps were in attendance for the event with 2-3 marshal jeeps. We started off with some quick breakfast on Sarjapur road and then drove to the entry point of the lake bed off the highway. We had a couple of marshals from the BODA club I guess, that helped in keeping the group regulated through the obstacle course while Dwarak sir captained the whole group. A quick briefing was done for the do's and don'ts since there were quite a few first-timers as well. Soon after, we were all trying out different entries and exits in the various ditches across the lake bed. I was amazed to see how easily Dwarak sir could identify possible routes which looked difficult at the outset but once the marshal vehicle did it, there was no holding back for any of us. 

The first course was tried with various different combinations entry and exit points and my Thar performed flawlessly all through. There were a few jeeps that struggled a bit since they missed following the marshal's instructions but no major issues were reported. 

Moreover, there were enough and more people to help in pushing and rocking the jeeps out of a sticky situation. 

The terrain was pretty harsh with thick growth of thorny Babul trees (Prickly Acacia) all over the place. Since there were no marked trails, one had to navigate through these trees every now and then. You could hear screeching sounds as the jeeps got scratched by the huge thorns. Despite my doubts, the soft top took all of it quite well. I still think it will be time to replace the soft top in about a year from now. By then, it would have suffered enough abuse to retire gracefully.

Next up, we did some trail driving through a large rut in the ground with uneven surfaces on both sides to reach the next obstacle. 

This one was where the entry point was nothing short of a 60-degree nose-dive to get inside the 15 feet deep cavity and then there was a right turn which was more like an articulation pit followed by a mound where it was more than likely to beach the jeep if there wasn't enough momentum. 

But what was more interesting was the exit point where it was impossible to come out without having the front wheels in the air for a short while. The strategy was very simple, the situation demanded enough momentum to get the jeep over the edge and pushed a little further by virtue of the short flight and then once the front tires are on the ground, you could gain traction to pull yourself out from the ditch. There was only one problem though, the first two successful attempts were made by the gypsies. They in any case would fly over obstacles because of the lighter weight and lack of articulation when compared to jeeps. 

Only four vehicles attempted this and the only other jeep that did apart from me had gotten royally stuck with a broken clutch even before the exit point. Surprisingly, it came out of the ditch with the help of a veteran offroader who demonstrated how you can conquer difficult terrain with the jeep even with broken essential components.

I was mentally prepared to make the Jeep fly at the exit point and the first 2-3 attempts were pretty scary yet exciting. Each time the front tires lifted off the ground, the jeep would get thrown towards the right and land on the extreme end of the exit. I was not sure if this was because of the angle of my approach or something that I had no control over, but the cause of concern was a small rut at the right-most edge of the exit which was where I was landing after the first bounce. Eventually, on the 4th attempt, my front right tire hit hard in the rut on the right and deflated fully putting an end to my future attempts. 

I was worried whether it was a tire burst since that meant a big bill, but a more logical explanation was that as the jeep landed the right tire got squeezed inside the small rut releasing all the air instantaneously. Anyway, it wasn't going to be easy changing the tire inside the ditch even with the hi-lift jack and so we decided to winch the jeep out with the flat tire. The winch proved its worth yet again and I was out of the situation in no time. Another jeeper bro helped in changing the wheel and I was ready to hit the road in less than 15 mins. 

It was already a little past lunch time and everybody was wrapping up. We bade goodbye to everyone and made our way to the exit. The only thought in my mind was to check the tire for any signs of damage and hope for the best!

Bengaluru Annual OTR 2013 - Maiden Off-roading Experience With The Jeep

By the time it was January, there was enough and more been done on the Jeep already and it was time to put everything to test. The Bangalore Annual OTR was the right event to start the off-road journey with the jeep. This was a two day even scheduled around the Republic Day to allow for folks to come from all around Bangalore and the neighboring states to enjoy the event. It was being conducted at the WRAC property in Banerghatta and the adjoning quarry area.

I had watched some of the videos from the last year event, and this event was definitely not going to be a cake walk. There was a lot of discussion around how the Bangalore events are very technical in nature and can be a jeeper's nightmare, if proper precautions are not taken. Being my first OTR, I wasn't sure if this was the most appropriate event to begin with, but then what’s the point in having a Jeep and not pushing it to the limits! 

Since about a week or two before the OTR, I was having an issue with the brakes. The brake pedal used to just lose all the pressure and sink it like it were dead. A quick visit to the Mahindra service center revealed that it was due to a leakage in the brake line. I was told that the problem was taken care of. Little did I know that it was not fixed entirely and it would haunt me again during the OTR (more on this later). Dealing with the Mahindra folks can really rise your blood pressure at times, may be that's what their tag line suggests...Mahindra Rise! But there's hardly anything you can do about it, at least in the first year you have to rely on them for servicing. The good thing about my visit to the ASC was that I met Tejas & Tejas who were planning to attend the OTR, so now I had atleast a couple of folks I knew at the event. 

The event was scheduled to begin with the registrations on Thursday evening followed by two full days of off-roading to end the whole crazy affair on Saturday evening. At the event I again met Tejas who was at the service center on the previous day and he then introduced me his other friends. The settling in time on Thursday actually helped me in finding a nice group who gladly accepted me to join their convoy for the next two days. As a newbie, this was a very good thing since at a lot of places the encouragement by the fellow jeepers kept me going where I’d probably not have dared to those obstacles alone. Thank you fellas!

There were a lot of groups that kept pouring in that night, and the celebrations went on till quite late in the night for most of them. But I was tucked away nicely in bed by 11 pm with the alarm set up for 5 in the morning. The organizers had done a splendid job of arranging accommodation and food for about 200 odd folks that night and going by that I was sure that the next 2 days were going to be equally enjoyable.  

The next day began early and most of the folks were up and busy with morning chores by about 6.30AM. The event was scheduled to begin at 8AM, but we’re in India and nobody starts on time here. I was expecting the flag off to happen at 10AM, and so it did. The late start was actually not a bad thing though. We had pretty much the whole day to go around in the jeep and we were probably going to drive around for 20-25kms overall, that’s it!

Given that there were 100 jeeps in total, there were 4 routes planned and each were supposed to host roughly 25 vehicles. Preferences were given to those who had come in groups so that people aren’t separated out from their groups. This was done even if that meant a little bit of give and take on the size limitation of 25 vehicles per route. It was actually very thoughtful of the organizers since it gave people an opportunity to hang out with their friends all through the trail. Every group had to complete two trails by the evening and we were assigned Trail 4 and Trail 1 to begin the day. 

Trail 4 was mostly rocky and needed a lot of skill in ensuring that your tyres are climbing over specific rocks so that there is no underbody damage. Also, one had to take real good care of the speed while mounting and dismounting over large boulders so as to avoid damage to the vehicle. The first two obstacles were a little scary since this was the first time I was trying out something like this. But after that, it was more of fun than anything else. I was slowly getting a hang of it. If you followed the directions from the marshals, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. 

There was this one place where were negotiating our way through a lot of rocks and climbing up a hillock. There was barely enough place for the four tyres to be on the ground at the same time and at one point. My jeep was stuck with the cross member resting on a huge rock, the tyres had no traction. After a couple of attempts, the 4WD failed to engage and there was no way I could come out of that situation on my own. I didn’t know what to do, neither did the marshal until a recovery vehicle arrived. I was hoping this shouldn’t be how it ends for me. If the 4x4 stopped working, there was no way I could go any further and the only thing to do was to retire and tow the jeep to the service center. I wasn't convinced that the jeep would breakdown that easily, but you never know!

One of the marshals helped in pulling my jeep behind with his Force Gurkha using a tow strap. Once I was out of those rocks, I was a happy man again! The 4x4 engaged perfectly once the jeep was out. It looked like the 4x4 couldn't engage because the jeep was beached on the rock right where the transmission components are located. 

The rest of the trail was pretty uneventful and I could finish all through without issues. 

Post lunch we moved on to Trail 1 which was a fun trail with all the slush elements. There was this first obstacle of climbing a 45deg incline where I took atleast 5-6 attempts. It wasn't a very difficult looking climb, all you needed was momentum to make it up there. There were huge rocks on the right as you exited the climb which had to be avoided at any cost. Too fast and you'd probably bang the jeep on those rocks, too slow and you'd be eating mud that the tyres would throw at you as they spun without any traction. 

Second Low was the call. All I had to do was start the run-up in second gear and throttle it out fully till I tipped over the edge of the climb. What was happening in reality was, I was letting go of the accelerator once I was halfway through the climb thus getting stuck each time. By the end of the third attempt, there were locals who were betting on whether I’m going to make it or not. Finally, I did make it, but not without breaking the front fender. I guess I had a hard landing on the front wheels in the penultimate attempt which hit the fender on the tyres. This was the first of the battle scars on the jeep, I wasn't too worried, it had happened while doing exactly what I bought the jeep for.

After the rather embarrassing first obstacle, it was time to go through some slush pits.  I was enjoying it. There was this one place where I was given a choice. Attempt a slush that nobody had made it through, or take a relatively easier path and make it without assistance. I chose the former and finally got winched out at the end, the slush was just a little too much for anyone to handle. Getting winched was a good thing too, it was on my checklist of things to experience before I ordered winch for myself. After crossing this dreaded slush pit, there was a section that involved water fording and slush which was quite a bit of fun. 

The first day had ended and all of us were really tired, even though it was the jeeps who had done most of the work. That evening, I came back home to be with Pozu. She was pretty upset when she found out that I had gone out to the jungle without taking her. It actually helped to be home that night since I could have a nice warm water bath followed by a very relaxed sleep. Next morning, I came to know that the camp site was buzzing until the wee hours of the morning with people singing and dancing together. It was pretty evident since today the progress in the morning was rather slow.

It was Republic Day and the organizers had announced that we’d have some R-Day celebrations before we headed out to the trails. This also meant that we’d be starting a bit late, ie. 11AM. 

After the flag hoisting ceremony, everybody was herded to the parking lots and soon people were off into the wild again. Today we were scheduled to do Trail 3 and Trail 2.

Trail 3 began pretty okay but there were some very technical sections. It was absolutely necessary to have faith in the marshals and keep following their directions to the tee. I made through this section pretty okay without any damage, but this was not the case with everyone in the group. There were reports of physical damage here and there, but nothing major to be worried about. We finished the trail a little ahead of time and were able to get about an hour and half for lunch atop a hill. 

If Trail 3 was technical, then Trail 2 could be called "highly" technical. There were some very challenging obstacles in this trail and at one of these obstacles, a jeep almost ran off the tracks. The accident wasn't really because of the trail though, that jeep had a brake problem and the owner still decided to take it down the steep incline. Luckily, there were no injuries or major damage to the vehicle. After about a 30 minute recovery effort, the jeep was slowly rolled down the path. This is when my confidence went down with my brakes. They had failed me once at an incline while climbing up and I got saved that time because there was enough time for me to respond. This wasn’t the place I could take a risk with them. It was a steep decline which a U-turn at a very tight spot, there was no margin for error. After a lot of deliberation, I finally backed out from doing this obstacle. I had to tell myself, this is my first OTR, I had already done a lot of things I never imagined before, so skipping on thing shouldn't be a big deal. 

At the end of the Trail 2, we were headed back to the resort for some quick snack before dispersing back to our homes. These two days were really enriching for me to understand the Thar’s abilities off the road and really enjoy it to the fullest.

Overall, this was a really nice and crazy event where I officially graduated to be an off-roader! 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Most of the images used in this post (non-watermarked) are sourced from the BAOTR event page on Facebook. These have been shared on a public forum prior to me posting them here and thus I'm hoping that nobody would really be concerned about privacy issues. The copyright for all those images belongs to the respective owner and I am using them here only for illustrative purposes only. Being involved in driving throughout the event, I couldn't really capture the action myself and hence am borrowing pics to give an idea of what the terrain was like. Hope the original owners wouldn't mind my "innocent" infringement of their copyrights!

Please reach me at admin@wildzests.com in case there are any objections to the images being used and action will be taken promptly.