FM had also invited me to a Gurkha trail event organized for BS6 customers. I was the only BS4 Explorer customer who was there, it was great interacting with the Gurkha family, and also some first-hand accounts on experiences, the trail was good and ended on top of a hill
BHPian Trojan recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Update :
KMs done: 62K
Years: 5
The Good Year Tyres have now clocked around 26K kms over the last 3 years and have performed really well across a variety of terrains
States Covered / Visited
– Maharashtra
– Goa
– Karnataka
– Madhya Pradesh
– Uttar Pradesh
– Uttarakhand
– Delhi
– Haryana
– Himachal Pradesh (Spiti)
– Rajasthan
I think the above signifies aptly what this vehicle accomplishes for us and the tremendous amount of real-world travel that we do, its still our primary travel vehicle. A couple of places from the above list are 4×4 exclusive, not SUV, not ground clearance, and not power… 4×4 needed period.
We have just returned from a mega road trip of around 4000 km and it has been fun.
Of course, it has its own share of quirks, and I will touch upon those as well
The major issue which cropped up was a broken fan belt, which in the case of the Gurkha means you lose power to the fan (radiator), alternator, power steering and brakes – net net its a scary feeling and one needs to have both good reflexes and presence of mind to avert a mishap. For us it happened on a switchback and luckily, it was around 945pm in a remote part of Uttarakhand, so there were no vehicles, again we were lucky that it happened just 3.5 km from where we were staying so help was close at hand.
Lesson learnt – change the belt once a year during servicing.
But what happened next, the next morning I messaged FM folk, and the team got into action. The nearest FM workshop was around 95 km away at Haldwani, and after ensuring that the correct belt was in stock, they sent the mechanic along with the spare to fix it. Now in the Himalayas, 95km translates to around 3- 3.5 hours of driving one way, and they did that.
This is for a customer who is well out of warranty, and they would have been well within their rights to just arrange for the spare and empathising and advising, but the sheer tenacity shown by the team to follow up and ensure closure shows their commitment towards every single customer.
After coordinating with me on a good number of calls, the belt in question was collected, and the person left from Haldwani at around 10:00 am, reaching the spot at 4:45 pm, completing the change and evaluating other aspects as well, before finally leaving at 5:30pm.
Now this wasn’t from a Gurkha dealership but from an FM commercial workshop, and that they sent a mechanic for support really wowed me.
This is STELLAR service, the feeling of having someone take responsibility and see you through a tough time is priceless. Kudos to FM on this
Now I could rant about the quality of the rubber itself, but since it doesn’t cost much and is a quick job as such, I would rather have it replaced each year for peace of mind.
The other niggling issue is a vibration which creeps in between 90kmph – 105kmph and seems to be coming in from the propeller shaft. Due to the paucity of time I have not been able to have it looked at properly, but definitely there on the cards. It’s annoying as it is bang in the sweet spot of my preferred speed, which is 90- 95 kmph.
And thats it, there are no other gripes and the vehicle continues to perform as expected.
The tyres do emit noise but grip levels are good, tread wear has been balanced, no punctures (touchwood)
Over the last 3 years we have been hauling around our rooftop tent and that I feel took a toll on the rear suspension, on our recent trip with a not so light holiday packing and camera gears plus the 4 of us, the vehicle was a bit nose-up and did bottom out at a few places especially after crossing large speed breakers.
As the usage of the rooftop tent was bare minimum to say the least, decided to remove it and keep it at the camp, where it will be hoisted atop a machan, so we can still make good use of the camping experience (will post pictures once done)
Minus the tent, the vehicle performance has also improved as so has the efficiency.
We did briefly contemplate moving to another vehicle; however, we did not see any major financial sense in letting go of a good vehicle just for the sake of it, hence we have put off that thought for the time being.
FM had also invited me to a Gurkha trail event organized for BS6 customers. I was the only BS4 Explorer customer who was there, it was great interacting with the Gurkha family, and also some first-hand accounts on experiences, the trail was good and ended on top of a hill
Thanks for reading…
Until next time
Cheers
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