Sunday, June 7, 2009

The 550 goes to its first OTR



I took the 550 to its 1st OTR on 31st May, 09.
The weather couldn't have been any better. It was raining the entire night and I was hoping that the OTR won’t be canceled.
SMS'ed the MODS early morning and received the confirmation that the OTR was
on!!!

I was out of my house at 5 and at the OTR venue at 5.30. The drive was great and the engine temperature was below 60 for the entire drive to Gurgaon. By 6am everybody was in and we were off.

At the meetup point



Randeep and Me





Me & Shashank






THE OTR

The sky was overcast and remained so till almost at the end of the OTR. Everyone couldn’t help thanking the weather gods.

The performance of the MM550 was great. The vehicle din't heat up. I wouldn't be sure whether it was because of the good weather or what. But hey I am not complaining ;-)
Did quite a lot of obstacles and it din't let me down anytime. The tyres also preformed great, but again din’t do a lot of sand and the terrain we guys did was rock, vegetation, thorny shrubs and the likes. The sandy terrain was miniscule. So will have to reserve my verdict but on the above terrain the performance of the tyres were great.

While on the way back too it had become quite sunny but the temperature stayed at 80 degrees, but rose to 90 at the toll plaza where we had start & stop traffic and the stop time was about 15 minutes. So I guess that this is OK.
Another thing I have observed is that When I drive around 60-65 km/hr the temperature is around 80 degrees, but if I drive in the range of 70-80 km/hr the temperature reaches 85 degrees. Is this normal?


Pictures of the OTR



Regrouping before the accent


Me, Aditya,
(dont know the name), Ankit. Shashank & Saif





Me & Ankit






Lineup before the accent











Shashank trying to get a better look




Randeep at the wheel of 550, negotiating an obstacle








Randeep, me and Naveen




Regrouping post OTR



MODS on the 550

  • I still haven’t fixed the number plates and due to the rain on the 31 the front printout on paper had worn out quite a lot. I am still in a dilemma whether to get it painted or get those reflective types, the ones that we get in cars etc. Also I am not able to decide the placement of the number plates. Any advise suggestions!!!
  • I removed the blackout lamps from the fenders and in it place mounted reverse light. In my opinion the blackouts were of no major use, and I find these better. The new lights have been wired with the parking lights and look cool.
  • Got the reverse light wiring done. The reverse light now works automatically when the reverse gear in engaged. Might get a bigger lamp in its place.
  • Also I am thinking of removing the rear bench seats. No problem or issues though. I wanted to do this as the 550 has a very large blind spot and thought if the sides are rolled up and the seats not there, It might look better and blind spot hindrance will be solved. Also as nobody ever sits in the back, I can sell these and put a front facing bench seat if required.
  • Bought the D Hooks and given them for painting
  • I haven’t added any foglamps on the front bumper. What I was thinking was if I add one or two pair of the same reverse lights either on top of the windshield or on the bumper, will it look good. I plan to wire it with the blackout switch. The Fogs will cost me anywhere between couple of thousand bucks and these reverse lights will cost couple of hundred bucks. So even if I don’t like it later on I can always loose these and add the fogs later.
  • Changed the inside cabin light to a high wattage bulb.
That’s it for now



Some more shots













There are many more pictures of the OTR at Picasa web.

To access please
visit here


The complete writeup and ownership experience has been documented
here

My Other Blog www.jeepcj3b.blogspot.com

1 comment:

  1. Dear Pal,

    Indeed good to read your feedback. I am also planning to buy an MM550. Wanted your help to check about the availability of spares. I happened to hear that spares of this vehicle are a serious problem in Delhi as these are out of production. Would be grateful in case you could furnish any info on this.

    Rgds/Rajesh

    ReplyDelete