Ford Endeavour, Tata Harrier and Mahindra Thar tackle off road obstacles

Off-roading is an adventure sport that is still struggling to find a grip in India. Even though, we Indians love SUVs, very few people have had the guts to explore the real capabilities of their SUVs. In several parts of the country, we now have groups which is lead by experienced off-roaders who help such SUV owners to explore the off-road capabilities of their vehicles. We have seen several videos of SUVs having fun in dirt, sand and rocky terrains. Here we have one such video that shows a group of SUV owners driving SUVs on a mud road.

The video has been uploaded by A K Sahu on his Youtube channel. The video starts by showing a group of SUVs which include couple of Mahindra Thar and Ford Endeavour and a Tata Harrier being driven on a mud road. There is a track however, the track is full of mud which is quite a challenging terrain to drive it you don’t have the right SUV.

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Later in video, the group comes across a tricky section where the Mahindra Thar easily sails through whereas the Ford Endeavour struggles a bit and Tata harrier gets stuck couple of time before clearing it. The Thar made it look very easy whereas the two SUV that were following it struggled. Why did that happen?

There are several factors involved in this. one of the main thing is experience. If the driver is experienced with the terrain, he can handle the vehicle pretty easily. Coming to the video, why Thar smoothly cleared the stretch was because of its short wheelbase and high ground clearance. The Mahindra Thar is one of the best off-road 4×4 SUV one can buy at an affordable price tag. It comes with a proper low ratio transfer case and that along with its short wheelbase makes sure that it doesn’t get stuck anywhere.

The Ford Endeavour without any doubt is a great SUV with off-road capabilities but, here in this case, the long wheelbase and weight of the SUV worked against it. The trail was quite muddy and because of the long wheelbase and quite heavy as well. Due to this reason Endeavour was getting beached at places. Even then, it managed to come out of it without much drama.

Talking about Tata Harrier, we would say that, it was not the best idea to take Harrier off-roading because, it is a front wheel drive crossover and not a proper SUV. Harrier is not offered with 4WD or AWD options. The power is just sent to the front wheels which is why it was struggling get out of the muddy section. it even got stuck couple of times. People pushed Harrier back and then after couple of runs, the harrier crossed the section.

Even though, Tata Harrier comes with terrain response system, it is of no use in such a situation as the power is just sent to the front wheels only. Even the tyres paly a vital role in off-roading. SUVs going for such activities should at least have All-terrain tyres.  It is always recommended to go out in groups while off-roading. That is because, if in case one of the vehicle gets stuck, at least there will be a back up vehicle to winch him out.

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