New Mahindra Thar wades across a river without a snorkel but should you do it?

Mahindra Thar is currently one of the most popular and talked about 4×4 SUV in the country. Mahindra launched all-new Thar in the market last year and now it is one of the most popular 4×4 SUV in the market. It is became so popular that there is a waiting period of almost an year on this SUV. It is currently the most affordable 4×4 SUV one can buy in the country and that is one of the reason behind its rising demand. We have already seen several off-road videos of new Mahindra Thar on the internet. Here we have a video where a Thar crosses a river without snorkel or any other modifications.

The video has been shared by Sagar Chavan on Thar 2020 Official owner’s group on Facebook. In this video, a Mahindra Thar is seen on the other side of the river. Driver approaches the river carrying decent speed and plunges into the muddy river. The water level in the river was high and the current seems to be fast as well. Mahindra entered the river and it had water over the headlights. Half of the car was under the water and the river current can be seen trying to push the Thar away. 

Luckily, driver was able to drive the car and he drove to the other side. It looks like the river had a rocky bottom. If it was dirt, then the driver might have been in deep trouble as driving a car out of a muddy river with fast currents will be challenge and dangerous too. Even in this video, the driver can be seen struggling a bit before getting back to land. The Mahindra Thar seen in this video looks in stock form and for a stock vehicle the performance was quite impressive.

The driver crossed the river without any modifications but, that does not mean everyone should do the same. What the driver did here with the Thar was impressive but, we do not recommend doing it. He should have at least installed a snorkel on his Thar before doing this activity. Modern day cars have several electronic sensors in them. These sensors can go bad or stop working if them come in contact with too much water.

Also read: Buying a pre-owned Mahindra Thar is better than buying a new one: 5 reasons

Another problem is the air intake, if you are doing water crossing in your SUV in stock form, the filter cannot pump much air to the engine as it is going under water. If you have a snorkel, it will make sure that the engine is air intake remains uninterrupted. If you are not using a snorkel, the chances of getting water droplets to the engine are quite high.

As mentioned above, modern day cars have several sensors and if the engine senses water entering the engine, it will immediately turn the vehicle off to protect it from further damage. It is called hydrolocking and once this happens you will have to get to a nearest service station and get all the water out from the engine. This is an expensive and time consuming process. If the car had stopped while trying to cross the river, the Thar could have been washed away by the fast flowing river. So, it is always recommended to make some modifications to vehicle if it planned to go off-road.

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