Gurkha’s body shell is very well made and resembles a modern G-class or Land Rover Discovery; paint protection could have been better though.
BHPian PhantomLord recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Gurkha’s body shell is very well made, resembles modern G-class or Land Rover Discovery; paint protection could have been better though. Component placements are similar to Mercedes-Benz.
Older discovery and G-Class shell
Newer discovery and G-class shell
Gurkha’s shell is covered with foam everywhere except for rear, so you have do with poor quality pic.
Frame and suspension of BS6 Gurkha is close to Toyota than Mercedes-Benz. Suspension setup is very similar to Fortuner, which coincides with similar ground clearance and braking (Drum brakes) issues. Except for front and rear sway bars which are mounted similar to Land cruiser or other Toyota trucks. Lower ball joints use similar bolt attachment, most of Toyota suspension mods should be transferable ?
FortGurkha ? Lower control arm, shocks, pan rod and mounts look very similar to Toyota trucks.
Gurkha looks to have similar design and length of front crumple (51120) member, it tapers down in width and height like Toyota, but it is not separate part like in Toyota. Crumple indents end at about 12″ and member continues till rear of LCA. Fortuner chassis for comparison.
Mercedes-Benz G-class frame for comparison, it has larger and longer crumple member, note the C-IN-C within C-IN-C and internal spacer (Gurkha has same style internal spacer through out the Frame) and C-IN-C within C-IN-C can be found in rear axle area)
Gurkha’s frame longitudinal member is 3 piece, font and rear pieces hold front and rear axles. At the end of center piece, transfer case is mounted. I guess 5 door chassis would only need swapping center piece. Center piece is C-IN-C within C-IN-C slotted into front and rear pieces with larger asymmetrical overlap and welded, yielding rigid and strong joints. I think Gurkha SWB could be one of stiffest chassis in the country. Sway bars are real thick adding to suspension stiffness, looks even thicker than ones used in Toyota KDSS systems. Rear outer wheel easily looses traction in tight corners, small mound can get rear wheel to spin freely without diff lock.
Steering shaft system looks similar to Ford F150, but Gurkha has single long shaft with a joint at each ends. Steering is sharp and light for the size, its unforgiving in narrow twisty roads, rigid chassis makes it behave like brick even when rear hits an edge. If you have driven Gurkha in narrow roads with broken edges you don’t need to second guess possible reason for Sandakphu incident. I think recirculating ball bearing steering would have been more relaxing and safe.
