Most important upgrade for old Thar: Free wheeling hubs. A 5 minute upgrade can make your Thar much more reliable. Also included some Desert offroading with Isuzu V-Cross, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Ford Endeavour 3.0 LT.
Problem is most people put grease inside the hubs and hence they become less dependable. The one that was removed was all greasy inside. Use ATF ONLY to lubricate - they will work like a clock
Sharingy personal experience, auto lock hub are one of best designs from Mahindra. The only down side is none of the dealers have a clue of what it is. It. Needs cleaning every 2 years or 40k. And is fairly simple and straight forward. Remove the hub, clean with wd40 until the gunk is out, then rinse and blow dry. Then squirt one tea spoon all purpose grease on the male end of the spline and pour power steering oil inside the hub and put it back. That's it. But, Like i said, none of the dealers have a clue on what it even is.
Unfortunately for offroading in Sand they dont last 40k, even for cars maintained through their own service stations, maybe they dont have a clue to open and clean. But manual hubs are simpler and have more added advantages, even getting Aisin free wheeling hubs for my Isuzu from Australia.
Very interesting video and useful too. I wish to instal these on my Thar 2016 model. Right side coupler broke off sometime back. Kindly share address or contact number to buy these hubs
