Indians For Guns

Hi all,

Coming to talk of 4X4, I havent seen anyone here mention the Jonga. An awesome vehicle in terms of power, people who own it claim that it beats the Gypsy hands down. If anyone has any experience with this machine then tell me your review.

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORC ... Jonga.html

Yash,

When you begin to talk of real off-road ability there is simply NO other Indian made vehicle that can beat the Jonga. It has a rugged and powerful 4 litre petrol engine which beats the pants off pretty much anything else once you get into mud/ sand etc., of course this same 4 litre engine also means that it's a real gas guzzler... do keep in mind the fact that this is a 1950's-60's design - a time when petrol was really cheap. Though most (if not all) the civilian Jongas you are likely to see will have been converted to low powered Diesel engines (due to economic constraints) and therefore their off-road ability will not match up to the original...

If you want to know more about or are generally interested in Jongas/ Nissan Patrols, you might want to sign up on this site - http://groups.msn.com/NissanPatrolClubAlbuquerque

AFAIK the Indian military is no longer purchasing the Jonga and it's production has now been discontinued.... they have been replaced by diesel engined Mahindras - a pretty stupid and short sighted decision if you ask me!

Last but not the least - before someone reads this and scoots off to look for a nice Jonga to buy - the Jonga IS a dated design, it is NOT comfortable AT ALL, it is a B***h to maintain... so not exactly a practical vehicle to own...

Just my $0.02

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Thanks for the info! Yes, definately not looks like a vehicle you would want to own in these times...

I have 1999 VFJ Jonga, it came with the beast HINO W04D engine with turbo removed, the vehicle can go anywhere and climb hills with ease, even with the antiquated 3 speed, as for mileage, I get 17kmpl from it, not bad, considering its a 3 speed.

Hi Django,

Welcome aboard! Whenever you get the time, do post a short introduction of yourself under the "Introductions & Welcomes" section...

I recall seeing only one Leyland Hino engined Jonga, and that was several years ago... IIRC there was some problem with how the engine was mounted, causing the radiator fan to "chew up" the radiator fins over time... How is yours performing? Any problems so far?

The power to weight and torque to weight ratio would be much lower on this one as opposed to the petrol engined version - so would be interesting to know how much "get out of trouble" grunt this engine has...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[Abhijit]The power to weight and torque to weight ratio would be much lower on this one as opposed to the petrol engined version - so would be interesting to know how much "get out of trouble" grunt this engine has...
Cheers!
Abhijeet

HI! Abhijit with the truck Hino motor i dont think the low end -get out of trouble should b any problem cuz the tourque and power output at low end would be phenominal. In fact donno if the powertrain would hold

There was a dude at our farm and he had a TMB engined jonga and the guy used to use it as a automatic gear vehicle -always in third gear u just pep the accelerator and it moved he claimed that the engine handled most of the braking too - just lift ue foot off the accelerator and u didnt nned brakes ! - He did complain about the noise and vibration though . The Hino is a newer generation engine so I expect it should be quieter and more powerful .BTW rode around quiet a bit in Army Jongas with the petrol engines and they had terrific wallop - till they ran out at abt 80kms in third gear and the problem was braking

Hi Abhijit,

The old Nissan 6 cylinder made 145 bhp at crank, the HINO 11 ton engine makes 142bhp in turbo form and 110bhp in n/a form on wheels, not to mention 32kg/m torque at 950rpm, trust me when I say, even with the antiquated tranny, it pulls and pulls good, bear in mind unlike my Gurkha, it has no diff locks or nice low ratio PUCH T case.

Django";p="22508 wrote: Hi Abhijit,

The old Nissan 6 cylinder made 145 bhp at crank, the HINO 11 ton engine makes 142bhp in turbo form and 110bhp in n/a form on wheels, not to mention 32kg/m torque at 950rpm, trust me when I say, even with the antiquated tranny, it pulls and pulls good, bear in mind unlike my Gurkha, it has no diff locks or nice low ratio PUCH T case.

That 32 mkg figure for torque is certainly impressive! That translates into 313.92 Nm = 231.5 ft-lb... in comparison the original petrol engine only makes a max torque of 26.9 mkg = 263.889 Nm = 194.61 ft-lb... even with the increased weight of the diesel engine, not bad at all!! Should give it a nice torque to weight ratio in the upper teens...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

The fun part is the torque comes down real low, thereby permitting excellent tractability off road, sadly the body work and other aspects of Jonga was done quite poorly by VFJ, I spent a week there and what I saq didn't inspire any confidence in me, workers don't work, the Japanese had done total technology transfer but those sheds now remian closed with grass growing, from body panel to chassis work, the Japanese gave them all but they outsource most of the parts and do everything by hand in a very shoddy manner. If it didn't have the HINO engine, I would not be with Jonga, would just add another Gurkha to my collection.

Django,

How about posting a few pictures of your beauties here?

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Here ya go........

Nice rugged looking vehicle.. Can you please post some pics from sides also

Thanks

-Inder