What is Jugaad?

What is a Car? Any metallic frame on four wheels or anything which can shuttle a person from one place to another. Or it can also be a specially designed structure wherein people can run their business. Well, it can be anything and my reason for mentioning all this in the first place is because this article is related to an engineering marvel in northern India.

We know that modification is in the blood of car enthusiasts and all this hard labor is done to either attract others or to use them for an important purpose. But you must be thinking that modification can only be done on a manufactured car, right? No, it’s not like that.

There is something very famous here in India which is not very pleasant looking to your eyes and owned by many farmers and small vendors, i.e. ‘Jugaad’. The vehicle you’re seeing in the image is that one great example where you don’t need a manufactured car to modify, but require some iron rods, a generator(pump set), a gearbox, a four sets of wheels, a maniac to assemble all these parts together and of course a daring driver to drive this crazy and amazing object.

Why I called it amazing is because of its simple assembly design and low maintenance cost. They’re usually designed and manufactured in UP and generally used by people who are involved in making sugarcane juice. Because these vendors can easily (not so easily though) transport their juicy business to different markets. Apart from juice it can also be used to carry agricultural loads or commuting people in rural areas. These are majorly used by farmers of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab because in these particular stats you can find tractors and trucks equipped with expensive music system and killer wheels.

For some technical geeks these engines (generators) are of 500 cc which generates 10 to 12 HP and mated to 3 or 4 speed gearbox. It can run on diesel or on kerosene or a mixture of both. Well to an utter surprise some of these jugaads doesn’t have any reverse gear and a speedometer is also an expensive option. Maximum speed is 60 to 70 km/h and on the top of that one should never ask for its papers from the owners because it doesn’t have any or say doesn’t need any.

Also there’s no seat belt in these jugaads because seat is made up of a wooden plank and placement is done at such a position that driver can enjoy the full 360 degree view of the road. I didn’t have the chance to drive one of those and that is why I can’t tell you exactly how does it feel to drive but it sure is crazy. My intention to write this article is not to abolish or remove these things from the road by sharing their deformities. But, one thing is for sure that they’re still a good source of income for many people in India. I want to share this information so that next time if you encounter one of those than you can tell others that it is a ‘Jugaaaaad’.