What did you do with your Grenadier today?

I did nothing but I did watch this

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMde-rjZB6U

Click to expand...

Made it a bit darker inside

Things done today:

1. My brother and I installed the rear roof shelf over the weekend and I have been experimenting how to pack the shelf. At present, I am using it to store the Solar Screens, air compressor equipment, Nakatanenga rear Door Air Vents and the Blacksmith Camping firewood carrier. Minimal loss of rear vision due to the shelf.

Here is a photo - the Travel Buddy Oven will be installed on the left side under the shelf after I fit the Anderson plug to the oven.




2. The bed extension is removed while ORS makes some refinements to the design. It did allow me to easily fit the BLE Battery Monitor to the main battery today. I have had the aux battery setup for some time.

3. The Bushman Fridge arrived for the Grenadier and I gave the courier a guided tour of the car.

4. I installed the rear Firestryker extinguisher next to the air compressor cylinder. Brian from ORS suggested the location; and I thought it was a good suggestion, so I used it. You can see the air compressor bracket created a little space between it and the window that I can use for storage. Still working out what to put there. In the image there is a red Drifta Power Towel Dispenser and the other canvas bag has a 240 volt extension cable. When camping I can hang the Drifta towel dispenser from the roof shelf. That worked out nicely! Finally, the tie down rings will be re-installed where you see the bolt and washer on the bracket, so I can use the raised tie down points on both sides of the car.




Image from Drifta website.

Took my Gren to the agent for some warranty recall checks. Will post here the full list when received but included alternator cables checking of alignment, lower suspension arm pins etc.
While in there I've asked them to;

1) Straighten the steering wheel - presently 5 degrees off to the left when tracking straight
2) Check excess play in steering wheel - probably just under a half inch before any direction change
3) Check steering column bearings as major clunk on half lock left or right - seems to have quietened down though in recent weeks
4) Check high/low range shifter - very very stiff and sometimes really does not want to engage even though feels like it has - some grinding on occasion when not home
5) Leave my door seals alone - after the non requested boot wash option in first weeks it's now cleared up
6) Software update - will like to lose some of the warnings like ecall etc but I'll miss my little differential screen in off-road mode, boo
7) Check wheel alignment

Mine is a diesel Station Wagon with most options. They gave me a petrol Fieldmaster on loan while mine is away. Was rather hoping I'd get to check out the petrol.

First impressions, it's steering is noticeably better, less play. It's on Bridgestone while mine in on 33" muds so there will be a difference of course but immediately it's noticeably an improvement. Think mine is out, maybe alignment, maybe things need nipping up to remove excessive play. We'll see. The petrol is more responsive and I have been driving it completely 'different' to mine of course! Nice sound and revs up well. Wouldn't change my diesel though, suits me better.

I am very happy I choose the saddle leather addition - thanks for talking me into that forum members.

Sidesteps on the loaner are useful but the rocksliders on mine I wouldn't change, may fabricate some step type attachment in due course.

The Fieldmaster's transfer case selector though stiff is much better and selects in a much more positive way. Mine feels 'negative' when in 4H, wobbles around a lot.

Ordered Tougher seat covers and the dash cover in polycotton khaki. I think the khaki will look great in a white truck.

TheDocAUS said:

Things done today:

1. My and I brother installed the rear roof shelf over the weekend and I have been experimenting how to pack the shelf. At present, I am using it to store the Solar Screens, air compressor equipment, Nakatanenga rear Door Air Vents and the Blacksmith Camping firewood carrier. Minimal loss of rear vision due to the shelf.

Here is a photo - the Travel Buddy Oven will be installed on the left side under the shelf after I fit the Anderson plug to the oven.

View attachment 7854082

2. The bed extension is removed while ORS makes some refinements to the design. It did allow me to easily fit the BLE Battery Monitor to the main battery today. I have had the aux battery setup for some time.

3. The Bushman Fridge arrived for the Grenadier and I gave the courier a guided tour of the car.

4. I installed the rear Firestryker extinguisher next to the air compressor cylinder. Brian from ORS suggested the location; and I thought it was a good suggestion, so I used it. You can see the air compressor bracket created a little space between it and the window that I can use for storage. Still working out what to put there. In the image there is a red Drifta Power Towel Dispenser and the other canvas bag has a 240 volt extension cable. When camping I can hang the Drifta towel dispenser from the roof shelf. That worked out nicely! Finally, the tie down rings will be re-installed where you see the bolt and washer on the bracket, so I can use the raised tie down points on both sides of the car.

View attachment 7854084

View attachment 7854086
Image from Drifta website.

Click to expand...

How's Drifta as a brand? I know them largely from 4WD 24/7 a few years back, but they haven't been in the rotating cast recently and wondered what happened (probably money).

Shaky said:

Interested to hear more about the Rowing club your son rows for, what crew is he in etc (fours, eights, sculls).
A gentlemen’s sport and one I still view as my sport, although it’s been nearly 30yrs since my last race .

Click to expand...

High School. Same for Daughter and possibly younger son. Daughter is 4 and 8 sweeps with coxswain. Son has done single, double and quads sculls.

Check out the Stampfli Express

bbq4133 said:

How's Drifta as a brand? I know them largely from 4WD 24/7 a few years back, but they haven't been in the rotating cast recently and wondered what happened (probably money).

Click to expand...

Drifta offers good quality for a fair price. Not the best quality, but not poor quality either, but good value for money. It will meet the needs of most users.

It is a year and a day I have had my Grenadier and very nearly 20,000 miles.

Regrets? No!

Empty bank account? Yes! Still got the sticker shock; 3 x more than the last car I bought new.

Jeremy996 said:

It is a year and a day I have had my Grenadier and very nearly 20,000 miles.

Regrets? No!

Empty bank account? Yes! Still got the sticker shock; 3 x more than the last car I bought new.

Click to expand...

Any notable issues with all of those miles?

bbq4133 said:

Any notable issues with all of those miles?

Click to expand...

Not really, past experience with early release mass market cars, (Vauxhall Nova SRi, VW Polo, VW New Beetle Cabriolet), primed me for a few issues on delivery. (18 years of a LR110CSW give one a certain expectation of potential doom).

So, as documented on here, software crying wolf, unspecified boot wash, (door outer seals coming off the doors), water in foot well, water in sills, heater erratic or on strike, (bleed and top up the cooling system), one lost contact with the tyre pressure sensors. The last issue sorted itself out, the others required the dealer to undertake warranty rectification. After the initial flurry of minor issues, it has been great.

It has always worked on demand, always got me to my destination, (so that's jinxed it then!)

Took Shitake off the mainland to Great Barrier . Off grid location with solar at most dwellings and some generators are used occasionally in places. Internet is lacking in most areas which is awesome for a quiet break.
Sadly Okiwi Bar, the best point break, has been set back after Tropical Cyclone Gabriel went through a year ago but there are other places to get wet
Another surfer in a 110 Defender thought I was brave taking such a new vehicle to Barrier but we got along fine with zero issues.

TRAVEL BUDDY OVEN
Tasks today:
1. Wired the 50-amp Anderson plug to the Travel Buddy Oven. Fitted the KAON insulated door to the oven.
2. Fitted the KAON Travel Buddy mounting brackets to the rear roof shelf. The backing plates had been wrapped in black fabric tape to stop any rattles and let the backing plates blend into the shelf.
3. Fitted the Travel Buddy oven to the KAON brackets.
4. Plugged in and tested the oven - all working! The oven can be plugged into the rear power outlet shown below.
5. Placed spit tubing over the power cable to protect it, then tidied up the run of the power cable to the power outlet. When not in use, the Anderson plug is velcroed to the roof shelf.
6. After fitting the Travel Buddy, the driver loses some rear vision, but it is limited to part of the small rear door on the passenger’s side (RHD).


The side on shot looks very similar to this image from the KAON website.


POWER TO THE CAR TRACKER
7. Used my rear power outlet to recharge the car tracker battery, which normally lasts around 6 months. Worked out how to lay permanent power to the tracker, if needed.


REAR JACK
8. Removed the jack and stowed it in my drawer. The jack keeps working loose.

9. Off to the pool for a swim, then working on the Bushman fridge.

The build is coming together nicely now.

TRAVEL BUDDY NOT PART OF THE ORIGINAL BUILD
The Travel Buddy was never part of the build, until I fitted the rear roof shelf and thought of this upgrade. It offers some great options when driving around for better meals. When driving long stints I tend to eat take away, now I can cook my own food. It helped that I had power outlets already fitted to the rear.

Now I am not limited to a small butane stove when remote. Mounting the oven this was has used otherwise unused space. Win, win.

TO DO
Building the fridge slide is the next to do. After that a visit to Expedition HQ for the final work and then off the remote Channel Country in South West Queensland and the dinosaurs in June.

MAYBES
Rocks sliders/steps and maybe a small front LED lightbar on the Roo bar. Still thinking about a Redarc EGT and Boost gauge as well.

6. After fitting the Travel Buddy, the driver loses some rear vision, but it is limited to part of the small rear door on the passenger’s side (RHD).

Sorry I had to laugh at this. That’s about the only place one actually has vision out the rear.

bigleonski said:

6. After fitting the Travel Buddy, the driver loses some rear vision, but it is limited to part of the small rear door on the passenger’s side (RHD).

Sorry I had to laugh at this. That’s about the only place one actually has vision out the rear.

Click to expand...

I've given up on rear vision.
Use my mirrors and Gator camera.
As for the Travel Buddy, the biggest disadvantage is having to drive and endure the smell of delicious food for long periods!
I wouldn't heat up a curry in there , esp if you're going to try and sleep inside later

Tazzieman said:

I've given up on rear vision.
Use my mirrors and Gator camera.
As for the Travel Buddy, the biggest disadvantage is having to drive and endure the smell of delicious food for long periods!
I wouldn't heat up a curry in there , esp if you're going to try and sleep inside later

Click to expand...

Just did a short trip with an empty oven on, I already have my first burn (very minor). I will place some insulation over the top of the oven, between the oven and the roof shelf. I want to minimize heat transfer to the shelf. I am glad I did this test before using the oven in anger for 2-3 hours, there was more heat and heat transfer than I was expecting.

I think over time the heat transfer to the shelf needs to be monitored. Reminded once again why I do a shake down test after an install. A few tweaks and she will be good to go.

TheDocAUS said:

the driver loses some rear vision, but it is limited to part of the small rear door

Click to expand...

I haven't seen out of mine since last September, must clean it one day!

Looks like a great addition that oven. I found most 'marine' ovens are bloody useless, though they have all been on boats and propane fed. I suspect that the Buddy one is much better. Hot pies, mmmmm

ECrider said:

I haven't seen out of mine since last September, must clean it one day!

Looks like a great addition that oven. I found most 'marine' ovens are bloody useless, though they have all been on boats and propane fed. I suspect that the Buddy one is much better. Hot pies, mmmmm

Click to expand...

I looked at quite a few YouTube videos and reviews before I committed. I must take the oven gloves out to the car now.

The extra insulation for the oven has been ordered.

RE-PURPOSING STUFF DURING THE BUILD
I have reclaimed some materials during the build to cut down waste. If something is worth keeping, I put it aside. For example, the JOOCLA Ensuite came with brackets that did not work with my Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform. I bought brackets from KAON and put the JOOCLA brackets aside. I am now using those brackets to attach my fridge platform to the front passenger seat footings. I have only done a high-level fitting, but it should work. I intend to also use spare brackets from the solar panel install.

The Travel Buddy Oven came with a combined Merit/Cig plug (a good quality one). I cut it off and fitted an Anderson plug to the oven cable.

My rear power panel is fed by two circuits for redundancy. The Anderson plug and USB charge port run off the 50amp Anderson circuit I had installed off the aux battery. The cig socket on the power panel is now powered from the rear INEOS cig circuit. I got some 20-amp wire, crimped on some spade terminals and attached it to the cig socket on the panel. The other end was then wired to the unused combined Merit/Cig plug from the Travel Buddy. The Merit/Cig plug is fused with a 15-amp mini fuse. I plug one end to the INEOS socket and a short run over to the power panel. It is easy to install and remove, like the Anderson plug to the power panel.




My first attempt to wire the Merit/Cig socket failed; I was not correctly fitting the wires into the plug– YouTube to the rescue. I ferrule crimped the positive and negative wires, cut the ends to size and followed the video advice – it worked well.

View: https://youtu.be/9lRlenZY9aI?t=59

These combined Merit/Cig plug sockets seem much better quality than the old-style cig sockets. As the video warns, only get a decent quality plug. Narva seems to offer a decent one in Australia.

I unpacked and setup the BUSHMAN Fridge today which comes fitted with an Anderson plug. It also has an Anderson plug to Merit/Cig plug adapter cable. Into the car goes that adapter cable so I can use it in my setup if I need to plug the Travel Buddy into the cig socket circuit.

The car circuit, the plug, the fuse and the wire are all rated to handle the 10-amp current drawn by the oven.



From wire off-cuts in the past, I have made Anderson adapters, like an Anderson plug double adapter or a 50 amp Grey plug to a 50 amp Red solar plug. It is cheaper than buying the adapters and you get the satisfaction of repurposing stuff.

Sorry the iPhone images are not very good.

TheDocAUS said:

From wire off-cuts in the past, I have made Anderson adapters, like an Anderson plug double adapter or a 50 amp Grey plug to a 50 amp Red solar plug. It is cheaper than buying the adapters and you get the satisfaction of repurposing stuff.

Click to expand...

Very satisfying isn't it?
I've got more adapters than appliances it seems these days!
I saved around $300 making my own NATO to Anderson adapter.