7500 km in the Grenadier and back she goes!

[Korg]

That’s all most interesting - thanks for documenting your experience. 2 & 3 sound particularly alarming.

I’ve taken to running at 50psi on highway, and while I quite like the driving dynamics my co-pilot maybe finds it a bit twitchy. Across Oz we were running them at 38/40 F/R.

What pressure have you landed on for on-road use? Any estimate of how heavy your vehicle is in present use?

38PSI all round for city/highway at 3.2 tonnes, higher when heavier.

 

[LC0013]

Ok, so a big previous LR Defender fan, own a 1959 series II and super excite that the Grenadier was next for me. Returned my 2020 LR defender and bought a IG Trialmaster. Huge disappointment! Terrible on tar road holding. Brake and swerve for wild life crossing the road and the huge nose dip and oversteer is down right dangerous. No way my wife is going to handle this. Massive drive train vibration and rear diff only engages 1/3 of the time. Then there’s the clown who located the rear view camera in the centre of the larger of the two doors…. Not above the hitch! Try to hitch a trailer on your own, in the dark at 20 deg below Celsius when it’s snowing! So… it’s going back to Ineos, I’ll enjoy my Ford F350 with solid axles over this any day!!!

Took you 7,500 KM to figure this out. Odd....but I gotta ask- what kind of buy back trade in deal did they give you?

 

[Dono 17]

Took you 7,500 KM to figure this out. Odd....but I gotta ask- what kind of buy back trade in deal did they give you?

38PSI all round for city/highway at 3.2 tonnes, higher when heavier.

 

[Dono 17]

Hi Lc0013, nope, been trying to make this work. Nearest dealer is in Vancouver… a days drive away. Many little issues along the way. Electronic gremlins, and a lot of around the city driving. Only had to break hard and swerve for the deer…. once ;-).
I tow with my Diesel F350 but had to move a trailer… that’s when I figured the hitching thing out. We work with our vehicles, rely on our vehicles and they need to be reliable and professional grade. Still negotiating with the dealer on this but I’ll let you know how much this is going to set me back.

 

[BroncoBilly]

Hi Lc0013, nope, been trying to make this work. Nearest dealer is in Vancouver… a days drive away. Many little issues along the way. Electronic gremlins, and a lot of around the city driving. Only had to break hard and swerve for the deer…. once ;-).
I tow with my Diesel F350 but had to move a trailer… that’s when I figured the hitching thing out. We work with our vehicles, rely on our vehicles and they need to be reliable and professional grade. Still negotiating with the dealer on this but I’ll let you know how much this is going to set me back.

Can you share the details if you purchased outright, or financed/leased through the dealer or a third party when you update about your negotiations with the dealer?

 

[DaveB]

Reckon if it was a 600kg 2m high moose in your headlights you might consider swerving....

I have had wild horses, emus, an eagle, numerous kangaroos and a camel.
Car that overtook me hit the horse, I hit an emu, stopped just short of the eagle in an F100, it was taller than the bonnet, ended up just nudging the camel.
My brother on the other hand swerved to miss a dog and wrapped his Valiant Charger around a power pole.
I was thinking a moose or a bear when I wrote my comment and thought they would hurt.
Still best to avoid swerving.
Also shows why you need good lights and no distractions.

 

[Shopkeep]

I have had wild horses, emus, an eagle, numerous kangaroos and a camel.
Car that overtook me hit the horse, I hit an emu, stopped just short of the eagle in an F100, it was taller than the bonnet, ended up just nudging the camel.
My brother on the other hand swerved to miss a dog and wrapped his Valiant Charger around a power pole.
I was thinking a moose or a bear when I wrote my comment and thought they would hurt.
Still best to avoid swerving.
Also shows why you need good lights and no distractions.

I forgot about our camels, maybe the moose is not that bad after all.

 

[DaveB]

I forgot about our camels, maybe the moose is not that bad after all.

I drive down through the Tuan Forest between Maryborough and Gympie quite a lot.
I came around a bend at 100+ kmh to find a large black horse dead on the other side of the road.
Luckily there was nothing coming the other way.
I couldn't find the vehicle that had hit it and looked off the sides of the road and down into a nearby creek.
A couple of other vehicles pulled up and were talking about dragging or winching it off the road.
I left them to it.
I hit a mouse plague out near Dubbo and they quickly filled the tread on my off road tyres and sent me into a slide.
An hour with a stick and I cleared as much of the tread as I could but then had to drive through the rest of them.
I drove on the dirt sides of the road to reduce the skid.

 

[Shopkeep]

I drive down through the Tuan Forest between Maryborough and Gympie quite a lot.
I came around a bend at 100+ kmh to find a large black horse dead on the other side of the road.
Luckily there was nothing coming the other way.
I couldn't find the vehicle that had hit it and looked off the sides of the road and down into a nearby creek.
A couple of other vehicles pulled up and were talking about dragging or winching it off the road.
I left them to it.
I hit a mouse plague out near Dubbo and they quickly filled the tread on my off road tyres and sent me into a slide.
An hour with a stick and I cleared as much of the tread as I could but then had to drive through the rest of them.
I drove on the dirt sides of the road to reduce the skid.

Great, there's an image I wont get out of my mind for the rest of the day: Dave by the side of the road with a stick digging mouse mash out of his tyres.

 

[Eric]

Mine has 26,000 kms (16,100 miles) on the clock and drives really well on all types of roads.
Not as smoothly as an SUV but then again I never expected that.
I think North American vehicles/SUV's do tend to have a softer riding setup than we normally do anyway.

Rule of thumb in Australia is never swerve for an animal or you will end up in a ditch or a tree trying to convince a cop and your insurance company that there really was an animal there.
Brake in a straight line and take off as much speed as possible.
Also the reason we have bull bars on our vehicles.

View attachment 7871437View attachment 7871438

Makes our hedgehogs pale into insignificance

 

[bemax]

I am a little amazed at the complaints about Grenadier steering performance. It is a theme that keeps repeating. Of course you are correct, something may have been wrong with the vehicle but I suspect not. I found the steering much like several 3/4 ton vehicles I have driven, different but easily adapted to and just fine once you do.
It is a really curious thing.

I am absolutely with you. In my opinion the highway steering (and I am talking as well about 30 minutes at full speed of 100 mph on the Autobahn) is not a problem at all. I had to adapt for some days but the last time I rented a Infiniti QX 80 in Florida I also had to get adopted to this vage and wandering steering for about a hundred miles. After that everything was fine.
The only really problematic part of the steering topic in my opinion is the navigation in narrow streets (mostly in cities obviously) if you drive the Grenadier for the first time.
Two days ago I let a friend drive home from a restaurant as he was keen on the experience. I warned him before we started that the steering would not self center as he is used from his BMW.
The next ten curves in a narrow residential area I nearly got a heart attack as he tended to [edit: nearly] crash into parked cars after the bends…

 

[trobex]

Try before you buy?

I drive down through the Tuan Forest between Maryborough and Gympie quite a lot.
I came around a bend at 100+ kmh to find a large black horse dead on the other side of the road.
Luckily there was nothing coming the other way.
I couldn't find the vehicle that had hit it and looked off the sides of the road and down into a nearby creek.
A couple of other vehicles pulled up and were talking about dragging or winching it off the road.
I left them to it.
I hit a mouse plague out near Dubbo and they quickly filled the tread on my off road tyres and sent me into a slide.
An hour with a stick and I cleared as much of the tread as I could but then had to drive through the rest of them.
I drove on the dirt sides of the road to reduce the skid.

Ah the wild horses of Tuan. One put me out on to the gravel and in to grass in my Daytona 955i - held it up though but at 160+ km it basically kick stared my life from new born!!!

 

[Dono 17]

I am not experiencing anything like that. However, if your tyres are over filled, it can feel that way. Initially mine were pumped for heavy load by the dealer and when warm (over long distances) it became uncomfortable (not too much but more than I would like). I dropped back to a sensible PSI and not had that issue since.

Also, if you are a gripper of the steering wheel rather than relaxed hold, you will keep correcting within the lines. My daughter did it initially. She was steering within the white lines. I told her to let go of the wheel and watch it go in a straight line. And it did. I then told her to relax her hands and just rest on the wheel and guide it when necessary and that worked for her. She didn't suffer it again.

The bottom line is that if you are long distance road running, then any of the LR/RR are going to better than the IG. They are built for that. If you are expecting SUV on road performance with the IG then you are going to be disappointed. It is in line with UV on road performance.

I used the camera during a hail storm to attach a 3.5T muck trailer and had no issues at all. However, my Defender Puma rear camera was offset (the other side) and never had a problem with that either.

 

[Dono 17]

The off centre camera is an issue. My tow hitch lengths are different. I have a 28!foot triple axl 21k pound trailer with a pintle hitch, a standard 2 inch ball for my enclosed trailer and a 2.5/16 inch ball for the other. Shank lengths are all different depending what I’m towing that day. Space is tight so sometimes I have to move a trailer to get to another. Having an off set camera means that the angle changes as you back up. It’s like shooting a rifle with a scope offset from the barrel by an inch off centre! Try to be accurate at varying distances. I think the doors were stamped before they realized their mistake. They placed it in the centre below the spare tire mount. The Grenadier was built on purpose, so I can’t image this was done for aesthetics. Nonetheless… it’s a bugger to hitch a trailer!

 

[Zimm]

It’s like shooting a rifle with a scope offset from the barrel by an inch off centre! Try to be accurate at varying distances.

I find my Garand C mount to be easy peasy. I just let it be off center. At 100yds its a mindless compensation and at 500 yds, it doesn't matter. You don't sight it in at any particular distance on the x axis trying for a bulls eye.

The key is simple... You know its off center, and that, unlike drop, is a simple constant. It seems like if you keep an eye on what youre seeing on the screen, you'll eventually get used to it.

 

[drof14850]

Do not have as many miles in the seat as a number of folk here, total of 4000 on the vehicle 2000 last week. A thousand of that was two 10/12 hour runs of 80% motorway driving 65-80 mph.
Understand some people have an issue with the steering but in my opinion thats not because its faulty just different than their previous vehicles. Like all vehicles and people they have their own distinct characteristics and it would be a dull old place if they were all the same.
Personally I am over the moon with the performance of my Grenadier and the last thing I would want to do is put someone off from trying and purchasing one.
Not saying its perfect but I could not find anything else out there that could offer me more.

 

[ECrider]

We all want a whore in the bedroom, a cook in the kitchen and a perfect mum for the children. they don't exist unless you have all three and hope they never meet each other. Guess the Gren is just like us, good in some ways and poor in others - comes down to what you prefer. Love mine.

 

[Zimm]

We all want a whore in the bedroom, a cook in the kitchen and a perfect mum for the children. they don't exist unless you have all three and hope they never meet each other. Guess the Gren is just like us, good in some ways and poor in others - comes down to what you prefer. Love mine.

Apparently I’ve done much better than you… on multiple occasions.

I’ll help you out.

The whore part is the toughest to teach. Start there and work your way down if you want to save time.

 

[ECrider]

Apparently I’ve done much better than you… on multiple occasions.

I’ll help you out.

The whore part is the toughest to teach. Start there and work your way down if you want to save time.

You sir have found yourself a few unicorns!

 

[Tazzieman]

We all want a whore in the bedroom, a cook in the kitchen and a perfect mum for the children.

Start with this and you may get lucky.