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 crash into parked cars after the bends…