Pickup version spotted today in Graz

[DaveB]

The box is so short. What good is it? I would love to have a real Grenadier truck that can take bigger cargo. How do I fit sheets of plywood and sticks of lumber in this? What about my Grizzly quad? It wont fit. So for my lifestyle I will always have to keep a second real truck in the driveway. To bad I would rather have a Grenadier truck that would serve all my needs.

Cheers!

Unlike NA the rest of the world has size and weight restrictions.
carparks spaces are typically 5.6 metres x 2.6metres wide.
With the standard Grenadier 4.85 metres that leaves 615mm to play with
There are also very strict rules on how much the bed can extend past the rear axles.
The cab chassis version will make it easier to load things in the back on a tray, which is extremely common here for work vehicles

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

The box is so short. What good is it? I would love to have a real Grenadier truck that can take bigger cargo. How do I fit sheets of plywood and sticks of lumber in this? What about my Grizzly quad? It wont fit. So for my lifestyle I will always have to keep a second real truck in the driveway. To bad I would rather have a Grenadier truck that would serve all my needs.

Cheers!

Good point on the size of the box - I know the midsize trucks use the "can you fit a sheet of plywood" metric and the answer is "yes" but over the wheel wells (wheras 1/2 ton and larger can fit the sheets between the wheel wells). Of course, that means much greater width on the 1/2 tons, which limits some off-road and remote area capability, so everything is a compromise one way or the other.

I'm also seriously wondering how this will be delivered -- there's something about a "chicken tax" in the USA that makes trucks made internationally difficult to import (I don't know the details) but I've read that a way around this is to import a vehicle that isn't fully assembled (i.e. chassis-cab configurations, with the bed added at the destination). If that's the case, I would LOVE to see a partnership with a company like Norweld or Mits Alloy to provide a factory tray-and-canopy option. In your use case, Mountain guy, the tray would be perfect for moving around an ATV and lumber while preserving the width of the truck for remote area access, so being able to spec it that way from factory would be fantastic. You could always go with a "box top" deck - quite common for snowmobilers and such -- but they put the weight really high and I'm personally not a fan.

The other concern that I've been thinking about is the position of the rear axle. It's so far forward that it creates a significant load area behind the axle -- 2/3rds of the box appears behind the rear axle's centre -- which acts as a lever and inhibits carry capacity a bit and may post a challenge for campers and such. There are a plethora of broken-backed trucks out there because of this leverage, which gets particularly bad when off-road towing.

I can see the comparisons to the Gladiator as the shapes certainly do rhyme but I give the nod to Ineos on their design; one of the things I don't like about the gladiator is that it appears to be designed to look aggressive for the sake of aggressive rather than for any particular function. On the Wrangler, a lot of the design is practical for rock crawling, but the Gladiator uses the same design cues even though it's not super suitable for that purpose in the same way. The Gren Pickup seems to soften that aggressiveness a bit so I prefer the looks. I can see a fella using a Gren to go bird watching in tweed while he's not attending to his farm and looking quite at home in this pickup -- more like a country estate truck; the Gladiator has a vibe that's a bit more more "sun glassess, beards, and tattoos" (and as a guy with all those things, I'd probably match the gladiator better, but this analogy is an attempt to articulate what feels 'softer' about the design of the Gren pickup to me).

 

[DaveB]

Good point on the size of the box - I know the midsize trucks use the "can you fit a sheet of plywood" metric and the answer is "yes" but over the wheel wells (wheras 1/2 ton and larger can fit the sheets between the wheel wells). Of course, that means much greater width on the 1/2 tons, which limits some off-road and remote area capability, so everything is a compromise one way or the other.

I'm also seriously wondering how this will be delivered -- there's something about a "chicken tax" in the USA that makes trucks made internationally difficult to import (I don't know the details) but I've read that a way around this is to import a vehicle that isn't fully assembled (i.e. chassis-cab configurations, with the bed added at the destination). If that's the case, I would LOVE to see a partnership with a company like Norweld or Mits Alloy to provide a factory tray-and-canopy option. In your use case, Mountain guy, the tray would be perfect for moving around an ATV and lumber while preserving the width of the truck for remote area access, so being able to spec it that way from factory would be fantastic. You could always go with a "box top" deck - quite common for snowmobilers and such -- but they put the weight really high and I'm personally not a fan.

The other concern that I've been thinking about is the position of the rear axle. It's so far forward that it creates a significant load area behind the axle -- 2/3rds of the box appears behind the rear axle's centre -- which acts as a lever and inhibits carry capacity a bit and may post a challenge for campers and such. There are a plethora of broken-backed trucks out there because of this leverage, which gets particularly bad when off-road towing.

I can see the comparisons to the Gladiator as the shapes certainly do rhyme but I give the nod to Ineos on their design; one of the things I don't like about the gladiator is that it appears to be designed to look aggressive for the sake of aggressive rather than for any particular function. On the Wrangler, a lot of the design is practical for rock crawling, but the Gladiator uses the same design cues even though it's not super suitable for that purpose in the same way. The Gren Pickup seems to soften that aggressiveness a bit so I prefer the looks. I can see a fella using a Gren to go bird watching in tweed while he's not attending to his farm and looking quite at home in this pickup -- more like a country estate truck; the Gladiator has a vibe that's a bit more more "sun glassess, beards, and tattoos" (and as a guy with all those things, I'd probably match the gladiator better, but this analogy is an attempt to articulate what feels 'softer' about the design of the Gren pickup to me).

Remember that it is on an extended ladder frame so weight distribution will be much better even though it is behind the rear axle.
Patriot campers in Australia took a RAM1500?? offroad with normal Australian 4wds and it had to stop as it was too wide for the track
This is the picture I took of the Grenadier in a hotel carpark and there isn't much room to open the doors

 

[bigleonski]

It is really hard to beat the look of a 4 door Tacoma. I wish Toyota would either upsize the Tacoma or downsize the Tundra back to the first Gen Tundra. With the looks of the Tacoma.

Nailed it.

 

[grenadierguy]

I’ve owned 4 different pickups - 3 were dual/crew cab - and enjoyed them all. But 4-door American pickups look complete, like they were designed from day 1 to look proper and proportional. The IG Ute looks odd to me, like someone just took the station wagon and hacked a chunk out. I feel the same way about the Honda Ridgeline. It’s a Pilot with a bit chopped off.

That said, I’m sure it will perform great and be a huge hit in Oz and elsewhere, but it’s not my cup of tea. I won’t regret not waiting for it.

You take that back Krabby! A Honda Ridgeline?!

 

[Shopkeep]

Not practical to leave the spare tyre in the tray, surely it would have to be moved underneath? (is there room?) Would do your head in if using as a work vehicle for carrying loads.

 

[DaveB]

Not practical to leave the spare tyre in the tray, surely it would have to be moved underneath? (is there room?) Would do your head in if using as a work vehicle for carrying loads.

Swing out rear bumper carrier

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

Remember that it is on an extended ladder frame so weight distribution will be much better even though it is behind the rear axle.
Patriot campers in Australia took a RAM1500?? offroad with normal Australian 4wds and it had to stop as it was too wide for the track
This is the picture I took of the Grenadier in a hotel carpark and there isn't much room to open the doors
View attachment 7800990

I can't wait to start seeing these stateside - it seems to fit quite nicely into that parking space (albeit snugly!) and so I'd wonder what an F-150 or even an F-250 would look like in the same space; the Gren looks bigger, but not THAT much bigger, than the sedans next to it so the package overall looks quite tidy.

Also I hear you on the ladder frame - but this seems to be a pretty common issue with modern vehicles and I think it might be because of crash-test required, engineered crumple zones introducing weak spots in the chassis that bend when the force of a rear-end collision occurs; said force can be easily replicated by a big frost heave or gully hit at speed with a trailer off road; this didn't seem to be as common a problem with older vehicles, but they were far more dangerous in a crash. So, I wonder how the Gren will do in these situations -- will it avoid the curse that befalls the Ranger, Colorado, and other similar sized trucks or will it somehow navigate that differently?

Here's an example of what I'm talking about - notice how many of the trucks are models from the last ~10 years or so, but still have the ladder frame and yet still bend:

bent ute - Google Suche

 

[Guru]

Happened to be in London yesterday so dropped by the dealer in Chiswick (West London) who has a late prototype.
The agent was super helpful but I wasn’t allowed to see under the bonnet. Overall very impresssed and look forward to mine eventually being available in the US

As for size and indeed looks it seemed very similar (indoors) to a Jeep Wrangler. I also have an F150 on order for Business reasons and we were joking about that being impossible to drive in the UK/Europe as simply too massive. He did say he’s getting a lot of interest from the “ G wagon city types” and from a let’s say “pimp my ride” aftermarket stylist (name withheld). So expect to see inner cities getting clogged with totally inappropriate vehicles.

 

[Guru]

ChasingOurTrunks……

The “chicken tax” is a BS tax from 1964….!!!!!
Introduced by President Johnson in retaliation for France/Germany taxing the import of industrially farmed chickens… YES literally.
So the US imposed a 25% import duty that’s never been repealed in 70 years FFS and is a blatant example of protectionism, (I don’t want to get into a debate about all the other forms in either direction)
I got caught up in it recently when importing my owned for 4 years then imported a 25 year old Defender 130 ….. 25% duty.

 

[Spjnr]

Happened to be in London yesterday so dropped by the dealer in Chiswick (West London) who has a late prototype.
The agent was super helpful but I wasn’t allowed to see under the bonnet. Overall very impresssed and look forward to mine eventually being available in the US

As for size and indeed looks it seemed very similar (indoors) to a Jeep Wrangler. I also have an F150 on order for Business reasons and we were joking about that being impossible to drive in the UK/Europe as simply too massive. He did say he’s getting a lot of interest from the “ G wagon city types” and from a let’s say “pimp my ride” aftermarket stylist (name withheld). So expect to see inner cities getting clogged with totally inappropriate vehicles.

Tbh that doesn't surprise me being as that agent is in Chiswick! Not exactly a rough and ready mud plugging area

If you took all the grenadier agents in the UK, and ranked them by Gwagons per sq mile, Chiswick would have a handy lead!

 

[bemax]

Not practical to leave the spare tyre in the tray, surely it would have to be moved underneath? (is there room?) Would do your head in if using as a work vehicle for carrying loads.

There can’t be any room underneath! The Australian will need it to install extra fuel and water tanks there!

 

[DCPU]

This might be naive, but the time from prototype to build shouldn't be too long, right? The engine, interior, the whole front half of the truck is all set already production.

That seems to have been the intention from the beginning of Projekt Grenadier. The initial drawings/renderings/videos showed both the normal wheelbase Station wagon and the longer wheelbase double cab pickup.

The initial press briefings stated the pickup was always following "just a little behind" the station wagon.

Xmas 2021, we were told by Dirk Heilmann that we would be seeing a lot more of the pickup in early 2022. Then everything went silent.

 

[DCPU]

The box is so short. What good is it? I would love to have a real Grenadier truck that can take bigger cargo.

It appears to have a very similar bed size to the old Defender 130, which I would think was the benchmark for this type of vehicle?

How do I fit sheets of plywood and sticks of lumber in this?

Pythagoras?

Or roofrack:

What about my Grizzly quad? It wont fit.

 

[Guru]

No problem at all getting my very long wheelbase 1977 Ducati 900ss in the back of a D130.

 

[DCPU]

Not practical to leave the spare tyre in the tray, surely it would have to be moved underneath? (is there room?) Would do your head in if using as a work vehicle for carrying loads.

I really hope they don't.

JLR did it with the RRS. You had to open a hatch under the centre of the boot and wind a bolt that winched it up and down. So that meant unloading the boot to open the hatch.

Additionally, the winch cable was accessible from below. So a cheap pair of wire cutters meant spare wheels were being stolen left, right and centre.

The position of the spare also meant it was a natural trap for mud, road salt, etc.

 

[Shopkeep]

One thing the Defender got right was the rear corner windows and the curves, saw this in Melbourne today and it looked amazing (not my photo but it's for sale for AUD$168,500. Photo from Rhomy website)

 

[ADVAW8S]

I want this so bad. The tub would be removed and I would import Norweld or zone canopy. the rear tire would be bolted to the back of the canopy. I can't get behind the alu-cab slide in.

 

[DaveB]

I want this so bad. The tub would be removed and I would import Norweld or zone canopy. the rear would be bolted to the back of the canopy. I can't get behind the alu-cab slide in.

Justin Hocevar said there will be a cab chassis version for Australia so you won't have to pay for the tub just to remove it

 

[Spjnr]

Imagine this but with a Grenadier on 35s