Since I don't have a lot of redundant tools lying around to assemble my own adventure toolkit, I came across Red Dog Tools at the recent SW Overland Expo and ordered one of their toolsets for the Grenadier. The company is based in Alpine, UT (USA) and they assemble the hand tools you might need for specific vehicles and packages them up into a nice, handy roll-up carrying case. The website doesn't show a toolkit for the Grenadier, but the owner, Dave Fairchild, had Grenadier-specific toolsets on display at the Expo. For each vehicle model, he has two toolsets to choose from, a Steelman Pro set, and a more premium Gearwrench set. The Gearwrench set was priced about $100-$150 above the Steelman Pro set. Since this kit was going to be my "break glass in case of emergency" kit that I would take with me when going wheeling and camping, I didn't need a pro set, so I opted for the Steelman Pro set. I ordered it and paid for it at the Expo (March 15) and received the kit in the mail yesterday, March 31. If you go on the website, you can see the variety of tools that are included with the kit, but Red Dog has made sure that they included all the sizes you might encounter if you need to wrench on your truck. The carrying bag is well-made, and the tools are an assortment of Steelman and Titan-branded hand-tools. There are two tools in the kit that are neither Steelman nor Titan-branded. The 24mm combination wrench is a "Performance Tool"-branded wrench. It's probably "good enough", but it lacks the smooth fit & finish of the Steelman wrenches. This tool has slight burrs and pits along the edges and the brand etching looks amateurish when compared to the other wrenches in the set. The 12" tongue-and-groove (a/k/a channellocks) wrench is "Crescent" branded, and that tool also feels a bit lower quality. I'm sure it will get the job done when needed, but there's a fair amount of "play" between the two handles so the manufacturing tolerances are just not as good as a higher-priced tool. I hate to say it, but it feels a bit "Harbor Freight-ish." Overall, I am fairly happy with the set and would recommend it for someone like me (i.e., I don't already have a set of redundant tools that I can assemble and leave in the truck, and I don't yet know all the different tools I will need to take with me, so having someone do that work for me was a real benefit right there. I don't want to find out I don't have a particular sized socket or wrench while out in the desert.) Can someone make a similar kit for less? Probably, but I think Red Dog did a pretty good job with this kit and I wanted to support a small business owner who seemed to have taken great pride in his company and he had a solution to a problem I had.
