Steering Solutions?

[Rbha311]

Hi everyone,


I’m considering purchasing an Ineos Grenadier, but I’d like to know if anyone has tried any aftermarket products or modifications to improve its handling characteristics. Are there suspension upgrades, sway bars, or other enhancements that have made a noticeable difference?

Took one out for a test drive and it slightly terrified me. As I’ll be doing considerable distances on highways, I really want to know if anyone’s successfully invented a product that reduce the need for constant steering input and increased feel.

I’d love to hear your experiences and recommendations before I make my decision.

Edit: Thank you for all the wonderful feedback. Many people are suggesting I consider looking for another vehicle. I should mention that I did take the Grenadier on an extended test drive, as our local dealer insists on at least an hour-long drive before making a decision. I absolutely fell in love with the car and enjoyed driving it on local roads, but I’m still unsure about its performance on the highway. Perhaps it’s something I’ll get used to, but I’m hesitant to spend six figures on a “what if.”

Living on the South Coast of NSW, I often travel between Wollongong and Sydney, where the highway has long, sweeping bends at speed, and at this point, I’d feel quite uncomfortable tackling those in this car. I have plenty of reasons why I really want to buy this vehicle, but to return to my original question: if anyone has found a viable aftermarket solution for the steering, it would make the decision much easier.

 

[Andrew Kilby]

I was exactly like you when i first got my vehicle in December 23. It took me the best part of 10000klm to get used to the steering but now it is not a problem highway driving is easy now. you will get used to it. be patient. As for the ride, I don't know if i am used to it or it has changed but it seems softer now than when new. I find it very comfortable. i even like the footwell hump.

 

[Tazzieman]

It's like a horse. You have to tell it where to go with the reins.
It doesn't drive like a car. Because it's not.
That said , a large proportion of owners are quite happy with its characteristics, though only a small % of owners post on forums.

 

[bemax]

There are some members that are happy with an aftermarket steering damper. It is said that the self centering improves a little bit with it.
But as others wrote you get accustomed to it after a short time. Nevertheless it will never steer as pointy as a 911.

 

[Clark Kent]

It's a yes from me. 19 months and 22,000km in and my vehicle seems to drive better each time I use it. I agree that from new with low mileage the Grenadier does feel a bit unsettling but the combination of bedding in of components and becoming more comfortable with the characteristics makes for a great drive. Expectations and personal driving history makes a difference to where you start on the journey.

I'll share a (longish) story. Maybe it will help you.

Over Christmas and NY my wife and I did a 3500km road run up the Bruce Highway to Townsville and return. 5 full days of driving. The Bruce Hwy is a goat track on a good day and has been further damaged by floods in late December. It was rough.
My wife had maybe 20 minutes of driving around town in our Grenadier before we set off on this trip. This was her first open highway driving. She is in her 50s and has plenty of driving experience but not in a heavy live axle vehicle. Her daily is an underweight B58 powered BMW M140i so is very different to the Grenadier.

Suffice to say her first few hours at the wheel were not pretty. She scared the crap out of me more than once. I sat in silence because it was a great opportunity to observe the learning and adaptation process for someone new to the Grenadier.
The thing she struggled with most was corners and curves at speed. Straight line tracking was not an issue.
Because she had no sense of how the Grenadier steered and handled she was over-controlling the vehicle around corners. Long sweeping highway corners were done as a series of bites at the wheel (the most I counted was 13). But by her third stint of driving, day two, she had it mastered. It took her about 6 hours to get comfortable with highway driving. I then had the discussion about what she found different and had made it hard for her. The takeaways were:

1. Anticipating the body roll and not backing off the steering. It's a heavy vehicle. Let the progressive spring coils load up with the initial turn in then readjust the steering to guide the vehicle around the corner. She's a senior physics teacher so could relate to this as a mass, inertia and momentum problem. She also went off on a tangent about tangents. Nerd.
2. Relax on the steering wheel. Don't immediately counter if it moves around a bit. Don't interpret a bit of body lean as the start of over- or understeer and overcompensate.
3. She went from swinging the wheel back and forth searching for balance, to starting the turn-ins earlier to load the suspension then holding the steering angle through the corner with minimal corrections. Once she had that response sorted out she (and I) relaxed and it became a normal drive for her.
4. I didn't mention the footrest and neither did she.

The other point that comes up is the steering return to centre action (Bemax posted above while I was still writing). My unmodified vehicle returns to centre about 80%. The remaining 20% or so is easy once you remember to do it. The small diameter steering wheel makes your hands busy.

 

[Catpaw4x4]

Hi everyone,


I’m considering purchasing an Ineos Grenadier, but I’d like to know if anyone has tried any aftermarket products or modifications to improve its handling characteristics. Are there suspension upgrades, sway bars, or other enhancements that have made a noticeable difference?

Took one out for a test drive and it slightly terrified me. As I’ll be doing considerable distances on highways, I really want to know if anyone’s successfully invented a product that reduce the need for constant steering input and increased feel.

I’d love to hear your experiences and recommendations before I make my decision.

If test driving scared you, I would ask what you are currently driving and for how long as your brain is accustomed to that driving experience. The "G" is not a car. Nor is it any of the "luxury" SUVs only ever meant to drive on asphalt and never see dirt. I have a '97 5 sp Discovery. The "G" drives tight compared to it. All things are relative like the saying in on the passenger side mirror ... "objects are closer than they seem".
Do you like the vehicle??

 

[Dokatd]

If you are driving 500miles or more in a day then I would suggest you look at something else. It's not a road tripping vehicle as it's currently built. Expedition vehicle maybe but not a highway machine.

 

[TJ D]

I think it gets much better with some miles on the vehicle. I've got 5k miles on mine, most of it up and down a freeway at 60-80mph, and in the beginning, I found it a bit of a chore to manage the vehicle. No longer.
I was just the other day wondering if it's me becoming accustomed to the handling, but I really don't think so-once everything breaks in a little bit things seem to have sorted themselves out. Or it's just me used to it. Hard to say for sure.

In any case, I have no issues with the steering anymore.

But, if commuting up and down I-5 was my intended purpose for a vehicle, Grenadier would rank WAY down the list.

Maybe try to get your hands on one with some miles on it and take a spin.

 

[Clark Kent]

If you are driving 500miles or more in a day then I would suggest you look at something else. It's not a road tripping vehicle as it's currently built. Expedition vehicle maybe but not a highway machine.

The challenge that @Rbha311 has is he lives in Sydney according to his forum profile so he's got highway and freeway miles to do no matter which way he travels (except East, where he would need an RAI to snorkel upgrade). Presumably he has a use case for the Grenadier's off-road capability but he needs to know he can live with it on the road trips to get where his adventures begin. Saying it's not a road tripping vehicle for long transits is like saying an Airbus would be a better option (it would btw). Any large SUV would be a better option for pure highway use but might be completely unsuitable at the destination. The compromise is for @Rbha311 to figure out.

I have done two long road trips in my Grenadier and was surprised that it was better than I expected. Diesel fuel economy worked in my favour. We also have lower speed limits (max 110km/h ~70mph in most places) so we're not white knuckled on the wheel at a Grenadier-unfriendly 80mph +.

If I was only doing highway runs and light graded gravel roads with my 2 berth hybrid camper behind I'd probably be in an LC250 and complaining in another forum about Toyota's long legacy of building excellent 4WDs yet still screwing up the basics in 2025.

 

[anand]

If it terrified you, it most likely isn't the vehicle for you; or the likelihood is that you were expecting it to be something that it isn't. It's primary design goal is off highway travel, everything else it does is a bonus. The steering feel is absolutely not like a LC200/300, L663 Defender, Y62/63 Patrol, etc; but the design is also vastly different. The most similar steering feel to the Grenadier that I have experience driving would be a newer 1 ton+ truck (Ford F350/F450/F550). The steering damper is purposely heavy (requiring more effort to turn the wheel) to absorb the impact of sudden terrain steer in an off highway situation. Aftermarket dampers exist to lighten the steering feel, however, some have reported death wobble after switching to an aftermarket damper.

With that being said, regarding highway drives, I've logged multiple back to back 15+ hour days cruising at 130+kph back and forth across the US... It's really quite a good highway cruiser with very little driver fatigue (fantastic seats, great seating position, etc) and is quite stable at speed with one hand (or really a finger) resting on the wheel. Throw in some 40-50kph cross winds and it will definitely require a bit more attentiveness from the driver, but then again, it's a giant brick.

As others have said though, if highway cruising is a top level item on your list of requirements, there are more ideal vehicles.

 

[Clark Kent]

The challenge that @Rbha311 has is he lives in Sydney according to his forum profile so he's got highway and freeway miles to do no matter which way he travels (except East, where he would need an RAI to snorkel upgrade). Presumably he has a use case for the Grenadier's off-road capability but he needs to know he can live with it on the road trips to get where his adventures begin. Saying it's not a road tripping vehicle for long transits is like saying an Airbus would be a better option (it would btw). Any large SUV would be a better option for pure highway use but might be completely unsuitable at the destination. The compromise is for @Rbha311 to figure out.

I have done two long road trips in my Grenadier and was surprised that it was better than I expected. Diesel fuel economy worked in my favour. We also have lower speed limits (max 110km/h ~70mph in most places) so we're not white knuckled on the wheel at a Grenadier-unfriendly 80mph +.

If I was only doing highway runs and light graded gravel roads with my 2 berth hybrid camper behind I'd probably be in an LC250 and complaining in another forum about Toyota's long legacy of building excellent 4WDs yet still screwing up the basics in 2025.

But back to your original question @Rbha311: The fix is to buy something else if you cannot get comfortable driving a Grenadier. Some have played around with different steering dampers with mixed results. In some cases, they say they made the steering worse.

 

[Jiman01]

FWIW, I have not ever had an issue with needing to constantly adjust steering input. I regularly steer with my arm on the window ledge and use my left hand, two fingers and a thumb hooked around the 9 o’clock spoke (LHD) going down the highway. If I’m going straight, the truck will continue to track straight even if I take my hands off the wheel. Maybe I just a good oneIDK…but I’ve never been that lucky or special

My experience has been been that the steering mechanism does require more rotations of the steering wheel to move the same amount as a “normal” vehicle. For example, something that took my ND a quarter turn of the steering wheel might take 3/4 to a full turn in the Grenadier. Which means that in parking lots and city driving, it requires more work by the driver to maneuver, especially since it returns to center slowly (I.e.You’ll also have to put in the work/rotations to straighten it out.)

But for highway driving, I haven’t found it to be an issue. It does feel heavier but that’s because most people are used to drive by wire or some other form of assisted driving. I prefer a heavier feel than light. Light just feels too artificial. My Sprinter RV has very light steering and can feel twitchy at highway speeds. A twitchy 26’ long 2500 Sprinter that’s 11’ high definitely took some getting use. Now I can whip that thing around like a regular car and have driven 10-13hr days multiple times. I can also swap between the Gren, wife’s LR Sport, or my work F150 without thinking twice. All that is to say that you’ll get used to it with some time behind the wheel.

I agree with others here and also don’t think this is the rig to choose if you're a road warrior. Not unless you love the rest of the truck. If I was on the highway all the time, I would be much more comfortable in a New Defender. It rides better, more quiet and more comfortable. …but definitely not as cool. I say that because I traded in a ND for the Grenadier.

But there again, the Grenadier is my daily driver and for whatever reason if my life changed to driving on the highway all the time, there’s no way I’d consider selling for something different. I love it that much….because it’s cool

As for things that might help improve the steering, I’ve heard an aftermarket steering stabilizer, running the tires at 36psi (Mine came that way from the dealer), and messing with the caster. Aside from tire pressures, I don’t have the need to mess with the steering, so I don’t have direct experience with the other two options.

Hope this helps and good luck in your decision.

 

[Rbha311]

The challenge that @Rbha311 has is he lives in Sydney according to his forum profile so he's got highway and freeway miles to do no matter which way he travels (except East, where he would need an RAI to snorkel upgrade). Presumably he has a use case for the Grenadier's off-road capability but he needs to know he can live with it on the road trips to get where his adventures begin. Saying it's not a road tripping vehicle for long transits is like saying an Airbus would be a better option (it would btw). Any large SUV would be a better option for pure highway use but might be completely unsuitable at the destination. The compromise is for @Rbha311 to figure out.

I have done two long road trips in my Grenadier and was surprised that it was better than I expected. Diesel fuel economy worked in my favour. We also have lower speed limits (max 110km/h ~70mph in most places) so we're not white knuckled on the wheel at a Grenadier-unfriendly 80mph +.

If I was only doing highway runs and light graded gravel roads with my 2 berth hybrid camper behind I'd probably be in an LC250 and complaining in another forum about Toyota's long legacy of building excellent 4WDs yet still screwing up the basics in 2025.

Precisely, we purchasing the grenadier for off-roading on the in-laws 100 acre farm up in Kempseywhere this car would absolutely shine, however there is about 7 hours of hwy driving before we get there.

 

[Clark Kent]

Precisely, we purchasing the grenadier for off-roading on the in-laws 100 acre farm up in Kempseywhere this car would absolutely shine, however there is about 7 hours of hwy driving before we get there.

100 acres in Kempsey/Northern Rivers? I'm jealous. We need to become friends

I would definitely try to get some long highway miles in a Grenadier before you make a decision. It belongs on your short list. I'm a bit outside your area else I'd be happy to help.

 

[DenisM]

Precisely, we purchasing the grenadier for off-roading on the in-laws 100 acre farm up in Kempseywhere this car would absolutely shine, however there is about 7 hours of hwy driving before we get there.

A compromise might be to fit the Grenadier with tyres which have a "highway" bias e.g OEM fitment to the Patrol or LC200/300. ( to meet load bearing requirements)
On another matter:
My Trialmaster (diesel) has done some 12,000km over the past 18m. All but about 800km has been long trips. The most recent trip (Brisbane-Cairns -Brisbane 4,200km) was noticeable in that the steering was very different from the first trip Aug 2023 Bris -Melbourne -Tasmania and back to Brisbane, when I thought it was bordering on dangerous in terms of steering, (even though my old RR P38 was also recirculating ball and solid axles...but far more stable).
I am now most happy with the Trialmaster's comfort, performance and general suitability as a long distance highway cruiser for interstate trips.
I have come to a view that the initial steering "instability" was due to the softness of the tread on the K02 tryres, and that now they have hardened, there is less "give" in the tread blocks. I've noticed this on the broken bitumen resulting from recent very heavy wet season rains in Brisabane causing asphalt degradation. The ride is noticeably 'rougher' than at the same time in late 2023 when it was far more cushioned.
I may be completely off the track here (no pun intended!): However: a careful examination of the tread blocks indicates that they are not "braced" where they extend from the base of the tyre carcass. So a softer tread block could mean that there is more "give" and that the vehicle is essentially riding on a narrow patch of non-braced tread blocks making it vulnerable to sideways forces from wind, passing trucks (Bernoulli's fault!) etc as well as a delay in response from steering wheel input.
Fast forward 12 m and more km and the tread blocks have "cured", are less pliable and therefore less subject to sideways forces. It's interesting that one detailed assessment of the K03 made the point that the base of the tread blocks were 'braced' in terms of their continuity with immediately adjactent tread blocks, so that they didn't distort as much.
It's just a theory, but I can't explain the sgnificant improvement in the steering stability other than the tyres have cured and hardened.
I'd be most interested in others' opinions /experiences

 

[DoubleDoom]

Took one out for a test drive and it slightly terrified me. As I’ll be doing considerable distances on highways, I really want to know if anyone’s successfully invented a product that reduce the need for constant steering input and increased feel.

If you are a nervous driver, you tend to grip the wheel hard. The harder you grip the wheel, the less control you will feel and the more likely you are to drive the car with constant unnecessary corrections.

The other issue is your own perceptions vs reality. The car is tall and you sit high up. When it sways from side to side, the chassis isn't really moving but the body is. And you sitting up so high means your head is moving around more, and your brain is telling you to do things you don't need to do.

Think of it as an upside-down pendulum. Once you start trying to correct that pendulum effect, you end up throwing the steering wheel back and forth because you have created the motions that are telling your brain that you need to correct them.

With both of the above cases, the key is to let go of the steering wheel on a straight and you will find the car carries on going straight (bar any camber or road imperfections). Once you realise that and your brain realises that, you will find yourself driving it better.

I drive it around one handed with the wheel needing very little correction. However, both my wife and daughter found the need to overcorrect initially and once I told them to relax and let go of the wheel and see what happens, it sunk in and now they too don't have the issue.

On Sunday, I drove it 300 miles, most of the time one handed and the steering was great. It is different to other cars but you dial it out quickly enough. Indeed, when I get back in my Porsche, that feels strange initially.

I would recommend you ask the dealer for another go and test the no hands method. Drive a stretch where you find yourself over correcting and then turnaround and try it again with no hands (assuming its not a bend!) or as little hold on the wheel as possible. Don't grip the wheel just lay your hand(s) gently on it and guide it. If that works for you then great. If it doesn't then you may need to consider a different vehicle.

I heavily use thin rural lanes in the UK. Big pot holes that are decades old and heavy camber that throws you from side to side in a normal car. The IG chassis dials most of it out and you barely have to move the steering wheel on that. Basically, the worse the road or surface, the better the IG is. However, don't expect BMW or Land Rover or similar performance on smooth road surfaces.

 

[Dokatd]

Just a note, my truck as it was from the factory could not be driven hands free. Meaning if you are on the highway and you made an adjustment to go straight the truck would go in your newly set direction until it was corrected again. Meaning the truck would not find equilibrium in a theoretical straight line. This is due to the trucks inability to properly self center. It makes the IG very dodgy and requires constant correction just to stay straight. This condition has been corrected on my truck, but was a major concern at first. Does the condition get better as components wear, sure but does it work even better modded, I sure think so. If I was told I had to put the stock stabilizer back on, I would sell the truck immediately.

 

[Jiman01]

Just a note, my truck as it was from the factory could not be driven hands free. Meaning if you are on the highway and you made an adjustment to go straight the truck would go in your newly set direction until it was corrected again. Meaning the truck would not find equilibrium in a theoretical straight line. This is due to the trucks inability to properly self center. It makes the IG very dodgy and requires constant correction just to stay straight. This condition has been corrected on my truck, but was a major concern at first. Does the condition get better as components wear, sure but does it work even better modded, I sure think so. If I was told I had to put the stock stabilizer back on, I would sell the truck immediately.

I don't doubt your experience but I'm not following your explanation. The two underlined sections above seem to counter each other.

If the the truck goes in the “newly set direction until corrected again”, if you are going straight, wouldn’t it just keep going straight unless you give it left/right input?