Stuck in Namibia !

[Commodore]

Here I thought that the US has become to regulatory... y'all need a little tea party to get your government back in line.

 

[CRH]

Here I thought that the US has become to regulatory... y'all need a little tea party to get your government back in line.

I think we are well passed that, you live in freedom over there whilst we live in chains.

 

[255/85]

My understanding on my vehicle is that the support bars are attached to the metal bumper which is surrounded by the existing plastic bumper so the pedestrian safety aspect has not changed
.without these additional bumper support bars the radiators will fall out on corrugated roads as myself Annie and others have found. Ineos ought to own the problem and modify the early European spec vehicles but if they don’t then sort yourself a fix before going on a a long and remote expedition

Exactly. I'm seeing this as a long term wear issue not a brute strength issue. I seriously doubt the ROW bars and better brackets will prevent damage to the radiator in any serious collision whether with an obstacle or a a sack of soft tissue. All that may be needed is some amount of reinforcement even if it's less than "robust"and needs to occasionally be replaced. Perhaps some kind of flexible or vibration dampening fixture could serve when traveling long distances over broken ground and not rouse the ire of the authorities.

Sidenote: Ronny Dahl didn't lose the auxiliary cooler when he met Skippy on the road. The right wing/bumper/door took a pretty good hit as I remember. Was the lack of damage to the cooler due to the steel bumper or the supports?

 

[Tom109]

Help from our Antipodean , Southern African and American friends may be required for this one. As U.K. and far as I’m aware European vehicles are not fitted with this part then maybe someone from these regions could go into their friendly dealership and get the part number .
Do the latest European vehicles have different mounting brackets or the additional support bars fitted to them

Here is the RH bracket on my 9/2024 production NA spec.

EDIT: Steel factory bumper.

 

[Clark Kent]

Adding this pic because it shows detail of the back of the transfer case cooler (left side wing), the cooler hoses and mounts and part of the support strut underneath. This MY23 vehicle belongs to an Australian modifier and YouTuber and has been worked hard.

You can clearly see in this pic that there is not a lot of protrusion of the studs through the grommets. With such little engagement it's not hard to visualise the cooler becoming dislodged due to vertical loads like corrugations which is where @Logsplitter and @Annee Grenadier_girl have had problems.
In lieu of those support struts which may be hard to obtain and fit in other markets, a pair of heavy duty stainless steel zip ties wrapped around each mount would encase the cooler within the mounts without impacting maintenance or cooling. Part of heavy offroad/remote trip prep perhaps.
The cooler may still pop out of the grommets but it won't fall out of the mounting frame and cause further damage.

Personally I'd like to see those cooler studs extend further through the grommets, although it's a C frame mount so there are clearance constraints, and the rigidity of the mounting frame increased either by forming or a revised material spec.
It's been proven to be a vulnerable area and hopefully IA have made a note for product improvement.

 

[Logsplitter]

That’s exactly what I did appart from I didn’t have stainless steel zip ties. I used some fencing wire to tie both clamps together which worked for many thousands of kilometres until a proper fix.
Yesterday I picked a roll of stainless steel band clamp with end fittings so can make my own jubilee clips /steel zip ties.

 

[Clark Kent]

That’s exactly what I did appart from I didn’t have stainless steel zip ties. I used some fencing wire to tie both clamps together which worked for many thousands of kilometres until a proper fix.
Yesterday I picked a roll of stainless steel band clamp with end fittings so can make my own jubilee clips /steel zip ties.

 

[Logsplitter]

That’s what it’s all about. You’ll never have the right part with you if you take spares, so bits and pieces for a Macgyver fix is the way to go. Wire, cable ties, bicycle inner tube , epoxy resin, silicone sealant and section of nuts,bolts,screws etc. You just have to spot any issues before you get a major problem if you can. Easier said than done as I didn’t realise my transfer box cables were rubbing on the prop shaft until too late.

 

[CRH]

That’s what it’s all about. You’ll never have the right part with you if you take spares, so bits and pieces for a Macgyver fix is the way to go. Wire, cable ties, bicycle inner tube , epoxy resin, silicone sealant and section of nuts,bolts,screws etc. You just have to spot any issues before you get a major problem if you can. Easier said than done as I didn’t realise my transfer box cables were rubbing on the prop shaft until too late.

Or the Top Gear kit which consisted of vasalein, viagra, condom and tampax.

 

[bigleonski]

That’s what it’s all about. You’ll never have the right part with you if you take spares, so bits and pieces for a Macgyver fix is the way to go. Wire, cable ties, bicycle inner tube , epoxy resin, silicone sealant and section of nuts,bolts,screws etc. You just have to spot any issues before you get a major problem if you can. Easier said than done as I didn’t realise my transfer box cables were rubbing on the prop shaft until too late.

Yep - the 7 P’s

Prior planning and preparation prevents piss poor performance.


Sometimes you just run out of luck, but it helps if you make a fair bit of luck before you head off.

 

[Gwynne]

Here is the RH bracket on my 9/2024 production NA spec.

EDIT: Steel factory bumper.

View attachment 7890574
View attachment 7890575

Do you have the same on the LHS?

 

[Tazzieman]

That’s what it’s all about. You’ll never have the right part with you if you take spares, so bits and pieces for a Macgyver fix is the way to go. Wire, cable ties, bicycle inner tube , epoxy resin, silicone sealant and section of nuts,bolts,screws etc. You just have to spot any issues before you get a major problem if you can. Easier said than done as I didn’t realise my transfer box cables were rubbing on the prop shaft until too late.

Never underestimate the power of a coathanger!

 

[Rockslide]

Adding this pic because it shows detail of the back of the transfer case cooler (left side wing), the cooler hoses and mounts and part of the support strut underneath. This MY23 vehicle belongs to an Australian modifier and YouTuber and has been worked hard.

You can clearly see in this pic that there is not a lot of protrusion of the studs through the grommets. With such little engagement it's not hard to visualise the cooler becoming dislodged due to vertical loads like corrugations which is where @Logsplitter and @Annee Grenadier_girl have had problems.
In lieu of those support struts which may be hard to obtain and fit in other markets, a pair of heavy duty stainless steel zip ties wrapped around each mount would encase the cooler within the mounts without impacting maintenance or cooling. Part of heavy offroad/remote trip prep perhaps.
The cooler may still pop out of the grommets but it won't fall out of the mounting frame and cause further damage.

Personally I'd like to see those cooler studs extend further through the grommets, although it's a C frame mount so there are clearance constraints, and the rigidity of the mounting frame increased either by forming or a revised material spec.
It's been proven to be a vulnerable area and hopefully IA have made a note for product improvement.

View attachment 7890662

Why not just use Loctite so they will never back out?

 

[Clark Kent]

Why not just use Loctite so they will never back out?

Use Loctite where? The mounting studs are a push fit into the grommets. You could also call them pegs or posts.

 

[Logsplitter]

Use Loctite where? The mounting studs are a push fit into the grommets. You could also call them pegs or posts.

Exactly. But in my experience if you have these rads off then glue the grommets in place as the rad rattles around without them and at £18+ each for a rubber grommet they are very expensive to replace. I used gorilla glue to glue them in place

 

[Dawid Potgieter]

Hi all,

I’m sorry that I’ve not kept up with posting about my African trip as the lack of WiFi in most places is and has been rather hit and miss.
As some of you are aware at the moment I am stuck in Namibia as my Grenadier broke down.
Here’s how it all went down.

I have been travelling since the 3rd of January throughout South Africa Botswana and had just entered into Namibia last Tuesday, I stayed at a lodge in Tsumkwe just over the border of Botswana for one night and was leaving for a place called Grootfontein the following morning, I left for the 300 km trip first thing in the morning and after about two hours on the gravel corrugated roads my Gren temperature shot up to 130 and the warning said to stop the vehicle immediately which I did I checked for water and the water was non-existent…dry as a bone, I put lots of water in which made no difference to the vehicle whatsoever, I was on a road where there was literally no one and no passing vehicles, the heat was over 30° and after three hours started to panic and thankfully I had a satellite device on me where I could send a message and after a few hours there were four police forces looking for me and I was found by the owner of the lodge that I had stayed the previous night, I truly was so frightened as there were no vehicles passing and I was running out of water because I had put in over 60 L into the vehicle with no effect of cooling it down.

After nine hours, I had been found and returned to the lodge and Ineos in Windhoek was contacted and they arranged for a pick up truck to collect the vehicle and myself to drive to Ineos in Windhoek, a couple of days later I was on the pick up truck with my vehicle and endured a 15 1/2 hour drive to Ineos, I was put up in a hotel in the capital when my vehicle was dropped off and was told by the servicing manager not to worry about anything as long as I was safe that everything would be taken care of regarding my accommodation, warranty of the vehicle, and recovery of the vehicle.

So that was last Thursday that they received the vehicle at the garage and now it is late on Monday and Ineos South Africa who apparently have to authorise any work, warranty etc and accommodation costs have done in my opinion very little, after saying everything would be taken care of it seems that they want me to pay for my accommodation and recovery costs and get it back from INEOS in the UK, I don’t have the funds for this and also I have lost a whole week of travelling and my pre paid accommodations en route throughout Namibia.

So, what went wrong ?

The small radiator on the drivers side had become loose and detached on the corrugated gravel roads, on the early vehicles that radiator was not held in place by brackets, Logsplitter also had exactly the same problem with his Gren travelling through Africa on the same road, but he managed to mend his and then got it fixed at a later date, now in my opinion Ineos new that the earlier vehicles had this fault and I believe they should have been recalled to have that radiator rebuilt with a bracket around it to stop it falling out and apart, I don’t know how Ineos did their trials through Namibia, but I am as sure as sure can be that they certainly didn’t test them for hundreds of miles on those corrugated roads.

I have completely lost confidence in the vehicle and its capabilities certainly in Africa, I hopefully will get it back tomorrow and I can continue and salvage a little bit of my Namibian trip, I know people say that maybe I should travel with somebody else but that’s not the point. I don’t like to travel with anybody else, that’s why I’m travelling solo but I shouldn’t have found myself in a position with a vehicle not fit for what it was built for on these roads, stranded on my own fearing I would die alone.

Now I have had INEOS saying I should pay for my hotel etc when they initially said they’d sort it out (Ineos in Namibia) but they are just a sales team and service department and everything has to go through Ineos in Cape Town I found out, many emails were sent today and went unanswered, now Ineos in Cape Town have replied saying they have to get authorisation from the chief financial officer in the UK, it beggars belief !

I feel like selling my vehicle on return to the UK and going back to an old defender, Ineos customer service remains complete shit.

And this is a company that contacted me in the first instance when they found out I was bringing my Gren and doing a three month trip through Africa asking me if they could follow my journey and post it on their social media, strange how I’ve contacted them today on social media telling them all about what’s happening and my disappointment in the company and yet they haven’t replied not once.

Annee

Sorry to hear about this. Your experience with Ineos South Africa seems about right...

 

[Annee Grenadier_girl]

I’m so sorry for the lack of updates but I arrived home last Sunday and the Gren was put on a ship yesterday back to the UK.
Sadly, there is no longer going to be a relationship between Ineos and myself, I’ve had enough of their terrible customer service, support, lies and misinformation, the icing on the cake was the closure of service centres here in the UK.
Ineos have broken the agreement terms and I’m done.
I simply love my Gren and had a great couple of years but I can’t go on….so I’ll be getting the new Land Cruiser.

 

[Tom D]

I had assumed that customer service would improve as time went on, given that they were starting from scratch, but it's getting worse.
So sad to hear of your experience, you're right though, the service is crap. I'm still waiting on simple parts that I ordered weeks ago, things that should be on the shelf and out the next day. They have had 3 years to get a distribution network setup and yet still nothing.
From what I hear the setup in Australia is much better.

I would advise that you let your temper cool a little and work with what you know. You know you like the car, you know that the support is crap, so plan ahead, keep a stock of likely parts that you might need and find a dealer who is supportive and attentive.
The new land cruiser is f****ing boring, I'd feel like I had given up on life driving that.

 

[Commodore]

I’m so sorry for the lack of updates but I arrived home last Sunday and the Gren was put on a ship yesterday back to the UK.
Sadly, there is no longer going to be a relationship between Ineos and myself, I’ve had enough of their terrible customer service, support, lies and misinformation, the icing on the cake was the closure of service centres here in the UK.
Ineos have broken the agreement terms and I’m done.
I simply love my Gren and had a great couple of years but I can’t go on….so I’ll be getting the new Land Cruiser.

What issues did you have besides the radiator support and the poor response from Ineos in a country where they do not of a dealer network? The rad support issue is unique to the plastic bumper cars. What I’m getting at is, now that this issue is worked through it would seem that the truck is pretty well sorted out.

 

[Annee Grenadier_girl]

What issues did you have besides the radiator support and the poor response from Ineos in a country where they do not of a dealer network? The rad support issue is unique to the plastic bumper cars. What I’m getting at is, now that this issue is worked through it would seem that the truck is pretty well sorted out.

The issue is the lack of customer service and support over the last 2 years, they said before I signed the contract that we must get services done by an Ineos service centre and they’d be located near all owners, my nearest one is over 150 miles away, so if anything needs ordering parts have to come in usually taking over a week and then more days wasted waiting to get fixed etc. Then there are plenty of issues with the vehicle, the info system doesn’t work, it’s easier to illegally speak on my phone because then at least people can hear me. There are many issues but my main point is the broken contract re service centres, the broken promise’s ie the manual we were all promised , as I said, we were told that services must be done by an Ineos service centre from which they’ve closed, no one can service them especially without the technical updates. I would never have ordered a Grenadier if I was told that there were no service centres nearby, I would never have considered it, and who else would have bought one if they knew they couldn’t get them serviced nearby ?