Outfitting my Grenadier Trialmaster

[jscherb]

There are cargo-wall L-track kits on the market with prices from $100-$200 per pair but they're pretty easy to DIY. I did these for about $20 per side.



I started with a 24" piece of L-track on eBay for $18.95. Because the side wall tie-downs and the holes they bolt into are recessed into the side wall, spacers are required to support the L-track. Using a 1 3/4" hole saw, I cut spacers from a scrap piece of plastic composite deck material I had laying around (you could use wood if that's the only material you have access to and you could make them rectangular if you don't have a hole saw). I planned to reinstall the factory tie-downs, so I notched one side of each spacer to accept the tab on the tie-downs, the notch helps prevent the tie-down from spinning around. I cut the L-track to length, used one of the pre-drilled holes in it for one of the bolts and drilled a hole in the other end to line up with the tie-down bolt point. Longer 8mm bolts are needed, and I happened to have some on hand, so I used those.



One other detail - I made the spacers long enough so there's about 1/8" of clearance between the back of the L-track and the side panel. I did this to experiment with a slip-in cargo side bag design I'm working on - the bag in the video has a tab on the back that slides into the gap between the L-track and the side panel; the bag is held securely in place but it can be removed from the vehicle just by lifting it off the rail. The bag is from Overland Outfitters; it's designed to go in the bed of a Jeep Gladiator. The mounting tab is not part of the bag as it comes from OO, I added that so the bag could hang on the L-track.

 

[jscherb]

Another use for the tie downs on the roof - we can hang our "Camp Cabinet" there when we're camping. It's from Overland Outfitters, think of it as your bathroom cabinet for camping. It's got a fold-away table, pockets and places to store everything for our morning routine. There's an unbreakable mirror for those who care what they look like in the wild (you know who you are). Folds up compact, easy to store and portable. Hangs nicely on trees too, on a hook in the bathroom of an organized campsite or on the inside of our roof top tent.



On a tree:



Inside the changing room enclosure under the roof top tent:







I designed the Camp Cabinet for Overland Outfitters (I'll repeat what I've posted before: I am not an employee of OO, I am an independent designer and I do designs for a number of Jeep and offroad companies). This design came about at Overland East a few years ago - I stopped by the OO booth at the show and there was a woman complimenting OO on the quality and style of their products and also lamenting the fact that there wasn't a good product on the market to make her "morning routine" in the wild easier and more convenient. I asked her to sit down with me and give me her requirements for something that would make her life easier. The mirror was a key requirement, she wanted to look good in the wild. I included all of her requirements in the design of the Camp Cabinet. There's also a large pocket behind the mirror, so the mirror isn't just taking up space. BTW here's a video from someone who bought one (this is not the woman I met at Overland West)...

 

[jscherb]

I've been at the Overland Outfitters factory for the last couple of days helping them get a few new Grenadier designs ready for production. One of the designs I did for them is a rear door storage panel. A few weeks back I made a CAD template for the door panel; the pattern included the recess for the factory storage compartment, and had a possible MOLLE grid drawn on it:



Using that pattern, I came up with several designs for storage on the rear door. They had made two samples of the rear door panel for me earlier and after installing and testing them I made some updates to the design and the OO folks made some suggestions as well, so the new sample incorporates all of that input. The "installed" photo for this one is a series of digital edits I did as part of showing them the design changes and the uninstalled photos are the new sample, I'll install it when I get home. Design features include a removable bag that's got double the storage capacity of the factory compartment in the door plus four other fixed pockets. It would be available in tan or black; I ask them to do prototypes like this in tan because they photograph better than black and photos of them are easy to annotate for design changes. There may be a few more tweaks to this design before it goes into production, but this sample is pretty close to final.



In addition to the removable bag shown, a removable first aid bag will be an option; that bag will share many design feature with their First Responder Bag (a picture of the inside of that bag is below), including interior pockets similar to the ones in that bag for organizing medical supplies.



I don't have very good software handy for changing colors, but I changed the color of the sample to black and digitally installed it on the read door:



Not sure if I prefer the tan or the black, I think for me maybe the tan.

I'll install all of the new sample in my Grenadier when I get home and assuming it fits well I'll let OO know that it's ready for production. Also I'll finalize the design for the optional first aid bag and turn that over to them.

Since these aren't completely final yet, any comments about them you might have are welcome.

 

[jscherb]

For years I've used a MORryde Trail Kitchen in my JKU and LJ Wranglers while on expeditions. It installs/removes very quickly so when I'm using the Jeeps as daily drivers the kitchen sits in the garage. The kitchen holds a fridge on a slide-out, a drawer that slides out from under the fridge and provides a table and a fold-out second table that holds a collapsible sink with running water and plenty of counter space for my stove. Camping in Death Valley in my JKU:



I installed the kitchen in my Grenadier, securing it to the L-track in the floor of the cargo area.

Some photos of it in my Grenadier: photos show the full kitchen with a one-burner butane stove (my favorite stove) or a 2-burner Coleman propane stove. Water supply for the sink is the white Rotopax on the side of the enclosure. Water pressure is provided by a demand pump mounted to the front of the kitchen housing; "demand pump" means the pump turns on when you open the faucet and turns off when it's closed. There's an optional side table which is handy when the main table has a large 2-burner stove on it. Under the large main table is a drawer for utensils, etc. Everything collapses into the enclosure (except the stove, although some stoves fit nicely in the drawer). Lots of cargo area is left for more gear.



The small side table option. In the Jeep it goes on the left side but because of the Grenadier's narrow left side door it mounts on the right side; there's still plenty of room to get by it to access the cargo area:



A few more photos:



An option for the Trail Kitchen is a power panel:



In addition to powering the fridge, the Trail Kitchen sink option comes with a "demand pump" to provide water pressure for the sink. "Demand pump" means that when you open the tap the pump automatically turns on and when you close the tap it turns off. Water supply is in the white Rotopax container on the side of the kitchen enclosure.

More on the wiring mod I made to the Grenadier for powering the Trail Kitchen in the next post...

 

[jscherb]

In my last post I showed the MORryde Trail Kitchen installed in my Grenadier. In this post I'll show how I powered it.

I could have used the factory "cigar lighter style" outlet in the cargo area, but my experience over the years is that plugs in those can vibrate loose on trails, so I installed an ARB screw-type outlet. ARB and Dometic fridges come with this type of plug and it screws into the outlet for a secure connection. In case you have and ARB or Dometic fridge and don't know about this plug, the "cigar lighter style" tip can be removed from the fridge power cord, revealing the two-prong screw-type plug. This is a photo of the power cord from one of my Dometic fridges; the tip has been removed to reveal the screw-type plug.



ARB sells sockets for those plugs, they're less than $15 and that's what I installed (https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and.../ARB/ARB96MR.html). This next photo shows two of those sockets, one still in the package and I've disassembled the second one because I'm going to install the socket directly in the cargo area trim panel and won't be using the supplied housing.



Another reason I didn't want to use the factory outlet in the cargo area is that I want the kitchen power to be unswitched (on all the time). The factory outlet is switched, although you can flip the power switch on the overhead panel to turn it on when the engine isn't running. The problem with that is when the power switch is on, all other circuits controlled by that switch are also on, which could be a large power drain if other things are on those circuits. So I added a small fuse panel in the electrical area under the rear seat and connected it to the 40 amp unswitched power connection provided by the factory. I'm only using one of the fuse positions for the kitchen so if I ever need any more unswitched circuits I can connect them to this fuse panel - I'm using a 10 amp fuse for the kitchen circuit so there's 30 amps of capacity left in the circuit that feeds the fuse panel I added. In the left view below you can see the four circuit fuse panel installed to one of the brackets under the rear seat. I'm only using one of the circuits for now, the other three I may find a use for in the future. The panel is fed by the 40 amp unswitched circuit provided by the factory; the fuse for the kitchen circuit is 10 amp. The right view shows the panel with its protective cover installed.



The factory preinstalled 40 amp circuit can be found here under the rear seat, they're slightly behind where the fuse panel is in the photos above:



Power is through factory fuse FI13 in the Interior Electrical Center fuse panel under the rear seat.

I installed the ARB outlet above the factory outlet:





In this photo I'm pointing to the threaded collar that screws into the socket to prevent the plug from working loose.



The Trail Kitchen power panel I showed in the previous post plugs into the new socket and the fridge, sink water pump and other kitchen accessories plug into the sockets in the fridge power panel.



One thing I didn't get to show in the previous post because of the forum's 10-photo limit per post - the sink water pump. It's a "demand pump", meaning that when you open the tap the pump automatically turns on and when you close the tap it turns off. Water supply is in the white Rotopax container on the side of the kitchen enclosure.




I'll comment here that at this point that I'm not sure I have complete confidence that the factory dual battery system in the Grenadier will be able to run all of the campsite accessories for days in the wild and still be able to start the engine.

The dual battery systems I have in my Jeeps have a main battery and a house battery; the house battery only powers the campsite accessories and those accessories will never draw from the main battery, so there's never a danger of running down the main battery at a campsite to the point where it won't start the engine. The house battery in my Jeeps gets charged by the alternator but is electrically separate from the main battery when the engine isn't running. There's a switch that does connect the house battery to the main battery in the event the main battery needs help starting the engine, but I've only needed that twice in all the years I've had those systems in the Jeeps and both times it was because the main battery was failing and needed to be replaced. I also have solar charging in both Jeeps and plan to add that to the Grenadier soon, although that's more involved given the Grenadier's electrical system than it was in the Jeeps. Maybe I'll learn to love the Grenadier's dual battery system, but for now I have more confidence in the systems I have in the Jeeps.

 

[jscherb]

As you all have experienced, there's never enough storage in an expedition vehicle. I've got Overland Outfitter door pockets in my Wrangler and I find them very handy for lots of smaller items. When I got my Grenadier I suggested to OO that they consider adding Grenadier door pockets to their product line; they asked me for a design, which I did; I sent them the design and they sewed two sets of samples for me. These are constructed from high-quality military grade canvas with natural leather accents and include high-end features like stylish linings in the pockets. I installed one of the sets in my Grenadier. They install very easily - they don't damage the face of the door panel or use adhesive. These are photos of the driver's side pocket...



A couple more proof-of-concept prototypes I did for Overland Outfitters... their "Roll Bar Buddies" are very popular for Jeeps - strapping to the roll bar in a Jeep, usually just above the driver or passenger door, there's a version with a pocket and a "tactical" version with pistol magazine-size pockets, elastic for gear and a small section of MOLLE grid. I've got them in all of my Jeeps and they're very handy for small gear that would get lost elsewhere and I miss having them in the Grenadier. Can't use the Jeep versions because the Grenadier doesn't have roll bars, but it does have a blank panel in the overhead console, so here are some proof-of-concept prototypes for the Grenadier. They attach very easily using the factory screws. I'm keeping the tactical version in my Grenadier, I've got a Leatherman-style multi-tool in one of the pockets, a tire gauge, pen and flashlight in the elastics, and I use the MOLLE grid to hold my tape measure (as a designer, I'm always reaching for a tape measure when I get an idea). The ones in the photos are prototypes that I sewed; this past week when I was at the OO factory the craftsmen there sewed preproduction samples for me but I haven't have a chance to install/test them yet.

The pocket version:



The "tactical" version:

C:\jeep\JeffCo\Grenadier\ConsoleBuddy\GrennyBuddyT1.jpg
C:\jeep\JeffCo\Grenadier\ConsoleBuddy\GrennyBuddyT2.jpg
C:\jeep\JeffCo\Grenadier\ConsoleBuddy\GrennyBuddyT3.jpg
C:\jeep\JeffCo\Grenadier\ConsoleBuddy\GrennyBuddyT4.jpg

It looks like OO will be putting all of these in production.

 

[jscherb]

Overland Outfitters is looking for a good Grenadier photo for the cover of their first Grenadier-specific catalog. The photo should showcase the Grenadier in an overlanding/camping setting, out in the wild preferably, but a driveway shot of a Grenadier well equipped for overland adventures might also be good. Photos should work well in a vertical format to match the orientation of the catalog pages. Anyone got a photo they'd like to see on the front of the OO catalog?

Background: As I've been posting photos of some of the Grenadier designs that I've been doing for Overland Outfitters, I've written multiple times that I am not an employee of OO, I'm an independent designer and I do design work for a number of Jeep, offroad and adventure trailer companies. For example, I've been doing Jeep accessory designs for MORryde for more than 10 years and I'm behind everything in their Jeep product line (https://tinyurl.com/5ysb477j), including their Trail Kitchen, which works very nicely in the Grenadier BTW (https://tinyurl.com/26hr66xr). In addition to product design, sometimes companies ask me to help them with marketing materials and as I've been doing Grenadier product designs for OO they've asked me if I would help them put together a Grenadier product catalog. It's a work in progress, because not all of the product designs have reached production yet some of the photos are just placeholders for now, but here's where it's at. Still a draft and more pages and better photos to come but I'll share the work in progress to let you know what's coming soon.

 

[toddz69]

Fantastic product development! Love reading all this stuff.

I'll be curious to hear your driving impressions of the INEOS once you make a trip or two across the country for your adventures. I was surprised to hear about the front end caster issues on a recent OJ pod.

Todd Z.

 

[jscherb]

Fantastic product development! Love reading all this stuff.

I'll be curious to hear your driving impressions of the INEOS once you make a trip or two across the country for your adventures. I was surprised to hear about the front end caster issues on a recent OJ pod.

Todd Z.

Thank you.

The longest drive I've taken so far is from Wilmington, DE to Boston and back, about 750 miles round trip. The Grenadier drove and tracked just fine at speed on the highway. When I bought the Grenadier I had the dealer swap the factory steering stabilizer for the Fox product; test drives before the installation of the new stabilizer were troublesome - it took constant steering corrections to keep the Grenadier going perfectly straight but after the new stabilizer I would say it tracks no differently than my Wranglers, which is to say it's fine, no need for constant corrections.

I'm planning a Colorado expedition this summer, that'll be over 5,000 miles round trip and if I experience any bad behavior I will report on it.