Land Rover Ideas for Grenadiers

[jscherb]

In the last post, I mentioned the MORryde Trail Kitchen. It's not a Land Rover Idea for a Grenadier, but it might be worth featuring here because it's a great addition to a Grenadier. 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 Wrangler:



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 I mounted it on the right side (I had to do a small mod to the kitchen to make that work - I added right side mounting holes for the table); 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.



MORryde: https://tinyurl.com/5ysb477j

 

[jscherb]

Found this in one of the magazines, it's from QuickPitch - they call it a "Mini Kitchen"

It's got more counter space than many kitchens, and an interesting feature for people who are not as tall as I am - notice in the video as the kitchen opens how the fridge slides out and down:


It's an Australian product but I think it may be available in the U.S.

 

[jscherb]

I've posted a few times in this thread about carrying a second spare, here are more examples...

Dual spare carriers seem to be more common in Australia, perhaps for those long expeditions in the Outback. Here's one from Rijidi Offroad (https://rijidijoffroad.com.au/products/defender-dual-wheel-and-jerry-can-carrier/) for the Defender which offers either a second spare or optionally a pair of jerry cans and one spare.

Australian company Outback Equipment offers one for the JK Wrangler (https://www.outbackequipment.com.au/twin-rear-spare-wheel-carrier-to-suit-jeep-wrangle):

Notice in both the Defender and the Wrangler cases, the tail lights have to be relocated to the bumper because the spares/jerry cans obscure them. Probably would be true with the Grenadier as well.

The Outback Equipment web site doesn't indicate any provision on their JK carrier for jerry cans, so apparently it only support two spares and not jerry cans.

Here's something interesting from another Australian company, Aussie Offroad - they offer an add-on swing-away jerry can carrier for their bumper (https://aussieoffroad.com.au/dual-jerry-can-holder/). It's only 250 AUD (about $192 US). Pretty reasonable.

Not sure I'd want to add something like these to my Grenadier though - it would still be three or four operations to get into the cargo area - swing away the jerry cans or one of the spares, swing away the other spare and then open the rear door(s). Also not sure about adding so much weight to the rear of the Jeep, since I already have a fridge/kitchen in the back and the RTT on the roof towards the back.

 

[jscherb]

Racks that stick out over the windshield are not uncommon in the Defender/Series world, seems like they could be useful in the Grenadier world as an addition to a full length roof rack if you need more cargo space up top.

From DriveLodge is this over-the-windshield rack. It is designed to work with their pop-up roof conversion for the Defender, but I think it could also be useful to expand storage capacity when a roof top tent is up top.

It's 375 GBP. https://www.lrbits.co.uk/camper-roof-racks At the top it mounts to the drip rails; at the bottom it attaches to the A-pillars. Don't know if the Defender drip rails are the same distance apart as the Grenadier drip rails, or if the Grenadier A-pillars could support this, but this possibly could be adapted to a Grenadier for extra up-top storage.

I have a Garvin rack basket I've been using on my Jeeps for years; I've adapted it to the Grenadier. When I was using it on the Jeeps, I built an extension for the front to increase cargo capacity when carrying my roof top tent. Because of the length of the roof on my LJ Wrangler, that extension sticks out a bit over the windshield:

The Grenadier roof and the roof on my JKU Wrangler are longer so the extension doesn't stick out over the windshield on those vehicles. With this extension I currently don't need more cargo space up top, even with the RTT installed because the RTT only takes up about 80% of the main rack, leaving the extension and part of the main rack available. I often carry a cargo box in the extension, it's in this photo:



If I ever get to the point of needing even more cargo space up top in the Grenadier, I'd consider making a rack extension like the DriveLodge one pictured above. I'd make it out of the same material that I made the current extension out of so everything matches.

 

[jscherb]

Earlier in this thread I posted about Land Rover Tropical Roofs (https://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/land-rover-ideas-for-grenadiers.248833/post-3225875). This Series Land Rover has a tropical roof and the tropical roof has been cut and hinged to provide enough headroom to stand up inside:

A tropical roof for a Grenadier could be molded on the roof of a Grenadier without damaging the roof. And once made, a second skin like that could be turned into a pop-top like the Land Rover above.

Also interesting in this Land Rover is the use of a foot locker as a storage cabinet inside.

 

[jscherb]

No room inside? Put your cooler on the roof rack?

It's a Dometic cooler (not fridge):

A ladder would be a good option to have to help you get a cold drink out of the cooler though.

I can't tell why the guy on the third vehicle back is on his roof. Standing on Land Rovers is a pretty common thing I guess.

At least the color of the cooler matches the Land Rover (and the recovery tracks) .

 

[jscherb]

Speaking of standing on Land Rovers, hardly an issue of the Land Rover magazines goes by without a photo of someone standing on their Land Rover...

I've often used my Jeep as a vantage point for surveying the scene...

Would you stand on your Grenadier fenders?

I just added fender plates to my Grenadier, so yes, I would stand on my fenders now.

 

[jscherb]

I've posted a few times about the idea of adding L-track just below the drip rail above the side windows; a mate to the factory L-track below the windows. Seems better for mounting things than using the drip rail. A company in Germany offers these and they use adhesive to mount them: https://www.offroad-tec.de/p/ineos-grenadier-airlineschienenset-offroad-tec

 

[jscherb]

Some other examples of things hanging over Land Rover cargo area windows.

Mounting panels for the side of a hardtop from a company called Delta Bags (https://www.delta-bags.de/en/mounting-systems/outside/outside-panels/).

They're not technically Molle panels, and the company sells a range of adapters and mounts to put various things on them, like with QuickFist clamps. This is their Discovery version:

They've also got a strap system for mounting things like these:

Another company called Powerful UK offers these panels for the new Defender (which doesn't have upper or lower L-Tracks so these mount differently):

The Powerful UK web site doesn't include any photos of gear attached to the panel, and they do call them Molle Plates but I guess we'll have to imagine things mounted to them - based on the holes in the panel it seems to me their usefulness as general Molle panels might be fairly limited. I wonder what all those other special-shaped holes are for? They do have a 30-minute video showing the installation, but there are no images of gear installed in the video either (I guess they're not marketing geniuses ).

 

[jscherb]

I haven't seen anything like these for the Grenadier - solid panels that attach to the inside of the window area and offer storage.

A similar product:



This one's a panel with pockets and would be fairly easy to do for the Grenadier:



Here's a more clear view of the same product in tan:



The last one is from Exmoor Trim: https://www.exmoortrim.co.uk/canvas-side-storage-bag.html

 

[2.ooohhh]

I've used a rotomolded cooler similar to above as a deep freeze for longer trips out. It goes on the roof rack when I do that due to the sublimation, and my fridge is already in the back of the rover for thawed Items and snacks.

Nothing quite like meeting hikers out on a backpacking trip along the AT who haven't seen an electric outlet in days and offering them a frozen ice cream sandwich in the backcountry.

 

[jscherb]

NATO/Jerry Can Luggage/Storage Cases...

More versions are here: https://g-case.myshopify.com/

Could be a DIY project, you could start with a surplus NATO can on sale - this was the price during a sale at Coleman's:

That sale is off now but they go on sale regularly: https://colemans.com/nato-military-jerry-can

I posted about DIY foam interiors like the case above here: https://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/land-rover-ideas-for-grenadiers.248833/post-3231246

 

[jscherb]

Another Jerry can conversion to storage can. I found this on the defender2.net Land Rover forum a few years ago but the photos seem to have disappeared now: https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic80423.html. I saved the photos when I first saw the thread...



There's very little written detail about the project in that thread but maybe this will inspire someone to make their own.

Looking at the detail, I suspect the seal around the opening may not work very well, seems like a lip is needed inside the base or the lid to seal better.

 

[jscherb]

Another item of personal kit from the August issue of Land Rover Owner:

I got two of them a few years ago from Coleman's Military Surplus, they were $9.95 at the time.

Fits perfectly in the small pocket on the door of my Wrangler. Haven't found an appropriate place to keep it in the Grenadier yet.

Also fits nicely in a military surplus grenade pouch:

A search on "jerry can hip flask" (https://www.google.com/search?q=jerry+can+hip+flask) turns up lots of places to get them in the U.S.

Do not drink and drive, either on the road or on the trail.

 

[jscherb]

An interesting awning:

The awning stows in this bag on the floor:

I think it was a DIY project but there wasn't any explanation in the magazine.

Speaking of DIY awnings, here's my DIY awning... I made this one some years ago for my Jeeps and since I'm using the same rack on the Grenadier it works there too.







It was windy atop Hurricane Pass in Colorado one time when I was using the awning on my LJ, so I used its tie downs to keep it stable.