Outfitting my Grenadier Trialmaster

[jscherb]

Great idea Jeff. Your new garage looks more cramped than the old one!

Thanks. I used that technique for years in my Elmira house; when I moved I took the strut channels with me and installed them in the new garage.

That bay is the third of three in the new garage; it's a single bay with an 8' high door so taller things (like vehicles with racks can fit):



The front two bays are a little more roomy although they only have 7' doors.



And cabinets I removed during renovations inside the house became storage in the garage.



Overall the garage is very efficient. And not to mention my wife's beautiful yoga studio over the front two bays.

 

[jscherb]

My better half can't believe that a vehicle this expensive doesn't come with a mirror on the visor. It does seem very cheap not to include one, so to end that discussion, I added this one. It was $13.99 on Amazon and it's very large - you can see how much of the visor it takes up. Attaches with elastic straps. Apologies for the photo inside the messy garage, it was raining when I slipped it onto the visor. FWIW: https://tinyurl.com/27bw4nma.


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[dman93]

I don’t have a Grenadier or a Wrangler but I found this very interesting and gave me lots of ideas for my Toyota. Thanks for taking the time to document it.

 

[jscherb]

Thanks, I'm glad you find it useful.

More ideas... being a long-time subscriber to a number of UK Land Rover magazines, a few years ago I started a thread called "Land Rover Ideas for Jeeps", and in it I posted ideas from the Land Rover magazines that I thought might be useful for Jeeps. Probably some of the ideas would also be useful for Toyotas so you might find that thread useful as well: https://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/land-rover-ideas-for-jeeps.218029/.

 

[jscherb]

DIY Jerry Can Carrier... I mounted a jerry can tray to the ladder using a two pairs of clamp mount brackets I found on eBay (<$20). Quick project, all that was really necessary was drilling a few new holes in the back of the jerry can tray to line up with the brackets. Many jerry can trays are not tall enough to reach between two rungs of the ladder, so if you have one of those trays you'll probably need a few extra bits of hardware. This tray is from MORryde, it's part of a side-mount design for the Wrangler that I did for them a few years ago. Also I could have mounted the tray one rung lower, but since the bottom rung of the ladder doesn't stick out as far as the middle two rungs, spacers would be required between the brackets and the tray on the bottom rung, it wouldn't be a big deal to make spacers for that.

I'm working on a few other ladder mount ideas, stay tuned, will probably have photos to post tomorrow.

 

[jscherb]

Yesterday I posted a DIY Ladder Mount Jerry carrier. Next I mounted a grid panel recycled from one of my Jeep projects on the ladder using the same mounting clamps I used for the jerry can tray yesterday. I tried mounting a bunch of different things on the grid - a "rotopax" (actually a Chinese version), a smaller "rotopax" plus a large ammo can in an ammo can tray, a propane tank (that mount is designed to bolt to Wrangler tailgate hinges so isn't optimal for this grid but does work) and a HiLift jack. A photo of the panel with nothing attached is also included. If I were to design a grid specifically for mounting on the ladder it would be a little bit different size and shape, but as a proof of concept this recycled grid seems like it could be very useful.

 

[Zeep]

With the ladders "real estate" taken up. How do you plan to access the roof basket?

 

[jscherb]

With the ladders "real estate" taken up. How do you plan to access the roof basket?

Being 6'6", I can easily stand on the Grenadier's very high door sills, rear tires or rear barn door sill and reach everything I need do.

 

[Zeep]

Being 6'6", I can easily stand on the Grenadier's very high door sills, rear tires or rear barn door sill and reach everything I need do.

Kinda figured that. Just curious if you were adding some hinge mounted steps, or similar.
Will you be using any paint protection on the sills? 3M offers a clear vinyl film, that applies easily.

 

[jscherb]

Kinda figured that. Just curious if you were adding some hinge mounted steps, or similar.
Will you be using any paint protection on the sills? 3M offers a clear vinyl film, that applies easily.

When I first bought the Grenadier, I had the dealer remove the ladder because a ladder on the rear didn't seem as useful to me as the hinge steps I had on the JKU. Later I reinstalled the ladder to use it for various cargo purposes as I've posted recently.

I may design a version of my hinge steps for the Grenadier after I have some experience carry more things on the roof rack, but because the door sills are higher than the JKU sills I may not need the steps. If I decide I do need a little more height for accessing things on the rack, I'll make some steps like the ones I made for the JKU - I like the single hinge folding step design much better than the commercial two-hinge design...



You can see from this photo how much access I have to things on the rack with a step on just the lower hinge on the JKU...