Outfitting my Grenadier Trialmaster

[jscherb]

Wow, that's a crazy amount of miles and builds! Retiring two well-used Jeeps for a Trialmaster is awesome. I'm excited to see how your overland setups work on the Grenadier.

I got the Grenadier at the end of November last year and at the end of this November it had done just over 20,000 miles. That includes two trips out west (we live in Delaware), overland/camping in Death Valley and off-roading in Utah. So far all of the modifications/additions I've made are working well, especially out in the wild. My only complaints are things that Ineos didn't get right when they designed the Grenadier, like the TPMS system and a few other small things.

 

[jscherb]

About two months ago I installed overhead MOLLE panels with L-Tracks in the cargo compartment above the side windows. I've been using mostly ordinary MOLLE pouches on the panels and they've proven to be very useful extra storage and the panels performed well on our off-road trip out west to Death Valley and Moab. I didn't have optimal size MOLLE pouches for this location so I sewed a few which should be more useful than the pouches I was using and I think they're better looking. I've done two sizes so far to see which size is most useful.

 

[jscherb]

I drove about 300 miles the other day on salted New Jersey roads, when I got home the Grenadier was so salt encrusted that hardened salt deposits were building up on the hot tailpipe tips. Had to get the salt off so went to a self-serve carwash, in this photo I'm desalting the Sparehopper bag and Ladder bag. Nice that they can be pressure washed like this. When I don't have the roof rack on I go through the automatic car wash with them in place no problem.

 

[jscherb]

One of the little things that Ineos got wrong are the hole plugs in the plastic cowl panel by the wipers. I've seen many comments about them going missing and I discoverer that one of mine was missing the other day. Probably came out when I was in the manual car wash using the pressure wand. The factory plugs just don't fit tightly enough. I installed better ones that won't go missing - they're rubber and grip the hole all the way around. Left to right in this photo: factory hard plastic plug, new rubber plug topside up, new rubber plug bottom side.



The plugs are for 5/8" holes in 1/16" panels and they fit very well.

They can be bought in small quantities although they're not the best deal that way. McMaster sells them in packs of 25 for $9.06 (plus shipping): https://www.mcmaster.com/9600K515/

I bought mine on eBay, I got an assortment of 200 pieces of different sizes for $12.97 with free shipping. The 15.88 mm size is correct for this application. The assortment was less expensive than the McMaster ones would have been with shipping and it's a good assortment to have on hand: https://www.ebay.com/itm/335037975802



A new plug in place:

 

[jscherb]

I received preproduction samples of the rear door window bags from the craftsmen at Overland Outfitters. I had designed and sewed a bag for the narrow door window as a proof-of-concept and six weeks ago I sent that bag and a design and patterns for a wide rear door window bag to them; they created samples for testing as a first step towards deciding if they should put these production.

The narrow door window bag is basically a duplicate of the proof-of-concept bag I sewed. It's pretty much ready for production, but probably should undergo a little testing first. The pocket panel on the lower half of the door is already in production.





The wide door bag has two pockets, a large pocket on the low side of the window and a smaller pocket on the high side.



The wide side also has a zipper closure.



I'm not completely satisfied with the fit of the wide door bag, so I'll make a few suggestions to the folks at OO and ask for another sample with the changes. Maybe I'll ask for a black sample to see how it looks in that color. Also the bags probably need some good testing before OO decides to put them in production.

The bags are not higher than the spare, so visibility out the back isn't any worse than it is without the bags. I designed the narrow door bag to be a little taller than the wide door bag, let me know if you think they should both be the same height, and if so, should the narrow door bag be lower or should the wide door bag be taller.

Both mount very securely without screws, double side tape or any other "destructive" attachment method; they don't damage the door and they're easily removable.

Here's a View of the bags along with some other Grenadier products from Overland Outfitters (https://www.overland-outfitters.com/ineos-grenadier.html#/):