The Grenadier Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to contribute to the community by adding your own topics, posts, and connect with other members through your own private inbox! INEOS Agents, Dealers or Commercial vendors please use the contact us link at the bottom of the page.

Grenadier X Letech announced

My supposition is that this is aimed at fire services or other emergency services who have a requirement for a relatively lightweight high mobility vehicle. (Many European fire stations used to have a LR and nowadays some kind of double cab)

Less so than private individuals who want to go rock crawling.

I may be wrong of course.
 
My supposition is that this is aimed at fire services or other emergency services who have a requirement for a relatively lightweight high mobility vehicle. (Many European fire stations used to have a LR and nowadays some kind of double cab)

Less so than private individuals who want to go rock crawling.

I may be wrong of course.
I just want to use it to go to the grocery store.... ;)
 
My supposition is that this is aimed at fire services or other emergency services who have a requirement for a relatively lightweight high mobility vehicle. (Many European fire stations used to have a LR and nowadays some kind of double cab)

Less so than private individuals who want to go rock crawling.

I may be wrong of course.
For that purpose fire and emergency services still rely heavily on the Unimog, all kinds of it.

I know this from (one of) my job(s).

AWo
 
Last edited:
The real benefit of portals is for deep ruts or crossing, say, tree stumps. All that weight low down makes them pretty stable too, I had a couple of 60’s vintage Unimogs with portals and 40” tyres and they were really capable things with only 100hp. Low gearing, three lockers and massive clearance under the diffs.

Anywhere that tractors go and dig deep ruts on muddy tracks that could cause a normal 4x4 problems will be much easier for one of these - so think of foresters and the like. Basically anyone who uses smaller Unimogs for work might be able to use one of these. I know a guy who drills water boreholes and uses a Unimog to tow his rig places but finds the mog a bit slow and unwieldy on road (and sometimes a bit heavy for the ground he’s working on) and he might have to drive a few hundred miles to spend a day drilling. He’s probably not in the market for one of these at that price though.

There use to be a guy fairly local here who ran a business converting land rovers to run Unimog 404 axles - I sold him a few. His customers were sometimes people looking for toys but also “country professionals”, think agricultural engineers, game keepers, surveyors and the like. Again it’s a bit different spending £150k+ on one of these to spending £7k on axles for your £15k Defender.
 
Lets be honest, the vast majority of people who are actually taking these vehicles off road, don't really want to add another 10"/25cm to the overall height of the vehicle for off road use (let alone if you have a RTT or roof conversion)... From seeing it in person, getting in and out is less than a jovial process.

In my opinion, most of the buyers of the LeTech edition will never leave pavement
 
Yawn.. so now you have portal axels but the truck still sounds like shit due to the power steering pump
If you had USD80,000 for the portal axles, you could buy a new power steering pump. I find my diesel going into "helicopter mode", more of a trial, (DPF burn while stationary), but it is a characteristic, not a fault.
 
If you need to drive over logs, this could fit the bill 🫠
 
Lets be honest, the vast majority of people who are actually taking these vehicles off road, don't really want to add another 10"/25cm to the overall height of the vehicle for off road use (let alone if you have a RTT or roof conversion)... From seeing it in person, getting in and out is less than a jovial process.

In my opinion, most of the buyers of the LeTech edition will never leave pavement
Yeah, but once they hit the secondary market...
 
Mercedes G63 in Australia starts at $363,000 plus options plus onroads.
Lucky they are onroads because you couldn't take it off-road
Or you could buy a used Toyota 70 series
View attachment 7901408
Could build a new 6x6 79 with portals for that money. The poor old 1GD 2.8l would be up for some hard work though. I'll take the Unimog over all of them.
 
Lets be honest, the vast majority of people who are actually taking these vehicles off road, don't really want to add another 10"/25cm to the overall height of the vehicle for off road use (let alone if you have a RTT or roof conversion)... From seeing it in person, getting in and out is less than a jovial process.

In my opinion, most of the buyers of the LeTech edition will never leave pavement
“In my opinion, most of the buyers of the LeTech edition will never leave pavement”

Yep!……I’d have to agree. Probably another G Wagon bling chariot
When you consider how good the Grenadiers are stock, let alone slightly modified and the potential they’ve been proven have in the most extreme conditions around the world, then I can't really see the point. Can’t imagine seeing one in NZ when you can do most tracks in a S1 LR SWB
 
If you do not have a justyfiable reason for portal axles, they are just a pain and only good for the show. I would never use bolt-on portals, only native ones like in the Unimog or Lapplander (Volvo C303). BTW, these C303 ones fit nicely under a Defender.

AWo
 
If you need to drive over logs, this could fit the bill 🫠
Very interesting read, thanks. Those front wings look perfect for decapitating the odd pedestrian, joking, honestly 😉
 
Just looking at the spec

Portal axles with full heavy-duty five-link suspension
37-inch BFGoodrich Mud Terrains
LETECH high-performance brake system
Forged 8.5×18” Hutchinson Beadlock wheels
Extended arches, running boards, and jacking points
WARN Zeon 10 winch and dedicated mounting system
LETECH roof rack with plank deck and marker LEDs
Rear ladder with jerry can mount
LED lightbar with DRLs
LETECH spare wheel carrier
Custom badging and scuff plates with ‘Trialmaster X LETECH’ branding
GVM upgrade to 4.2T
 
If you need to drive over logs, this could fit the bill 🫠
Wading depth is less than the standard Grenadier but the price difference from standard vehicle to modified makes the Grenadier to Grenadier with portal axles look to be a similar differential
 
The 4200kg GVM upgrade is interesting.

In the UK that would require a different driving licence but also perhaps a tacho? I wonder how one would be registered here. Personal LGV? I also wonder what the implications on BIK would be. At present it’s horrendously expensive to run a 5 seat Grenadier as a company car through a Ltd company. 🤔
 
Carraro has portal axles. Would it be a better option to get OEM portal axles then a small third party cutting and shutting and potentially not being able to supply spare parts in the future.
 
Back
Top Bottom