Build Thread MallCrl 3.0

[anand]

It's been a long time coming, something along the lines of a 5 month delay from when it was originally quoted to arrive, but yesterday I was finally able to pick up my Grenadier from the awesome folks at Regal Ineos in Georgia. Bo, Brian, John, Lane, the whole crew down there was absolutely wonderful, and I cannot recommend them enough. A painless purchase process, awesome communication, and possibly best of all, absolutely no dealer added fees! Our 950mi drive home was great and just as comfortable as I remember these vehicles being for double digit hours at a time.

The thread title.... With our 4Runner, the license plate was MALLCRL (Mall crawl, short for mall crawler), as it was anything but that. The Tundra was dubbed MallCrl 2.0, and now the Grenadier 3.0.

The starting spec: Base SW, Raised air intake, F/R diff locks, leather, compass, safari windows, interior gear rail, rear ladder, spare tire storage bin, tow package.

"Why didn't you get XYZ?" - The most common "why's" are no second battery, no high amperage switch panel, and no winch. The short answer is that I'm not a huge fan of the Ineos solutions for those aspects and would rather handle them myself.

Build plans: In no particular order (these always change, but it's nice to look back and see what the initial plans were)

• Full sound/thermal insulation - 80mil CLD on floors/doors/sides/roof, 3M Thinsulate in the doors, sides, and above the headliner, 3M Minicell under the flooring, 3M Low-E above the headliner, and possibly 3M TAI above the minicell for the floors
• Stereo replacement - Components up front, coax in the rear doors, DSP amp, and 8" or 10" sub; probably Hertz, Focal, or Morels for speakers; Kicker KEY for the amp
• DIY drawers/storage system - I built two for my 4Runner (one wood, one aluminum/composite), this will most likely be 1" Aluminum extrusion (often referred to as "80/20"). Still undecided on one wide (with a divider) or two separate drawers, and also still undecided if I want to keep it low to turn one side into a sleep platform for the fairly rare times I'm solo on a trip.
• Dometic CFX3-45 Fridge - Already here and waiting for a fridge slide and the drawers to be built
• Window Film - Llumar/FormulaOne Pinnacle and AirBlue80, 15% on the sides/rear, undecided between 15% or 30% on the safaris, and AirBlue80 on the windshield
• Method 702s with 255/80/17 Falken Wildpeak A/T4Ws - I'm a huge fan of the tall and skinny tire, and while a 34/35 can fit, I think the 33 is a nice middle ground for the vehicle
• Roof rack - Probably a 3/4 rack, but this could change, already "ordered" from a company who has yet to release products for the Grenadier
• Sliders - With a kickout, see above for manufacturer
• Skid plates - See above
• Winch mount/bumper - See above - I've used both Warn VR and ComeUp Seal Gen2 winches on previous builds and have had great success with both, winch TBD but probably 12k lbs
• Lights - One of my favorite aspects - Plans are to add Diode Dynamics SSC2s in the bumper side grilles for SAE fog, replace the lights in the grille, and then add some side/rear lighting once the rack is in place. Additionally some ground/rock lights, and additional lighting in the cargo area.
• Lighting control - Switch Pros SP-9100, I've used both the Switch Pros and the sPod (actually both are serving different functions in our Sprinter), and much prefer the Switch Pros. This will probably be mounted to the overhead panel
• Air compressor - ARB Dual, not sure where yet
• Communication - I've been super happy with the Garmin Tread XL in our Sprinter, so maybe just a second mount for that, or a regular sized Tread.... Or go back to the trusty iPad/Gaia combo for mapping and a separate inReach. For 2 way radio, I have a MARS modded Icom IC-2730A that never made it into the Sprinter, so I'll remote mount that and put the head probably on the overhead panel. Of course, it can't be "overland" without a WeBoost, so that'll be there somewhere.
• Communication holder - The jury is still out on this one, I want something that can solidly hold 2 phones, a tablet, and perhaps one-three additional devices (inReach, Gopro, and/or radar detector). Nothing really suits what I want on the market as of yet, perhaps Expedition Essentials will make a mount as I've used their stuff in previous vehicles with great results
• Enforcement Notification - I've been a diehard Valentine1 fan since I got my license almost 25 years ago and never not had one in my vehicle, a V1Gen2 is already in the Grenadier, just need an improved mounting option for due to how steep the windshield is
• Additional (electric) power - Dual battery with a self heated LiFePO4 aux battery, considering the Dakota 135Ah unit. All the rest of the components will be Victron (Orion XS DC-DC Charger, SmartShunt, Cerbo-S, SmartSolar MPPT, BlueSmart AC-DC Charger, and Phoenix 1200VA inverter). All fusing/distribution components will be Blue Sea. This is how I built the system in our Tundra (except with an AGM aux battery) and similar to our Sprinter (using 700Ah of Battle Born batteries)

Phew, ok so that was a lot.... Maybe a few pictures? You'll have to settle with one, because I completely forgot to take a photo when we picked it up, luckily my better half remembered, so here's her photo


Replies will come as the handful of things already here or soon to arrive start making their way on!

 

[[ Adam ]]

Great to see it finally in hand!

 

[Krabby]

• Full sound/thermal insulation - 80mil CLD on floors/doors/sides/roof, 3M Thinsulate in the doors, sides, 3M Minicell under the flooring
• Stereo replacement - Components up front, coax in the rear doors, DSP amp, and 8" or 10" sub; probably Hertz, Focal, or Morels for speakers; Kicker KEY for the amp
• Skid plates
• Winch mount/bumper
• Lights
• All the rest of the components will be Victron (Orion XS DC-DC Charger, SmartShunt, Cerbo-S, SmartSolar MPPT, BlueSmart AC-DC Charger, and Phoenix 1200VA inverter). All fusing/distribution components will be Blue Sea.

About time!!! Super happy for you and I look forward to seeing your build come along (especially since you're figuring everything out and will then be beer-bribed "to help me!" with the above)!



edit - no way in hell I'm providing boneless wings.

 

[rovie]

It's been a long time coming, something along the lines of a 5 month delay from when it was originally quoted to arrive, but yesterday I was finally able to pick up my Grenadier from the awesome folks at Regal Ineos in Georgia. Bo, Brian, John, Lane, the whole crew down there was absolutely wonderful, and I cannot recommend them enough. A painless purchase process, awesome communication, and possibly best of all, absolutely no dealer added fees! Our 950mi drive home was great and just as comfortable as I remember these vehicles being for double digit hours at a time.

The thread title.... With our 4Runner, the license plate was MALLCRL (Mall crawl, short for mall crawler), as it was anything but that. The Tundra was dubbed MallCrl 2.0, and now the Grenadier 3.0.

The starting spec: Base SW, Raised air intake, F/R diff locks, leather, compass, safari windows, interior gear rail, rear ladder, spare tire storage bin, tow package.

"Why didn't you get XYZ?" - The most common "why's" are no second battery, no high amperage switch panel, and no winch. The short answer is that I'm not a huge fan of the Ineos solutions for those aspects and would rather handle them myself.

Build plans: In no particular order (these always change, but it's nice to look back and see what the initial plans were)

• Full sound/thermal insulation - 80mil CLD on floors/doors/sides/roof, 3M Thinsulate in the doors, sides, and above the headliner, 3M Minicell under the flooring, 3M Low-E above the headliner, and possibly 3M TAI above the minicell for the floors
• Stereo replacement - Components up front, coax in the rear doors, DSP amp, and 8" or 10" sub; probably Hertz, Focal, or Morels for speakers; Kicker KEY for the amp
• DIY drawers/storage system - I built two for my 4Runner (one wood, one aluminum/composite), this will most likely be 1" Aluminum extrusion (often referred to as "80/20"). Still undecided on one wide (with a divider) or two separate drawers, and also still undecided if I want to keep it low to turn one side into a sleep platform for the fairly rare times I'm solo on a trip.
• Dometic CFX3-45 Fridge - Already here and waiting for a fridge slide and the drawers to be built
• Window Film - Llumar/FormulaOne Pinnacle and AirBlue80, 15% on the sides/rear, undecided between 15% or 30% on the safaris, and AirBlue80 on the windshield
• Method 702s with 255/80/17 Falken Wildpeak A/T4Ws - I'm a huge fan of the tall and skinny tire, and while a 34/35 can fit, I think the 33 is a nice middle ground for the vehicle
• Roof rack - Probably a 3/4 rack, but this could change, already "ordered" from a company who has yet to release products for the Grenadier
• Sliders - With a kickout, see above for manufacturer
• Skid plates - See above
• Winch mount/bumper - See above - I've used both Warn VR and ComeUp Seal Gen2 winches on previous builds and have had great success with both, winch TBD but probably 12k lbs
• Lights - One of my favorite aspects - Plans are to add Diode Dynamics SSC2s in the bumper side grilles for SAE fog, replace the lights in the grille, and then add some side/rear lighting once the rack is in place. Additionally some ground/rock lights, and additional lighting in the cargo area.
• Lighting control - Switch Pros SP-9100, I've used both the Switch Pros and the sPod (actually both are serving different functions in our Sprinter), and much prefer the Switch Pros. This will probably be mounted to the overhead panel
• Air compressor - ARB Dual, not sure where yet
• Communication - I've been super happy with the Garmin Tread XL in our Sprinter, so maybe just a second mount for that, or a regular sized Tread.... Or go back to the trusty iPad/Gaia combo for mapping and a separate inReach. For 2 way radio, I have a MARS modded Icom IC-2730A that never made it into the Sprinter, so I'll remote mount that and put the head probably on the overhead panel. Of course, it can't be "overland" without a WeBoost, so that'll be there somewhere.
• Communication holder - The jury is still out on this one, I want something that can solidly hold 2 phones, a tablet, and perhaps one-three additional devices (inReach, Gopro, and/or radar detector). Nothing really suits what I want on the market as of yet, perhaps Expedition Essentials will make a mount as I've used their stuff in previous vehicles with great results
• Enforcement Notification - I've been a diehard Valentine1 fan since I got my license almost 25 years ago and never not had one in my vehicle, a V1Gen2 is already in the Grenadier, just need an improved mounting option for due to how steep the windshield is
• Additional (electric) power - Dual battery with a self heated LiFePO4 aux battery, considering the Dakota 135Ah unit. All the rest of the components will be Victron (Orion XS DC-DC Charger, SmartShunt, Cerbo-S, SmartSolar MPPT, BlueSmart AC-DC Charger, and Phoenix 1200VA inverter). All fusing/distribution components will be Blue Sea. This is how I built the system in our Tundra (except with an AGM aux battery) and similar to our Sprinter (using 700Ah of Battle Born batteries)

Phew, ok so that was a lot.... Maybe a few pictures? You'll have to settle with one, because I completely forgot to take a photo when we picked it up, luckily my better half remembered, so here's her photo
View attachment 7853616

Replies will come as the handful of things already here or soon to arrive start making their way on!

Hi @anand I'm very happy for you. He's finally here. You have big plans for the Grenadier. Great detailed description. Have fun with the extension and conversion. Enjoy your time with the Grenadier. But don't forget the Sprinter. Soon we'll both have these two excellent vehicles.

 

[lagartoboy]

Hi @anand I'm very happy for you. He's finally here. You have big plans for the Grenadier. Great detailed description. Have fun with the extension and conversion. Enjoy your time with the Grenadier. But don't forget the Sprinter. Soon we'll both have these two excellent vehicles.

I’m a member of the Grenadier/Sprinter Cub too!

 

[DaBull]

It's been a long time coming, something along the lines of a 5 month delay from when it was originally quoted to arrive, but yesterday I was finally able to pick up my Grenadier from the awesome folks at Regal Ineos in Georgia. Bo, Brian, John, Lane, the whole crew down there was absolutely wonderful, and I cannot recommend them enough. A painless purchase process, awesome communication, and possibly best of all, absolutely no dealer added fees! Our 950mi drive home was great and just as comfortable as I remember these vehicles being for double digit hours at a time.

The thread title.... With our 4Runner, the license plate was MALLCRL (Mall crawl, short for mall crawler), as it was anything but that. The Tundra was dubbed MallCrl 2.0, and now the Grenadier 3.0.

The starting spec: Base SW, Raised air intake, F/R diff locks, leather, compass, safari windows, interior gear rail, rear ladder, spare tire storage bin, tow package.

"Why didn't you get XYZ?" - The most common "why's" are no second battery, no high amperage switch panel, and no winch. The short answer is that I'm not a huge fan of the Ineos solutions for those aspects and would rather handle them myself.

Build plans: In no particular order (these always change, but it's nice to look back and see what the initial plans were)

• Full sound/thermal insulation - 80mil CLD on floors/doors/sides/roof, 3M Thinsulate in the doors, sides, and above the headliner, 3M Minicell under the flooring, 3M Low-E above the headliner, and possibly 3M TAI above the minicell for the floors
• Stereo replacement - Components up front, coax in the rear doors, DSP amp, and 8" or 10" sub; probably Hertz, Focal, or Morels for speakers; Kicker KEY for the amp
• DIY drawers/storage system - I built two for my 4Runner (one wood, one aluminum/composite), this will most likely be 1" Aluminum extrusion (often referred to as "80/20"). Still undecided on one wide (with a divider) or two separate drawers, and also still undecided if I want to keep it low to turn one side into a sleep platform for the fairly rare times I'm solo on a trip.
• Dometic CFX3-45 Fridge - Already here and waiting for a fridge slide and the drawers to be built
• Window Film - Llumar/FormulaOne Pinnacle and AirBlue80, 15% on the sides/rear, undecided between 15% or 30% on the safaris, and AirBlue80 on the windshield
• Method 702s with 255/80/17 Falken Wildpeak A/T4Ws - I'm a huge fan of the tall and skinny tire, and while a 34/35 can fit, I think the 33 is a nice middle ground for the vehicle
• Roof rack - Probably a 3/4 rack, but this could change, already "ordered" from a company who has yet to release products for the Grenadier
• Sliders - With a kickout, see above for manufacturer
• Skid plates - See above
• Winch mount/bumper - See above - I've used both Warn VR and ComeUp Seal Gen2 winches on previous builds and have had great success with both, winch TBD but probably 12k lbs
• Lights - One of my favorite aspects - Plans are to add Diode Dynamics SSC2s in the bumper side grilles for SAE fog, replace the lights in the grille, and then add some side/rear lighting once the rack is in place. Additionally some ground/rock lights, and additional lighting in the cargo area.
• Lighting control - Switch Pros SP-9100, I've used both the Switch Pros and the sPod (actually both are serving different functions in our Sprinter), and much prefer the Switch Pros. This will probably be mounted to the overhead panel
• Air compressor - ARB Dual, not sure where yet
• Communication - I've been super happy with the Garmin Tread XL in our Sprinter, so maybe just a second mount for that, or a regular sized Tread.... Or go back to the trusty iPad/Gaia combo for mapping and a separate inReach. For 2 way radio, I have a MARS modded Icom IC-2730A that never made it into the Sprinter, so I'll remote mount that and put the head probably on the overhead panel. Of course, it can't be "overland" without a WeBoost, so that'll be there somewhere.
• Communication holder - The jury is still out on this one, I want something that can solidly hold 2 phones, a tablet, and perhaps one-three additional devices (inReach, Gopro, and/or radar detector). Nothing really suits what I want on the market as of yet, perhaps Expedition Essentials will make a mount as I've used their stuff in previous vehicles with great results
• Enforcement Notification - I've been a diehard Valentine1 fan since I got my license almost 25 years ago and never not had one in my vehicle, a V1Gen2 is already in the Grenadier, just need an improved mounting option for due to how steep the windshield is
• Additional (electric) power - Dual battery with a self heated LiFePO4 aux battery, considering the Dakota 135Ah unit. All the rest of the components will be Victron (Orion XS DC-DC Charger, SmartShunt, Cerbo-S, SmartSolar MPPT, BlueSmart AC-DC Charger, and Phoenix 1200VA inverter). All fusing/distribution components will be Blue Sea. This is how I built the system in our Tundra (except with an AGM aux battery) and similar to our Sprinter (using 700Ah of Battle Born batteries)

Phew, ok so that was a lot.... Maybe a few pictures? You'll have to settle with one, because I completely forgot to take a photo when we picked it up, luckily my better half remembered, so here's her photo
View attachment 7853616

Replies will come as the handful of things already here or soon to arrive start making their way on!

Hi anand, Congratulations on taking delivery. Love the Scottish White contrast roof. Miles of Smiles to you and the misses.
DaBull

 

[anand]

First modification was done this morning... License plate light shrouds!

 

[Krabby]

Do you have to wait to get your new DMV rando-plates before you can get the personalized ones? I did in NJ - impatiently waiting on my INEOS one.

 

[anand]

Do you have to wait to get your new DMV rando-plates before you can get the personalized ones? I did in NJ - impatiently waiting on my INEOS one.

Yuuuuup. I'm not positive, but think MD will want the MCO for the title/tag processing, so I'm waiting on that before I go start the process (and pay MD sales tax on it )

 

[bbq4133]

Hell yeah, glad you finally took delivery! Looking forward to following along.

 

[rovie]

I’m a member of the Grenadier/Sprinter Cub too!

That's great. I'd be interested to know how many of us are in this club.

 

[lagartoboy]

That's great. I'd be interested to know how many of us are in this club.

My membership is likely short. My wife doesn’t understand why a man needs two 4WD vehicles. Nor does she understand why I need six fly rods, five shotguns, etc. I’ll be parting with the Sprinter soon.

 

[rovie]

My membership is likely short. My wife doesn’t understand why a man needs two 4WD vehicles. Nor does she understand why I need six fly rods, five shotguns, etc. I’ll be parting with the Sprinter soon.

I'm glad it's the other way round for me.

 

[BenTN]

@anand That is an extensive build plan. I am curious to learn how your planned use of the vehicle has influenced that list of mods. I always like to hear the story of how past experience and future mission led you to this build.

 

[AngusMacG]

Congrats! Very happy for you!

Definitely will be following your build. Just waiting on my sliders/steps then will see how summer goes and hopefully will add a roof shelf and exterior mole panel to drivers side in the fall.

 

[anand]

@anand That is an extensive build plan. I am curious to learn how your planned use of the vehicle has influenced that list of mods. I always like to hear the story of how past experience and future mission led you to this build.

In brief phrasing, an evolution.

To expand on it a lot further (for most that aren't interested there will be a TL;DR at the end): first actual "off road" build that got used was my '18 4Runner (I had a '06 Touareg V8 about 15 years ago that I did a custom lift, 32s, dual battery, etc; but that was only actually "wheeled" once, so it doesn't count). The 4Runner was built first as an off road vehicle, and then secondarily as our travel vehicle. Over the 2.5 years that we had it, it went through a few iterations (first ground tenting with a Coleman 4 person, then 2 different Gazelle T4s, then finally with a CVT Mt Hood hardshell RTT). The RTT was added because we were doing a bit less hardcore wheeling than we first expected, but a lot more trips. Our big thing has always been National Parks (both US and Canadian), with off-pavement routes being a somewhat distant second, and are almost always a single vehicle trip.

Our usual "trip" involves being in no place longer than one night (unless it is an event) and is usually a late in/early out approach. The 4Runner was replaced by a '21 Tundra for more space and better weight handling. The final trip with the 4Runner was around 2 weeks through Big Bend/Guadalupe Mountains/White Sands/Carlsbad Caverns, and was the final nail in the 4Runner's coffin that it was overloaded and underpowered. The RTT was moved over to the Tundra and was a great basecamp for 2 multi-week cross country trips in a Summer. The Tundra (Build thread if you're really bored), while not as hardcore off-road built as the 4Runner, was still super capable (35s, everything in the suspension upgraded, ARB Bumper/winch). Traveling with the RTT was quite convenient, but we knew we wanted "living space" during 2+ week trips and about a month after getting the Tundra (and long before the RTT got switched over) we ordered an AT Overland Atlas topper. Later that year, our 3rd cross country trip of the Summer was to get the Atlas installed at AT Overland in AZ, and after a handful of short trips through the Fall we set off for a multi-week trip through CO/UT in the Winter. While the living space was super comfy (having a built in heater, insulation, and being able to stand and relax "inside" was a game changer from the RTT); the setup (and more so teardown) in sub-freezing temps was far from ideal given that we were still moving every day. On our way home from that trip we decided we were finally making the jump to a Sprinter (build thread in signature). The Sprinter is much less off-roady, much more travel-y (although still capable with 32s, skids under everything, sliders, and a winch mount w/ recovery points).

Of course, if you go back to the year of Tundra travel, that would be 2021, which was when I was first shown the Grenadier and placed my deposit for a reservation. So through the Tundra's use and the Sprinter's build and use (and my GF's Tacoma build and use), the Grenadier has always had a place in mind. We have done countless trips with the Sprinter that were made possible by having a self-contained style unit, but as with everything else, goals/requirements shift. I don't foresee multiple 4+ week long trips per year continuing over the coming years, the Sprinter is a bit of a bear as a daily driver, and with her Tacoma sold (pretty well built up and our "joint" off road vehicle since the Tundra was sold), an off road capable vehicle opening exists for the Grenadier to fill. Whew, that seems like a ton to process.

TL;DR - It takes over as not only my daily driver, but also as our sole off-road vehicle, and very possibly a short-length (time per trip, not mileage) travel vehicle/basecamp.

Basic build principle is function over form, everything must have a purpose (yes yes, "Built on purpose" and all). Be not-miserable to drive on the road for those times that going off-road is book ended on either end by 2000+ miles of highway travel, get me to places off road (and back), give me some of the creature comforts of home while traveling, and be able to keep everything I may want to take with me organized and easy to reach. Many of the aspects have followed through every vehicle since the 4Runner (winch/bumper, underbody protection, thermal/acoustic insulation, upgraded stereo, communication, and "in case" equipment). The rest is building on what works (and discarding what hasn't worked).

 

[anand]

With all the ups, of course come some of the downs, right? Otherwise it wouldn't be a Grenadier.

I like to be a pretty transparent person when it comes to the realities of vehicles, and to be blunt, after having my build delayed for 4+ months with no real reasoning I've expected to be met with every known issue/failure of these vehicles.

Issues/Failures in <24 hours of ownership:

• On the drive home from the dealer we noticed that the door stop on the passenger front door was loose on the body side, which was an easy fix by tightening the one Torx bolt.
• Condensation drips onto the driver's floor mat from the AC unit, nothing more than a few drops, but enough to notice on the mat after a few hours of driving.
• Horribly annoying rattle from the plastic "forward" of the infotainment screen and the back of the screen housing. Having the radio up probably would hide this, but I noticed it the most while we were doing one drives/one sleeps rotations on our 14 hour drive home late last night/early this morning. Any pressure applied to the plastic forward of the screen (what says "Grenadier" when you look in the windshield) stops the rattle, as does any longitudinal pressure on the screen. I have since wedged a very small piece of TESA interior tape between these two pieces and I think it fixed it.
• Passenger airbag on light does not illuminate brightly, only the dimmer backlight level. The "off" light illuminates when no one is in the seat. I'm not super worried about this, but I'll bring it up when I'm at the dealer for the next item.
• The right front brake line was up against the side wall of the tire, this has been found on a very small number of vehicles, and is almost always caught during the PDI from what I have been told. In my case, it was not. The fix is simply moving the line away from the tire, however for me, I've done 950mi of driving and the clear protective coating is worn from a small section of the line, luckily I found it before any damage occurred to the braided portion of the line. I've already been in touch with my nearest dealer (RDS in Philly), the line is ordered and once it arrives I'll head up there and have them replace it. In the interim the line has been moved away from the tire, and a bit of exterior TESA tape applied over the section missing the coating as an extra protective measure.

Thoughts/positives in <24 hours of ownership:

• The seats. In the few times I've sat in a Grenadier since the end of the PTO2 tour, I love being immediately reminded of the great support of the seats. I can confirm now that the passenger seat is actually pretty comfy to nap in as well. We did 12+hrs and nearly 800mi of our drive home with nothing more than fuel stops and never once was I uncomfortable.
• The highway cruising is fantastic. Whether it was 30-40mph quickly jumping between lanes in Atlanta traffic (ATL-iens, why is there so much traffic at 11am by the way??), to keeping up with traffic at 80+ on more open sections it is stable, planted, and has a surprising amount of passing power. Sure, I'm not winning any drag races with a G63, but the butt-feel says more than 282HP/332tq given its weight.
• One finger driving was a breeze. I'm sure it is partially because I've driven a 20ft long/10ft tall Sprinter for 2 years/55,000 miles, but the steering takes very little input, and the "dead zone" isn't a detriment at all. Not having the stereotypical return to center that is found in other vehicles only took a few turns to adapt back to. My girlfriend, who had more pre-production Grenadier seat time than I did, quickly adapted back to driving it from being used to driving her Forester (and built Tacoma before that). In her words "the steering is a little dead in the middle like the Sprinter, but once you're turning, it's super sensitive like the Tacoma"
• While this could change at any moment, the HVAC (both heating and cooling) work fantastically well. As with most of my previous vehicles, it lives on "Auto" and I just set the temp to whatever
• The heated seats. I thought the PTO2 trucks had some hot seats, but I think these production seats are even warmer. The low setting turned on for about 45-60 seconds is great for many minutes of nice warmth on the back!
• Front/rear lockers engage quickly and without issue, disengagement indication is a bit slow, but actual disengagement is quick as well.
• The looks, stares, and pointing. We've gotten very accustomed to people oddly staring at us in the Sprinter (my favorite is when they impede traffic either on foot or in a vehicle to stop and stare), and based on a few parking lots we drove through yesterday on our drive this is just as (if not more) true in the Grenadier.

Next phase? This weekend's plan will be a baseline "detailing". I'm certainly not a person who keeps vehicles immaculate (everything since the 4Runner has had nature's pinstripes on every panel and usually only gets a deep cleaning once a year, with a "wash" every month or so); but a few vehicles ago I started doing an initial delivery cleaning process. This is usually when I'll try out some new product with each vehicle to see if it is worth switching up my routine (and if I want another partially empty bottle in my cleaning cabinet). I'll make a post later this weekend with a rundown of what I used, but a loose plan is: bug remover, wash, strip anything that's on there, fall out cleaner, clay, spray wax, polymer protectant, etc.

 

[Tazzieman]

No PPF?
Any underbody protection?
I can help you spend money

 

[anand]

No PPF?
Any underbody protection?
I can help you spend money

Underbody protection in the form of skid plates, yes.

PPF, nope. I happily welcome nature's pinstripes on my vehicles

 

[lagartoboy]

It's been a long time coming, something along the lines of a 5 month delay from when it was originally quoted to arrive, but yesterday I was finally able to pick up my Grenadier from the awesome folks at Regal Ineos in Georgia. Bo, Brian, John, Lane, the whole crew down there was absolutely wonderful, and I cannot recommend them enough. A painless purchase process, awesome communication, and possibly best of all, absolutely no dealer added fees! Our 950mi drive home was great and just as comfortable as I remember these vehicles being for double digit hours at a time.

The thread title.... With our 4Runner, the license plate was MALLCRL (Mall crawl, short for mall crawler), as it was anything but that. The Tundra was dubbed MallCrl 2.0, and now the Grenadier 3.0.

The starting spec: Base SW, Raised air intake, F/R diff locks, leather, compass, safari windows, interior gear rail, rear ladder, spare tire storage bin, tow package.

"Why didn't you get XYZ?" - The most common "why's" are no second battery, no high amperage switch panel, and no winch. The short answer is that I'm not a huge fan of the Ineos solutions for those aspects and would rather handle them myself.

Build plans: In no particular order (these always change, but it's nice to look back and see what the initial plans were)

• Full sound/thermal insulation - 80mil CLD on floors/doors/sides/roof, 3M Thinsulate in the doors, sides, and above the headliner, 3M Minicell under the flooring, 3M Low-E above the headliner, and possibly 3M TAI above the minicell for the floors
• Stereo replacement - Components up front, coax in the rear doors, DSP amp, and 8" or 10" sub; probably Hertz, Focal, or Morels for speakers; Kicker KEY for the amp
• DIY drawers/storage system - I built two for my 4Runner (one wood, one aluminum/composite), this will most likely be 1" Aluminum extrusion (often referred to as "80/20"). Still undecided on one wide (with a divider) or two separate drawers, and also still undecided if I want to keep it low to turn one side into a sleep platform for the fairly rare times I'm solo on a trip.
• Dometic CFX3-45 Fridge - Already here and waiting for a fridge slide and the drawers to be built
• Window Film - Llumar/FormulaOne Pinnacle and AirBlue80, 15% on the sides/rear, undecided between 15% or 30% on the safaris, and AirBlue80 on the windshield
• Method 702s with 255/80/17 Falken Wildpeak A/T4Ws - I'm a huge fan of the tall and skinny tire, and while a 34/35 can fit, I think the 33 is a nice middle ground for the vehicle
• Roof rack - Probably a 3/4 rack, but this could change, already "ordered" from a company who has yet to release products for the Grenadier
• Sliders - With a kickout, see above for manufacturer
• Skid plates - See above
• Winch mount/bumper - See above - I've used both Warn VR and ComeUp Seal Gen2 winches on previous builds and have had great success with both, winch TBD but probably 12k lbs
• Lights - One of my favorite aspects - Plans are to add Diode Dynamics SSC2s in the bumper side grilles for SAE fog, replace the lights in the grille, and then add some side/rear lighting once the rack is in place. Additionally some ground/rock lights, and additional lighting in the cargo area.
• Lighting control - Switch Pros SP-9100, I've used both the Switch Pros and the sPod (actually both are serving different functions in our Sprinter), and much prefer the Switch Pros. This will probably be mounted to the overhead panel
• Air compressor - ARB Dual, not sure where yet
• Communication - I've been super happy with the Garmin Tread XL in our Sprinter, so maybe just a second mount for that, or a regular sized Tread.... Or go back to the trusty iPad/Gaia combo for mapping and a separate inReach. For 2 way radio, I have a MARS modded Icom IC-2730A that never made it into the Sprinter, so I'll remote mount that and put the head probably on the overhead panel. Of course, it can't be "overland" without a WeBoost, so that'll be there somewhere.
• Communication holder - The jury is still out on this one, I want something that can solidly hold 2 phones, a tablet, and perhaps one-three additional devices (inReach, Gopro, and/or radar detector). Nothing really suits what I want on the market as of yet, perhaps Expedition Essentials will make a mount as I've used their stuff in previous vehicles with great results
• Enforcement Notification - I've been a diehard Valentine1 fan since I got my license almost 25 years ago and never not had one in my vehicle, a V1Gen2 is already in the Grenadier, just need an improved mounting option for due to how steep the windshield is
• Additional (electric) power - Dual battery with a self heated LiFePO4 aux battery, considering the Dakota 135Ah unit. All the rest of the components will be Victron (Orion XS DC-DC Charger, SmartShunt, Cerbo-S, SmartSolar MPPT, BlueSmart AC-DC Charger, and Phoenix 1200VA inverter). All fusing/distribution components will be Blue Sea. This is how I built the system in our Tundra (except with an AGM aux battery) and similar to our Sprinter (using 700Ah of Battle Born batteries)

Phew, ok so that was a lot.... Maybe a few pictures? You'll have to settle with one, because I completely forgot to take a photo when we picked it up, luckily my better half remembered, so here's her photo
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Replies will come as the handful of things already here or soon to arrive start making their way on!

I agree that the 255/80/17 is an excellent tire size. What made the Falken Wildpeak the winner? That is definitely on my list, along with others such as the Nitto Ridge Grappler AT. Highway comfort is important to me, and I’m thinking maybe the Falken gets the edge with that?