What did you do with your Grenadier today?

[Logsplitter]

598,74 € +19% and 2,6 hours.
I asked to send it by mail and will replace it myself.
Or maybe I can bring one from Cape Town cheaper?

Oh, the turning radius is a bit of a problem too, most of the competitors drive little Suzukis.

Probably more expensive on Cape Town with import duties. Not as bad a price as I imagined bearing in mind I paid over £18 each for rubber grommets for those same radiators. So don’t lose them whilst swapping the rad out. I guess you need some sort of vacuum to get the coolant all around the system and get air locks out so that the heater works .
Agreed that you can’t really compete with a Suzuki on turning radius
I think I’ll be looking at raising the suspension maybe with rear airbags or spacers so that I don’t sag so much when loaded as my fuel tank guard and my rear silencer guard especially have taken a beating.

 

[Fatmix]

This is what I did with my Grenadier Today.
After going through the forums concerning the dual battery setup, and wanting to add solar charging with out adding another system I decided to try a D250SE. There seems to be a lot of talk about the dual battery configuration, love it or hate it, I got it. I've installed a RedArc DCDC charger for house batteries in my 1985 FJ60 landcruiser and it worked out well again not wanting to add another system to the Greadier I figured I would give Ctek some love . I'm sure the factory dual battery setup with solar will work fine, even though its not a traditional start/AUX-house battery setup, running a fridge, lighting and charging electronics, a few offgrid days at a time.

For the D250SE I used the Blacksheep mounting plate which worked fine, as mentioned in the forums, it is a tight fit where the temp wire comes out of the D250SE, hitting the seat bracket. I used a 30Amp fuse as recomended by Ctek on the solar feed going into the unit and connected it to an anderson plug on the passanger side, rear battery box. Once in service I confirmed opperation by plugging in a 120watt panel. Simple install, about an hour and a half, a bit expensive due to the cost of the D250SE. Worth it? Time will tell.

.

 

[Fab]

Probably more expensive on Cape Town with import duties. Not as bad a price as I imagined bearing in mind I paid over £18 each for rubber grommets for those same radiators. So don’t lose them whilst swapping the rad out. I guess you need some sort of vacuum to get the coolant all around the system and get air locks out so that the heater works .
Agreed that you can’t really compete with a Suzuki on turning radius
I think I’ll be looking at raising the suspension maybe with rear airbags or spacers so that I don’t sag so much when loaded as my fuel tank guard and my rear silencer guard especially have taken a beating.

Any tips on how to remove the plastic from the front of the bumper?

 

[Logsplitter]

Any tips on how to remove the plastic from the front of the bumper?

No idea mate. I really struggled with that and in the end had to just bend the plastic out of the way to get to the fixings on the small rads. Taking the head light surround off really helped to access the top rad fixings then slightly bend plastic outer cover of bumper up to access fixings.

 

[Fab]

Ah… oh… thanks.

 

[globalgregors]

This is what I did with my Grenadier Today.
After going through the forums concerning the dual battery setup, and wanting to add solar charging with out adding another system I decided to try a D250SE. There seems to be a lot of talk about the dual battery configuration, love it or hate it, I got it. I've installed a RedArc DCDC charger for house batteries in my 1985 FJ60 landcruiser and it worked out well again not wanting to add another system to the Greadier I figured I would give Ctek some love . I'm sure the factory dual battery setup with solar will work fine, even though its not a traditional start/AUX-house battery setup, running a fridge, lighting and charging electronics, a few offgrid days at a time.

For the D250SE I used the Blacksheep mounting plate which worked fine, as mentioned in the forums, it is a tight fit where the temp wire comes out of the D250SE, hitting the seat bracket. I used a 30Amp fuse as recomented by Ctek on the solar feed going into the unit and connected it to an anderson plug on the passanger side, rear battery box. Once in service I confirmed opperation by plugging in a 120watt panel. Simple install, about an hour and a half, a bit expensive due to the cost of the D250SE. Worth it? Time will tell.

View attachment 7855124View attachment 7855122View attachment 7855123.

Nice install! That’s an Anderson connector block different to what’s typical here.
Can we see under the protective cover? Is it two connectors in the one fitting?

 

[Jean Mercier]

Agreed that you can’t really compete with a Suzuki on turning radius

Not only turning radius:
Weight: you can cross fragile bridges
Weight: you will not sink that fast in mud or sand like the Grenadier
Weight: you can pull it out with a tire-fort (manual winch?) On your own, or with 3 or 4 people
Dimensions: much lower
Dimensions: less wide
Fuel consumption: (I leave it to you to comment)
Negative points: (I leave it to you to comment)

If I were alone on the world (no passengers or very few in my car), or less money, or a job where carrying load or towing isn't important... buy a Suzuki.

I have owned the ancestor of the Jimny when I was living in Ecuador a long time ago

 

[TheDocAUS]

Nice install! That’s an Anderson connector block different to what’s typical here.
Can we see under the protective cover? Is it two connectors in the one fitting?

It looks like it is 4 Anderson PowerPoles in the socket/boot. This might be the socket/boot here. I think there are also 2, 4, 6 and 8 sockets you can use.

I have some PowerPoles in my spares kit.

 

[globalgregors]

It looks like it is 4 Anderson PowerPoles in the socket/boot. This might be the socket/boot here. I think there are also 2, 4, 6 and 8 sockets you can use.

I have some PowerPoles in my spares kit.

Haven’t seen those before, thanks!

 

[TheDocAUS]

Haven’t seen those before, thanks!

Maybe the 15 to 30 Amp Anderson PowerPole version. They can go up to 180 amps.

I bought the 15-30 amp versions to give me options between crimp terminals and 50 amp Anderson plugs. I have not used any yet.

 

[TheDocAUS]

ORS had to postpone the lightbar install today, it is now next week. Not all was lost; I still drove over to ORS and tested the new insulation on the Travel Buddy.

TRAVEL BUDDY OVEN
The new insulation stage 1 worked well, better than I was expecting. Very little heat transfer to the rear roof shelf now. I still need to add the stage 2 of the insulation, for even better results. Stage 1 and 2 described here.

LIGHTBAR FITTING
While ORS could not install the lightbar, I could go over and test fit it. I am now over 90% sure we can fit the 20 inch lightbar to the underside of the top loop of the Roo Bar, and it lines up in a great position, parallel to one of the horizontal supports in the front grille, minimising air flow disruption. It fits by a millimetre or two. So the 20 inch bar fits and the third way of fitting the 20 inch bar to the brackets seems to works, but only just.

ORS did me a favour and cut some marine ply so I can finish building the fridge platform.

 

[Tazzieman]

Sadly I didn't even get to say hello to "Gimli"
Just got into London Paddington after 30 hrs flying. Food was good.
, and it was quiet in rhe airwaves above Afghanistan.

 

[rovie]

Sadly I didn't even get to say hello to "Gimli"
Just got into London Paddington after 30 hrs flying. Food was good.
, and it was quiet in rhe airwaves above Afghanistan.View attachment 7855274

Welcome in London !

 

[Tazzieman]

Welcome in London !

WIll be in Birmingham by lunchtime!

 

[rovie]

WIll be in Birmingham by lunchtime!

Enjoy your meal. Then you could drive the 2 hours to Huddersfield to my Land Rover dealer.

 

[Tazzieman]

Enjoy your meal. Then you could drive the 2 hours to Huddersfield to my Land Rover dealer.

Fri, Sat , Sun we're staying in Bakewell

 

[Voader - Oudersopzwier]

Not the Gren, but giving the old lady a lot of love, care and tenderness. Full anti rust treatment, raptor paint on the underbody and accessories. And a finishing layer of black paint. She should be good for the next 5 years to come.

 

[IG_in_AZ]

Got to test the fuel range estimation last night. Fueled up in Deming, NM and drove through to Fort Stockton, TX, cruise set at 80 mph, and with a pretty good headwind for much of the second half. 341 miles, averaged 14.5 mpg, fully loaded with the things my daughter left behind when she moved out 14 years ago. @Jean Mercier I got my range to zero and drove an additional 35 or so miles. My fuel gauge had no lines, not even the little arrow indicator left! It took 23.95 gallons US including one squeeze after the initial full click. I'm sure I was on fumes and was so proud of Duncan (because the colors of my Grenadier look like Duncan Donuts new color scheme) for getting us there safely. I had 2 NATO 20L fuel cans on my @Bison-Gear molle panel, so I wasn't worried about being stranded.

$2.99 a gallon for premium Chevron with my $1 /gallon discount for points on the chevron app. God Bless Texas!

 

[Jean Mercier]

Got to test the fuel range estimation last night. Fueled up in Deming, NM and drove through to Fort Stockton, TX, cruise set at 80 mph, and with a pretty good headwind for much of the second half. 341 miles, averaged 14.5 mpg, fully loaded with the things my daughter left behind when she moved out 14 years ago. @Jean Mercier I got my range to zero and drove an additional 35 or so miles. My fuel gauge had no lines, not even the little arrow indicator left! It took 23.95 gallons US including one squeeze after the initial full click. I'm sure I was on fumes and was so proud of Duncan (because the colors of my Grenadier look like Duncan Donuts new color scheme) for getting us there safely. I had 2 NATO 20L fuel cans on my @Bison-Gear molle panel, so I wasn't worried about being stranded.

$2.99 a gallon for premium Chevron with my $1 /gallon discount for points on the chevron app. God Bless Texas!View attachment 7855317
View attachment 7855316View attachment 7855314View attachment 7855315

Haha, congratulations, but you didn't beat me yet: 23.95 US gallons is 90.66 liters, and I already could fill it (no, not overfilling!) to 91.87 liters, being 24.27 US gallons

My 3 worst situations were: 90.94 liters, 90.64 and THE 91.87 liters.

Still wondering how much it would be if really completely empty

Today I filled it up with "only" 77.92 liters, still quite some red stripes

 

[Eric]

Haha, congratulations, but you didn't beat me yet: 23.95 US gallons is 90.66 liters, and I already could fill it (no, not overfilling!) to 91.87 liters, being 24.27 US gallons

My 3 worst situations were: 90.94 liters, 90.64 and THE 91.87 liters.

Still wondering how much it would be if really completely empty

Today I filled it up with "only" 77.92 liters, still quite some red stripes

Going forward I hope you are going to change your fuel filters on a regular basis.