At this year’s Game Fair, amidst all the gundog, falconry, and shooting exhibits, INEOS made a splash with its showcase of the Grenadier, one of the more characterful off-roaders that I’ve seen in some time. There, I got a chance to drive the 5-door Station Wagon variant – you can read more about my experience here while doing some off-roading in it – I also had some behind-the-wheel time with its pickup truck sibling, the Quartermaster. This is rather interesting because I’ve driven the Station Wagon model a couple of times in the past, including an excursion to the Lake District and last year’s Game Fair, but this is my first time driving the pickup truck.
Available only in a 5-seater double-cab configuration, the Grenadier Quartermaster is a unique form factor for us here in Europe, where pickup trucks don’t get nearly as much market share as they do across the pond. This also makes the Quartermaster somewhat one of a kind for us, with a longer wheelbase and a sizeable bed for doing all the truck things that you could imagine, like hauling tall, wide, and awkwardly-shaped cargo. With that in mind, does the Grenadier, in its Quartermaster form, really make that much sense as a pickup truck?
Alas, during INEOS’s showcase at this year’s Game Fair, I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to spend a lot of time with the Quartermaster to really figure that out, but the very brief test drive was enough to give me a good feeling about it. Once you step inside and get going, fundamentally, you’ll notice right away that the Station Wagon and the Quartermaster, ultimately, both feel like a Grenadier. In other words, they feel mostly very similar to drive, which is no bad thing. The only thing you’d need to bear in mind with the Quartermaster, mostly while manoeuvring it, is the slightly elongated rear overhangs.
Does It Make Sense As A Truck?
It’s a good call by INEOS to show off the Quartermaster at the Game Fair too, as I think it would be a perfect truck for people who live in the countryside or if you frequent rural areas. The rear bed on the Quartermaster unlocks a huge amount of practicality and versatility when compared to its Station Wagon sibling, offering a sizeable loadspace, with an equally generous payload capacity of 835kg. As for its size, the Quartermaster’s truck bed is around 1,564mm long, 1,619mm wide, and 485mm tall, which INEOS claims is enough to fit one standard, European-sized shipping pallet.
So, if the Station Wagon’s rear boot space – which is rather voluminous by itself – just isn’t enough for all those hay bales and farming equipment, or if you need to carry anything else that might find itself being constrained by a typical SUV form factor, a pickup truck like the Quartermaster will be happy to do the job for you. On the other hand, if you want to go off-roading, it remains just as capable as the Grenadier Station Wagon, with all those off-road-ready paraphernalia, from the hardy ladder frame chassis, trail-focused suspension, two-speed transfer case, and diff lockers.
Plus, the Quartermaster is still powered by the same, strong BMW-derived 3.0-litre turbo inline-6 engine, either in petrol or diesel form, like the one I have here. The one aspect of the Quartermaster that INEOS was very keen to show me was mainly its towing capabilities, which maxes out at 3,500kg. Now, if you know your Grenadier lore, then you’ll know that this is exactly the same towing capacity that you’d get with the Station Wagon too, and both of them are definitely, highly capable when it comes to hauling and towing things.
A Champion At Towing Cargo
For starters, INEOS has developed their own vertical towing interface, which allows either Grenadier to fit and accommodate a variety of different towbar or tow ball fitments, which is further aided by its Trailer Stability Assist system. Another piece of electronic aid that you could get is the rear camera, which I’d say is a must if you tow a lot, as it ought to massively improve rearward visibility when you have stuff behind you. The aforementioned selection of BMW-sourced and Grenadier-tuned engines actually makes towing heavier loads a much more effortless experience.
Unlike some vehicles that feel like they’re on the verge of breaking in half anytime you tow something, the Grenadier – or in this instance, the Quartermaster, specifically – makes towing feel superbly easy. In diesel form, it has a lot of torque – about 550Nm (or 450Nm with the petrol engine) – all of which is readily accessible from down low, as early as around 1,200RPM in the diesel. There’s way more than enough torque to let you cruise around, and barely even notice that you’re towing anything! INEOS’s demonstration, as you can see me towing a tractor here, is pretty much the most extreme case of what the average Brit might hook up behind them and tow.
So, if it can handle this with that much ease, I’d expect that the Quartermaster would be able to tow a horse trailer or a large caravan without even breaking a sweat. Suffice it to say, but I’m fairly confident that its towing abilities are likely way more than what most people would ever need. Sure, you could argue that there is an abundance of other great towing vehicles that you can find here in the UK, but I’d wager few of them have as much old-school, analogue charm and immense off-road ability, all in one package, like the INEOS Grenadier Quartermaster.
