Everyone is building hybrids and promising a quiet electric paradise. KGM is doing the exact opposite — taking the Musso, keeping the ladder frame, the diesel and the low-range transfer case, and bolting on a serious off-road kit. It’s one of those rare cases when a pickup is built up not for a tough-looking photo, but for actual mud, rocks and ruts.
The Musso’s base is genuinely workmanlike: a 2.2-liter diesel rated at 202 hp, part-time four-wheel drive, a low-range gear, a rear locking differential and a body-on-frame layout. With the manual it produces 400 Nm, with the automatic — 441 Nm. This isn’t about sprint records, it’s about pulling power under load, towing, bad roads and routes where an ordinary crossover quickly cries uncle.
And here’s where it gets interesting. The Aventura pack changes the truck’s character entirely. It includes Öhlins shocks with remote reservoirs, Eibach springs, a roughly 4 cm suspension lift, Braid wheels, BF Goodrich KO2 tires sized 265/70 R17 and an 8 mm aluminum skid plate. KGM quotes a 34° approach angle, a 28° breakover angle, a 26° departure angle and ground clearance of up to 30 cm for the Musso Aventura.
The price of the upgrade is around €9,500 before VAT, or roughly $10,250 at current rates. It’s not pocket change, but you’re not paying for decorative trim. The tires, the suspension and the underbody protection change how the pickup absorbs hits, holds ruts, climbs rocks and handles fast gravel. For hunting, expeditions, farm work or anything off the tarmac, that surcharge makes more sense than yet another screen in the cabin.
The market is full of crossovers with off-road styling. What’s in catastrophically short supply are body-on-frame diesel pickups with a low range and a factory-grade off-road build. KGM isn’t trying to make the Musso fashionable. It’s making it useful. And in an era where everyone else is embarrassed by diesels and frames, that alone counts as audacity.
