Everyone likes some good tire porn.
So I've had these tires for almost a year now (bought 8/20/08), and recently had to decide how much I really liked them.
I decided stick with them.
Purchase
When looking for tires, I was on a budget of $1k or less. I had a couple of qualifications:
1) I wanted 315's.
2) I wanted a full sized matching spare.
Finding 5 tires in a 33" size was easy within budget, I could pretty much pick most of the popular choices. Finding 5 tires in a 35" size was quite the challenge, as the price seemed to skyrocket.
Most 35's I could find under $200 a tire were worthless for wheeling. The other tire I seriously considered was the All-Terrain T/A KO, but decided against it based on the lack of any sort of sidewall lug, that they could not be studded, the Tire Rack ratings (lower than the Grabber AT2), and the tread pattern seemed to be a bit on the closed side.
After a lot of research I chose the General Grabber AT2, as they fit my budget, met the severe snow service requirements, and had the most aggresive tread pattern of an AT that I could find.
Experience
As my 80 is my DD, on road performance matters to me more so than a trail only rig would. I can safely say that the Grabbers have far exceeded my expectation, as I've driven them through everything from dry pavement, to snow and ice, to heavy thick rain.
Previously I had the Toyo M/T's which seem to be the popular tire out here. Frankly, I hated the Toyo's. They did okay on rock, but tended to slip on any sort of a slick surface. In wet/icy conditions I did not like the way they handled on road, and on wet or slippery rock (such as rock covered by dust/sand) they did not grip well.
Since I've had the Grabber's I've ran them through many different types of terrain: Mud, wet clay (IH8CLAY), ice, dry powdery snow (4+ feet deep), wet crusty snow (4+ feet deep), dirt, gravel, sand/powder so fine and slick it might as well be ice, rock.....we have a wide variety of terrain and conditions around here.
My only "complaint" was in snow I thought that they just handled "okay". Knowing what I know now, the majority of that mild disappointment in the performance was because I was running them at too high a PSI (around 20, IIRC). Had I dropped the PSI, I believe that the performance would have increased quite a bit. I will be sure to test this next snow season.
One of my biggest surprises with these is how stiff the sidewall is. Despite only being two ply, each of those are thick. My concern when I got them was that I would shread the sidewalls, but despite spinning the tires with the sidewalls pressed hard against sharp rocks, I've yet to even cut the sidewall. (Well, at least until the picture above!)
Tire Pressure
Probably in large due to the stiff sidewalls, I've run at progressively lower PSI's it seems for each trip I've made. The last trip I took (which was the one where the picture above was taken) I was running at 12 psi the whole time. While I wasn't in any situations where I was overly concerned I would break a bead, I did run through some nice rock beds where the sidewalls got lots of flex to them, as well as bombing down the forest service roads at a good clip.
One of the earlier trips this year I borrowed a buddies airdowns, which were not setup correctly. They aired my tires down to between 4 and 9 PSI.
I used a little (Harbor Freight special) air compressor I had, and got all the tires to 11 or higher...except one that was at 7.
I then proceeded to climb (most of the way) up an very steep, very slippery, (wet) clay covered hill.
(Just to illustrate the nastyness of the hill.....these are not 35's. I believe they were 44's or something close to that.)
Not a single vehicle made it all the way up. Never again....
I think that 12 PSI seems to be the sweet spot for these tires. Visually they bulge about the same as the BFG MT's at about 15-16 PSI, and they've held up extremely well even at the lowest pressures.
Wear
Despite being a relatively "soft" feeling tire (compared to say the Toyo M/T's, where the lugs feel much harder) they've worn incredibly well. I've taken them wheeling quite a bit, and put on 8k miles since I bought 'em. There is some very very small chunking on the outer lugs (only on the outside of the tire, doesn't seem to be any on the inside or in the middle lugs), and some almost "tearing" marks where I suspect they will chunk eventually.
Despite being almost a year old and over 8k miles, the tire tread depth is identicle to the brand new spare that they put on compared to the 3 tires with 8k miles on them. My wife's Toyo M/T's (my old ones) have worn visibly in the same period of time, and she puts less miles on her truck than I do.
I only have limited comparison to other wheels that club members run, but another members experience with the Toyo M/T's seem to match up with mine. Another club member runs the Coopers (I believe), and even after only a few runs there's some significant chunking going on (more so in a few months than mine after almost a year).
You can see in the very first pic how well they've held up, despite plenty of abuse.
Summary
All in all I'm very happy with these shoes. I don't think they'll do as well as other tires you could pick out for other situation (like Nay's TRX's for snow/ice). But on the flip side, I don't think they have any weaknesses either. These are true All Terrain tires, and I've been happy with them regardless of the conditions on the ground.
Don't let the tire fool you, the gap between lugs is larger than it looks, it's just very deep.
My biggest complaint with these tires is that they live up to their name a little too much. They tend to grab gravel, and fling it back up into my rockers. Or they'll grab and hold on, and I'll have a moment of panic while I try and figure out where that sudden clicking noise is coming from.
Oh, and I almost forgot. How did I get a tree trunk (albeit a very small one) through my sidewall?
Decent amount of speed (~20 MPH), combined with the tree having fallen to be perfectly positioned at an angle to punture, combined with bouncing off a rock and moving hard sideways into said tree trunk.
Here's a pic of it hung off the back of TOY350's well built 80.
Yeah. The guy who insisted on buying a full sized matching spare.....forgot his spare. (Add: "It's just an easy run" to Famous Last Words.)
So I've had these tires for almost a year now (bought 8/20/08), and recently had to decide how much I really liked them.
I decided stick with them.
Purchase
When looking for tires, I was on a budget of $1k or less. I had a couple of qualifications:
1) I wanted 315's.
2) I wanted a full sized matching spare.
Finding 5 tires in a 33" size was easy within budget, I could pretty much pick most of the popular choices. Finding 5 tires in a 35" size was quite the challenge, as the price seemed to skyrocket.
Most 35's I could find under $200 a tire were worthless for wheeling. The other tire I seriously considered was the All-Terrain T/A KO, but decided against it based on the lack of any sort of sidewall lug, that they could not be studded, the Tire Rack ratings (lower than the Grabber AT2), and the tread pattern seemed to be a bit on the closed side.
After a lot of research I chose the General Grabber AT2, as they fit my budget, met the severe snow service requirements, and had the most aggresive tread pattern of an AT that I could find.
Experience
As my 80 is my DD, on road performance matters to me more so than a trail only rig would. I can safely say that the Grabbers have far exceeded my expectation, as I've driven them through everything from dry pavement, to snow and ice, to heavy thick rain.
Previously I had the Toyo M/T's which seem to be the popular tire out here. Frankly, I hated the Toyo's. They did okay on rock, but tended to slip on any sort of a slick surface. In wet/icy conditions I did not like the way they handled on road, and on wet or slippery rock (such as rock covered by dust/sand) they did not grip well.
Since I've had the Grabber's I've ran them through many different types of terrain: Mud, wet clay (IH8CLAY), ice, dry powdery snow (4+ feet deep), wet crusty snow (4+ feet deep), dirt, gravel, sand/powder so fine and slick it might as well be ice, rock.....we have a wide variety of terrain and conditions around here.
My only "complaint" was in snow I thought that they just handled "okay". Knowing what I know now, the majority of that mild disappointment in the performance was because I was running them at too high a PSI (around 20, IIRC). Had I dropped the PSI, I believe that the performance would have increased quite a bit. I will be sure to test this next snow season.
One of my biggest surprises with these is how stiff the sidewall is. Despite only being two ply, each of those are thick. My concern when I got them was that I would shread the sidewalls, but despite spinning the tires with the sidewalls pressed hard against sharp rocks, I've yet to even cut the sidewall. (Well, at least until the picture above!)
Tire Pressure
Probably in large due to the stiff sidewalls, I've run at progressively lower PSI's it seems for each trip I've made. The last trip I took (which was the one where the picture above was taken) I was running at 12 psi the whole time. While I wasn't in any situations where I was overly concerned I would break a bead, I did run through some nice rock beds where the sidewalls got lots of flex to them, as well as bombing down the forest service roads at a good clip.
One of the earlier trips this year I borrowed a buddies airdowns, which were not setup correctly. They aired my tires down to between 4 and 9 PSI.
I used a little (Harbor Freight special) air compressor I had, and got all the tires to 11 or higher...except one that was at 7.
I then proceeded to climb (most of the way) up an very steep, very slippery, (wet) clay covered hill.
(Just to illustrate the nastyness of the hill.....these are not 35's. I believe they were 44's or something close to that.)
Not a single vehicle made it all the way up. Never again....
I think that 12 PSI seems to be the sweet spot for these tires. Visually they bulge about the same as the BFG MT's at about 15-16 PSI, and they've held up extremely well even at the lowest pressures.
Wear
Despite being a relatively "soft" feeling tire (compared to say the Toyo M/T's, where the lugs feel much harder) they've worn incredibly well. I've taken them wheeling quite a bit, and put on 8k miles since I bought 'em. There is some very very small chunking on the outer lugs (only on the outside of the tire, doesn't seem to be any on the inside or in the middle lugs), and some almost "tearing" marks where I suspect they will chunk eventually.
Despite being almost a year old and over 8k miles, the tire tread depth is identicle to the brand new spare that they put on compared to the 3 tires with 8k miles on them. My wife's Toyo M/T's (my old ones) have worn visibly in the same period of time, and she puts less miles on her truck than I do.
I only have limited comparison to other wheels that club members run, but another members experience with the Toyo M/T's seem to match up with mine. Another club member runs the Coopers (I believe), and even after only a few runs there's some significant chunking going on (more so in a few months than mine after almost a year).
You can see in the very first pic how well they've held up, despite plenty of abuse.
Summary
All in all I'm very happy with these shoes. I don't think they'll do as well as other tires you could pick out for other situation (like Nay's TRX's for snow/ice). But on the flip side, I don't think they have any weaknesses either. These are true All Terrain tires, and I've been happy with them regardless of the conditions on the ground.
Don't let the tire fool you, the gap between lugs is larger than it looks, it's just very deep.
My biggest complaint with these tires is that they live up to their name a little too much. They tend to grab gravel, and fling it back up into my rockers. Or they'll grab and hold on, and I'll have a moment of panic while I try and figure out where that sudden clicking noise is coming from.
Oh, and I almost forgot. How did I get a tree trunk (albeit a very small one) through my sidewall?
Decent amount of speed (~20 MPH), combined with the tree having fallen to be perfectly positioned at an angle to punture, combined with bouncing off a rock and moving hard sideways into said tree trunk.
Here's a pic of it hung off the back of TOY350's well built 80.
Yeah. The guy who insisted on buying a full sized matching spare.....forgot his spare. (Add: "It's just an easy run" to Famous Last Words.)
.... oh wait we were just talking about the tires. 
)
truck, and which we've now successfully ditched) grew harder over time until it was essentially as hard as a rock. The tread on the Grabbers is still quite pliable, and I can easily dent it with a fingernail.
