Falken Wildpeak AT3w vs General Grabber ATX

Both the Falken Wildpeak AT3w and the General Grabber ATX shine with their unquestionable performance. They dominate off road and at the same time stay smooth and calm on pavements, providing the best combination of traction and comfort. But things get interesting, as in the end, there’s only going to be one winner for you, and we are going to find it out here today.

Being a tire engineer, and running both of these tires for uncountable years, I can share that the Falken Wildpeak AT3w is simply a great pick. The tire covers all key areas on and off road. On pavements, the all terrain tire’s really struggle with wet traction and this tire still amazes me to this day on how well it performs. On the other hand, the General Grabber ATx is very impressive on snow. The tire is stuadable too and this makes things ever better for it.

Things you can not miss about these tires:

• Falken Wildpeak AT3w is a better tire on mud, there are a lot of things it does right, I discussed them all below in detail.
• It’s simply great on roads, dry and wet and provides a good ride quality overall.
• The General Grabber ATX is really impressive when it comes to wear. In fact, I rated this tire, the best in terms of it’s wearing resistance on my list of all terrain tires.
• Both tires are severe snow rated and provide almost similar traction there but with different styles, as you’ll notice in it’s section below.

Tread Appearance:

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w looks pretty great (although looks are subjective) but the tire is not for show at all.

The tire features central blocks where you can find chamfered edges and notches everywhere.

Also note how most of the tread is covered by shoulders and very little real estate is left for the central blocks.

The middle blocks also have less sipes but they are full depth.

On shoulder blocks you see same types of butting edges over there but here siping have an interlocking design.

On the outer area the tire has very sharp edged blocks making side steps, and the lugs are thick and noticeable.

On General Grabber ATx the shoulder lugs are staggered but they are not as aggressive.

But the tire still makes decent sidewall protective lugs and carry large spacing between each block, which also have stone ejectors unlike the Falken Wildpeak.

The shoulder blocks also have slightly different siping, claw shaped, and there is a option to add studs on them.

On the central blocks, siping is more interlocking, but the blocks carry similar features with same notches (as seen on shoulders as well) and full depth siping as well as stud holes on the surrounding 2 blocks.

Bu the way these blocks surround the central one in a way as to make a interlocking map of grooves.

And yes worth reminding, the tire also has white lettering sidewalls (which can be swapped with non lettered one, as the tire is symmetric).

On Road Performance

Pavement performance is something where All terrain tires don’t make too much of an impression.

But Falken Wildpeak AT3w breaks the norm by its’ superb on road capabilities. In fact, I rated this tire on top of my list for the best one out of all right now (added link above).

The Grabber ATx is also a good opponent here, as it’s firmer compound provides you a more stable ride which is confidence inspiring.

Dry Traction

On dry streets, there is not going to be too much of a difference between these two.

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w provides a very decent traction where the only downside is that you may notice slight lagging in response.

The tire is a little slower in terms of communicating with the steering wheel.

But besides that, it offers great lateral grip on corners and very nice braking traction as well.

On the other hand, the General Grabber ATx is also good at on road mannerisms. It offers good enough grip but it really lacks in the lateral traction component, which is highly needed during handling.

So the tire on highways lacks slightly in performance to the Falken Wildpeak AT3w.

But with Grabber ATx you will feel more stability on road especially on high speeds.

For Your Info: I like the fact, that how well Grabber ATX balances. And even after that, the tires stays balanced for a good amount of time.

Wet Traction

Wet traction is mostly not a strong suit when it comes to all terrain tires. But the Falken Wildpeak AT3w is one of the most impressive tires out there, with it’s amazing wet traction.

This tire would almost feel like any other all season tire, it does not lack at all even on sharper turns where you intentionally try to slip the tire.

The great wet road response of these tires is credited to it’s shoulder blocks larger, as well as it’s optimized rubber composition.

As I talked about in the appearance section, the shoulders on this tire covers a lot of area of the tread. And here the blocks have full depth siping which have a very interlocking pattern.

These sipes clear water from its path very nicely as the tire’s silica rich rubber provides better flexing ability to them.

On the other hand, the General Grabber ATx is does not meet your expectations on wet roads, especially compared to Wildpeak.

The tire has a very stiff compound, and it does not offer blocks to flex enough, which is very important on wet roads.

Because of this, it even lacks behind it’s aggressive mud terrain variant, the General Grabber X3, on wet pavements.

But given the tire’s other on road factors, including dry, I think this is very small price to pay. And for folks who don’t test tires to the limit (like me), they are not going to feel it too much.

Hydroplaning Resistance

Both tires offer very roomy channels for water to pass through. So you are going to get amazing float speeds out of both tires.

But there’s a slight advantage in case of Falken Wildpeak AT3w, as the tire has more tread depth to it.

So with that, the tire is able to provide slightly more resistance to hydroplaning when compared to General Grabber ATX.

But still I am talking about speeds on standing water where it’s a straight path. As on curves, you are not going to feel much of a difference.

Road Noise

On road performance is also dependent on the noise levels a tire produces. In fact it’s one of the main point why most folks don’t go for mud terrains (others being wear and wet traction), as they get very loud.

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w is going to be very silent on road. It offers different block pitches which cancel out the noise waves to dampen the sound levels.

The General Grabber ATx does not provide as much of an acoustic tread as it’s competitor, but it’s okay.

I mean with radio off and windows down, you would hear a hum with a slight vibrato, but its not going to make you notice too much.

Also keep in mind, that it’s D rated sizes produce less noise compared to E, where you may want to drive with radio on.

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w would barely make any tread noise.

The tire is only heard crossing 50mph, but even then you really have to keep an open ear for it.

For Your Info: Out of both these tires, the General Grabber start to produce more noise after 10k miles.

Ride Comfort

The General Grabber ATX implemented a dedicated layer in order for tire to handle or absorb the bumps.

That’s because the tire itself has a firm rubber and without that layer it’s would have given a stiffer ride.

But this layer now helps the tire where you will feel the tire vibrating above 50mph, and even that would go away if you do proper balancing.

I’ve seen that the P metric sizes on Grabber are quite comfortable, so you should definitely go with them if road smoothness outweighs off road for you.

Or you can simply go with Falken Wildpeak AT3w, where the tire with it’s high silica composition, simply provides you with a very shock absorbing tread.

Often under-looked, the tire also offers deeper tread, and this helps the tire by providing more rubber between you and the ground, so the impacts have more room to get dissipated.

Tread Life

When it comes to Falken Wildpeak AT3w, the tire with it’s silica rich compound having a softer tread wears slightly faster in comparison.

The softer rubber of the tire although helps it in comfort and wet traction, it not going to help too much with wear.

But Falken incorporated some neat features in this tire which still makes this tire last a good amount of time with better wear life.

First, the added more tread depth, in fact, the tire has deepest in the category, close to mud terrain tires range. So with more depth, the tire offers wider rubber layer between the road and you which takes some time to wear off.

Second thing which is often overlooked about this tire and wear in general is heat. The heat the tire generates while rolling or towing in case of AT tires with more load ratings, affect the tire wearing capability a lot.

The Falken Wildpeak incorporated a sidewall tread that keeps things cooler by dissipating heat out.

But the tire is still on the back seat when it comes to it’s comparison with General Grabber ATX.

The Grabber ATX is best when it comes to wear resistance. I mentioned it in my list of all time fav All Terrain tires.

The tire offers a very unique elastic compound that is stiffer in comparison and is very resistant to wearing off.

It’s stiff chip cut resistant rubber included certain polymers which don’t let the rubber go off too easily. These include Kevlar compounds (let’s just put it to that, as I’ll make a different article on this).

So with this tire you can do 60k miles easily by taking them both on and off road.

Although keep in mind that you know what your tire’s optimal pressure is, as if you run below that, the tire tends to produce more heat and this generated wear.

This tire has less efficiency in dissipating heat out.

Fuel Efficiency

Both of these all terrain tires are not going to impress you with their fuel economy. In case of Falken Wildpeak, which has high no of plies specifically on the sidewalls where there are 2 extra layers of polyamide, the tire’s weight really affects its rolling resistance which lowers the fuel economy.

But things are still okay on Wildpeak, as the General Grabber ATX is going to eat up even more of the fuel in comparison.

The tire with it’s stiffer compound make a firmer contact with the road and it requires more energy to roll.

So, overall you are going to see almost 1 to 2 MPG drop switching between these two tires.

Sizes Info

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w comes from 15 to 22 inches rim sizes, providing 76 total sizes, where it starts from 235/75R15 with load rating of XL and goes all the way to 37×12.50R20LT with load rating F.

For a 2 ply construction the tire weighs a lot, where it goes up to 79.4 lbs (on the size 37×12.50R18LT), but you also see as little as 35 lbs in tire weight.

On Falken Wildpeak AT3w however, the tread depth varies form sizes to sizes. It starts from 12 (on just 1 size) and goes all the way to 19, where it only average has 17/32″ depth.

The General Grabber ATx provides 14 to 20 inches rim sizes, (14″ is only available in LT 27X8.50R14) which weigh almost 29 lbs, but has a very decent tread depth of 16/32″.

The tire actually ranges between 14 to 16/32″ tread depth with most weighing size LT 37X13.50R20 has weight of 75 lbs.

For Your Info: I’d recommend D (load rating) sizes in case of General Grabber, as I’ve seen that E are not overall good in terms of performance. Only use E is you really need it, like you need towing capability out of the tire, otherwise no need to put extra load on your suspension.

Durability

Durability is a main one with all terrain tires.

So where the General Grabber ATX give out premium features in all departments, it keeps things average in durability.

The tire has 2 layers of polyamide under 2 steel belts and both of them are covered with 2 more layers of another polyester layer. This inner construction is quite typical.

For Your Info: Where, there are just 2 ply sidewalls, on General Grabber ATX, BF Goodrich KO2 provide you with 5 ply (explained in the link).

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w has similar construction but the tire also provides 2 more layers of polyamide on the sidewalls, so out of the two this tire would provide you with better off road protection.

Winter Performance

With harder compound of General Grabber ATx, it seemed as if the tire would not be so great with snow. And its actually hard to believe that the tire earned 3 peak mountain snowflake rating without testing them out yourself on snow.

And let me tell you they really impress. In fact, the tire even out performed Falken Wildpeak AT3w which used to be my go to snow All Terrain tires.

Even with a harder compound the Grabber’s rubber stays soft enough on snow and keeps it’s traction good in all areas, braking, handling and even acceleration.

The difference is only minimal though, and both tires are great with deep snow, where Falken Wildpeak has the advantage of tread depth.

Off Road Performance

Off road both tires keep up with nice traction performance in almost all types of terrains, I’ll discuss them one by one below.

Overall, both tires are simply fine. They offer decent amount of biting edges which keep the traction going for them.

Although, the lateral traction component on Grabber ATX needs a slight improvement. The tire also could use some layering on the sidewalls as Falken Wildpeak provides you with more confidence with rugged terrains.

Sand Driving

There are a lot of variations on sand, but I’d consider an average sand scenario. But still not matter what, sand needs one very important traction factor and that is more rubber to road contact.

So here the General Grabber ATX would do slightly better, as it provides that.

The tire also has advantage of staggered shoulders here so can provide better forward momentum.

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w on the other side, would dig more instead, and you don’t want that for sand.

But still airing down both tires is a must, to increase rubber to road contact.

Traction on Rocks

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w simply provides you with the best rock climbing abilities, so there is no doubt that this tire would do better here. The tire has softer compound which provides better friction as they have the stickiness to them.

The tire is also good with wet rocks, where traction works much like it does on highways.

The General Grabber ATX lacks a little in terms of lateral traction especially when things get wet.

Also the tire’s sidewall don’t bring as much confidence as you get with 4 ply sides of Wildpeak (2 ply polyamide around bead).

Nonetheless, the Grabber ATX performs really well on gravel with pretty decent handling abilities. It’s stone ejectors also help with traction.

Where on Wildpeak you don’t see any.

Also both tire have decent sidewall lugs which provide traction with lowered bar/psi levels.

Keep these in mind

The Falken Wildpeak AT3w focuses on wet, wear and winter performance, (hence it’s name 3w), but the tire is only better in the wet, but it’s very significant.

The wear award goes to Grabber, which also performed better on snow slightly, although both tires are 3pmsf rated.

On dry roads overall, Wildpeak is clearly better, with better fuel economy, dry traction and having less on road noise.

Both tires are equally comfortable however.