The General Grabber X3 is a very powerful mud-terrain (M/T) tires, capable of delivering a unique off-road traction with a smooth ride on pavements. Let’s check it out in detail.
The General Grabber X3 is one of the best tires for roads, offering great directional grip and handling, though with average steering response, compared to other popular mud tires out there. This goes for both wet and dry conditions. Moreover, the tire offers a very commendable snow traction with it as well, despite not having rated with 3PMSF. And off-road its a pro in all areas. Though the tire could use some help in the comfort department.
General Grabber X3 offers 15 to 22 inches rim sizes with following specs:
- Speed Ratings: Only Q.
- Load Ratings: C, D and E only.
- Weight Range: 50 to 90 lbs.
- Tread Depth Range: 18 to 21/32″.
Tread Design
The General Grabber X3 features an aggressive tread design consisting of four main ribs.
The inner two ribs exhibit V/U-shaped lugs, complete with full-depth biters and sipes for enhanced grip, (as you can see, sipes actually get attached to the thicker slits on notches).
These sharp-edged lugs form a effective-cleaning longitudinal grooves in the center, joining up with the outer, even wider, circumferential channels.
The shoulder lugs are elongated and showcase a mixture of similar (to the middle) thin and thick full-depth sipes/notches.
As with most traditional mud-terrain tires, the Grabber X3 includes wide gaps around its shoulders as well. Though they include unique stone ejectors, stylishly displaying the “GRABBER” branding, and enhancing the tire’s self cleaning abilities.
Furthermore, the tire’s outer edges have mud scoops in them (staggered), and you see powerful sidewall lugs attached to them.
Wet Traction
The General Grabber X3 showcased decent amount of wet traction capabilities, comparatively.
On wet skidpad lap, the tire comes out with an average lateral g-force of 0.76 g, which is one of the best ones out there comparing other tires in mud-terrain category.
And looking at it’s design it makes sense, as the tire carries a lot of sipes (for a M/T), having multiple angles to them. These sipes basically slurp in water particles, allowing the rubber to easily meet up with the road and grip in.
Note: Water is not compressible, so unless, there’s a way for it to leave, the tread would not grip, and would tend to float, (depending on the amount of water and weight on tire).
Highway Performance
Some mud-terrain tires are a little more aligned towards on road performance, while some are more aggressive, designed for maximizing grip off-road.
The General Grabber X3 comes in the middle, so compared to other MTs, it’s dry grip, handling and steering response on dry roads, is above average. Let’s discuss all these elements.
Directional Grip
Dry grip largely depends on the contact made with the ground.
Having said that, the Grabber X3 although doesn’t provide a lot of rubber to road exposure, it still offers decent grip with it’s numerous biting edges, in the form of sharp sides, notches and full depth siping connecting to those notches.
Moreover, it’s structure is still somewhat less voided compared to other major players in the market, such as Toyo M/T, Cooper STT Pro and BF Goodrich KM3.
Comparing directional grip, the tire offers the shortest braking distance among all of them.
Handling
Handling is the efficacy of a tire to corner, and it gets calculated with average lateral G forces.
Moreover, as the weight (the tire carries), gets transferred towards the outer edges, shoulder lugs are considered here.
And looking at them, it can be seen why General Grabber X3 is again a very well performing. Among the crowd of popular mud-tires, it’s lateral traction stands on top.
Though its very similar compared to BF Goodrich KM3.
Steering Response
The steering response highly depends on the structure and composition of the tire and it’s tread, and out of them, three things are the most significant. Tire’s weight, it’s tread depth, and rubber composition.
Basically all of these tell you about, how much would lugs “bend” when the tire corners.
The bending of the lugs is what really causes the delay in handling feedback, with greater weight, tread depth, and a softer compound, blocks would want to flex more, resulting in greater over and under steering.
Having said that, the General Grabber X3, offers an average overall steering feedback at best. It’s weight is although not a lot, it’s tread compound is slightly more pliable, compared to other famous M/Ts.
Noise Reduction
Tire noise is generated when air particles, primarily entering through shoulder voids, collide with the tread walls. That’s why all mud tires are pretty loud.
Though the General Grabber X3 is notably louder than other MTs, mainly due to its tendency to create in-groove resonance, by its tread pattern. This effect occurs from echoing within the tread, and some rubber compounds are more susceptible to it, including the one used in this tire.
Upon testing, I concluded that the Grabber can be easily heard after reaching speeds of 30 mph, even with the windows closed and the radio playing.
Although the tire’s variable pitch technology helps in reducing noise levels to a certain degree, it is best that you still anticipate a significant increase in noise after 10,000 miles.
For those who may not be familiar with variable pitch technology, it operates by altering the tread geometry so that different sections produce varying tones when air particles collide with them. This design aims to cancel out the noise produced by each section.
On-Road Vibrations
While the General Grabber X3 provides satisfactory responsiveness for on-road handling, its stiffer tread compound doesn’t allow it to have effective vibration absorption capability.
To put it simply, the tire’s rubber is less spongy, and it doesn’t soak up the road bumps and shocks as efficiently as other popular MT alternatives.
Additionally, despite its 18.5/32″ tread depth being relatively deep, it still falls below average when compared to other options.
This is significant as larger tread depth would mean more rubber between the tire and the road, and greater area for the vibrations to settle down before reaching you.
Off-Road Prowess
Folks think that mud tires only do better on mud, that’s not the case, they excel in all sorts of rugged terrains, and I explained their performance in all of the following terrain types.
On Rocks
On rocky terrains, durability and puncture resistance are essential, and the General Grabber X3 excels in these areas with its superior cut-repelling rubber and a good amount of Kevlar in its compound.
Multiple-angled-grip is also vital here, and although most mud-terrain tires perform similarly in this regard, the Grabber X3 is still very appreciable.
The tire renders an above-average traction due to its slightly more elastic tread pliability, allowing for lugs to easily mold over the rocky surface, providing exceptional grip.
Moreover, it’s sidewall lugs (upon lowering air pressure), also grab and pull very effectively, offering a distinct advantage over other mud tires, even though they also typically feature thick (enough) lugs, over there.
On Sand
Driving on sand requires a tire with excellent flotation and shoveling capabilities, that’s why in this aspect, you can never go wrong picking any mud tire.
Though upon testing, I would still put the General Grabber X3 in the top 5.
Let me explain why.
The Grabber X3 basically offers a decent contact area to meet up with the sand. Its already softer tread gets to be further flexible upon lowering air pressure, and this sticks very well on the soft sandy surface.
Furthermore, it also features softer outer edges, which are not as susceptible to dig in to the sand (which is very bad for traction).
And it’s elongated shoulder lugs provide you with the paddling efficacy, throwing back sand to create forward momentum, even on inclines.
On Mud
As this terrain type is the most challenging, MT tires are named after it, and they are the most capable here without any doubt. Though comparing others in the category, the General Grabber X3 still reigns supreme.
The tire features epic mud evacuation, thanks to its wider lateral and longitudinal tread voids that allow thick clay and wet debris to easily escape through multiple channels.
Additionally, it offers superior paddling performance too, as its thick slanted lugs and staggered shoulder blocks effectively scoop mud backwards, generating a forward moving force.
Lastly, the tire demonstrates impressive “getting-out” capabilities thanks to its robust sidewall lugs, which yield digging.
Winter Performance
While the General Grabber X3, like other mud tires, does not carry the 3-peak mountain snowflake rating, its traction on various snowy terrains is still quite commendable, I have to say.
The tire’s powerful shoulder scoops and sidewall lugs help it paddle through all types of thick snowy terrains with ease. Additionally, its numerous biting edges, comprised of sipes and notches, capture snow particles within the grooves and establish contact with them (apart for biting).
This contact creates enhanced friction, as snowflakes inherently stick to one another (forming larger gripping efficacy compared to rubber’s contact).
Fuel Economy
Let me start off here by saying this, General Grabber X3 is “not a bad tire” when it comes to fuel consumption.
Simply put, (without delving too deep into complicated details), the tire ranks in the top 3 for fuel economy among mud-terrain tires, according to my testing. And I think I covered them all in my reviews, though do let me know in the comments, if there’s a tire I haven’t tested out yet.
Lower rolling resistance directly contributes to better fuel efficiency, and X3 with its dual tread compound provides reinforced support for the blocks, making them less prone to bending or flexing under weight and maneuvering pressure (as the tire corners or brakes for example).
In other words, this MT would not waste excessive energy on molding its tread blocks, due to their relatively stiffer construction, which helps to maintain lower rolling resistance compared to other tires.
Conclusion
The General Grabber X3 is a capable off-road mud-terrain tire with excellent hydroplaning resistance, wet performance, and snow traction.
The tire although may fall a little short in terms of providing adequate comfort and noise reduction efficacy, its performance on rocks, mud and sand is very commendable and makes up for all of it’s drawbacks, no doubt.
Though it could improve its sand traction a little bit (of course saying this, whilst comparing it with other mud terrain tires).
