Goodyear Duratrac and General Grabber A/TX are although marketed as all-terrain, the Wrangler Duratrac is actually rugged-terrain, while the Grabber come in Extreme all-terrains (that’s it has “X” in its name). These tires may not be all-purpose, but if you know their areas of expertise, they can be a great choice. Let me give you a clue on where they excel!
Being a tire engineer, from my perspective, the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac is one of the top performing tires on mud that you can get. It’s tread is laced with groove technology, and it self cleans very efficiently. And with such aggressive design it’s really amazing to see this tire not lacking too much on roads as well, especially when things are wet. The General Grabber A/TX is not as capable on wet, but its sipes are much more capable on snow. Moreover, comparatively, it’s also a better option in dry traction, noise, and tread wear.
Table of Contents
Sizes Info
The General Grabber ATX provides 60 total sizes with 14 to 20 inches. All of them have following specs, that you need to know.
- They have available speed ratings in Q, R, S and T.
- Load range in SL, XL, C, D and E.
- Tread depth: 14 to 16/32″.
- Weight range: 28 lbs to 75 lbs.
- Warranty: 50k miles.
On other side, the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac offers 15 to 22″ rim sizes which have:
- Speed rating of Q, S, P, and T.
- Load ratings: XL, SL, C, D, E and F (better).
- Weight range of 35 to 68 lbs (heavier).
- Tread depth: 16/32″ to 18/32″ (so greater here).
- 50k miles tread wear warranty (excluding LT sizes).
- 16 stud-able lugs (only LT sizes).
Also as for the durability, both tires offer 2 ply polyester casing, 2 steel belts and 2 cap plies of nylon, which is pretty much a norm with A/T tires, though, for Wrangler DuraTrac (being a rugged terrain tire), it’s below average.
Tread Features
The General Grabber A/TX forms an asymmetric pattern overall, let’s start discussing things from sides.
The shoulder ribs basically are the biggest. They contain staggered lugs, which extend down in to the sidewalls.
(All of these lugs on sides basically sit on diffusers, which help the tire in expelling heat out, promoting resistance to wear).
Moreover, all shoulder lugs are studable and carry very rectilinear siping on them. And in between, they feature bold stone ejectors.
Moving towards middle, 3 ribs are seen here, where the inner ones are being wrapped by outer.
They all have similar full depth siping pattern, which basically has the capability to split open the lugs for off-road traction.
They all also have small traction notches on them, and stud holes are seen as well (expect for the middle most placed lugs).
The Goodyear Duratrac on the other hand, has a more complex tread pattern with a lot of features.
In the middle, the tire has squared-off lugs with zigzag biters and chamfered edges, that are joined together from beneath by a dual tread compound.
This combination provides off-road bite and stability on dry roads, while the “full-depth” interlocking sipes offer improved traction in wet conditions.
Surrounding the lugs, are prominent circumferential channels, that divide them from outer shoulder ribs.
These tread voids have biters in the base, functioning as a secondary tread pattern for snow grabbing and mud/dirt ejection.
(Goodyear calls it Tractive Groove Technology).
On the shoulders, the tread has stud-able lugs (only available in LT sizes) and a powerful 3D full depth siping pattern for better wet traction.
These lugs are firmly joined by a base for enhanced steering response (just like the ones in the middle).
Wet Performance
Wet roads are different and here, contact patch is not that important, instead sipes and tread structure (of the tire) is considered.
And here both tires are equally capable. That’s because Wrangler Duratrac provides better than your expectations, and Grabber A/TX does the opposite, so as a result, you can’t really put one tire over the other.
The Goodyear Duratrac actually offers interlocking sipes throughout, which are very effective, as they stay elastic, and soaking in all conditions.
The General Grabber ATX on the other side, although offers ample siping too, it’s stiffer composition don’t allow them to be as flexible, so less water is wiped off.
And this especially goes for its shoulder lugs, where the rectilinear sipes get further stiffen up on sharp turns.
Dry Performance
Dry traction is very dependent on the rubber to road contact. The more the contact, the more the grip.
But as grip is divided in to two areas, directional and lateral, I’m going to talk about both one by one.
The directional grip which is calculated with braking distances, is measured with how much rubber meet up is there form the middle part of the tread.
So here although with rounded contact patch, and closed up lugs, the Goodyear Duratrac shows very on-road oriented results, the tread voids are still pretty big comparatively.
The General Grabber A/TX in comparison with it’s uniform central section, forms less spacing between the lugs and so it’s able to produce shorter stopping distances, when fully braked.
Similarly it’s packed up from the shoulder lugs as well, and makes greater connection with the road, and as this determines the lateral traction, it’s shows up with greater G forces and therefore shorter handling times.
Goodyear Duratrac with it’s wild tread voids there, does not make as consistent of the contact, and therefore it not only lacks in handling but also has slower steering responsiveness.
Ride Comfort
In overall ride quality, besides tire’s ability to soak up the bumps, on-road noise is also a key component.
And although both tires provide a good efficiency in consuming the imperfections of the road (as both provide a spongy rubber composition), the General Grabber A/TX is still superior as it offers a dedicated layer underneath it’s tread, which is only made to absorb the bumps of the road.
The tire also features very silencing grooves where it’s “narrower” shoulder gaps (with ridges in between), don’t allow the sound (air) to come in and hit the tread walls.
The Wrangler Duratrac on the other hand, is very loud and besides providing pitch sequencing, it still generates a lot of groove resonance.
For Your Info: With pitch sequencing, the tread blocks differ from each other in terms of geometry and when air hits them, they generate different tones (and waves cancel out each other).
Winter Traction
On snow, there are a lot of variations, which include performance factors and terrain types.
And so you can’t put one tire over the other, though still for deeper terrains, the Goodyear Duratrac shows up with better results, as it’s balder design combined with tractive grooves (secondary biters in tread voids), provide great snow grabbing abilities (to make snow to snow contact, which is what you want here).
The General Grabber A/TX is better on lighter terrains, though both of them branded with 3 peak mountain snowflake ratings.
It also offers stud-able lugs just like the Duratrac, so both are very capable for ice traction as well.
Tread Life
Out of all the tires I reviewed, the General Grabber A/TX comes out on top when it comes to tread wear, where on average it lasts 60k miles.
(That’s why I ranked it for that in my list of top tier performers).
Both tires although feature a chip/cut resistant rubber, the Goodyear Duratrac since it has a softer rubber composition, burns off faster comparatively, despite having deeper tread voids going up to 18/32″.
The General Grabber A/TX is not only stiffer, it’s less biting and a uniform lugs arrangement puts less pressure on it’s lugs, so they don’t rub off with greater force, meeting the surface. That’s why out of the two, its more fuel efficient and offers greater longevity.
(By the way I am not mentioning any warranties that come with these tires, as they don’t prove anything, though you can check them out in the sizes info above).
Off-Road Capability
Things change drastically off-road, and so only way to explain how these puppies performed is by considering all of the famous terrains that off-road tires face.
On Sand
Goodyear Duratrac is a better pick for sandy terrains too, as the tire is very light in weight. In fact its the lightest in the rugged terrain category, and although that’s pretty scary for rocks. On sand, it excels like a pro.
The General Grabber A/TX on the other side, has stiffer sides, and with sharper staggered shoulder lugs there, its more prone to dig in.
So it’s very difficult to keep going forward with this tire especially on slopes, where it really demands that you keep your foot on the pedal, at all times.
On Mud
Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac is so good at mud evacuation that some folks even consider it mud-terrain tire.
The tire basically does two main things, breaking down the mud, and faster removal.
It’s closed up central lugs with sharp biters digest the mud down, and the in-groove biters make sure they don’t stick in the tread voids, meanwhile it’s wider circumferential groove rings throw the mud out of the tire efficiently.
Grabber A/TX on the other side, features interlocked ribs which actually do the opposite, as they are very mud-inviting, in comparison.
On Rocks
On rocks you need biters combined with durability, and although both tires are equally tough, the Goodyear Duratrac still features better gripping abilities with it’s bigger groove mouth.
With wider gaps between the grooves, the lugs basically have more capability to chew.
The General Grabber A/TX in comparison, although features ample directional grip, from it’s interlocking design in the middle, it’s lateral traction component is much weaker, even with its thicker sidewalls.
Conclusion
Both tires are very different. We have a more aggressive tire at one hand, the Wrangler Duratrac, which is more capable of doing off-road crawling with it’s thicker shoulders and prominent tread voids which chew on all kinds of surfaces.
And on the other corner, we have General Grabber A/TX which basically provides better traction on smooth surfaces, though it’s highlighting feature includes effective resistance to tread wear and snow performance.
Good write up! I’ve personally never used the Duratracs, but have the General A/TX and X3. Absolutely love them both. The ATX’s are on my daily and are about to hit 100k miles!
X3’s are on my adventure truck, used both on tough rocky and muddy trails as well as highway. Currently 27k miles on them with around 50-60% tread left.
In my opinion both are exceptional on road noise, tread life and general performance.
The bang for your buck is hard to beat. Just put a brand new set of the RT45’s on the wife’s car, so we’ll see how those do. $140 / tire isn’t bad.