Hankook Dynapro ATM vs General Grabber ATX

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Both the Hankook Dynapro ATM and the General Grabber ATX are although from the same all-terrain tires category, they are very different. That’s why both tires have their good, bad and ugly sides. Let me discuss those for you.

General Grabber ATX
General Grabber ATX

As an experienced tire engineer, I can attest to the fact that Hankook ATM offers better dry performance, fuel economy, and highway comfort (as it not louder on highways). Whereas the General Grabber ATX comes with superb tread life, and winter performance, and in comparison, it offers superior off-road grip, and wet traction as well.

Tread Design

Let’s start things with a more aggressive tire here, the General Grabber A/TX, with it’s symmetric tread design.

General Grabber ATX
General Grabber ATX

Starting form the middle, this tire gets to have 3 ribs here, creating 4 longitudinal channels, (see if you can picture them).

With the longitudinal orientation of these lugs, the tire makes a stable on-road grip on pavements and highways, whereas the interlocking design of these lugs (as the central lugs get wrapped with surrounding ones), provide gripping abilities off road.

And helping to that (off-road bite), are the tire’s full depth sipes, which split open the lugs, flexing, where needed.

Moreover, these lugs also create a web of grooves which promote self cleaning of the tread on dirt and mud filled tracks, as they connect with the outer wider circumferential channels and shoulder’s lateral grooves.

Speaking of which, the shoulder lugs are slightly thicker/bigger in comparison, they carry similar notches like the central lugs, and they are also stud-able (like the lugs on the outer ribs in the middle).

And towards outer margins, they are staggered, extend to sidewall lugs, and provide you with heat diffusers, I’ll explain what all these features do in the upcoming topics.

On the other side, the Hankook Dynapro ATM gives you a less aggressive structure.

Hankook Dynapro ATM
Hankook Dynapro ATM

The tire basically gives you a 5 rib design with the middle most being the widest.

With this widest rib containing Z shaped lugs, the tire offers most of its grip and stability on smooth pavements (as these lugs get to make a consistent contact with the surface, as the tire rolls).

The surrounding ribs with smaller blocks and a lot more notches, though get to provide the necessary off-road traction.

The less aggressive shoulder lugs again come in the way.

These lugs are not serrated, and they are joined up together forming a very compact design, hindering the mud/dirt evacuation sideways.

Tire Sizes

The Hankook Dynapro ATM offers you with 15 to 20 inches rim diameters with following specs:

  • Speed ratings: R, S and T
  • Load ratings: SL, XL, C, D, and E
  • Weight range: 32 to 78 lbs
  • Tread depth: 12.5 to 16.5/32″
  • Ratings: 3PMSF and M+S rated
  • Warranty: 50K miles (for non LT sizes)
  • Internal Built: 2 high-strength steel belts reinforced with a spirally wrapped nylon cap ply, and all sitting on 2 ply polyester casing.

On the other hand, the General Grabber ATX comes in 60 total sizes with 14 to 20 inches.

  • They have available speed ratings in Q, R, S and T
  • Load rating: SL, XL, C, D and E
  • Tread depth range: 14 to 16/32″
  • Weight range: 28 lbs to 75 lbs
  • All all sizes have 60k miles warranty
  • Internal Construction: 2 ply polyester + 2 belts + 2 nylon cap plies (better durability overall)

Side Note: Some folks were confused between load range and ratings, I explained them here.

Pavement Performance

Overall the dry performance is seen to be much better on Hankook Dynapro ATM, and it makes sense. It has a stiffer tread composition in comparison, and it’s lugs are more crowded up together.

With packed up blocks, it offers superior grip, where the longitudinal arrangement of the lugs yield most of the highway traction (resulting in shorter braking distances).

And with rigid rubber compound, its lugs don’t get to flex that much, during sharp turns (for example), and the tire generates faster steering response.

The General Grabber ATX on the other side, features wider tread voids, which break up the rubber to road connection more often. So it lacks here overall.

Moreover, its malleable tread, enforces its lugs a lot more to bend, upon heavy braking and cornering, and this causes the tire to over and under steer, reducing it’s handling abilities, and rendering slower steering feedback.

In other words, it slows you down, relatively speaking.

Wet Traction

Wet grip has to do with clearing of water from the tread, and here since sipes and grooves come alive, it makes sense why overall traction values are seen better on Grabber ATX.

This tire basically comes with a better interconnected tread voids, which let the water out from multiple pathways. Whereas the remaining (left-over) water gets wiped out with the help of sipes.

The Hankook ATM on the other side, comes with stiffer siping, which can’t flex enough to grab the watery surface, so it lacks in providing as much wet grip as its counterpart.

Moreover, the tire also shortfalls in curved aqua tests, which tells us that it’s not good enough at evacuating water out (through grooves) from sides. And considering it’s tread design, with longitudinally arranged lugs, it’s understandable.

Less water leaving out, means more left behind for the sipes to deal with, and this further demotes overall wet traction on Dynapro ATM.

Tread Life

Tread life is a result of various factors, including rolling resistance, and tread depth. Though the most important factor is still the tire’s overall rubber composition.

That’s why Hankook ATM even with smaller rolling friction, and deeper tread voids, still gets to burn down to 2/32″ of legal limit, faster.

On the other side, the General Grabber ATX comes with greater elasticity in it’s rubber, containing aramid nanofiber reinforced polymers, as well as Kevlar.

Both of these account for not only superior tread mileage, but also amazing cut resistance durability on rugged terrains.

Moreover, as mentioned in its design section, it comes with heat diffusers on sidewalls, so off-road damage from lowered air pressure is minimized as well, and this further enhances its overall tread longevity.

Ride Quality

The overall quality of ride depends on two main things.

The first has to do with noise, and here Dynapro ATM shows more desirable results.

As tread noise gets generated by air, and as most of it comes in through the shoulder voids, the Hankook ATM with closed up outer lugs restrict that air flow, and kills the noise at the source.

Moreover, with harder compound, its also less susceptible to in-groove resonance, (which in layman’s term, can be explained as the echoing of the sound waves within grooves).

The Grabber ATX on the other side, with a balder structure, isn’t able to offer as quieter of a ride in comparison. Though its still good enough in the other half of the overall ride quality, and that’s how well a tire absorbs the bumps.

This tire with its softer tread, cushions the shocks much more nicely. Furthermore, it also has a dedicated layer of a polymer (coming just underneath the rubber), which further aids the settling down of the vibrations on both off-road and smooth pavements.

Winter Traction

For snow performance although both tires are pretty suitable, and have sever winter ratings, of 3 peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) and M+S, I am still going to go with Grabber ATX here.

This is because the tire for one, has compound that features greater resistance to getting stiffer with freezing temperatures (this keeps the notches flexible, so they can still bite in to the snow effectively).

And its full depth siping, split open the blocks all they way, and they offer additional biting (at a micro level).

And although both tires lack a lot on ice. At-least the Grabber ATX has stud holes for those seeking extra grip on this terrain.

The Hankook Dynapro ATM on the other side, is missing with these features, so its not able to outperform its competitor.

Off Road Traction

To handle rugged paths efficiently, tires must have varying skills for each terrain type. That’s why I evaluated both of these boys in all of these following challenging conditions.

On Mud

Mud is all-terrain tires biggest enemy, that’s because these tires can handle pretty much all types of rugged terrains except for mud, as it requires elongated lugs, surrounded by huge tread voids (which are mostly seen on more aggressive mud-terrain tires).

Though still out of both, the General Grabber ATX gives you a better traction values. And this is because of two things.

One, it comes with sidewall lugs and staggered shoulders which help the tire in to digging/scooping the mud backwards, and generated forward moving inertia.

And two, it has a balder structure comparatively, so mud passes through more easily.

The Hankook ATM in comparison, comes with a more crowded lugs arrangement, which get packed up quicker, and it’s missing sidewall lugs aren’t helping this either.

On Rocks

A tire that is ideal for rocky ground should have a flexible, soft tread with lugs that are designed to bend, combined with durability.

And since all these features are better available on Grabber ATX, it’s not a surprise why this tire gives in a very desirable performance here overall.

It’s interlocking hook shaped design in the middle grab on to the surface from multiple angles, and with sidewall lugs, it not only provides additional traction (by lowering air pressure), but you also get decent protection on the sidewalls as well.

The Dynapro ATM on the other hand, lacks in both durability and sidewalls, and so although its capable of providing ample directional (climbing grip), it really sets back when it comes to lateral traction.

On Sand

The air pressure, weight, and tread composition of the tire all have an impact on sand performance. This is because all these factors decide how well a tire can stay afloat.

And with thick sidewall lugs and bigger shoulders (having traction scoops), the General Grabber ATX yields better efficacy.

The Hankook ATM on the other hand, has a heavier structure, and a harder compound, combined with sharper edges. Al these features negatively effect sand traction, as the tire tends to sink. And there aren’t any sidewall lugs, which can enhance the tire’s contact patch (with lowered air pressure).

Take Home Points

So it all comes down to this.

You may want to get Hankook Dynapro ATM, if you want a better on-road tire in terms of grip, fuel usage, and comfort (quieter ride).

Otherwise go with General Grabber ATX. This tire comes with superior wet grip, tread wear, and off-road traction.

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