Both the Kanati Trail Hog and the Nitto Ridge Grappler are two hybrid tires, which bring a lot to the table. They both offer amazing off-road commute while keeping decent manners on highways. Though which of these big players gets the upper hand can get tricky. But let me make things easier for you.
Being a tire engineer, from my perspective, Kanati Trail Hog A/T is although lacking on roads, it’s a great tire to have on snow, sand where on highways, you won’t have a complian with its capability to absorb the bumps, though its very loud. In comparison, Nitto Ridge Grappler does better on highways, and offers better fuel and tread economy. Moreover, off-road, it still remains unbeatable on rocky terrains.
Review Nitto Ridge Grappler: https://tiredriver.com/nitto-ridge-grappler-review/
Table of Contents
Tread Wear
The tire’s tread wear is influenced by various factors, including rolling resistance, tire composition, and tread depth. That’s why soft tires will have a shorter lifespan, and shallow tread can lead to rapid burn-off of the rubber down to 2/32″.
Kanati Trail Hog A/T, on the other hand, although has a lighter weight in comparison, it’s wider tread voids, still puts its lugs under high pressure. As the whole weight gets divided on smaller number of lugs, and they rub of the surface (they’re on) with greater force, reducing tread life.
Nitto Ridge Grappler on the other hand, with harder compound (though similar tread depth), wear much slower.
But you also don’t get any miles warranty on this tire either.
Fuel Usage
Kanati Trail Hog A/T is although a lighter tire, with wider tread voids, its lugs still carry more pressure on them, which leads to higher rolling resistance values.
Moreover, the tire’s softer composition, and average tread depth of 18/32″ increases the deformation of the tread, leading to wastage of energy (in to bending of the lugs).
Both of these factors make this tire less fuel efficient in comparison.
Nitto Ridge Grappler on the other side, makes a firmer connection with the road, where its lugs aren’t that susceptible to bending that much. In other words, it would not waste it’s energy more in to deforming its tread, and would rather focus diverting that energy in to the rolling of the tire.
Mud Traction
On mud, you need two things, scooping lugs, and self cleaning tread, and Kanati Trail Hog A/T is a perfect fit, considering them.
Needless to say the tire features wider longitudinal groove rings, surrounding those bulky shoulder lugs. These grant faster evacuation of the thick clay, whereas the biters in the middle cut through.
Nitto Ridge Grappler on the other hand, although also features pretty decent interconnected tread voids, they are not as wide/effective to channel mud out as fast as the Kanati.
Though its sidewall lugs are very effective in shoveling the tire’s way out, even when its aired down deep in mud.
For Your Info: Since Trail Hog is very much alike Goodyear Duratrac, it provides very similar mud performance to that. Yet out of both tire, only Duratrac made the list of best A/T tires.
Rocky Traction
Traversing rocky terrain demands treads with edges that grip in both horizontal and vertical directions, as well as robust sidewalls from within and without.
And considering this, it makes sense why you get such an amazing traction on Nitto Ridge Grappler. It’s triangular lugs with Z shaped grooves supply grip at multiple angles, and it’s lugs on the sidewalls bend and flex under decreased air pressure, yielding extra footprint, and lateral traction, (which is a key performance component on rocks).
Kanati Trail Hog A/T on the other side is although also very great with it’s bigger groove mouth, and good enough sidewall biters, they aren’t still enough to outperform Nitto Ridge.
Are A/T tires good for rocks? : https://tiredriver.com/are-all-terrain-tires-good-for-rocky-terrains/
Sand Performance
When driving on sand, lowering the tire’s air pressure is a crucial step, it helps the tire “float” and provides better traction on the soft surface. But since there are some tread features that further helps maintain that floating, it make sense why Kanati Trail Hog A/T excelling in them provides better sand performance.
Besides having a softer tread which mold better upon contact with sand, with lowering air pressure, the tire’s lighter construction provides most of the traction here.
Nitto Ridge Grappler on the other side, although has the advantage of thicker sidewall lugs (which spread out with lowered air PSI, generating great floating abilities), it’s sharper edges, and a harder compound is still more prone to sink in to the soft sand, comparatively.
Dry Performance
The dry performance of these tires can be evaluated by looking at their lateral and directional traction capabilities. Let me explain both of them one by one.
Directional Grip
The traction of a tire on a straight path is referred to as directional grip, and while rolling straight, as the central area of the tread has the most solid connection with the pavement, it makes sense why the Kanati Trail Hog with such wide circumferential rings, still provide shorter braking distances in comparison.
It’s middle worm like blocks are more closed up, and together, they form ample rubber to road meet up (when moving in a straight line).
The Nitto on the other side, although is also pretty compact form the middle, it’s Z shaped grooves come in the way of proper rubber to road contact, literally.
Dry Handling
The handling of a tire depends on the shoulder lugs, and Kanati Trail Hog, lacks severely here, but you saw this coming, didn’t you?
The Nitto Ridge on the other hand, accommodates a much better connection with the road, with it’s crowded up lugs, providing minimal features.
Meaning, its shoulders don’t have any notches on them, and offer smooth contact with the ground).
Moreover, the tire also provides better steering response, thanks to it’s reinforced foundations underneath the lugs, keeping them stable on the road.
With cornering, they don’t exhibit bending, and create a better under and over-steering balance in comparison.
Ride Comfort
As the tire gets more voided, it gets noisier, that’s almost a rule. That’s why comparing both tires, it can be explained with Nitto Ridge Grappler is a quieter tire out of the two, (though compared to average A/T tires, it would still be louder).
The Kanati Trail Hog, on the other hand, is one of the loudest R/T you can have. This has to do with air. Let me explain.
As the tire rolls, air gets compressed in and out of the tread, mostly through the shoulder voids and Kanati with such wider circumferential groove rings, allow for air particles to easily come in and hit around the walls of the tread with full force, creating tread noise.
Though in the tire’s defense, it’s softer compound is better at absorbing the shocks of the road.
The Nitto Ridge Grappler on the other hand, deals with noise in a better way, its closed up lugs don’t allow too much air to get in, and little that does, gets settled down with the help of “variable pitch technology”.
For Your Info: If comfort is the priority, go with D rated sizes, instead of E or F.
Winter Traction
Winter performance includes a lot of variables including different terrains such as ice, deep snow and on-road snow. And considering all the Kanati Trail Hog shows better capabilities. That’s why the tire is tagged with 3 peak mountain snowflake rating.
It features superior snow grabbing abilities, which provides better friction on the surface with snow to snow contact.
Moreover, the tire also features stud-able lugs, which allow for superior traction capabilities on packed up snow.
The Nitto Ridge Grappler on the other side, although is pretty decent on deeper snowy terrains, it’s still lacking overall, in comparison.
Wet Performance
For optimal wet traction, you need to consider both wet grip and hydroplaning resistance. Let me discuss them both.
Hydroplaning
Aquaplaning (another term) occurs when a water layer comes between the tread and the road, causing tire to float.
But with such aggressive tread voids, seen on both tires, that won’t be an issue, as water would simply leave out in time. That’s why off-road tires are better at providing ample hydroplaning resistance. Though same can’t be said about the wet grip.
Wet Grip
The gripping of a tire on watery roads comes down to sipes. And with dual siping design, the Kanati Trail Hog gets to have a superior traction.
The Nitto Ridge Grappler only has rectilinear siping structure, and these slits aren’t as flexible to create suction for the water particles coming underneath the lugs (that’s how water gets wiped away).
Summary
Comparing both tires, you’d see that the Kanati Trail Hog A/T has better performance when it comes snow traction, and on road comfortability (though don’t get me wrong, by comfort, I only mean it offers better cushioning of the bumps, and the tire is pretty loud).
On the other side, the Nitto Ridge Grappler does better on roads, but that only goes for dry environments (Trail Hog is better on wet pavements).
Other than this, the tire stays unbeatable when it comes to climbing on rocks.
