Both the Kumho Crugen HT51 and the General Grabber HTS60 come in aggressive highway terrain all season category, where they offer distinct strengths and weaknesses. Let’s find them all.
Being a tire engineer, my experience with these tire tell that the General Grabber HTS60 excels in snow, dry conditions, and provides longer tread life, while providing a quieter ride. In contrast, the Kumho Crugen HT51 offers superior wet handling and comparable ride comfort, but slightly lags in tread longevity.
Table of Contents
Specification and Size Variants
The General Grabber HTS60 comes in 15 to 22 inches rims, and they have the following specs.
- Speed ratings: S, T and H.
- Load ratings: SL, XL and E only.
- Tread depth: 10 to 14/32″.
- Weight range: 28 to 55 lbs.
- Treadwear warranty: 65k for S and T rated, while 50k for H (speed) rated sizes.
- UTQG rating: 680 A B.
Review this tire in greater details: https://tiredriver.com/general-grabber-hts60-review/
On the other side, the Kumho Crugen HT51 comes in 15 to 20 inches wheels with following specifications.
- Speed ratings: T only.
- Load ratings: SL, XL, C, D and E.
- Tread depth: 12.5 to 14.5/32″
- Weight range: 24 to 56 lbs.
- Treadwear warranty: 70k for P metric and 45k for LT sizes.
- UTQG rating: 720 A A.
Review this tire in greater details: https://tiredriver.com/kumho-crugen-ht51-review/
Construction of both Tires
Let’s start with the Grabber HTS60.
So this tire comes with a symmetric tread pattern with 5 total ribs.
The 2 outer shoulder ribs are pretty packed up, where they come with additional ribs connecting all blocks.
These adjacent ribs, have notches and lateral linear siping, while shoulder blocks are characterized by interlocking siping and grooves.
The central most rib also features similar wave-like siping. Though it very middle area has a longitudinal slit connecting them all, adding to overall tire’s wet grip.
Moreover, the off-set edges of this ribs is also pretty biting on not just wet, but also on dry and snow.
And same goes for its other 2 ribs on sides, featuring interconnected slits, and chamfered edges.
Internally, the tire comes with a 2 ply polyester casing, with 2 steel belts, and 2 nylon caps (spirally wound). Moreover, there’s one extra layer right underneath the rubber, dedicated to bumps absorption.
On the other side, the Kumho Crugen HT51 features an asymmetric tread design unlike the Grabber. Though it also has 5 ribs.
Let’s start form its shoulders too.
These lugs are different on both sides, where although they both have similar siping, one side has lugs more packed up relatively, as one can see in the image.
The 3 central ribs features a very open design in comparison.
Here they join up with rest of the grooves seamlessly.
The central most rib has lugs with linear siping on them.
While the adjacent ribs have interlocking ones.
Internally, the tire comes with 2 ply polyester casing with 2 steel belts and 2 ply nylon cap plies on top.
Winter Performance
If you’re in the market for an all-season tire that excels in snow conditions, the General Grabber HTS60 is undoubtedly worth considering.
Thanks to its central rib with offset edges and adjacent ribs equipped with multi-directional biters, the tire showcases impressive snow braking and handling traction.
These design features facilitate effective snow-to-snow contact, resulting in improved steering response and consistent lap performance, traits that many of its competitors lack.
Though that doesn’t include Kumho Crugen HT51, especially those released after April 2017, as those have the updated rubber with thermally adapted polymers, which basically keep its biters pliant even in extreme freezing temperatures.
With a generous number of biters and interlocking sipes, they effectively trap snow particles, enhancing the snow-to-snow connection and maximizing performance on snowy terrains.
This snow-to-snow contact is crucial for winter traction as snowflakes possess unique interlocking arms, allowing them to mesh easily with each other and create increased friction, essential for optimal winter performance.
Moreover, Kumho also offers superior ice traction, and comes with 3-peak mountain snowflake rating, allowing it to be 10% better in acceleration, unlike the Grabber HTS60.
Tread Life
Tread life is a function of the equilibrium achieved between rolling resistance, tread depth, and the tire’s composition.
Why does this matter?
Well, a tire crafted from harder rubber inherently resists wear. And the tread depth then provides an indication of the duration before the rubber burns down to replacement level.
That’s why here the General HTS60 coming in with more durable Kevlar compounds in its composition has the upper hand, where its tread depth is although shallower, its not by a lot.
Moreover, it offers a more composed tread pattern with a DuraGen Technology, which basically give it the cut-resistant properties.
Consequently, not only does the Grabber HTS60 showcase a 25% increase in tread life compared to its predecessor, the Grabber HTS, but it also takes the lead compared to Kumho HT51.
That’s why in terms of treadwear warranties there isn’t much of a difference between the 2 (just 5k miles).
Highway Performance
Dry performance hinges on two main factors: grip and steering response. And here grip can be further dissected into directional and lateral traction. Let’s check them all out.
Directional Traction
Directional grip pertains to a tire’s capacity to maintain traction while moving straight ahead. And here the tire’s central rib and its surrounding area play pivotal roles.
And since this grip has a directional nature, it gets measured with the tire’s acceleration and braking efficacy.
But why the middle? Well, the answer lies in the fact that, this section bears the most concentrated weight, ensuring maximum contact with the road (when the tire rolls straight, that is).
In this regard, the Kumho Crugen HT51 falls short, where its more voided up central ribs, sacrifice potential rubber-road contact, which could have elevated the grip.
On the other hand, the General Grabber HTS60 excels due to its wide and unbroken central most rib, where its adjacent ribs with multi-directional biters also add to that.
Moreover, the tire with its lighter structure creates less momentum inertia, which is easier to stop, enhancing its braking efficacy. Though this goes especially for LT sizes (where weight difference become more significant).
Overall Cornering
The tire’s shoulder region primarily dictates cornering grip. I mean as the tire turns, the shoulders get the most weight (shifted) on them, so they make the most contact with the ground, defining lateral grip and steering response.
Understanding this, it’s evident why both tires exhibit similar cornering capabilities. However, the General Grabber HTS60 still takes the lead.
The tire comes with more compacted shoulders. I mean even though both tires display notable lateral voids, the Grabber has its shoulders connected to each other via a “continuous running” rib, forming a unified structure.
So it offers greater rubber to road contact, resulting in slightly superior grip.
On the other hand, the Kumho HT51 although offers comparable grip (which isn’t lacking too far behind), it still shows off 1.5 seconds slower handling times (as seen on test laps).
And that’s because of its sluggish steering response.
Basically the tire’s bulkier design and softer tread compound introduce added inertia during cornering, and that leads to more “flexing” of its lugs.
This flexion then creates a lag between steering input and the tire’s actual response.
Fuel Economy
Neither tire stands out as a top performer when evaluating fuel efficiency, primarily due to factors like substantial weight from their robust internal designs and significant tread depth.
However, when choosing between the two, the General Grabber HTS60 still emerges as the preferable choice, showing off lower rolling resistance (averaged) value.
This is because its lighter and comes with shallower tread depth, combined with a firmer compound. The decreased weight reduces the strain on the lugs during rotation, while a more modest tread depth ensures increased tread stability, minimizing lug bending.
In essence, with reduced lug flexing, the tire uses energy more efficiently.
Though it’s crucial to mention that the fuel consumption of both tires can vary significantly depending on their sizes. Specifically, the SL (Standard Load) and some XL (Extra Load) sizes, known for their reduced weight and tread depth, generally offer superior fuel efficiency compared to the LT (Light Truck) sizes.
Overall Ride Comfort
The comfort level experienced during a ride, is inherently linked to tire’s ability to dampen road noise and bumps.
Let’s check out both of these factors, one by one.
On-Road Noise Generation
Tire noise predominantly arises from the interaction with air.
Air particles infiltrate through shoulder gaps (for the most part), impacting the tread walls, leading to pattern noise and tread vibration.
Now, analyzing the tread design of the Grabber HTS60, it’s evident that General places significant emphasis on enhancing ride comfort.
It’s densely packed shoulders restricts the influx of air, thereby mitigating noise generation at the source, resulting in a quieter ride comparatively.
In contrast, the Kumho Crugen HT51, with its more open central tread, produces slightly more ambient noise, though its still within a reasonable range.
I mean, its noise could have been much louder if not for its innovative pitch sequencing technology.
Impact Comfort
Impact comfort evaluates a tire’s capacity to absorb road shocks.
And here both tires are pretty great.
The HTS60 integrates a specialized layer within its construction, designed to neutralize road disturbances, promoting a smoother ride.
Whereas the Kumho Crugen HT51, with its softer composition and greater tread depth (on average), provides just as great bump absorption efficacy.
So both tires end up getting equal subjective scores, when it comes to impact comfort.
Wet Traction
When evaluating wet traction, both tires present unique strengths.
While the Grabber HTS60 showcase superior directional traction, signifying a quicker braking ability, the Kumho still takes the lead in overall wet performance, showing better handling and steering.
Basically the design of the Kumho HT51 is very geared towards wet conditions.
I mean its asymmetrical tread offers a design that emphasizes interconnected circumferential channels. And that combined with its notable tread depth, you get a more effective water evacuation, (through the tire’s grooves).
And more water going out, means less burden is left behind on sipes (which basically soak up the water particles in their slits).
Speaking of which, the tire also offers better siping structure on its shoulder, enhancing lateral grip.
To Conclude
So overall it all comes down to this.
The General Grabber HTS60 stands out in snowy terrains and dry conditions, offering enhanced traction, directional grip, and marginally better fuel efficiency.
Furthermore, it provides a quieter on-road experience and boasts superior tread longevity, due to its advanced compounds.
On the flip side, the Kumho Crugen HT51 slightly outperforms in wet conditions with better overall handling.
And yes, the tire competes closely in ride comfort, effectively absorbing road shocks, but its tread life slightly trails that of the HTS60.
