Both the General Grabber ATX and the Pro Comp AT Sport offer amazing traction on rough terrains while keeping things comfortable on pavements. And although they both highly differ from each other still, if you know where they excel, they can be the perfect pick for you.
Drawing on my extensive expertise in the field of tires, I can tell you that comparing both, you’d find Grabber ATX coming on top in terms of wet traction, tread life, winter grip, and overall off-road efficacy. Whereas Pro Comp AT would provide superior dry grip, comfort (in terms of noise), and fuel efficiency.
Sizes Available
The General Grabber ATX provides 60 total sizes with following specs.
- Wheel Diameters: 14 to 20″
- Speed ratings in Q, R, S and T
- Load range in SL, XL, C, D and E
- Tread depth range is 14 to 16/32″
- Weight range is28 lbs to 75 lbs
- Warranty: 60k miles
- Internal Construction: 3 ply polyester, 2 steel belts, and 2 ply nylon.
Detailed review of Grabber ATX: https://tiredriver.com/general-grabber-atx-review/
On the other side, the Pro Comp AT Sport gives you 15 to 20 inches rim sizes with following specs.
- Speed ratings: Q and S
- Load ratings: XL, C, D and E
- Weight range: 40 to 80 lbs
- Tread depth: 14 to 17/32″
- Not rated with 3PMSF
- 60k miles warranty on all sizes
- Internal Construction: 3 ply polyester, 2 steel, and single cap ply of nylon (better durability)
Winter Traction
Winter traction involves multiple variables and here the Grabber ATX is leading the way. That’s why unlike Pro Comp, it gets to have severe winter rating of 3 peak mountain snowflake symbol.
For winter performance, the most important thing is to make as much snow to snow contact as possible, and Grabber ATX with its hook shaped lugs is pretty good at it.
It traps the snowflakes in its grooves with much more ease, and offers better gripping abilities.
In comparison, the Pro Comp AT Sport, although has a lot of biters, it’s not able to create the same kind of contact. Moreover, the tire’s harder compound is also not so thermal adaptive as well.
I talked about it more here –
Are A/T tires good in Snow: https://tiredriver.com/are-all-terrain-tires-good-in-snow/
Wet Traction
In order to maintain optimal performance on wet roads, a tire must have a combination of strong grip and resistance to hydroplaning.
The grip part comes form the sipes, and the hydro or aquaplaning (resistance) comes form the grooves.
As the tire meets water, most of it gets expelled out through its tread voids, and the rest of those left-over water particles are sucked by these sipes (as they create vacuum by letting air out, when they meet the ground).
And so with a softer compound, greater number of sipes, and wider grooves, the General Grabber ATX comes out better.
It’s interlocking structure (with more tread depth), clears out a larger volume of water at a given time, while its full depth sipes deal with the rest.
The Pro Comp AT on the other side, doesn’t offer effective enough sipes, and with packed up shoulder lugs, and central most rib, it does not allow water to leave out the tread (fast enough) properly, in comparison.
Directional Grip
Grip is a traction component, that gets measured through braking distance assessments. So since its the traction of a tire while rolling straight, it highly depends on its central area meeting with the ground.
And with Pro Comp AT Sport offering 3 longitudinally aligned ribs, with the central one (with Z shaped lugs), having reinforced foundations underneath, it comes up with greater, stability and overall gripping values.
The General Grabber ATX on the other side, lacks mostly because of it’s voided structure that literally breaks the connection with the road, as the tire rolls.
Moreover, there aren’t any ribs aligned longitudinally here (at least not properly), unlike it’s counterpart, nor the tire is seen with any foundational supports.
That’s why this tire can’t offer as good of a speed rating in comparison.
Lateral Grip
Lateral grip comes from sideways, or you can say shoulders.
As the tire turns, the whole weight (it carries) gets transferred to these outer edges of the tread, and how well that area contacts with the ground, defines overall lateral abilities.
Here again, Pro Comp AT Sport takes the lead, as it features more packed up lugs, and a stiffer rubber composition, combined with smaller tread depth on average.
The closed up lugs account for greater rubber to road meet up, generating larger frictional forces, and grip. And with the stiffer compound + shallower tread depth, it’s tread lugs don’t get to bend a lot and so they produce faster steering response.
The General Grabber ATX on the other side, has an interlocking pattern, with full depth sipes, and an overall softer compound composition.
So its lugs are more pliable to flex (as the tire turns), and its full depth sipes split open the lugs, further reducing the steering responsiveness.
Fuel Consumption
The efficiency of fuel consumption is determined by the rolling resistance of the tires, with the weight and tread composition of the tire playing a crucial role.
The Pro Comp AT Sport, although comes with a heavier structure, comparatively, its packed up lugs gets to distribute its weight more evenly across the tread.
So each of its lug bears less relative pressure on them, resulting in smaller rolling resistance values.
The opposite is the case with Grabber ATX, as the tire even with it’s smaller weight still gets to put more force on it’s lugs as they rub off the surface with a greater force, enhancing rolling friction, and with it, consumption of the fuel.
Side Note: Overall both tires show good enough gas mileages, I mean you could do worse, saying form experience.
Tread Life
In the above section, we saw how the Grabber ATX gets to have greater rolling resistance. And this combined with a softer compound, it would make sense if the tire had a faster wear rate, though that’s not the case.
In fact the tire ranks on top, when it comes to wear resistance, (I mentioned it for that in my list of all-time top all-terrain options).
So why is that?
Well this is because of it’s special rubber compound composed of aramid nanofiber reinforced polymers, and Kevlar, which provide superior elasticity to its tread, slowing down the burning rate.
The Pro Comp A/T on the other side may seem to have a harder compound, it still wears faster, and it’s smaller tread depth brings it down to 2/32″ (legal limit) earlier.
Must Read-
Increase tread life: https://tiredriver.com/how-to-increase-tread-life-on-tires/
Off Road Traction
Off-road terrains can pose unique challenges, that’s why I’ve decided to discuss each one of them, individually.
Muddy Terrains
Although they don’t do so well here, the ability of all-terrain tires to perform in mud is still largely determined by their grooves, as narrow tread voids can quickly get packed, which leads to complete loss of traction.
So it makes sense why you get a better performance on General Grabber ATX.
The tire comes with a better network of channels, interconnecting all parts of the tread where on the shoulder voids, you get bold stone ejectors clearing out the tread effectively.
Moreover, it also presents with thicker mud scoops on it’s staggered shoulders, and they throw back the thick clay effectively, rendering forward momentum out of it.
The Pro Comp AT, can not handle too much mud, mainly because of it’s longitudinally aligned lugs, which restrict the mud to leave out sideways.
Sandy Dunes
Lowering the air pressure of your tire is the key on this terrain, this is because with that, a tire gets to enhance it’s overall tread print.
That’s why with lower weight and smoother outer edges, the General Grabber ATX comes out superior.
The tire does not want to sink in, and it’s lighter weight, and softer compound offers much better contact patch for the sand, with lowered PSI values.
This is unlike the Pro Comp AT, where the harder compound, and saw toothed edges on shoulders gets the tire more in to digging, rather than moving forward, (relatively speaking).
Rocky Terrains
On rocks, I mean climbing rocks, you need a tire that is capable to sinking it’s biters in all directions. This is done to prevent any sort of slippage especially from sideways, which is pretty dangerous (as it can lead to overturning of your ride).
And for the sake of time, I am going to rate both these tires equal here.
I like the fact that the Grabber ATX comes with full depth sipes, which easily split open the lugs and provide additional bite over it’s interlocking pattern during climb.
But then again the ride isn’t as confidence aspiring, as seen on Pro Comp AT, where you get superior puncture resistance with its 3 ply sidewalls.
Take Home Points
The Pro Comp AT is a really nice budget pick, and in comparison here, it comes out better when it comes to dry traction, fuel efficiency and overall on-road comfort.
On the other side, the Grabber ATX features a better off-road performance (except for rocks), superior tread life, and more gripping wet traction (though its nothing to be proud off, when compared to other A/T options).
