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General Grabber AT2's

Tommo&Claire

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Mar 4, 2010
Messages
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Just out of interest, having my second set of Grabber's fitted tomorrow, just thought i'd share my thoughts if anyone is interested ;) .

Figures - I have covered 43,000 miles in around 18 months on mine and i have approximately 7-8mm of tread left. A brand new set are going on to my vehicle because it is Morocco-bound and the current set are being transferred on to Claire's 90.

Punctures - In the time they've been on mine i have had two punctures, both on salisbury plain, one because i was stupidly running at about 40 something PSI and the other was a piece of steel bar sticking up out of the mud i.e. the type they reinforce concrete with, which is a show stopper for pretty much any tyre! Other than that they are in remarkably good condition with no missing tread blocks, cracking or sidewall damage, you certainly wouldn't say they had done 40+ thousand miles.

Tyre rotation - one, simply fronts to back at around 20,000 miles and the spare has only been used to get me back from salisbury plain twice, other than that never touched.

Grip:

Dry Tarmac - At least as good as the Dunflops the vehicle came with only the sidewalls are stiffer which makes the tyre stand up straighter and the steering feels more direct.

Wet Tarmac - I don't drive my LC fast (ask Ecky if you want that data ;) ) but for normal driving i have never found them slipping or wanting for traction in any way on wet tarmac.

BUT

if you are travelling on a motorway and hit standing water at anything above about 50 you will know all about it. As the name suggests, they 'grab' any surface they're on and the deceleration can be quite sudden. If only one side hits the water, as is usually the case you will need to have your wits about you or else the steering wheel will be snatched from your hands!

A big drawback, no not really, just be aware and drive accordingly.

Snow - Simply put, impressive. In the deep snow we had this winter they were worth their weight in gold, i could have been driving on dry tarmac as far as the LC was concerned. i was flitting around in up to a foot of snow with absolutely no concern. i even towed a 3 tonne box van up a snow covered slope and they didn't even slip.

Mud - Now it has to be said that i do not deliberately try and get mine stuck and i'm not into driving it through mudholes if it can be helped! In mud i have never been stuck and i would say that Grabbers are probably one of the grippiest AT tyres on the market. i have never been stuck for want of traction in mud (or anything for that matter) and that includes three trip to Lincomb Farm and all that's associated with it, numerous trips to salisbury plain etc etc.....

Ice - Same as a road tyre really (or maybe any tyre) if it's slippy, they will slip.

Rocks/Gravel - Seem to do the job absolutely fine, never had a problem but i dont have a lot of experience to compare to! One thing i will say is that they love to collect small stones in the tread and hold on to them for days. Doesnt seem to do any damage but can be irritating. Only other thing to say is that i have not had any problems with rought tracks shredding my tread, all my treadblocks are still in good condition with sharp and defined edges. no visible damage to sidewalls either. Western Sahara trip will be the acid test for this however.

Sand - tested on beaches and pay and play sites, which i appreciate is not the most accurate assessment but i will report back after Sahara. Seem to be pretty good and air down well, i.e. tread is elongated but sidewalls do not bulge out too bad.

Price - in the size i run, 265/70/R16i can usually get five for less than 500quid delivered. sometimes takes some shopping around, but in any case achievable.

Disclaimer - All of this is entirely opinion of Tommo

Message Ends


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Just for balance I will point out that on a 3.6 ton vehicle on rocky tracks and gravel in Southern Africa I managed a "full" 10,000kms before a set were trashed. Also had numerous side wall punctures and one side wall failure (bulge). ;)
 
Tommo
Should point out, the vast majority of overland vehicles I have seen use BF Goodrich All Terrain, they have a triple ply side wall which is stronger. This is important as in Morocco you seem to run on soft piste needing tyres down at about 14psi and are then confronted with a boulder feel with babies head size rocks, it beats the sh*t out of your tyres
 
Tommo&Claire said:
J Western Sahara trip will be the acid test for this however.

Hello you guy's

When are you planning the Morocco and Western Sahara trip.

Graham
 
Graham said:
Tommo&Claire said:
J Western Sahara trip will be the acid test for this however.

Hello you guy's

When are you planning the Morocco and Western Sahara trip.

Graham

I'm guessing it's the trip with Barrie of Waypoint Tours?

My dad has always fitted GG AT's to his 4x4's and swears by them. He got over 100,000 miles out of his last set and he has lead feet :shock:
Personally for much off road mileage and abuse I would always go for something with a few more plies especially in the sidewalls. Since I've had Coopers I've not shredded a single tyre, and I used to do it alot in the old SJ. I upgraded from 31x10.50R15 Cooper STT's to Fedima Scirrocco (with Simex's reknowned 'Centipede' pattern) 33x12.50R15 for a very muddy event just before I sold it. You guessed it - I shredded one of them :roll: and finished the day back on the Coopers.

Coopers would always be my choice but that's just me, there are many other opinions out there and people usually pick what suits them best
 
Jimbo4x4 said:
Graham said:
Tommo&Claire said:
J Western Sahara trip will be the acid test for this however.
Hello you guy'sWhen are you planning the Morocco and Western Sahara trip.Graham
I'm guessing it's the trip with Barrie of Waypoint Tours?Coopers would always be my choice but that's just me, there are many other opinions out there and people usually pick what suits them best
I went to the Western Sahara (a total of 5500 miles UK and back) with Barrie a year ago on Cooper STT's and a lot of the tracks we drove were ROUGH :shock: , no shredding no punctures, and I'm still on the same set after about another 6000 miles :cool: and they weren't new before I went, probably done about 5/6000 miles :D . So a total of 16/17000 miles and nowhere needing replacement yet.
Chas
 
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Julian said:
Tommo
I would recommend you think about tacking one of these
http://www.devon4x4.com/products_a/p283 ... lator.html
It lets you reduce tyre pressure in a controlled fashion, saves a lot of time looking for a suitable shaped stone to press the valve down and then rechecking pressures with your pressure gauge

I was going to get one of those, and a tyre repair kit too. The type where you can repair the tyres on the wheels (unless it's a sidewall).

I have actually emailed General Tyre and asked them why they designed the AT2 with only a 2ply sidewall??!? But then most AT type only have 2 plys.
 
Tommo, it was a surprise to me how rocky the Sahara is, you tend to get areas of beautiful sand joined together by really rocky bits. IMHO the problems arise from the fact that the terrain can be pretty varied, you have to have really low tyre pressures to get good traction on the sand, but then arrive at a rock field interspersed with more small sandy bits so you want to leave the pressures low, this however means you are really pasting the tyres on the rocky bits.
I only wanted to hi-light what I have seen, if you had a pretty new set of General Grabber's with say 10,000 miles on them I probably wouldn't have said anything as I think they would be OK. It was just that you are buying a new set. The price difference between the GG and the All Terrains is not massive and the extra sidewall ply might make the difference between ripping the tyre to shreds
 
Julian said:
Tommo
I would recommend you think about tacking one of these
http://www.devon4x4.com/products_a/p283 ... lator.html
It lets you reduce tyre pressure in a controlled fashion, saves a lot of time looking for a suitable shaped stone to press the valve down and then rechecking pressures with your pressure gauge
I bought a set of Staun deflaters, you can adjust them to your required pressure (I set mine using the spare wheel) and then screw on the to valve, all four wheels at the same time, and then take off once they stop releasing air, much quicker than one tyre at a time; :cool:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4WD-Staun-Tyre-DE ... 563daf5f20
But don't buy these, I got mine for £27.50 by trawling eBay until I found them cheaper
Chas[/quote]
 
I think that review is for the ST-C which my Aussie mate says is the ST with better sidewalls only for Oz and the States.
Dont know if that makes a difference.
I would fit ST to mine as i'm told the "air down" use is great. I just can't get them in 285's :(
 
Does that suggest that the ST needs tougher sidewalls for harder terrain?
 
Possibly. But for every good thing you hear said about a tyre, you'll find the exact counter argument within minutes.

I think that when dealing with an 80 or a 100 perhaps, the GG and the ST'sare a bit too lightweight, which is why the ST/C was bought out.

I'm hoping under my lighter weight 90 GG's should be fine. They certainly have never let me down yet.

So, using the only frame of reference i have, compared to UK greenalanes such as Strata Florida, how rough is the terrain???
 
Tommo
A couple other things I learnt either during or after my trip,
Are you planning on taking some kind of compressor, I expect so. I saw a couple of french guys who had an air duster they could fit on the compressor for cleaning out air filters and radiators.
I didn't really check my manuel about recommended oil types for running in hotter climates
Plastic boxes are great for packing, this was reinforced during the talk by Tom Sheppard at The Overland workshop I went to, after 40 years of overlanding he just uses plastic boxes and webbing straps to try them down
Pop up tents are ace, camp made in about 30 seconds of parking
 
Ahh well!

Because of the short notice of this trip, it was going to be next year but because the RN have my next year fully filled we had to bring it forward to this year. Of course this means a mad scramble to save meaning i'm not going to be able to afford to fit the VIAIR system i wanted :(

However, Barrie has a monster of an onboard air system in his trailer and has said i can use his. Bit of a PITA but needs must..

For packing i have a load of the 'really useful boxes' secured but webbing straps to the load guard.

Camping we have an OZTENT RV4 which lives on the roof rack also 30 seconds to set up.
 
I'd be interested to hear how they fare after your Morocco trip!

I'm going that way too. Running AT2's in 265/75/16 - also on a Colorado.

Although I might actually be leaving soon so will feedback how mine fare ;) Possibly leaving as soon as September.

Im going Morocco-Western Sahara-Mauri-Mali-Burkina-Niger then down south through some mud I imagine. :D


You taking 1 spare or 2?
 
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