NITTO RIDGE GRAPPLER are they noisy?

will get noiser at they wear down

 

On my second set. It was like I went deaf when I put the new set on. They definitely get louder over time, but it's gradual.

 

I had a very good experience with them in the rain and I live in rainy western wa. I was running 285s c range though so maybe the width helped evacuate more water. I would have bought them again if they weren’t so heavy for 35s.

 

Opposite for me, noisy and horrible in the rain, also in the Seattle area!! On a third set of Wildpeaks, awesome tire!!!!

 

On 285 C's as well and will never run these again. They barely grip on the road and are pretty useless on hard pack and extremely useless in the snow. I really don't know where all the raving reviews of these tires came from.

 

Had them on my Tundra. Live in Montana and these tires had seen it all. They are a great tire, one of the best all around tires? Performed fine in the rain and resisted hydroplaning very well. However they are poor on icy roads and most importantly they will get noisy if you don’t rotate them every 2500-3k miles similarly to many M/T tires.

 

It’s interesting to see a thread pop up with a lot of debate over the wet weather preformance. I’ve always wanted to get the Ridge Grapplers but stayed away because of the negative wet weather reviews. I’ve never seen a tire with so many reviews that are such polar opposites.

 

When I first bought my truck used it came with the Nitto ridge grapplers. I think they had maybe 5000 miles on them. To me they were quite loud and yes they SUCKED in the rain! Lost count of how many times I’d lose the rear end even with a bit of throttle taking off in First. I finally switched to Goodyear Wrangler Adventures and not only are they smoother and quieter, I even gained an extra 1 MPG with the lighter tires.

However… the Nittos did look awesome !

 

265/75/16's with ~40k on them, I am pretty good at rotating every 5-7k

- Vibration; From the start they have terrible balance. I've spent several hundred $ over the past 4 years rebalancing, road-force balancing etc. The RFB helped but still not good... barely tolerable.

- Much louder with 40k on them now. I guess I can get another 10-20k out of them... I'm kinda stuck; don't have the coin for new tires now and need to get my moneys worth for the $1.k I dropped on these

- Wet is just ok, worse when cold. Not terrible, just more like average tires were 25-30 years ago. (Modern top shelf passenger tires are infinitely better than we had >20 years ago, that combines with modern car nannies we get an perverse view of what "Bad" wet weather performance for truck tires is or should be.)

 

I’ve noticed that as well? I think it probably has a little bit to do with southern states when it’s hot some of the oils in the asphalt surface then add water and it can get pretty slick? It possible or likely RG’s under perform in these conditions?

 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Those variables and also I was thinking it could be differences in opinions from people who drive with loaded beds vs. unloaded beds. I run mud tires and I don’t have any issues on wet pavement, likely because I have the ARE cap and some other gear that always keeps the rear of the truck weighted down. I would assume if you have an unloaded bed you would be more likely to spin tires or lose traction on wet pavement.

 

This was about my exact experience as well. Same size in SL. Never balanced great, do get louder after 10K miles, pretty bad in the snow.
They were really good off-road though, and really durable.

 

I dunno, maybe people who had a great experience with them?

They were great in all different types of terrain that I’ve taken them in except for mud. I’ve taken them in the rocks, sugary sand, compact sand, deep powder, compacted snow and mud. They’re more of a AT than anything else. I also only put about 25k on them before I switched to Goodyear MTRs in 35x12.5x17s. When they were new they were just as quiet as stock, but did get louder after 10k or so; nowhere near my MTRs, which are supposed to be one of the quietest MT tires though.

 

K... I've been a lot of places with mine too, but doesn't mean I thought they did a good job.

 

lol

 

Well, that’s unfortunate for you. Hope you have better luck with your new tires.

 

Do you still run Ridge Grapplers? I haven’t ruled them out yet for my next set and I’m always curious to hear what people think about them. I read through the entire megathread but that seemed to die off a while ago.

 

Wouldn’t surprise me. There’s the same debate about KO2s as well. Most people I talk to in WA say they suck in the rain, while others in different parts of the country say they do very well.

 

I would have bought them again in 35s but I wanted a more aggressive tire since my truck isn’t my daily driver and I can tolerate a louder, shorter lived MT since they will probably dry rot before they wear out (less than 50k on my truck).

 

Another Ridge Grappler opinion from the wet PNW. 285/70/17s on a GMT400. After approximately 10k miles on them I have to use 4wd to get anywhere in the rain. The Nitto's aren't noisy IMO and look great but rain or snow suck.