General Grabber ATX vs. Falken Wildpeak AT3

I live in Denver. My Grabbers could not have performed better the past few mornings in the snow. Up hill, down hill, coming to a stop and starting from a stop were all perfect. I've never been more pleased with a tires performance in bad weather.

I had to take it to a lowes parking lot to get my slip and slide out of my system since I didnt get to have any fun on the drive itself.

 

Black Friday is coming up...there's sure to be some deals. I got my ATXs from Toyota last spring and it was buy 3 get the 4th for a dollar. I had to say yes to that one.

 

Be interested to know how they balance (ATX)?

I bought a set for our 4 Runner and they have been a PIA to get balanced. Three trips and a Road Force later and we still get a little shimmy from 60 to 62 mph.

 

I had the General Grabber AT2s on my last tacoma a few years ago, they were quiet, rode great and did great in the snow. Then moved into a Chevy 1500 and ran the Falkens on that truck and they also did great in the snow (lived in upstate NY for 2 years - saw a lot of snow) but got fairly loud after 10k miles. I recently just got back into a Tacoma and decided to run the General ATX on 17" SEMA wheels and couldn't be happier. They balanced super well and are very smooth at 75-80 mph with minimal noise and I also took advantage of the Toyota buy 3 get 1 free deal. Think I got them for $704 OTD plus I'm waiting on my $100 mail in rebate. Can't wait to try them out on a mountain trip once we get some snow in North Carolina.

 

Mine are smooth as silk. I've had them them on a set of 4runner pro sema wheels for about 12,000 miles with no issues. 265/70/17

 

A few weeks back, I grabbed some 265/70R17 SL Wildpeaks from Amazon for $683 installed.

 

How do you like them so far? Im installing a lift this weekend while theres still good weather in denvah, not sure how many more weekends will be like this so gotta strike while the irons hot.
I wanna get 285s in there, but wondering if I should go E or SL and save a few$$

 

I found the limits of the stock Toyos and they weren't horrible off road and aired down. So, I have no worries about the Wildpeaks in SL. I wanted the softer rubber for the rain and cold here.

So far, they have been better than expected in the wet and dry. If this continues and I get about 50k or so out of them, I will definitely get another set.

 

Damn this is hard man, I’ve been looking at the grabber atx too and they look pretty good too.

 

I’m surprised you don’t like the snow performance of the wrangler adventure tires. I’m my experience they were a big upgrade over the all-seasons I had on the 2016 SR5 (2020 trd off-road now). The SR5 was helpless in snow in 2wd even with 150 lbs in the back. The OR I have to keep in 2wd if I want to have any fun in the snow on the road. Never the less, I’m thinking of upgrading to 33’s and snow performance is important to me. It’s good to hear that I can get even better snow traction.

 

Well in the defense of the wranglers...they were indeed better than my previous AWD SUV on all seasons. I would say in snow: all seasons < wrangler adventures < wildpeaks (what I ended up getting) <obviously dedicated snow tires.

 

Hey Everyone,

I'm a new member on Tacoma World but a long time reader. I'm in the same position as the OP, looking for a solid A/T tire that I can run year-round that performs well in the winter as well as off-road. I've owned a number of Tacomas, but I only have experience with the BFG AT KOs and the GG AT2. My research brought me to a choice between the Falken Wildpeak and the GG ATX (I cut out the BFGs because of price). I ran the GG AT2 on my 2011 Taco for four years and approximately 40k miles with no issues and great tread life (still had 40% wear left when I sold it). I'm assuming the ATX will have similar performance. They were very good off road and quite decent in the winter, where here on the west coast we get heavy and wet snow that melts and freezes but is never plowed; they are quiet and smooth on the highway as well. The only thing I'd say about the GG is that they do tend to pick up rocks. I like both Falken and GG, especially since they both have full depth siping, which won't compromise wet and winter performance as the tread wears down. In the end I am partial to the GG ATX because they seem to have more siping compared to the Falken and you have the option of adding studs, although they do run a little more expensive. I also feel like the Falken tread design is more reminiscent of a mud-terrain tire and I question the wet and winter performance as the tread wears down.

 

I went with the wildpeaks. Overall both have a very similar tread design, full siping down the shoulder blocks etc. I went with the wildpeaks for a few reasons.

1. bigger shoulder blocks. Not only for looks but I felt like it would do better clearing anything that may get stuck in there. Plus more siped surface area = better on snow and ice
2. Zig Zag siping on said shoulder blocks. no idea if this matters, but that's whats on a snow tire, so I figured its there for a reason. In theory I guess it makes sense...adding even more surface area that can grab onto snow, but probably a very minimal difference in practice
3. a 265/75/16 was SL load on the wild peaks, but E load on the grabbers. Didn't wanna run the extra rotating mass with all the weight I already have.

Also note if you do stud them, they will need to stay studded, so you are pretty much buying a dedicated winter tire...and at that point why not just buy some real soft winter tires, not a studable AT tire.

Edit: I also think at the time they were the same price after rebates and stuff. But they're so damn close...you could probably just go with what was cheaper and be perfectly happy with either.

 

Wildpeaks here. Discount Tire matched the best online price I could find which was Walmart. I ended up paying around $625 out the door. Only have around 3,000 miles on them. Good traction on wet roads. I haven’t had them off-road too much, but they did fine aired down on the beach at the Outer Banks.

 

I just put E rated wildpeaks on my sport. Downsized to 16" wheels and did the 265/75/16. I notice pretty much 0 difference in acceleration (my DA is like 8k feet so it's always slow lol) and mpg like 1 less maybe? I can't really tell a difference in ride quality. It's better, if anything

 

Good call on the zig-zap siping on the Falkens, I didn't notice that but I'm sure it makes a difference since it's more siping surface area on the lug/block. I still see more sipes per lug on the ATX but they seem to be smaller and are straight cut instead of zig-zag, I wonder if that makes any difference?

You are also right on the weight. If you go with the ATX on the stock rim, it would have to be a 245 75 R16 (which is a bit skinnier) but still weighs about 5 lb more than the Falken in the stock size of 265 70 R16. The ATX is 10 ply and E rated though, perhaps the stiffer rubber would reduce winter performance.

Is anyone concerned with the 4 ply rating of the Falkens of the SL rated version?

 

Yeah I sometimes have a hard time figuring which siping is meant to be for winter and wet traction. Sometimes what looks like siping is just cut out to help the rubber bend as the tire rotates and to reduce road noise (or so I've read...somewhere...i'm probably wrong lol). For the record, I've done quite a few trails on the SL load falkens. Never had an issue, from 14 PSI crawling over rocks as the tires flex and grip the rocks, to wash board, small rock, higher speed runs to get to camp and everything inbetween and never had an issue with punctures or anything.

 

I have the GG ATX p265/70-17's on my tacoma. I had the at2's on my previous truck (f150) and loved them so went with the atx's. They ride very well on pavement and hwy. Great in the rain. Dont snow here so cant rate for snow. The at2's that were on the f150 had about 20K on them and still looked new. Ive only got about 2K on these atx's so far. They balanced well when they were mounted.

 

Falken AT3W here, 5k miles. Very quiet on the highway, very capable even in soft sandy mud and stream crossings. Would buy again.

 

You guys are making this tough. I had decided on a set of the Falken's, but when I went to order yesterday I noticed the ATX was slightly cheaper and ~8lbs lighter per tire. That's comparing both in 315/70r17 E rated. Now it sounds like the ATX will last longer too... although maybe not in E rated. In the higher load ratings the Falken's have more tread depth to start with (20/32) which might even out the quicker wear?

I used to run dedicated snow tires in the winter. I'm going to try something different now that I've finally worn those out, and I wont be buying another tire with passenger vehicle load rating. The most extreme thing I do in the winter is drive down gravel roads, yet this set suffered from 3 sliced sidewalls and many punctures over their lifetime. Road hazard warranty replacements were nice, but also a curse because I couldn't wear them out before getting another warranty replacement so I felt stuck with them. Same gravel roads on my D rated summer tires plus a bunch of actual wheeling and they've never had a flat. Neither of those are ATX's or AT3W's though. I'm ready for more peace of mind in the winter, even if it means slightly less traction and I have to drive a little slower.