General Tire's Grabber UHP Street/Sport Light Truck Tire

Tires tested:
AVON Tech ST Street/Sport Truck All-Season 255/55/R18
General Grabber UHP High Street/Sport Truck Summer 255/55/R18
Kumho Ecsta STX KL12 Street/Sport Truck All-Season 255/55/R18

Vehicles used:
2004 V6 Volkswagen Touareg

Pickup trucks & SUVs become less & less like work vehicles everyday. Today, rather than hauling supplies & equipment to the jobsite, they are more likely to see duty as the primary family transport vehicle, or be customized by their owners for looks & performance. Larger, plus-sized tire & wheel packages are common, with custom wheels wrapped in performance tires that have the style & h&ling to complement how & where the vehicle will be driven.

Performance, style, image & appropriate size availability are all key factors driving today's growing options in the Street/Sport Truck tire category. Here, bold looks, improved h&ling & sizes to fit larger wheel diameters are key elements. To advance new tire designs in this category, many tire manufactures are applying design elements proven in their performance-oriented passenger car tires, such as aggressive directional tread patterns & summer-only (three season) tread compounds.

Following the trend towards aggressive directional tread patterns, General Tire has introduced the Grabber UHP, tying the heritage of their Grabber light truck family name to Ultra High Performance. To underst& how well this was accomplished, Tire Rack team conducted a Real World Road Ride & limited Performance Track Drive, comparing the Grabber UHP with the AVON Tech ST & Kumho Ecsta STX KL12. The AVON tire offers the size lineup, real all-season capability & value pricing, while the Kumho tire has become one of the more popular choices in the category due to its appearance, price point & broad range of sizes. Our evaluation used three identical 2004 V6 Volkswagen Touaregs, fitted with new, full tread depth 255/55/R18 tires mounted on 18x8.0" wheels.

What We Learned on the Road

Our 5.6-mile loop of expressway, state highway & county roads provides a great variety of road conditions that include city & highway speeds, smooth & coarse concrete, as well as new & patched asphalt. This route allows our team to experience noise comfort, ride quality & everyday h&ling, just as you would during your drive to school or work.

Over the variety of road surfaces & speeds of our evaluation loop, the noise comfort of the AVON Tech ST tire was rated best of the evaluation. This tire produced a more disperse, "white" noise which quickly fell into the background amid other vehicle & wind noises. The more aggressive tread patterns of the General Grabber UHP & the Kumho Ecsta STX KL12 both produced distinctive pitches, with the Grabber UHP generating a relatively low tone, while the Ecsta STX KL12 sounded higher up in the range. While not objectionable, the noise from both tires was noticeably more distinct than the AVON.

Over the impacts from expansion joints & patched road surfaces, the Grabber UHP was found to offer the best ride comfort of the three tires in this test, doing a good job minimizing the bump's intrusion into the cabin. The Ecsta STX KL12 & the AVON Tech ST were noticeably firmer, without being objectionable.

During the light h&ling experienced on our road loop, the General Grabber UHP offered the quickest steering response on initial input, despite also delivering the best ride quality of the group. Traditionally, ride comfort & responsiveness are direct trade-offs to one another. The h&ling & responsiveness of the Kumho Ecsta STX KL12 felt very linear, & almost as responsive as the Grabber UHP. Road h&ling of the AVON Tech ST was appropriate for the category, but not as responsive as the other two tires. This is likely due at least in part to this tire's all-season oriented tread pattern, where the sipes & notches used to aid winter traction result in smaller, less responsive tread blocks.

Our test took place during the summer in northern Indiana, & did not afford us the opportunity to evaluate the winter snow & slush traction of these tires.

What We Learned on the Test Track

Our 1/3-mile per lap test track includes 90-degree street corners, lane changes & simulated expressway ramps. Run in both dry & wet conditions, the test track allows our team to experience the traction, responsiveness, h&ling & drivability normally only encountered during abrupt emergency avoidance maneuvers.

While rollovers can occur with virtually any type of vehicle, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks & vans typically ride higher off the ground & have a high center of gravity. This makes them more susceptible to rolling over than performance or passenger cars if the driver looses control. Track testing vehicles with a high center of gravity requires proficient driving sensitivity & skills.

However, in order to learn more about the growing number of Street/Sport Truck tire category applications, Tire Rack has selected its most experienced drivers to participate in our dry & wet Test Track Performance Drives. While this reduces the number of drivers participating compared to passenger car tests, it does accurately compare the tires' performance capabilities at their limit.

In dry conditions, the Kumho Ecsta STX KL12 was able to negotiate the slalom (rapid lane change), generated the highest level of lateral acceleration (cornering g-forces), & was able to lap the course the quickest of this test. Steering response was linear & precise. The General Grabber was just behind the Kumho in each area, but when driven at the limit in the dry did not feel quite as responsive to inputs. The all-season oriented AVON Tech ST was surprisingly close to the other two tires, despite feeling somewhat less responsive than the other two tires.

With water on the track, the General Grabber was clearly superior, feeling stable & predictable, & able to snake through the slalom & carve around the skidpad more easily than the other two tires. The Kumho Ecsta STX KL12 may have felt slightly more responsive than the General, but couldn't match the overall grip level. The AVON Tech ST's true all-season compound could not generate the level of summertime traction to keep pace with the other two tires in this test. The measured stopping distance test in the wet paralleled the h&ling results, with the Grabber UHP stopping the relatively heavy VW Touareg in the shortest distance.

Product Details

AVON Tech ST (Street/Sport Truck All-Season): The Tech ST is the Street/Sport Truck All-Season tire member of AVON Tyres' family of Tech performance tires. The attractively priced Tech ST is designed to provide flexibility for the drivers of performance pickups, as well as sport utility & sport activity vehicles by providing year-round traction, predictable h&ling & control in dry & wet road conditions, as well as in light snow.

General Grabber UHP (High Street/Sport Truck Summer): The General Tire Grabber UHP is a Street/Sport Truck Summer tire that was developed for the drivers of sport utility & sport activity vehicles, as well as performance pickups. While br&ed with the "M+S" symbol, the Grabber UHP emphasizes traction, h&ling & control in dry & wet road conditions. The Grabber UHP is only intended to be driven in occasional, very light snow.

Kumho Ecsta STX KL12 (Street/Sport Truck All-Season): Kumho's family of Ecsta (x' ta) performance tires is designed to enhance every vehicle's capabilities. The Ecsta STX KL12 is a Street/Sport Truck All-Season radial that was jointly developed by Kumho's American, European & Korean technical centers to meet the global needs of drivers of sporty pickups & sport utility vehicles. The Kumho Ecsta STX KL12 blends an eye-appealing appearance with year-round performance & traction, even in light snow.