18" General Grabber 38,000Km Report

[Tote]

Having just arrived back from our trip to Darwin via the Oodnadatta track I thought I'd post how the General Grabbers are faring. Despite my fears of losing a tyre on the dirt we were lucky (or was it because I was carrying a spare carcass?)
Tyre pressures on the trip were 44 rear/ 36 front on the bitumen and 36/28 on the gravel.
After 38000Km the depth of tread on both front and rear is 4.5 - 5 millimetres measured from the treadwear indicators. Depth on a new tyre is 8.5 millimetres

The tyres are noisier on bitumen than when new with the windows down but not noticable with them wound up (not over the noise of the roofrack anyway).

Front Tyre
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/D3%20Tyres/IMG_25901.jpg


Rear Tyre
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/D3%20Tyres/IMG_2591.jpg

[CaverD3]

I take it you were carrying a lot of weight.
Do you use the same pressures on the black top when not loaded up?

[rocmic]

Well that's made my mind up. Will phone Alto tomorrow to arrange removal of the OEMs. Getting fairly bald after 27,000 km

[Tote]

I take it you were carrying a lot of weight.
Do you use the same pressures on the black top when not loaded up?

We were pretty loaded up, I took the roof rack off over the weekend and it was riding a bit hard today ))
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/


Regards,
Tote

[amaruskanic]

Anyone know who the local distributor / dealer is for these tyres. Google was no help.

[WhiteD3]

amaruskanic

Keep in mind that while a lot of D3's have GGs on, the owners chose the tyre largely because of a lack of choice (not saying anything against the GGs:)) in 18" anyway.

These days there's ContiCrossContact, Pirelli Scorpions, Coopers and others to choose from. There's a few recent threads in the D3 forum about this.

I've got the Scorpion ATR's and so far (5,000k) I'm very happy with them on and off road.

[Graeme]

I've got the Scorpion ATR's and so far (5,000k) I'm very happy with them on and off road.
I'm waiting for the bubble to burst on these as no-one seems to have struck any problems with them. I have them on my D2 and the only down-side so far is I've found that they have very little lateral grip on hard slippery wet ground - I spun my D2 around at about 10kph!

[Tote]

Anyone know who the local distributor / dealer is for these tyres. Google was no help.


These guys : Dynamic 4x4, Simex 4x4, Sime 4x4, General tire, Dynamic Wheels, Sime, Grabber, Extreme Trekker, Wheels (http://www.dynamictyres.com.au/html/s08_contact/default.asp'dsb%3D13)

I have had to contact them and found Chris very helpful.
Regards,
Tote

[CaverD3]

Alto at Artarmon have them at a very good price.:D

[amaruskanic]

Keep in mind that while a lot of D3's have GGs on, the owners chose the tyre largely because of a lack of choice (not saying anything against the GGs:)) in 18" anyway.

Fair call and I will check out the other options and $'s will be a big part of the decision. But the GGs in being around for a while have the kms under their belt as far as reliability and wearability goes.

[Timj]

I have had the GGs on for about 12k now and in some ways I am happy in others very unhappy. They appear to wear well, they are good on the road as far as noise goes and they seem to grip well wet and dry. Where I have an issue with them is offroad. I have damaged four sidewalls now and given that they can't be repaired that is a pretty expensive toll. Two of those were done with lowered pressures in very rocky country (Sundown National Park) and were the worst damage, one of the others was done with road pressures while at an offroad park (The Springs, near Warwick) and the last was a screwdriver bit going through just where the tread meets the sidewall and was just unfortunate rather than the fault of the tyre. Fortunately I picked up a set of tyres second hand that have meant I have not had to buy more but if not for that I would have gone to 17" after the first two were damaged. I don't know how the other brands are in 18" but I honestly believe that there is not enough sidewall in the standard size tyres for adequate protection offroad. Even without deflating there is too much sidewall exposed and it gets worse with low pressure and the GG is too weak in the sidewall. 17" has to be the way to go to get the extra sidewall height.

TimJ.

[CaverD3]

I think LT construction is the only way to go to get tougher sidewalls.
I don't think anything is available in 18" yet either. But with LT and stiffer sidewalls you get a rougher ride. Horses for courses I suppose.

[bigmac]

I am on my second set of GG's first set 90,000ks not a problem with them about 1third off road use. Just been to the cape and back put a stick through the side wall of one brand new on the OTL just before the Gunshot.

Bigmac

[Tote]

I'm off to get new tyres tomorrow. Going with the General Grabbers again. The D3 now has 99,800Km on it and I fitted these at 28,000. They aren't quite illegal yet although one of the fronts is getting pretty close (roundabouts in Canberra do that) I'd have to say that the D3 has worn the tyres more evenly than either of the solid axle Discos I've had, with that in mind I'm not letting anyone near the wheel alignment settings. Anyway a couple of pics of the old Tyres Below.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/D3%20Tyres/IMG_2883.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/D3%20Tyres/IMG_2884.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/toteau/D3%20Tyres/IMG_2885.jpg

Regards,
Tote

[CaverD3]

Tote
That is a good even wear rate.
What pressures were you running them at?

[Dirty3]

Anyone know where to get 17 inch wheels to suit? What options/manufacurers are available?

The GG's look good, but there others starting to come on board in 18". Very slowly from what I can see, but still limited in the All terrain/mud terrain styles. Unless you are prepared to go larger diameter.

[Tote]

Tote
That is a good even wear rate.
What pressures were you running them at?

About 38 front/42 rear most of the time.
Regards,
Tote

[CaverD3]

Thanks, ineteresting it's a bit higher than I run mine.