General Grabber X3 vs BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3: The last time we looked into the all terrain segment, Goodyear’s Wrangler AT Adventure showed clear competency in off-road & dry performances over the highly popular BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO. As these 2 products were designed with equal share of off & on road usage, we would like to introduce a whole new segment called mud-terrain which has an 80% off road- 20% on road focus.
The Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 was launched in 2018 and has been a consistent performer in the mud-terrain scene. This is one of the niche markets where BFGoodrich truly dominates. On the other hand, Grabber X3 was launched a long time ago in 2016 but is still highly competitive. Without further ado, let’s bring these 2 tires head to head and see who comes out on top!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from Tire Rack’s Testing Off-Road Maximum Traction Tires 2021 test. A total of 4 tires were tested on Tire Rack’s proving ground. The graph below shows the comparison between General Grabber X3 vs BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 based on the relevant performance category. The General Grabber X3 was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.
As both tires are classified as an all season tire with a M+S label, Tire Rack has included snow & ice in its testing portfolio. A detailed testing on snow including acceleration, braking & handling were provided. There are however no off road tests this time around and we have to depend on the snow & ice test for hints. The tire size of interest is a LT 265/70R17 which is a common tire size for Chevrolet Silverado 1500 & Toyota FJ Cruiser. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle is a powerful 2020 Ford F150 4×4.
Wet
The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria. Mud terrain tires are usually not known for its wet braking capabilities as it has a low contact area due to the large voids for off road usages. From the wet braking test, Grabber X3 out-brake Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 with a braking distance difference of 8.9 feet (2.7m) !
The advantage in wet continued in handling as Grabber X3 had a 1 second advantage in lap time against Mud-Terrain T/A KM3. For the subjective wet handling rating, Grabber X3 fared better with a subjective score of 6.31/10 compared to 5.75/10 of Mud-Terrain T/A KM3. Overall, it can be clearly seen that Grabber X3 is much stronger in wet compared to Mud-Terrain T/A KM3.
Mud-Terrain T/A KM3:
- -5.6% in wet braking
- -2.8% in wet handling (subj)
- -2.6% in wet handling (lap time)
Dry
As for dry, safety is usually not an issue as the braking distance is much longer than wet. However this is the default daily usage and the tires have to perform at a very consistent level. While things overwhelmingly favored Grabber X3 in wet, there was not much difference between the 2 tires when it comes to dry braking. Grabber X3 managed to brake 1 feet (0.3m) earlier compared to Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 from a speed of 50mph (80km/h) down to 0.
Mud-Terrain T/A KM3:
- -1.0% in dry braking
Noise/Comfort/Ride Quality
When it comes to mud terrain, noise, comfort & ride quality is usually the lowest priority. With such a large pattern void, air pumping is at its maximum for mud terrain tires. This would result in a high level of noise due to the air vibration generated by the air in the grooves.
In the end the scores for both tires are really close but at a very low level compared to AT or ATR segments. Grabber X3 came out slightly ahead at 5.67/10 rating compared to the 5.5/10 rating of Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 with noise & ride quality being the main differences.
Mud-Terrain T/A KM3:
- -0.8% in average of Noise, Comfort & Ride Quality.
Snow
As both tires has only the M+S logo on it, they can not be legally certified as a snow tire. Only 3 peak logo certified tires require both tires to pass a certain threshold of snow traction level as determined by the legislation. However as Tire Rack did not test off road, snow performances would give us a good indication on how well the tires perform off road.
With wet & dry tests dominated by Grabber X3 , the same can be said for snow tests. It stopped 5.48 feet (1.8m) earlier than Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 from a speed of 25 mph (40 km/h) to 0. It was also extremely good when it came to snow acceleration as it took 6.56 feet (2m) less distance to accelerate from 0 to 12 mph (20 km/h). While it was also quicker in lap time (2.6 seconds !) and also subjectively better in snow handling (+0.5 points). Overall, Grabber X3 is clearly the better snow tire.
Mud-Terrain T/A KM3:
- -7.6% in snow braking
- -15.9% in snow acceleration
- -2.5% in snow handling (subj)
- -3.2% in snow handling (lap time)
Ice
With such dominating performances in snow, we would expect this to continue in ice. The difference in ice was only marginal as Grabber X3 only out-brake Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 by 1 feet (0.3m) from a braking speed of 12 mph (20 km/h) to 0.
Mud-Terrain T/A KM3:
- -1.5% in ice braking
UTQG rating
We have previously shown that UTQG tread wear rating can be a good indication of your expected mileage. As both products are releasing their sizes based on the light truck (LT) designation, UTQG rating is not mandatory. It was also noted that both tires do not provide any mileage warranty which is strange from my point of view. MT tires usually come with really high tread depth and this could be easily a marketing point.
For more in depth information about UTQG, please check out this article here. We even have a free download on the latest UTQG values from the leading tire manufacturers.
Price
Being the undisputed technology leader, we would expect BFGoodrich (Michelin) to command the highest priced tire in the market. This was in alignment as Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 was 38 dollars more expensive than Grabber X3.
Tire size: LT 265/70R17
Mud-Terrain T/A KM3: $327
Grabber X3: $289
Difference: +12% more expensive for Mud-Terrain T/A KM3.
Summary
Overall, it was a dominating performance of General’s Grabber X3. It excels in wet, dry, snow & ice against its counterpart BFGoodrich’s Mud-Terrain T/A KM3. Even though there was not real off road testing, the snow test gives a pretty good hint on how the performance on mud would be. With also a cheaper option, the clear winner without a doubt is Grabber X3 !