The experience I have had with these General Grabber ATX tires has easily been the worst I’ve ever had with any tire purchase, and I have bought a lot of tires for a lot of vehicles. With the initial mounting and balancing (on brand new 17” TRD rims), the Toyota dealer that installed them indicated that two were out of round based on road force balancing. I got on the phone with Tire Rack and they sent out two replacements which they said they would road force ahead of sending. I paid up front for the remounting and was reimbursed several weeks later after multiple follow-ups. The tires were still not driving smoothly and showed balancing issues at various speed ranges. I went to a local tire place with a great reputation to get another point of view and paid to get all 4 rebalanced. They showed me on the balancing machine that two of them (one which was already replaced) was out of round due to what they said were belt issues…you could see that the tread of the tire did not spin cleanly and the machine was shaking. Also, they are very familiar with these tires as they sell and install them. The ride was improved but still drove horribly, especially for a significant portion of the highway speed range.
I reached back out to Tire Rack who contacted General. General told Tire Rack they would give me 50% credit toward the two faulty tires (if I bought another 2 tires from them). Tire Rack wouldn’t do anything for me either in terms of a credit toward other tires. I then contacted General and they started with the same 50% offer. I mentioned their warranty and then they offered 100% on the tires if I bought new ones and they inspected and saw an issue. I refused as I was not willing to buy any more tires without guaranteed reimbursement. After further discussion, they offered guaranteed reimbursement upon receipt of tires regardless of inspection, but I had to pay to have them mounted and balanced. They seem to be tolerable now after taking a slightly longer way home from the tire shop.
As far as the performance, we oddly didn’t get any snow accumulation this winter so can’t comment there, but they are great so far over standing water. Emergency braking in the wet (which happened due to someone sitting at an offramp who decided to pull in front of me when I was doing 55-60) was average at best though. Dry handling is as good as can be expected for an aggressive AT tire. Also, they look great, but rub when turned to the right in reverse and occasionally in forward to the left (usually a parking situation), at least with the TRD 17s on my limited…not sure if non-limited stock size 17s do that. I am still not sure how the reviews for this tire on tire rack are so positive, as I can’t be the only one who experienced these quality issues. I never had any quality issues like this with any tire from any other manufacturer in the past, and I have now paid out of pocket for mounting and balancing of 6 tires plus balancing only of another 4, along with an unbelievable amount of time and aggravation over a set of highly rated tires. Going forward, I am going to deal with a reputable tire shop for both purchase and mounting/balancing so that someone will actually stand behind the purchase if there is an issue.
Just to be clear, I am not saying these are horrible tires and glad to hear that most have had good luck. But, I wanted to share my experience with these tires as I would want to know that this was a possibility when searching for tire reviews on this forum.
Obligatory pics attached from the initial mounting in late November...upside down and can't seem to fix on my end.
