I recently went through a big ordeal with my new '02 X, where I was getting some MAJOR vibration and wheel bounce form the stock Generals that Nissan puts on the 16" wheels. My Nissan dealer said they did not deal with the tires after trying twice to balance them out, and sent me to a General dealer (of my choosing ) to seek satisfaction.

Discount Tire, who will now be my tire dealer of choice, tried once to balance them out, and told me that all four tires were putting over 20# of road force on a RF balancer, and that one was 26#!!!

After their attempt failed, they called General, who offered to put another set of Grabbers on, but would not credit me for the tire. I was about to go for the deal, when the store manager talked me out of it. He said that had nothing but problems with that tire, and that he had bought a Ford Explorer Sport Trac with the same tires, and was having the same issue. He told me that he had serviced 3 other Xterra owners in the last 6 months with the same problem!!! He strongly reccomended against getting another set, and to show his good will i suppose, gave me $55 credit towards a new set of tires, and threw in free balancing, mounting, rotating, and road hazard.

Anyway, to make a long story just a little longer , I am happy with new tires, but now I am out over 200 bucks, and I have only owned my X for about 4 months. I had a 93 Hardbody before this, and had no trouble (I still drive it) out of it, and am a Nissan advocate all the way.

WTF is the deal with these tires, or is it just bad luck?

They are cheap and suck. Nissan gets a deal on them so they put them on. It is better you changed them out with better ones however I would think the dealer should pay up a bit. But on the other hand the tires are a wear item.

Typically, Car Mfgs Get tires of 2nd-3rd quality compared to the same tire if you go to a store to buy them. I'll reference FIRESTONE 721 tires place on CAMAROs of the ~1982 time frame. 721s blew quite easily and of course there is the EXPLORER FIRESTONE problems. I replace my FIRESTONEs on my 1997 EXPLORER after about 10,000 miles. I'm at 20,000 miles on my GRABBERS and I'm currently comparing new tires for upcoming purchase...Leaning towards GOODYEAR or BRIDGESTONE or YOKOHAMA. Still thinking which brand?

My GRABBERs have performed very well fo my use....Highway and beach fishing/cruising. Mowt here on XOC hate GRABBERS for some reason.

I still have the Grabbers on with 19,500. No problems yet, but I do look forward to getting some bigger grippers. The only thing in my mind that sucks, is I will have to also replace the brand new spare when the time comes. Thomas

MyX

I have 20,000 on my Grabbers with no problem (YET), but I am looking towards BFG All Terrain's about another 6 months or so....I want to get all my money's worth out of the Grabbers first....

I've got 53k on mine and have had no problems, even with lots of off-road... had to get one plugged, once, but that's it...

I have 58,000 on my Grabbers right now. I will be replacing them next week with Michelin XTL M/S (when they get in). I was planning on putting Dueler A/T Revo's, but Costco wouldn't put them on (unless I took the rims off the truck and brought them in)because they don't come in the stock size (P255/65/R16).

I never really had any problems with the Grabbers, except they aren't that good in the snow (need good tires for MN snow). Some people have had problems with them hydroplaning on wet pavement but I haven't had a problem with that until just recently (tread is worn down), and I can't complain about the tread life.

Guido, I was about to pick up some Dueler Revo's from Costco as well. Why won't they put them on? Cuz they aren't factory size and there's liability issues or something? If that's the case, how did the rest of you get around the problem and stuck 32" on yours?

You hit the nail on the head. The reason is that if you got into an accident, and it was caused by the wrong sized tire, they could be liable. (thank the lawyers). You can track who you bought the tires from through the D.O.T. card.

They will put them on as long as you take all the tires off the truck and bring them in. This way YOU are putting the non-stock tires on, not them. I had no way to get my 5 rims in, so I had to get a different brand put on. The Michelin XTL M/S rated pretty close to the REVO's on Tirerack.com.

I did try an see if they would put 255/70/16's on, but they cannot get that size tire.

Bastards. They could just make me sign a waiver and say i know what the hell i'm doing and they aren't responsible. Why they gotta make life so difficult?! Did the rest of you who have 32"+ tires do the same with other tire places and bring in just the rims? There's no way for me to fit all those tires in my other car.

Thanks for the responses. So, it appears that it is a limited problem after all.

Of all the rotten luck...

Well, the upside is, the new tires LOOK a lot better. If looks are any indicator, they should perform better offroad than the Generals. Won't know that until next weekend.

Just curious.

what tire did you get to replace your grabber?

I dumped my grabbers at around 25K. They weren't giving me problems. I just wanted something more stable and better for snow/rain/dirt. (I got BFG AT/Ko's)

I put a set of Discount Tire custom-branded Pathfinder Sport SUV tires on it. They are a good combo of on-road wet-weather traction, and have a decent off-road tread pattern.

I eventually want to get a set of stock steel wheels and some off-road only tires to put on when doing some more serious off-roading. Aluminum bends way too easy for my comfort. I ruined one of the factory mags on my Nissan Hardbody off-road, and don't wish to repeat that.

You know a car tire is cheap when they cost less than a bicycle tire.

Ditched my Grabbers at 17K, because they were pansy tires. I did not have the balancing issues however. Put 25K on my Dunlops A/Ts so far and haven't looked back.

I have had nothing but problems with the General Grabbers AW since the day I took delivery of my 2002 Xterra 4x2 XE. First last winter I slid off of the road 50 ft into somebodys front yard. Luckily no one was invloved but me and no property damage done. Then in early May I slid in the rain hit a curb ruined a rim ($270.00) knocked half the air out of the front left tire. I have since replaced with a new rim, balanced all four tires and had an alignment done and now the front end still vibrates some around 60-65 mph. These tires are garbage and I can't believe Nissan puts these crappy tires on a $25,000 vehicle. BTW I drive always within the limits and am very careful in the rain or snow. These tires have no... I REPEATE NO!!! traction in any amount of rain or snow. Dangerous crappy tire. I will replace with Goodyear Fortera!!

i live in southern california, so i don't have the chance to test them in the snow/heavy rain like some of you others.
but in my personal experience, they are pretty decent. we had some rain this winter, and certain parts of the streets were flooded. my xterra made it just fine without 4wd engaged whether it was driving on the freeway or on the local streets.
i've gone offroading in them as well, and they've performed moderately well. at the same time the second i get more money i'm getting some bfg's.

Heh, I hate to be one , but it may be the driver, not the tire that is to blame here...

Grabbers blow. On or offroad they're pretty crappy tires. I've got almost 1400 miles on mine and I'm planning on swapping them out ASAP! Its frustrating that you can buy a $25k car with tires that aren't fit to be on a Yugo.

It may be just my bad luck but in less than six months I've had two flats in these tires. The first was just a nail in the tread but the second time a rock on a lame forest service road tore a hole straight through the tread. I'm getting a set of AT K/Os this week and ridding my self of the Generals.

I've got 28k on my grabbers, and I live in Northern Wisconsin. We get snow, ice, rain, and that's just the summer months. I've got no complaint about the on road traction in any condition. Being that 72.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot, I'd say that 85% of driving success during inclement conditions results from good driving technique. I'm not one of these guys who goes 45 in the 65 during snow either. I'm always left laning it at 65 in snowstorms. I don't know what it is, light touch on the wheel, easy smooth motions, feeling the road through the pedals....Like I said, I don't know what it is. You drive with some people who have it, and some who just don't. The remaining 15% is probably a combination of equipment and luck.

As far as the off road characteristics of the grabbers, I feel that Nissan is reprehensible in their inclusion of the grabber as the stock tire for such a good off road vehicle. It's a joke really.

on dirt roads the tires spin a little even when only about 3/5 throttle is given they perform better in 4X4 but i want to swap them with somethin else maybe an inch bigger when i get some money. I dont know what i want next thou.

Got 60,000 miles out of the Grabber AW's on my Frontier with no problems. Am putting on Grabber ST's next week. $300 for the tires and $80 for the installation.

The X came with BF Goodrich Radial Long Trail T/A's. They don't seem to be any better or worse than the Grabbers.