Testing Nitto Ridge Grapplers on the Rubicon Trail
 

When we first set eyes on our 37x12.50R17 Nitto Ridge Grapplers, it was clear they were not your average all-terrain or mud-terrain tire. This makes sense, as Nitto designed this new Grappler to blur the line between two dominant off-road tire segments.

**The following is just an overview—read the entire review at http://www.drivingline.com/articles/ridge-grapplers-take-on-the-rubicon/.**

The first thing you notice are the tread voids on the Ridge Grappler, which are far wider than the average all-terrain. The way the voids are oriented though eliminates any noisy “tread slap” that is common with aggressive mud-terrain tires. Tread depth is big too, nearly as big as the Trail Grappler and Mud Grappler.

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The tires took incredibly little weight to balance, even on our old battle-scarred wheels—a testament to Nitto’s excellent construction and quality control practices. On the 100-mile drive from Reno to the Rubicon, tire noise was the least of our concerns in our 30-year-old leaf-sprung Toyota. Even on a modern Jeep Wrangler or fullsize truck, we doubt tire noise would be an issue. This is particularly impressive given the void size and tread depth of the Ridge Grapplers, and speaks volumes about the research and development that Nitto put into making this new tire.

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Once we got to the trail, everyone let us go first in our mini truck. First up were the granite slabs, where we had to use a little more throttle to get up the polished ledges than we typically need with our Trail Grapplers. After a quick air pressure adjustment to allow the carcasses to flex on our brand new Ridge Grapplers, we were up at the top of the slabs.

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From there, we had no issues at Walker Hill or the Little Sluice. Our group included fullsize trucks, so we bypassed the Old Sluice on our way to Buck Island Lake. The bypass around Buck Island Lake is slick and off-camber, but the Ridge Grapplers exhibited excellent grip and never caused any sliding or pucker moments, even with Detroit Lockers front and rear.

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By this point, no one had any concern about the trail prowess of the Ridge Grapplers as they handled everything thrown at them. Perhaps most impressive was how there was no chunking or tearing of the tread, even when we spun the tires to climb up polished granite obstacles coated in fine dust.

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When we got back to pavement, the tires still looked new; and when we aired them up, they were just as quiet and smooth as they had been before we subjected them to miles of punishment.

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Read a more detailed review: http://www.drivingline.com/articles/ridge-grapplers-take-on-the-rubicon/

Let us know if any of you have tried Ridge Grapplers! How has your experience been?