20" Nitto Recon Grappler AT tires 25% more efficient than Pirelli OEM AT! The holy grail!

[LL75]

Man 20 lb ligher each that the stock 21” sure? The stock 21s are very light…

Yeap. the atomic aw09 weight 31 lbs. The general grabber is at 34 lbs which is 65 total. Someone on this forum weighted the 21" stock with OEM tires at 85 lbs.

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[moonjeong]

Yeap. the atomic aw09 weight 31 lbs. The general grabber is at 34 lbs which is 65 total. Someone on this forum weighted the 21" stock with OEM tires at 85 lbs.

Ah… the whole tire and wheel… got it. that makes the calc harder than just the tire weight, because the tire weight affects the outer weight… but chaning wheels also changes the inner weight and angular momentum is based on radial weight avg. distance…

 

[R1Sky Business]

I’ve run 25k miles on my R1T beginning with my Pirelli OEM AT 20”. Those lasted about 17k miles before the noise was unbearable. I’ve tried several tires since then and found the holy grail of looks, comfort, and efficiency:

1. Pierelli OEM AT 275/65/20: good response, traction, and longetivity. Horrible noise and very stiff. Switched out at 17k miles and historical 1.85 M/kw
2. Michelin Defender LTX MS2 in 275/60/20: These reduced the size of my tire to 33”, but it was butter smooth, quiet, and efficiency jumped to around 2.4 M/KW. Looked bland, actually i hated the look. Was going to keep until i put it in sport in a spirited drive. These tires made the rivian dangerous - wobly, lack of traction. I had around 2k miles i changed them.
3. Michelin Defender Platinum 275/65/20: good look, quiet, soft - even for an LT tire. Traction was not great, but steering response was ok. Over 5k miles, it gave me an average of 1.9 M/kw. The reason i changed them out was because vibrations would always come back after 500-800 miles of being balanced.
4. Nitto Recon Grappler AT 116 275/65/20: AWESOME! Soft, quiet (not as quiet as the LTX), awesome look, no vibration. Best of all? I’m averaging 2.4 M/kw in my first 1k miles! I think it will do better once things settle more. The reason i believe so is because my commute is about 30 miles and with these, i’m consuming around 9% whereas my defender LTX was overing around 10%, with the OEM being around 12-13%.

The peson at Discount Tire pushed me towards the Nitto after my fails with the Michelins - i was not going to listen to him, but he said i will not regret. He told me that these weigh like 48lbs, the lightest AT, are 116 so will be soft and quiet vs an LT, and are much more efficient vs the Recon Grappler non AT. I’m so glad i did, so passing along to this forum! Adding pictrures of the three tires so you can see the look.

Load rating E1? Or SL?

 

[Mjl]

These kinds of tests are always a bit flawed. Efficiency is such a tricky measurement for EVs because the environmental difference in seasons could account for the change. Either way, nice write up.

 

[moonjeong]

These kinds of tests are always a bit flawed. Efficiency is such a tricky measurement for EVs because the environmental difference in seasons could account for the change. Either way, nice write up.

Agreed. your results may vary, but under my environment - car, temps, commute, etc… there was a significant difference… that difference may be smaller for someone in alaska or someone that drives it like they stole it lol…

 

[moonjeong]

Load rating E1? Or SL?

SL, but 116

 

[White Shadow]

Honestly I am a little skeptical on this claim. I have the Nitro Recon Grapplers, admittedly the LT version that are heavier but in general this shouldn't matter much for highway efficiency. That said due to my camper I can't really compare efficiencies.

The tread is pretty aggressive on these tires. At a minimum be careful on grooved highways as the side lugs on these tires like to grip onto things on rough roads causing the truck to get squirrelly.

Yeah, I have a hard time understanding how any tire with a more aggressive tread pattern will have less rolling resistance than a smoother tread highway tire. I think tire weight is a factor too, but any time I bring that up there's someone who says that rolling resistance matter far more than tire weight and that's probably mostly true. Still though, how can an all-terrain tread have less rolling resistance than your basic all-season highway tread?

 

[moonjeong]

Yeah, I have a hard time understanding how any tire with a more aggressive tread pattern will have less rolling resistance than a smoother tread highway tire. I think tire weight is a factor too, but any time I bring that up there's someone who says that rolling resistance matter far more than tire weight and that's probably mostly true. Still though, how can an all-terrain tread have less rolling resistance than your basic all-season highway tread?

My hypothesis is that it depends on the number of those micro gooves that make tires better in the snow… the more a tire has, the more snow rated and the more the tire flexes, hence increasing rolling resistance. I think rolling resisntance is a function of tire softness and deformation. That’s proably why 3 peak rated tires have lower MPG efficiency… but that just my thought… These grappler ATs don’t have many micro grooves for slow…

 

[ksurfier]

Man 20 lb ligher each that the stock 21” sure? The stock 21s are very light…

You are using an SL tire? And it’s only 44 max psi? I thought that was a red line that can’t be crossed for Rivians?
Could you run a 15-minute test on level-ish ground and record temp, wind, constant speed of 70/75? That would confirm you MPK. At a glance you should be getting close or little above the OEM 20” of ~2.1 MPK at 65 MPH and 70F, sounds like it’s a little higher than that, and maybe quite a bit higher. Sounds like they are handling fine in the road, not too unstable/wobbly?

 

[moonjeong]

You are using an SL tire? And it’s only 44 max psi? I thought that was a red line that can’t be crossed for Rivians?
Could you run a 15-minute test on level-ish ground and record temp, wind, constant speed of 70/75? That would confirm you MPK. At a glance you should be getting close or little above the OEM 20” of ~2.1 MPK at 65 MPH and 70F, sounds like it’s a little higher than that, and maybe quite a bit higher. Sounds like they are handling fine in the road, not too unstable/wobbly?

I had the same question to Discount Tire, but since they are 116, they are the same weight limit of 2,756 lbs per axle, just at 44psi.

Regarding the MPK, that shouldn’t be the measure since everyone has different environmental situations. My truck is always loaded with a few hundred more pounds, GA is full of up and down small hills, everyone drives it with different agressiveness, etc… i think the value of my review is that for my envirnoment, i have comparison efficiency metrics across 4 tire types. That will give the relative efficiency of one vs. the other - to me that’s the only dependable data.

All I know is that my efficiency is as good as the 20” Michelin road tires and much better than the Pirelli OE AT tires. With that, i’m so ecstatic that I’m taking the time to write

 

[zefram47]

What on earth were you doing to get 1.85 mi/kWh over 17k miles on the stock ATs!? My lifetime average before I switched out for winter tires was 2.24 mi/kWh on the Pirelli ATs over 9k miles. On the Blizzak LT over the past 6k miles over the winter in Colorado I have 1.9 mi/kWh with 2k miles worth of cold, windy road tripping at 1.5-1.8 mi/kWh. On warmer days even the LT winter tires are seeing upwards of 2.4 mi/kWh on the highway.

 

[moonjeong]

What on earth were you doing to get 1.85 mi/kWh over 17k miles on the stock ATs!? My lifetime average before I switched out for winter tires was 2.24 mi/kWh on the Pirelli ATs over 9k miles. On the Blizzak LT over the past 6k miles over the winter in Colorado I have 1.9 mi/kWh with 2k miles worth of cold, windy road tripping at 1.5-1.8 mi/kWh. On warmer days even the LT winter tires are seeing upwards of 2.4 mi/kWh on the highway.

What on earth are you doing to get 2.24mi/kwh on an 835HP truck? Lol

In all seriousness, at higher elevation, you should see better efficiency due to the air density - particularly at highway speeds. Less air = less air resistnace… regardless, you are doing awesome at 2.24!

 

[ksurfier]

I had the same question to Discount Tire, but since they are 116, they are the same weight limit of 2,756 lbs per axle, just at 44psi.

Regarding the MPK, that shouldn’t be the measure since everyone has different environmental situations. My truck is always loaded with a few hundred more pounds, GA is full of up and down small hills, everyone drives it with different agressiveness, etc… i think the value of my review is that for my envirnoment, i have comparison efficiency metrics across 4 tire types. That will give the relative efficiency of one vs. the other - to me that’s the only dependable data.

All I know is that my efficiency is as good as the 20” Michelin road tires and much better than the Pirelli OE AT tires. With that, i’m so ecstatic that I’m taking the time to write

thought there was more to it than that?
Here’s some highlights of differences:

suspect those may wear quickly…

• XL tires last longer when used in the same manner as SL tires
• XL tires have better damage resistance
• SL tires are more fuel efficient

 

[moonjeong]

thought there was more to it than that?
Here’s some highlights of differences:

suspect those may wear quickly…

• XL tires last longer when used in the same manner as SL tires
• XL tires have better damage resistance
• SL tires are more fuel efficient

I didn’t know that SL are more fuel efficient… so i guess lower weight, 116 vs LT, and SL all contribute to the results i’m seeing!

 

[moonjeong]

What on earth were you doing to get 1.85 mi/kWh over 17k miles on the stock ATs!? My lifetime average before I switched out for winter tires was 2.24 mi/kWh on the Pirelli ATs over 9k miles. On the Blizzak LT over the past 6k miles over the winter in Colorado I have 1.9 mi/kWh with 2k miles worth of cold, windy road tripping at 1.5-1.8 mi/kWh. On warmer days even the LT winter tires are seeing upwards of 2.4 mi/kWh on the highway.

By the way - here is a pic from my pirelly’s - just happen to have it lol exactly 1.85 lol

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