Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Nitto Tire Separation

Just curious - anyone (besides me) ever have an issue with a Nitto Ridge Grappler separating?

I drive a '17 Nissan Titan XD with the V8 Cummins. I drove an 1992 F150 then a 2001 F150 for the 25 years prior to picking up the Nissan. I've ran a few different kind of tires over the years, but always ended up back with the BFG All Terrain. I guy at the local Discount Tire talked me into trying the Nitto claiming they were better on heavier trucks. I thought I had an alignment issue because the truck started to pull a little, but then it started to pulsate (to the right) when coming to a stop. Discount Tire pointed out the tread bulge and said that was very rare for that tire. I was little less than a year out from replacing those tires, so I just bought a new set of Nittos. That was about 2 years ago.

Fast forward to about 2 months ago, the exact same thing happened. Same front passenger location too. I baby my truck - on road, and off. I rotate and balance every 5k. I'm wondering, could anything with the truck that I don't know about be causing this, or is this just a fluke thing that just happened to occur twice?

Fortunately, no. I've never had this issue and I've ran a few sets of their tires.

ETA: I have had more BFG tires that weren't able to be balanced than any other make of tires. I suppose it's luck of the draw for both of us.

I had the exact same issue with that tire on my 2500hd. Anytime you got above 55, the truck would act like it had death wobble. You could run your hand across the tread and feel the bumps, several told me it was the plates separating. That happened with around 9,000 miles on them. Replaced them with Toyo MT’s and never had any problems like that again.

I’ve seen nitto’s lose traction on wet grass and light mud. I wouldn’t even consider Nitto as a viable truck tire, especially on a hunting truck.

To each his own, but tires are too dang expensive to start coming apart with little to no serious use.

I had Nitto Trail Grapplers, Terra Grapplers, and I’m on my 2nd set of Exo Grapplers all on my ‘11 F250 Diesel. I’ll be buying another set of Exo’s this fall. 2 flats, a harrow-fork hidden in tall grass and a large nail.

My understanding is that Toyo and Nitto are the same company, and quite frequently manufactured in the same facilities.

The 4 sets I’ve purchased are all marked “Made in USA”.

That doesn’t refute the above statement.

A neighbor called me today. He just came off the mountain from a long weekend of hunting and his truck started to pull on the way down. When he got back he noticed that one of the tires was starting to bubble. He has the exact same Nitto tires I do and Discount Tire told him one was separating, and this is at just over 30k miles on the set. He's like me - rotate and balance every 5k.

My neighbor has the same Nissan Titan XD, but a gaser vs. a diesel like me. We both have 20" wheels and I wonder if that might have something to do with it, but then I see LOTS of trucks with big rims and Nittos.

Now I am sure there are 100 stories about every other brand of tire doing the same thing. But I'm starting to research other options for when the time comes.

I put Ridge Grapplers on my 1 ton RAM for 1 summer so never had them on long enough to get tell if that would happen. They felt squishy so I took them off and put them on my 3/4 GMC which is driven basically to town and back. So far they seem to work well on it. ON the RAM I did not like them.

Well, after the 2nd tire separation, I lost a large chunk of rubber off of one of the other Nittos. What was interesting is, with the chunk gone you could see down to the belts. With no tags and zero fishing this year (sad, I know), I have been all paved roads this year. Still, I understand there could be any number of things to cause that chunk of tread to go away. But, the fact that it was down to the belts had me wondering if any delamination had already occurred??

That was September. Fast forward to now - after Discount Tired replaced the tire with the missing chunk, the truck started to shimmy and shake again. I noticed it mostly occurred as I approached 45 MPH. I took it back to DT and they said the tires were out of balance. They balanced them, I drove away, but the shimmies were still there. My wife works for a small auto dealer and asked their mechanic to take a look. He drove it, shook his head on how bad it rode, then put it in the air to check the suspension, bearings, ball joints, etc. etc. No need. When the truck was up he immediately spotted a bubble and another tire separation with one of the other tires.

I'm sure if someone were to Google, "issues with (fill in the tire brand here)..." there would be pages upon pages of complaints. And a couple people I trust have lots of good things to say about the Nittos. So I would prefer to turn this thread into a simple thanks to Discount Tire. My local guys were kinda dumbfounded about the issues I was having, but the proof is there and they acknowledged that for whatever reason that rubber and my truck just don't mesh. Plus, we all agreed that the safety of me and my family is an undeniable concern.

They didn't ask any questions and simply moved directly into getting me into some new rubber. I had them mounted today - fingers crossed!!

My 2015 Chevy 2500 HD has had Nittos since it was rolled out of the dealership. Terra Grappler, Ridge Grappler, Recon Grappler, all rode and wore great with a rotation every time the oil was changed. The truck has a 6.5" lift with 20 inch rims and 37" tires. My Duramax is deleted and highly tuned and I tow heavy loads at times. Nitto has been the best tire for me that I have ever run. After reading this thread I am hoping that doesn't change.

I just put my 3rd set of Exo Grapplers on my '11 F250 6.7L. They balanced easily and are smooth up to 82MPH in the 1st 1500Mi, that's as fast as I've driven them so far.

There is junk that comes out of EVERY factory.
What are the odds that 4 tires bought at the same time DIDNT come from the same batch?
A couple may have been built by the same guy on the same machine.

No, but I did put them on my 1 ton Ram and hated them. They were really squishy especially around curves and under heavy load. I took them off and put them on a 3/4 ton GMC and they seem to do better there, but no load is on them. I put Toyo Open Country RT Trail/s on the Ram. Much prefer them especially when towing our 16,000 lbs. trailer.