Injora Kraken Claw MT

Injora Kraken Claw m/T Crawler Tires

Dropping into Badrock Ridge for another round of testing.

Injora RC’s ever expanding product line has been further bolstered by the addition of new tires in a variety of styles, tread patterns, and wheel sizes.

We’ve tested Injora crawler tires in the past and found them to be quite lacking on our terrain. With their new lineup of tires fresh on the market featuring updated rubber compounds, we felt it was time to give this brand another look to see if there’s been any improvement.

Sifting through their options, we opted to try a set of their new Kraken Claw Mud Terrain tires.

Aggressively styled with a robust tread pattern looking nearly identical to the Ottsix Racing KLR’s, the Kraken Claws ( KC ) clearly stand out as a mud tire, even though they have “Crawler Tires” molded into the sidewall.

Most likely a dual-use design tire, it's assumed by the manufacturer to be reasonably at home in either terrain? Maybe?

We’ve seen other mud tires such as the Pro-Line Racing Super Swampers do well on our terrain, so there’s a reasonable expectation that the KC’s should be able to handle both the smooth sandstone and technical trails of Badrock Ridge as well as some of the moderately challenging trails of Leclerc Rock.

Inspection Notes

Pulling the KCs out from the packing material, they distinctly look like a carbon copy of the Ottsix KLR’s, which are really just RC versions of the USD Sticky 1:1 rock bouncing tire. The KC’s appear to be perfectly suited to mud, loose rock, and just about any extreme off-road terrain. But dry desert terrain? I'm not so sure.

Handling the KCs, I was struck by the dry and slightly gritty feel to the rubber compound. It’s overly pronounced, but it’s there. There is almost no sticky aspect to the tires, but they are quite soft.

Interestingly, they are soft enough to twist and squish around in your hands, but they barely pick up stray bits of lint or dust from the work bench. The KC's have the same texture feel of a regular rubber band.

Ready to get things rolling.

The inside of the carcass is lined with ribs to support the chunky tread pattern.

The main tread pattern is a directional series of lug wedges, molded into a V-pattern running down from the crown of the tire, meeting on the centerline with a staggered layout. The large lugs are siped in a checked pattern, with smaller lugs in between the larger lugs, functioning somewhat as rock ejectors.

Looking inside the tire, Injora has molded a series of thin ribs under the main flat of the carcass in order to support the thick lugs wrapping around the outside of the tire. While the idea is sound, using ribs to support a possibly too thin of a carcass can be problematic. I’ve never felt molded in ribbing does an adequate job in supporting a large lug pattern. They tend to either make the tire too stiff, or fall short of adequately supporting the tread, and these are pretty small ribs.

Wrapping around the side of the tire, the chunky tread pattern continues down the side a little more than halfway to the wheel. It's a good design in that lugs of this nature help paddle through soft sand or hook into the side of a rock wall for additional traction.

Connecting the tire to the wheel, the KC has a well-formed tire bead featuring a distinct step for proper engagement with the wheel’s clamping ring.

The molding of the name and company is present on the tire, but lacks the crisp, bold lines commonly found on Pro-Line Racing or JConcepts tires. Not an important detail, but it’s something we noticed.

With the inspection complete, we punched three small venting holes in each tire and then installed a set of the Crawler Innovations 4.5” two-stage foams, comp cut.

From there, we mounted the tires up on a set of aluminum beadlock wheels and prepared the Vanquish VS 410 for some trail time with the KC's.

Aggressive tread pattern and styling from Injora.

Ready to start the day with our VS 410 Pro.

VS 410 Pro

Hitting the trail on an overcast day, we had the VS 410 cruising along in some unusually mild weather conditions. Looking forward to a great day on the trail, we were excited to see just what these KC’s could handle.

Starting up the east side of Kong trail at Badrock Ridge, we tackled a moderately steep block of sandstone to get things going.

The VS 410 was doing a bit more slipping and sliding than anticipated, but with the tires being new, we figured there might be a little break-in time needed for them to settle down.

After some fishing around to find the right line, the VS 410 steadily made its way up and around the corner, but we were sliding around quite a bit.

Something didn’t feel right with this setup, and by looking at the tires, I was starting to wonder if the foam setup was right for this truck’s weight. The KC's weren't conforming much or flexing to wrap around the rock. It felt as if the tires were floating on top of the rock rather than crawling.

It was odd thought in that we usually run the Crawler Innovations 4.5”s two-stage foams on this truck with no issues, but today the truck felt very loose.

We crawled a bit more, but simple spots on the trail continued to challenge one of our most capable straight-axled crawlers in the fleet.

Rather than carrying on with this crawl, I opted to call it a day and head back to the shop and check to see if something was amiss with the suspension or some other gremlin I’ve overlooked.

Later that day I looked the VS 410 over and found nothing out of place or damaged, thus leaving me to believe that this tire and foam setup is just not suited to the VS 410.

Squishing the tires, the foams felt compliant with plenty of give on the first stage of the foam, but I could feel the thick rubber lugs resist bending.

We struggled a bit with the VS 410 Pro on this section of trail.

We've encountered this before with a few other tires, in that they feel soft and flexible in your hands, but the large blocks of rubber forming the tread pattern resists bending. So rather than having a smooth flexing of the entire surface of the tire, you have small spots where the carcass flexes in between the lug pattern. This typically results in poor, loose traction, and that was precisely what we are seeing with the VS 410.

The TRX-4 2021 Bronco is looking good for the photos.

TRX-4 2021 Bronco

Right around this time we had swapped out the factory motor and ESC from our 2021 Bronco and installed a new Hobbywing Fusion Pro. We were anxious to get it out on the trail for some testing, so we pulled the KC's from the VS 410 Pro and setting them up on the 2021 Bronco.

With the tires mounted, we headed out to Badrock Ridge for the first round of testing.

Working our way around the trail, the KC’s felt at home on the heavier TRX-4 as we covered some loose rock and chunky debris. The tall lugs on the tire have a paddle-like characteristic, greatly enhancing their traction in loose terrain. There was a bit of slipping on the larger rock chunks, but with locked diffs and in low gear, the Bronco continued towards the sandstone formations with little trouble.

Once the KC’s touched a large sandstone formation at the start of a moderately steep line, the traction troubles began.

With other tires such as the OEM Canyon Trails, the TRX-4 would cruise right up this section of with no issues, but the KC’s couldn’t sort out the slick sandstone surface.

Not only was the Bronco struggling to make it up the rock, but it was also sliding off to the lower off-camber side of the trail. At first, I thought I had just taken a bad line on the trail, but after a few more attempts, I continued to struggle for traction in a spot where I had never encountered trouble before.

Looking closer, the driver's side tires were sliding off a small rounded edge of the rock. The rock there is fresh and dry, and is a relatively sedate trail feature that trucks skip right past without pause.

Perfect weather for testing.

We opted to take a moment to set up the GoPro and capture some footage of the tires slipping in this section of trail.

As you can see, the rubber compound doesn’t have any bite or hold to grab the rock’s surface.

If this is to be an indication as to how the KC's were going to perform at Badrock, it’s was going to be a long and tedious afternoon.

Heading on down the trail, we chose parts of the trail featuring a moderate incline where the Bronco should have a much easier time navigating the obstacles. In these sections, the Bronco moved along smoothly with the KC's and enjoyed a much improved level of success on the sandstone.

Entering a new section of trail, we swept around the far side of a slick sandstone formation which features a climb we've tested numerous tires on.

Making our first attempt towards the top, we could see that the lug height was far too tall in relation to the thickness of the tire carcass.

Rather than gripping the rock, the tall lugs would fold back into the thin carcass and slip from the rock's surface. This slipping was further complicated by the lack of stickiness to rubber compound.

It took a few attempts to finally reach the top, and I was starting to see that the KC's were just not up to the challenge our terrain presents. At this point it was also becoming clear that the difficulties we had with these tires on the VS 410 were not due to the truck’s light weight or foam setup. Looks like these tires might not be so good for desert terrain.

Moving on to the next spot, we decided to tackle a rough section of trail which is part of High Line trail system.

This particular part features an ascending series of rocky steps, perfectly suited for portal axles or high clearance crawlers. The rock is rough and heavily weathered, offering a good level of traction for the tires to grip.

As anticipated, the rock’s surface worked well with the KC’s, allowing for an easy passage of the Bronco up to the higher regions of trail.

Once at the trailhead for High Line, we opted to swing off to the right and continue exploring some of the more “trail oriented” terrain.

The Bronco felt great when scaling small boulders or tilted slabs of rock, but once things turned steep, the struggles for traction became a bit overwhelming.

After calling it a day about an hour later, we had some mixed feelings about the KC's. At times the tires would perform well enough to get the Bronco up some steep terrain, but they just couldn't handle the majority of technical challenges on the trail.

Large slabs of sandstone felt slick when in reality they were not, and this puzzling side-hill slipping continued to surface.

We had a hard time sticking to this rock.

We ended up going back to Badrock a few times the following week just to see if there was something we missed or may have overlooked about performance, but nothing about our assessment was changing. In moderate trails, the KC's were well at home on the Bronco, but the technical rock formations were proving to be too much.

Gatekeeper giving these tires a go at Leclerc Rock

Leclerc Formation

After a marginal performance on the Bronco, we pulled the wheels and tires and mounted them on our Element Gatekeeper rock crawler build.

The Gatekeeper has been a solid build for rock crawling, functioning as a highly capable open-wheel trail buggy with the ability to handle tight spots and technical terrain.

Once we had the KC’s setup and ready to go, we headed out early one morning to get a first look at these tires on Leclerc’s challenging limestone formation.

We found a few moderately difficulty trails around the east side of the rock formation and setup the camera to film a bit of the action.

In the two accompanying videos, you can see a slight shudder and twitchiness in the Gatekeeper as the tire’s lugs pop free from the eroded rock surface.

You will also see how the tires don’t want to flex or conform to the terrain, even though the foams are plenty soft.

The Gatekeeper struggled on the basics with the Kraken Claws.

At times the Gatekeeper would cruise along the trail is relative ease, but the KC's continued to float and pop across the rock rather than digging in for some traction.

Even small obstacles like fractured slabs were just too difficult for the Gatekeeper to scale. Any time there was an under-hook that the rear tires butted up against, the front tires were unable to grip the rock and pull the truck up and over.

It's especially odd in that this rock is so rough and weathered that traction should be in excess and not as fleeting as it seemed to be.

Near the end of our second day of testing at Leclerc, I was ready to end our evaluation of the KC’s.

As much as I wanted them to work on the Gatekeeper, they suffered the same issues as we with the VS 410 and Bronco; they could handle only moderately technical terrain.

It's disappointing in that this trail system at Leclerc is highly enjoyable, but if you can even get to the top of the first trail, there's not much to do other than enjoy the view.

I didn’t see any reason to fool with the VS 410 Pro for additional testing, but rather I set the Gatekeeper back up on the workbench and ended up removing the tires from the wheels. Most likely the KC’s will end up on one of the U4RC 1.9” rock racers in the fleet.

This is as far as we got with the Bronco.

Final Thoughts

This is one of the few times we cut the tire testing short for a review. Crawling our trails was quite frustrating in that trails we were able to pass with a number of different tire and crawler combinations just weren’t possible with the Kraken Claws. After testing on the third crawler from the fleet and continuing to struggle on the trail, we felt it was time to throw in the towel.

Injora has improved the fit and finish of their crawler tires, but the rubber quality remains quite low, and being soft isn’t the same as being sticky. This rubber has almost no gripping characteristic on rock, often times allowing the truck to slide off a rock rather than maintain traction. In desert terrain where you can find yourself 20’ off the ground, this is unacceptable.

As for the tire’s design, the carcass is much too thin to support the lug height. The moment the lug meets any substantial resistance, they fold back into the tire and break traction. This design flaw is only compounded by the tire’s lack of stickiness.

In loose terrain or sloppy mud, these tires might be fine, but on anything remotely steep or technical, they come up short on performance.

At some point I expect Injora to get their rubber compound sorted out, but at the time of this writing, they still have some real work to do. The cost of a higher quality rubber may not work with their low pricing structure in that the Kraken Claws retailing for almost half the price of a premium tire. Ultimately, it may be a bridge too far.

Hazards of crawling in the desert.

Injora Kraken Claw 1.9” Evaluation Results

Technical Rock: 17/30

Middling performance of the Kraken Claws results in a mid-level score. There were far too many trails we had to give up on because the KC's wouldn’t stick to the rock, regardless of the testing platform. Their inability to hook and hold position during an ascent made some of our most favorite areas of Badrock inaccessible. At times they would surprise us and get the Bronco up a difficult part of the trail, but these successes were few and far between. Testing at Leclerc was even worse.

Large Slab ( Slick Rock ): 10/20

I feel that a score of 10 is being somewhat generous in that the only truck which could remotely grip a smooth rock was the heavy TRX-4 crawler. Even then that truck struggled in some spots to hold its position on the larger slabs on the trail.

Tire Construction Quality and Appearance: 13/20

Injora has the basic elements covered well enough, but the thin carcass and large lug size causes too many problems by the tire being unable to hold any kind of grip on the rock. The molding details are fair, but nothing pops out as a recognizable trait found on premium tires.

Rubber Compound: 10/20

While soft, the Kraken Claws are quite dry with no sticky feel to them. The rubber quality isn't well suited for technical rock crawling, but rather more so for casual trail driving. Their lack of stickiness greatly hampered their performance on the rocks, resulting in traction problems and holding capability.

Tread Life: 4/5

Other than a bit of peeling around the edges, the tires showed very little sign of wear and tear. They didn’t get nearly the trail time that other tires we evaluate, so keep that in mind for this score.

Versatility: 2/5

The Kraken Claws are best suited for casual trail driving and possibly wet terrain. They are far over matched at both Badrock Ridge and Leclerc Rock, thus limiting their use in our desert terrain.

Total Score: 56/100

Specifications

Injora Kraken Claw M/T Crawler Tire
Part Number: T1912
Tire Compound: INJORA S3 (Super Soft)
Outer Diameter: 122mm (4.8in)
Width: 42mm (1.65in)
Tire Weight: 100g (3.53oz)
Lug Height 0.170”
Directional: Yes
Testing Foam: Crawler Innovations Lil’ Nova 4.5” Soft.

Package List:
4 * 1.9" Tires
4 * Foam Inserts

Publish Date: 9/27/2024