By now, Tire Rack has cemented itself as the go-to place for not only purchasing tires online but reviewing them as well. The brand has extensive tests for fuel economy, handling, and wet road performance, but one area has always eluded them: off-road.
Off-road testing tires proved to be a challenge, as it is hard to repeat the same test. Conditions change with each pass over an obstacle, and excessive testing on a single obstacle off-road can render it unrecognizable due to wear from the start of a test to the end. Add to that challenge a long list of capable tires that specialize in anything from rock crawling to mud bogging, and you can see why Tire Rack has not been testing off-road tires until now.
Testing Methodology
Tire Rack has had a long history of testing tires and has built a standard process for all its tests. With the unique challenge of testing off-road, Tire Rack had to come up with a new way to critique tires.
TJ Campbell, tire information and testing manager, and Brent Rollins, assistant tire information and testing manager, partnered with the team at Treadwell Research Park to find ways to test all-terrain tires off-road.
When the dust settled, the team decided on three criteria in which they could measure, evaluate, and deliver subjective results: acceleration traction, steering traction and response, and rear axle traction and stability. Here are the key takeaways.
Off-Road All-Terrain: BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO3
In my time reviewing vehicles both on road and off, one tire brand has really stood out as the go-to when it comes to a quality off-road tire: BFGoodrich. The new K03 serves as a benchmark for off-road all-terrain performance. The KO3 delivers balanced grip and confidence across varied loose surfaces. In Tire Rack’s Badlands Park outing, it showed solid traction and stability from hill climbs to tight dirt loops, earning the best overall impression among the group of tires in the initial test.
Off-Road Maximum Traction: BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3
My normal battery of off-road testing does not typically include mud, but when it rains enough, the red East Texas dirt turns not to mud but glue. I have noted that some vehicles I have tested off-road would have performed much better, under the specific testing conditions, with a better mud-focused tire to better expel the terrain from between treads.
The BFG Mud-Terrain KM3 tires are built for the toughest terrain enthusiasts. The KM3 digs in deep and has the grit to claw through challenging ground. In the off-road test, it proved tough and capable, though it was understandably less planted on hard-packed surfaces compared with the other tires. There are trade-offs for specialized performance.
On-Road All-Terrain: Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent
All-terrain tires are asked to do a lot. From hauling the kids to school, making grocery runs, being comfortable and not noisy on road-trips, all the way to doing everything the driver wants to do off the pavement. All-terrains are the Swiss Army Knife of off-road tires.
Leaning more on the civilized side, the Dueler A/T Ascent performed best on firmer and packed surfaces. Off-road, it lagged behind the more aggressive options in loose rock, sand, and dirt, but held its own where traction was more predictable.
Rugged All-Terrain: Nitto Ridge Grappler
All-Terrain tires do come in many flavors and can dial up whether they are more suited for mall crawling or rock crawling, but there will always be trade-offs.
Positioned between a true all-terrain and a mud tire, the Ridge Grappler turned in a middle-of-the-road performance. It matched competitive traction on some surfaces but showed less sharpness in steering and lower rear-axle stability on loose terrain, highlighting its true dual-purpose nature.
Will You Use These Results?
Now, having a more standard way to compare tires off-road with back-to-back testing to subjectively compare, are you more likely to switch which tire you buy next? As a millennial, I do tons of online research before I make any big or long-term purchase, and having yet another tool in my toolbelt for validating tires in some of my favorite conditions is definitely a net positive.
The post Best Off-Road Tires for Trucks? Tire Rack Tests All-Terrain and Mud-Terrain Options appeared first on Pickup Truck +SUV Talk.
