All-terrain Tires

Pirelli Scorpion ATR best for off-roading

The Pirelli Scorpion ATR (*Est. $175) is the best all-terrain tire, according to reviews. Experts say it handles both wet and dry roads very well, and it doesn't balk at the introduction of loose dirt or gravel, either. Tests show the Scorpion ATR is one of the longest-wearing all-terrain tires you can buy (backed up by its 50,000-mile tread-life warranty), and it's competitively priced.

Testers say the Scorpion ATR is quiet and comfortable on the highway, and it's aggressive enough for any off-road excursions most drivers will attempt. A photo in Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road magazine shows a Jeep fitted with Scorpion ATRs negotiating a nearly vertical slope in the Nevada desert. At Four Wheeler magazine, reviewer Jimmy Nylund notes that the Scorpion ATR isn't great on sand or real mud. However, he praises its "impeccable road manners" and says it can handle tougher situations than most of the pickups and SUVs that will wear it.

A freak hail and ice storm doesn't faze the Pirelli Scorpion ATR, reviewer Jil McIntosh finds when she tests the tire at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Canadian website Autos.ca. The Pirelli has no problem holding a Hummer on a steep, muddy hill, either. McIntosh's trail test through Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada never really strays from the gravel, but McIntosh points out that for the most part, neither do most light truck and SUV drivers.

While they have mostly good things to say, critics do find some flaws with the Pirelli Scorpion ATR. Its rolling resistance is among the worst in one test, a quality that could hurt gas mileage. The Scorpion ATR is also not the best on winter roads; tests show it gets good snow traction, but it's only fair at braking on ice. Some owners also say that the Scorpion ATR's winter traction worsens as the tire ages. Still, experts say no all-terrain tire really distinguishes itself in harsh winters. Dedicated winter tires are a better choice.

Consumers posting user reviews at 1010Tires.com prefer a different roadworthy all-terrain tire, the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo 2 (*Est. $215). They rate it higher than the Pirelli Scorpion ATR in every on-road category (wet, dry and snow performance, as well as handling, comfort, noise and treadwear). Customers at TireRack.com also rate the Revo 2 slightly higher than the Pirelli Scorpion ATR, especially on snow and ice. However, although this tire hit the market in late summer 2009, experts had not yet tested it as of this update.

Its predecessor, the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo, ranks just below the Pirelli Scorpion ATR in one on-road expert test, with slightly better snow performance than the Pirelli, but it falls a bit behind on wet and dry roads. The new A/T Revo 2 features new sidewall and tread designs that Bridgestone says will improve wet, snow and off-road traction, as well as rolling resistance and quietness. Passenger-metric sizes carry a 50,000-mile treadwear warranty, but light truck-metric sizes (which have a different tread compound designed to resist off-road damage) include no treadwear warranty. Unlike the Pirelli, we found no expert tests that take either of the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revos off-road.

Neither did we find any expert tests, either on- or off-road, of the BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO (*Est. $170). It's a favorite of users who post reviews at Epinions.com and TiresTest.com, where owners from all over the world report that it is long-wearing for its class (although it carries no treadlife warranty). Customers at TireRack.com give the BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO excellent or outstanding scores across the board, but they say it's still not quite as quiet, comfortable or capable on wet or dry roads as the Pirelli Scorpion ATR and Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo 2, and they rank it behind those tires overall. More than 200 off-road enthusiasts at Offroaders.com award the All Terrain T/A KO a solid, but not great, average score of between 7 and 8 stars out of 10. They say it's terrific for the type of terrain it's meant for -- pavement, dirt, gravel, moderate mud and rocks -- but reviewers here tend to prefer more aggressive mud tires (discussed below).

Two less-aggressive all-terrain tires get a couple of nods apiece from reviewers. The BFGoodrich Rugged Terrain T/A (*Est. $200) is a new tire designed for people who mainly drive their trucks and SUVs on-road, but who venture off-road now and then -- for example, for hikers, dirt bikers or ATV riders who need to reach the trail head. Early tests at Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road and Off-Road.com find the Rugged Terrain T/A quiet on the highway and capable on dirt and gravel roads, rocky slopes, shallow streams and snow. However, other experts and owners have had no opportunity to test this new tire yet.

Likewise, the Nitto Terra Grappler (*Est. $170) is better suited to highway use with only occasional off-roading, reviews say. The Terra Grappler is designed to be quieter and more comfortable on-road than other all-terrain tires, with better wet and dry traction. Epinions.com users say the Nitto Terra Grappler grips well in snow, ice and rain as a commuter tire, while holding its own in occasional jaunts through the dirt and mud. Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road magazine's Ali Mansour likes it -- not as an off-road tire, but as a highway tire on the truck he uses to haul his off-road rig wherever he's going. Ultimately, however, reviews prefer the top-rated Pirelli Scorpion ATR overall; it's capable on- and off-road, and it's backed by a strong  treadwear warranty while the Nitto has none.

Mud tires

Mud tires are best for extreme driving on large rocks and in deep mud. Mud tires are not suitable for most drivers because they're louder and ride more harshly than all-season or all-terrain tires on paved roads. Some are greatly oversized to increase their ability to go over rocks and ruts, which raises a vehicle's center of gravity and makes the vehicle more prone to tipping over in normal driving.

One exception is the Goodyear Wrangler MT/R with Kevlar (*Est. $195). It impresses experts and owners not only with its rock-crawling, mud-bogging and sand-floating prowess, but also with its surprisingly mild highway manners and capable traction on dry, wet, snowy and icy roads. It comes in normal (not monster) sizes, too.

Goodyear reinforces the sidewalls with Kevlar, the same material that's in bulletproof vests. Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road magazine finds it performs "exceptionally well" in deep mud and soft sand, and it crawls sharp rocks with ease. "Not one of our new Wrangler tires failed or experienced a sidewall tear after a day of wheeling tough terrain in the Mojave Desert," says reviewer Kevin McNulty. At Off-Road.com, the MT/R with Kevlar performs "flawlessly" during a full day of steep rock climbing on the Moab Rim Trail. This tire also shines in on- and off-road tests at TireRack.com, Truck Trend and Four Wheeler magazine, where it places second in a test of 10 mud tires.

"The MT/R [with Kevlar] is the do-all tire that Goodyear claims it to be," Four Wheeler concludes. "It's like having both an aggressive mud-terrain and a mild-mannered all-terrain wrapped up in one attractive package."

The surprise winner of Four Wheeler's shootout, the Hankook Dynapro MT RT03 (*Est. $210), outshines the Goodyear MT/R with Kevlar on mud in that test. It's a surprise, testers say, because the Hankook's chevron-shaped treads look "simplistic, even retro by today's standards," and testers were afraid the relatively closely spaced tread blocks would gum up with mud. But they didn't. The Hankook "absolutely schooled all the other tread patterns in terms of traction" on a slippery, two-mile, mud-test loop in the rain and had a smooth street ride.

In a test at Off-Road.com, the Hankook Dynapro MT RT03 handles slippery New England mud and the rocky Golden Stairs slope at Moab, Utah, and covers the 5,000 highway miles in between

smoothly and fairly quietly. "To put it in perspective, you can talk on your cell phone at 80 mph with the windows up and still hear who you're talking to," reviewer Rob Sutter writes. The Hankook Dynapro MT RT03 performs well enough on mud and rocks to satisfy reviewers at Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road magazine. Owners rate it nearly as highly as the Goodyear MT/R with Kevlar at Offroaders.com; the Hankook's average rating is 8.23 out of 10, versus 9 out of 10 for the Goodyear, and the Hankook gets more reviews. But less is known about the Hankook's real-world, on-road performance. People who post at Offroaders.com concentrate mainly on off-road performance, and the Hankook Dynapro MT RT03 isn't included in TireRack.com's valuable on-road owner-ratings charts.

Petersen's 4Wheel & Off Road rounds up five mud tires for its shootout, and the Dick Cepek Mud Country (*Est. $240) places second. "No matter if it was a dead stop, a low-speed pass, or a high-rev plunge, the tires worked well and slung dirt consistently throughout the test," editors write. It finishes behind the $260 Mickey Thompson Baja MTZ Radial, "but just lacked that little bit of mud prowess to edge out our number one." (The Mickey Thompson tire is not a top pick of any of our other sources.) Owners at Offroaders.com also count the Dick Cepek Mud Country as one of their favorite off-road tires, but we found little information about this aggressive tire's on-road behavior.

Finishing fourth in Four Wheeler's mud-tire test is the Nitto Trail Grappler M/T (*Est. $245), with above average (but not outstanding) performance in mud. It pleases testers at Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road on a small rock pile and loose, sandy hills, growling on the highway but with no irritating drone. Owners at Offroaders.com love this pricey tire off-road, but a few say it feels unstable on the freeway.

Landing at the bottom of Four Wheeler's mud-tire test are the eighth-place BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 (*Est. $220), ninth-place Pro Comp Xtreme Mud Terrain (*Est. $275) and 10th-place Maxxis M8060 Trepador (*Est. $410). Despite their high prices, all of these tires slip, spin or otherwise disappoint Four Wheeler's testers in the mud. They all do better in rock-crawling tests at Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road, though, and the BFGoodrich tire earns the highest scores in its class for on-road performance in owner reviews at TireRack.com.

Another mud tire that gets high marks for on-road behavior is the Firestone Destination M/T (*Est. $210). This specialized Firestone tire handles mud, rocks, snow and rain, according to owner reviews at TireRack.com and Offroaders.com. David Freiburger of Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road magazine runs Destination M/Ts on his own Dodge Ram 2500 and reports no problems on dirt, gravel, mud, snow or mild rocks. Although it gets compliments for looking particularly tough, the Firestone Destination M/T comes in normal (not monster) sizes.

The Pit Bull Maddog (*Est. $295) gets mixed reviews, despite its steep price. The bias-ply version is a favorite of owners at Offroaders.com, and an expert at Four Wheeler magazine finds it quiet on-road and great on the trail. Off-Road.com likes the radial version on sharp rocks and snowy trails. But testers at Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road find the bias-ply Maddog way too stiff on rocks, "a bit of a dog" in the mud and -- like the radial version -- howlingly loud on the highway.