SUV and Truck Tire Review

Finding the best tire tests

Part of our three-part series on tires, this report covers all-season and all-terrain tires for SUVs and light trucks. We have a separate report on tires for cars, as well as a report on snow tires, which includes winter tires for all vehicle types.

TireRack.com is a retail website that sells tires, but its staff also conducts rigorous tire tests and hosts head-to-head comparisons, using roads, racetracks, highways and even ice rinks to grade tires. We are impressed by the editors' comprehensive knowledge and by the fact that they release negative results about the products they sell. However, TireRack.com does not test as many SUV tires and truck tires as it does car tires, and staffers don't perform any off-road, mud or loaded-truck testing.

TireRack.com encourages owners to rate SUV and truck tires, and editors compile these ratings into detailed tables that rank the tires from best to worst within each category (all-season, all-terrain, etc). These surveys are more current and comprehensive than TireRack.com's expert tests, but they still do not include extreme mud tires. The best sources of reviews for those are two enthusiast magazines, Petersen's 4Wheel & Off-Road and Four Wheeler. Both publications evaluate mud tires in swampy, hilly mud pits. See our What to Look For page for more on mud tires.

By far the most thorough, expert and unbiased source of tire ratings is ConsumerReports.org. Editors test 34 all-season and all-terrain tires for light trucks and SUVs on dry, wet, snowy and icy roads. Each tire's braking ability, hydroplaning resistance and snow traction is measured, and editors judge each tire's quietness, comfort and handling feel. ConsumerReports.org is one of the few sources that tests tires' rolling resistance, or the amount of drag they create; less drag can result in better fuel economy.

Not content to take manufacturers' treadwear ratings at face value, ConsumerReports.org conducts its first accelerated-wear tests of light truck and SUV tires during its most recent evaluation. The results show substantial differences between the tires -- and sometimes, the manufacturers' treadwear ratings are wildly out of sync with ConsumerReports.org's findings.

That said, experts caution buyers against choosing tires solely because they'll be long-lasting or boost fuel economy. Sometimes, those good qualities come at the expense of safety. For example, the all-terrain General Grabber AT2 is rated in the top 2 percent of all tires for tread life at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it carries a 60,000-mile tread-life warranty. In one top test, though, the Grabber AT2 gets the worst scores for braking on any surface -- including dry roads. Another durable all-terrain tire, the Goodyear Wrangler SilentArmor, carries a 50,000-mile tread-life warranty and gets high marks for treadwear in reviews, but a leading test shows it brakes poorly on ice.

Our research did turn up a few tires that combine good performance with decent tread life, including the Best Reviewed all-season General Grabber HTS (*Est. $165) and all-terrain Pirelli Scorpion ATR (*Est. $175). However, note that there is no perfect tire in reviews. Even the top-rated General and Pirelli models do only a fair job braking on ice in one expert test.

Unless otherwise noted, our price estimates for truck tires and SUV tires are based on a tire size of 245/70-17 (or the next-closest size, such as a 245/65 or 235/70 when 245/70 is not available). These sizes are found as original equipment on popular models such as the Honda Pilot and Toyota Highlander SUVs, as well as the Ford F-150 pickup truck.