I got new tires for the beast!

[spotdog14]

About to take our annual hunting trip to SoDak and I decided that the tires on the Expedition were not going to make it. After a lot of online review reading and talking with various F-150 owners I finally decided on a set of Goodyear Wrangler SilentArmors. Long story short, national backorder and couldn't order any this year.

So I decided to go with the BFGoodrich Rugged Terrain T/A. My cousin that puts on about 40,000 miles a year on his F-150 said they didn't hold up for him but that was the only negative review I had of them so I took the $902 dive.

I was coming from a set of Bridgestone Dueler H/L's, they were ok, actually they performed off road pretty well for an allseason tire. But I wanted something with a little more beef for the Michigan winters and the offroading I do maybe 4 weeks a year.

Initial, less than 20 mile impressions of the tires. I love them, surprisingly quiet for a A/T tire, very good ride comfort and very good stability and cornering. I'm interested to see how they do in the fields in SoDak and in the snow at home this winter.

Here is a quick picture.

 

[dbovine]

Decent looking Tread design for dual purpose

 

[carlos08]

Good to hear that you like them. I've heard that they are good on pavement but not so off the road.

 

[Edmaude]

I just replaced these on my 08 and got 52k out of them. They did the job, but I would not purchase them again. wet/dry traction was decent even right before I got rid of them. Snow traction was really bad though as they would load up quickly.

 

[MoHawk]

Looking forward to a review

 

[spotdog14]

Alright here is a little mini review after my trip to South Dakota.

I have just over 3,000 miles on them and have been in every condition except for any type of accumulating snow (we just had a dusting one day in SoDak). Overall I would give them a rating at this point of an 8. Ill give a brief description based on how tirerack.com does its surveys:

Wet Traction: 4
This is where I was not impressed at all with the tires. My bald Bridgestone Dual H/L's had better wet traction than the Rugged Terrains. I did hydroplane in a few places but was able to keep it under control.

Cornering Stability: 7
Takes a little getting use to new tires but after I learned how they cornered I was very pleased, I can take almost 90* turns at a reasonable speed and freeway clover leafs are not a problem (unless its raining).

Dry Traction: 10
No problem at all, obviously they grip the pavement great when its dry so ill talk a little about dirt road traction. We were on a lot of dirt roads in SoDak and these are the best tires I have had in recent memory on dirt, very secure not much play going on when you turn but they do throw up a ton of rocks.

Light Snow: 9
Like I said we only had a dusting but I didn't slip at all when we went through a snow covered parking lot.

Deep Snow: N/A

Ice Traction: 8
Nothing is great on ice but as I said above I didn't have any problems slipping anywhere.

Rice Comfort: 9
This is where I was very impressed. Coming from a pure road tire I was expecting a harsher ride but these are a much better ride than the H/L's I just came from.

Noise Comfort: 9
Again very surprised that an all terrain tire had no noticeable increase in road noise from the H/L's I was running. They did get a little loud around 80 mph but nothing bad.


I am very happy with them, we also did a fair amount of offroading in some fields and streams. They did much better than my cousin's F-150 with street tires (I had to pull him out of a creek) and once you get up to speed the treads clear out pretty good. I never got stuck and only had to turn on 4wd once.

Let me know if you guys have any questions.

 

[andrew_s]

Every set of BFG tires I have owned were TERRIBLE on wet roads.

 

[GaryH2]

Spotdog - Did you go with the stock size? Are they the chrome clad 20s?

 

[spotdog14]

Spotdog - Did you go with the stock size? Are they the chrome clad 20s?

Yes, P275/55 R20. I have stock rims.

I was debating on getting a set of 285/55 R20's but decided not to mainly because of price.

 

[Mediamonkey11]

What's "Rice Comfort"? ;-P

 

[montecarlo31]

I wasn't going to post in this because I got stuck with a set of those tires on an explorer I purchased once and they sucked, I couldn't get them off fast enough especially after the first major rain storm I had to drive in. The Rugged Trails were probably about 80-90% when I acquired the explorer but they were, as noted, dangerous in the rain where is really where you want a tire to excel. All other driving experiences were marginal at best.

My BFG ATs were decent in the rain for an A/T until they were about 6/32s then things got hairy. One tire I had good luck with was a cheap set of Nitto Terra Grapplers (LT295/70R17E @ 165 bucks each installed). The Nitto tires were better than the BFG A/T in all situations EXCEPT deep nasty mud where you had to really keep them spinning to clean them. I'm not dumb enough to live where it snows so no good reviews as far as that goes.

 

[spotdog14]

Just a quick update. I have now used these tires in every type of weather condition from back ice to blowing snow to deep snow to diving rain and overall I am very impressed with these tires. I would rate them in the top three best tires I have ever had on a vehicle:

1.) Goodyear Fortera TripTreads
2.) BFG A/T
3.) BFG Rugged Terrain T/A

Here is some snow I was in during the "polar vortex" here in Michigan a while ago.

 

[Mangina]

Decent looking Tread design for dual purpose

+1. They look like they can handle a decent amount of snow.

 

[Sierra Lima1470]

Very nice! I appreciate your updates! When it comes time to replace my tires I will definitely be referencing your thread.

 

[botts]

Just a quick update. I have now used these tires in every type of weather condition from back ice to blowing snow to deep snow to diving rain and overall I am very impressed with these tires. I would rate them in the top three best tires I have ever had on a vehicle:

1.) Goodyear Fortera TripTreads
2.) BFG A/T
3.) BFG Rugged Terrain T/A

Here is some snow I was in during the "polar vortex" here in Michigan a while ago.

By BFG A/T, do you mean the KO tires? I'm looking to upgrade my Pirelli ATRs after getting stuck a couple times.

I've got Nokian Hakkapellitta 7's for winter, so snow traction isn't a huge deal, but I'd love better wear on gravel for hunting season.

How are the BFGs for noise compared to the Pirellis?