Given
78%
while driving a
Land Rover Defender
(265/75 R16 S) on
mostly country roads
for 100
average miles
First review of these tires as only had them for a few days. I have been a 4x4 instructor, Advanced Vehicle Control trainer and BORDA Specialist Trainer for over 20 years (as well as a 4x4 competitor for nearly 30 years). I have access to an off-road site where I have used many tires on many different vehicles so while no objective (measured) data I have a wide range of subjective testing on the same ground. I have had various BFG AT tires as my 'road' tires on the 90 for about 9 years, I've also had Cooper ST, Insa Turbo Mountain (old Yoko AT pattern) as well as the good old BFG Trac Edge. On my previous LR's I've had Pirelli Scorpion, Falken AT.
My first impressions on the road are that these Nokian are better in wet grip than the BFG with much less tendency to aquaplane and they have greater breaking capability before they slide in the wet. Dry there is not as large a difference but braking feels better. The Cooper ST has better aquaplaning resistance than the BFG but less than these Nokians. I am very aware of confirmation bias (i.e. I just spent lots on these tires and they must therefore be awesome!) and as a trainer I spent a lot of time trying to ensure I don't.
Off-Road at our woodland site we have clay based topsoil, shale/shillet subsoil as well as woodland mulch with steep hillsides. The BFG AT is pretty rubbish to he honest as the tread fills up with soil and turns into a slick. Most modern AT's do the same on our site as they are too small on the voids but this is the way of the world (noise regs etc). These Nokians are more towards the aggressive side surprisingly (and a recent foray into a tire place suggests this to be the case for most new AT's).
I tested them briefly at the site today, wet, muddy and pretty much a very common set of conditions. The Nokians drove pretty well within expectations pulling along well and actually clearing better than expected (and better than the BFG's ever do). I tried them on one of our nastiest hills "Surf's Up" and they went up better than I thought they would. Note that this hill can be a struggle with diamonds (the remould pattern looks like a diamond but is called so many other names) and BFG KM3 don't like it at all in these conditions.
Overall these tires performed well for an AT and better than most at our site. Their main weakness (as many AT's) are their lack of bite for getting out of ruts. However, even the BFG ATKO struggles out of our muddy ruts of more than about 1 inch high. The sidewalls of the Nokian are 2 ply with a kevlar like compound, most AT's are 2 ply but the BFG, General Grabber and Cooper have 3 ply meaning they can cope with airing down the tire better in general.