The Off-Road Expo in Costa Mesa, California, provided Expedition Portal with the opportunity to meet with Hankook Dynapro Tire and one of their tire experts, Andrew Dunn, to discuss the rugged terrain tire category, while taking a close look at the Dynapro XT as an example.
Presented by Hankook Dynapro Tire
Rugged terrain (RT) tires have filled the broad gap between more road-biased all-terrain (AT) tires and aggressive off-road mud-terrain (MT) tires. The challenge has been to combine the aggressive capabilities of an MT with the quieter and more comfortable road characteristics of an AT.
In developing the Dynapro XT rugged terrain tire, Hankook faced the challenge of creating a do-it-all off-road tire that is also quiet and comfortable on pavement. The solution came through technology and computer-aided design. They used their “Pitch Variation Technology” to design the tread pattern in such a way that it absorbs or cancels out the road noise that it makes. Softer shoulder blocks and special compounds on the face of the tire tread help make the design quiet by absorbing vibrations while maintaining enough durability for Hankook to support the XT with a 50,000-mile warranty.
This category has become a great solution for a variety of vehicle models, terrain environments, and use cases, from overlanding to aggressive rock crawling.
