Before you Buy: Hybrid-Terrain or R/T Tire Breakdown!

Back in the days of myth and lore of 2014ish, there were only three choices when it came to light truck tires: Highway-Terrains (which aren’t a choice at all, if we’re being honest), All-Terrains, and Mud-Terrains. It was a simpler time of absolutes and easy choices. Then Hybrid-Terrain Tires came along and had to ruin everything. The old cogers decry this new world of LTs, "Now LT tires exist on a spectrum and a tire can just DECIDE what kind of tire it is! It’s the end of western civilization as we know it!" Calm down, gramps. Hybrid Tires actually fill a pretty big niche that was missing in the LT tire market, and they've become some of our personal go-tos for our personal trucks and Project Builds.

What is a Hybrid-Terrain Tire?
A hybrid tire, by definition...actually doesn’t have a specific definition. The US Tire Manufacturer’s Association doesn’t actually have a definition for what actually constitutes a hybrid tire, and to be fair to them, Hybrid-Terrain and R/T tires are still a pretty new thing. In general, a Hybrid-Terrain Tire is a tire that has elements of both a standard All-Terrain Tire and Mud-Terrain Tire and tries to bridge the gap between A/Ts and M/Ts. The goal of most Hybrid-Terrain truck tires is to get close to the on-road ride quality of an All-Terrain while still keeping the off-road traction and grip of a Mud-Terrain. Let’s face it, the gap between a lot of A/Ts and M/Ts in regards to their respective roles is absolutely massive in a lot of cases, and Hybrid-Terrain Tires make a lot of sense for folks who need a tire that has more grip than your typical All-Terrain but a better daily drive than a Mud-Terrain.

Hybrid-Terrain Tire Design
So what exactly does "taking elements of both" actually mean? There’s a few differences in specifics of how Hybrid-Terrain tires are designed, but in general, they take the closely-packed tread pattern of an All-Terrain tire and stick on the center line of the tire and use the large shoulder lugs and lug spacing of a Mud-Terrain on their shoulders to create a tire that has less noise on the street than a true Mud-Terrain, but a lot more off-road traction than your typical All-Terrain tire. These is some variation is Hybrid-Terrain design, with some being closer to the A/T end of the spectrum and others being closer to the M/T end.

Our much-beloved (if expensive) Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ P3 and my new personal favorite Falken Wildpeak A/T3W are closer to the A/T side of things. They have a closely-packed center tread, and while their shoulder lugs are much bigger and widely spaced than their A/T counterparts, they aren’t approaching the same aggressiveness as a true M/T. Both these tires manage to stay extremely quiet on the street, but are much more capable off-road than an A/T. Granted, these tires really need to be aired down to maximize the grip of those shoulder lugs off-road. We’ve run the Baja ATZs on both our 2012 F150 EcoBoost and our 2015 Desert Runner Project, while the Falken A/T3Ws made it onto our 2018 Budget Build for a brief spell, 2015 F150 XLT, and my own 2011 F150 XL Work Truck and have performed admirably in all sorts of conditions.

Closer to the M/T side of things are the Nitto Ridge Grappler R/T and the Toyo Open Country R/T. The Ridge Grapplers feature a unique interior tread design that’s not seen on any of their other tires and is pretty aggressive compared to Nitto’s Terra Grappler A/Ts. The Ridge Grappler’s shoulder lugs, however, are ripped straight off a Nitto Trail Grappler M/T and gives the Ridge Grappler massive amounts of grip. The only downside in this case is that the Ridge Grapplers tend to be a bit louder on the street than the more A/T-skewed Hybrids on the market. We used a set of Ridge Grapplers on our 2012 Expedition build, and they worked wonderfully. The Toyo Open Country R/Ts also have a pretty unique chevron-style design that’s not seen on any of Toyo’s other tires. The shoulder lugs of the R/Ts are quite beefy, but they really need to be aired down quite a bit in order to get the necessary bite. We used the Toyo R/Ts on our 2013 F150 5.0L SuperCab Project and were very happy with how they handled on the street and their traction once they were aired down.

Which Hybrid-Terrain Tire Should I Choose?
As with most things, your choice of Hybrid Terrain tires is going to depend on more than one factor. One of the biggest challenges when it comes to Hybrid-Terrain tires is sizing. A lot of Hybrid tires are still fairly new and many manufacturers don’t have a wide size selection as of yet. So, if you have a particular size in mind, you’ll need to research carefully before getting your heart set on a particular Hybrid-Terrain tire.

Budget is also a big factor, and some Hybrid-Terrains come in at a much lower price point than others. The Falken WildPeak A/T3Ws are arguably some of the best bang-for-your-buck tires that you can find thanks to their low prices and excellent performance. However, if you are trying to get closer to an M/T, the Nitto Ridge Grapplers and Toyo R/Ts are going to be a bit on the pricey side.

As far as individual tire choice goes, that’s going to depend on what you're looking for. If you’re looking for as quiet of a street ride as possible, the A/T skewed hybrids are probably your best bet, with the Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ and Falken A/T3Ws being the front runners, though the Toyo R/T also manages to be pretty tame. If you’re more concerned about off-road traction in sticky situations, then the Nitto Ridge Grapplers are probably your best bet.

Really, you can’t go wrong with a Hybrid-Terrain tire. They offer a very nice balance between basic A/Ts and M/Ts and fill in the gulf between the two that was, at times, extremely wide.