Posted by Jason Locke on 5/20/2022 to
Before you Buy
In the days of myths and legend, before the plague times in 2019, a wizened scribe wrote a historical epic digging deep into Hybrid Terrain Tires and why you may want to put them on your truck. A lot has changed in the nearly three years since that article came out in regards to hybrid tires. We've seen one of our most beloved Hybrid Tires get discontinued (RIP Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ P3), but we've also seen a lot more hybrid tires released. What's more interesting is that the line between Hybrid tires and "aggressive" all-terrain tires has gotten a lot more blurry, and many manufacturers are forgoing more classic All-Terrain designs for tread patterns with larger tread blocks, bigger voids, and chunkier shoulders than they had in the past. It's almost as if the first generation of Hybrid Terrain Tires (Baja ATZ, Falken Wildpeak A/T3W, Toyo Open Country R/Ts, Nitto Ridge Grapplers, etc.) have shifted the window on the entire light truck tire market in a pretty big way. If that is the case, what even is a hybrid tire in the year of our Lord 2022, and how do you find the right one for your truck?
Hybrid tires that are closer to the All-Terrain side of things include tires like the Falken Wildpeak A/T3W, Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T, and Mickey Thompson Baja Legend EXP. All of these tires have interior tread patterns that are ripped off of an A/T tire, but they do feature much bigger shoulders and wider tread voids than you'd usually find on a typical All-Terrain. Despite the demise of the Baja ATZ, our dear friends over at Mickey Thompson have literally doubled down on their Hybrid Terrain lineup with two new sets of tires. The Baja Boss A/T is especially interesting with its asymmetric tread pattern and its more aggressive sidewall than the outgoing Baja ATZ, while the Baja Legend EXP has a more traditional design, but still has pretty big shoulders paired with an A/T style interior tread to provide fairly smooth and cozy on-pavement driving. One of the Hybrid Tire OGs, and one of Stage 3's collective favorite tires is the Falken Wildpeak A/T3W. A/T3Ws have made it on to more than a few of our project truck builds over the years, and I'm still running the same set on my 2011 F150 XL, and they have a good amount of wear left in them. The A/T3Ws have a great street ride and do well off-road in nearly any condition. As much as we got hate for the blind praise we showered on them in our review video, but we don't have much to complain about. If I have a minor gripe, it's that their sidewalls aren't the most aggressive things in the world, but I'm a function over form type of guy, anyway. Granted, we haven't tried either of Mickey Thompson's new hybrid tires, so maybe we'll crown a new king.
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Hybrid tires that are closer to Mud-Terrain tires include the Nitto Ridge Grappler and the Toyo Open Country R/T. Both of these tires have been around a while, and we've tested them both on a couple of our project trucks in the past. The Ridge Grappler especially is a bit more skewed to the M/T side of things and comes with HUGE shoulder lugs that are literally copy/pasted off of Nitto's Trail Grapplers, while the interior tread is a bit more aggressive than a lot of All-Terrain tires, but still doesn't quite reach M/T level of chonk. While this more aggressive pattern does give you pretty excellent traction off-road, it does result in more road noise, so that's something to keep in mind. The Toyo Open Country R/Ts aren't quite as mean as the Nitto Ridge Grapplers, but they do have very large shoulder blocks and a unique "chevron-style" interior tread that's very different from the rest of Toyo's Open Country lineup. Granted, different isn't necessarily bad, and the R/Ts ride very well on the road, but still have good grip off-road. In our experience, the R/Ts do need to be aired down a bit in order to get the most out of those shoulder lugs in the dirt, but that's a fairly small price to pay.
You can also make the argument that the Falken A/T3W is now an "All-Terrain", considering that Falken has discontinued the A/T-01s, leaving only the A/T3Ws and the Wildpeak M/Ts. However, the A/T3Ws are much closer in design to other Hybrid tires, and there's a (slim) possibility that Falken may release a "true" A/T tire in the future.
What is a Hybrid Tire or R/T Tire, Anyway?
While what tire qualifies as a hybrid has gotten a bit more murky, the general definition still stands: a hybrid tire or a R/T (meaning "rugged terrain") is a light truck tire that bridges the gap between a traditional All-Terrain and a traditional Mud-Terrain to give you a smoother street ride than an M/T tire while providing more traction off-road than an A/T tire. The US Tire Manufacturer Association still doesn't have a "technical" definition of what constitutes a Hybrid-terrain tire, but the goal is to have something to bridge the gulf between A/Ts and M/Ts for something a bit more balanced. Granted, that gulf seems to have gotten a lot narrower with some of the newer All-Terrain tire options out on the market (i.e. the Toyo Open Country A/T III and the Nitto Recon Grappler A/T), but generally, Hybrid tires use a fairly tight, A/T-style interior tread pattern that's paired with M/T-style shoulders to give you the best of both worlds. Hybrid tires are still a great choice for a lot of applications, especially for weekend warriors that spend equal time on the street as they do out in the bush, but even hybrid tires exist on a bit of a spectrum.Types of Hybrid Terrain Tires
Per usual, tire taxonomy can never be easy, and Hybrid tires have a bit of range of designs from versions that are more A/T skewed to Hybrid tires that are a bit more skewed toward M/Ts without actually being one or the other. While I wouldn't consider any version better than another, your choice will really depend on what you're doing with your truck and how quiet you want it on the street versus how much traction you need off-road.What about "Aggressive" All-terrain Tires?
As we've demonstrated, Hybrid-Terrain or Rugged-Terrain tires haven't really changed much over the years and are still great options for anyone who needs more that a classic All-Terrain, but doesn't want to deal with the headaches of a true Mud-Terrain Tire. However, some newer All-Terrain tires have kind of blurred the lines a bit between themselves and Hybrids, and they may be a good choice if you're not going too crazy with your off-road adventures. The main "culprits" here are the Nitto Recon Grappler A/Ts and the Toyo Open Country A/T IIIs. The Recon Grapplers especially are a pretty aggressive jump over the Nitto Terra Grappler G2s, and their design is VERY close to the style of the Falken A/T3W. Now, this was probably due to the fact that Nitto Ridge Grappler is pretty aggressive for a Hybrid-Terrain, and the Nitto Trail Grappler is one of the more aggressive M/Ts, so this may be Nitto just skewing its whole lineup up a bit. The Open Country A/T III is an interesting iteration on Toyo's A/Ts, and while its interior tread is still very much in the style of an All-Terrain tire, it's shoulder blocks are noticeably larger than the Open Country A/T IIs.Which Hybrid Tire is Best?
Per usual, which hybrid tire is "best" really depends on what you're doing with your truck and what kind of off-road driving you're planning to do. As we've stated, we're pretty big fans of the Falken Wildpeak A/T3Ws, and they're excellent options for basically any truck from mid-size to big, full-size diesel trucks. If you're going to be off-road in fairly sticky and muddy conditions on the regular, then going with a more aggressive Hybrid like the Nitto Ridge Grappler or Toyo R/T may be your best bet. That being said, I'm personally digging the new Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T and would love to try it out personally.