BFG's New Long Trail T/A Tour Tires

This was a different tire introduction than what Off-Road Adventures magazine usually gets invited to. Not like last year"s BF goodrich intro of their then new Mud Terrain T/A KM2 where Jim Allen got to take it through the paces off-roading in Utah.
This is a BFG tire of a different nature and purpose. Where the KM2 is most comfortable in rocks, silty sand, or muddy goo; the Long Trail T/A is built for the asphalt jungle that most SUV and CUV (Crossover Utility Vehicles) vehicles encounter on a daily basis. That doesn"t mean it"s just a flabby, mild mannered get you to the store and back street tire. BFG"s engineers designed a tire that brings performance appreciating drivers more of what they want and need in their every day driver - better road manners, longer thread life and more foul weather control.
To get some real road seat time with the Long Trail Tour, BFG invited us to take a drive from Ashville, NC along twisty (read fun) U.S. 25 to Michelin"s (BFG"s parent company) extensive 3,000 acre Laurens Proving Grounds outside Greenville, SC. The drive gave us a good sense of the tracking and cornering capabilities, but the wet handling and wet braking tests at the proving grounds really showed the tire"s true performance and safety values. On the flooded .45-mile Wet Handling Track our pretty dang spunky 3.5-liter, 269 hp V6, 2008 Toyota RAV4s shod with the Long Trails averaged 1.8 seconds faster lap times than the equivalent category Brand X tire. While 1.8 seconds doesn"t seem like much; when driving at top "barely have road adhesion" speeds, the difference is like being on a railroad track verses driving on ball bearings. Their wet braking performance was equally impressive with average 50 to 0 mph braking distances of 116 ft compared to 131 ft with the other brand.
With "off-road" in our name, we couldn"t resist taking a brief, off-asphalt adventure. While the treads didn"t kick out South Carolina"s famous sticky red clay mud very well (a challenge to mudders too) they still maintained enough traction to get us back on pavement.

Summation
Granted, this tire isn"t designed for rock crawling, fording streams, mud bogging, or desert dashing. But the fact is that on the practical side of our lives, there"s the reality of the daily driver SUV/CUV family toter. And there"s no reason it has to be a boring drive. The Long Trail T/A Tours kick the performance and safety quotient up a few notches and adds a good measure of fun.

Notable Features:
Low road noise
60,000 mile warranty
17 sizes for 15- to 20-inch wheels.
Deep, wide channels in the tread surface fights hydroplaning
Strategic siping helps all-season, rain & snow performance
Reinforced center rib for increased on-road stability