Nokian Rotiiva A/T+

Time for an update on the Rotiiva AT+ After 12,000 miles The wear rate is pretty good, better than the Coopers but not quite as good as the BFG AT. They still grip wet roads better than the BFG and at our site still perform much better than many expect. For example, a while ago we had a local Suzuki group in. Most were on Insa Turbo Special Track or similar, several had welded diffs and so on. They all made it up ‘Surf’s Up’ with quite some effort at a few bouncing off the rev limiter. I eventually gave in to the cajoling and took the 90 on the Rotiiva AT+ up the hill. We made it with less fuss and the ‘Zuk guy I had with me was quite surprised how relatively easy. No it is not a fair comparison at all as I am 2x heavier with a lot more power and a lot more articulation but no axle diff-locks. When we had a short, sharp snow dump on our hill last year and it was chaos - as expected really :-( I got a call from my District Nurse friend for help and I had no issues at all with the tyres performance. I had thrown the chains in the 90 just in case but I didn’t need them (the chains have still only ever been used for demonstration during a training exercise for Dartmoor Prison drivers). A comparison with the Cooper STs I had in snow previously was the Coopers did well in fresh snow but slush started to slide around more. And experience with slush and the BFG AT was concerning (fresh snow BFG good)The Nokians worked well in both fresh and slush. They also work well on cold, wet roads as well as frosty mornings on the edge of Dartmoor. So, overall I’m still happy I took a chance on these. I sold the BFG’s and made good money on them so the Nokians only cost me one tyre in effect :-)

First review of these tyres 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 tyres 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 tyres as my 'road' tyres 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 tyres 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 tyre 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 tyres 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 tyre better in general.