REINING IN RUGGED TERRAIN

We drive Federal’s new Xplora R/T rugged-terrain tire

- Jay Kopycinski

The tire industry has been hard at work over the last decade or so when it comes to supplying a wide range of high-performance off-road tires for our needs. Improved molding processes have resulted in smoother-rolling tires. Better rubber compounds have increased both traction and wear lifetimes. Furthermore, better-engineered tread designs have added to traction gains while also decreasing road noise.

With the percentage decline in car sales in North America and the continuing rise in light-truck sales, tire demand in the off-road segment has risen dramatically. Manufacturers have graced us with a plethora of both all-terrain and mud-terrain tread choices in the light-truck tire category. All-terrain tires offer us better highway manners, but mud-terrains will take you farther down the trail in most cases.

Enter the Federal Xplora R/T, a tire that sits comfortably between an A/T and M/T tire. It’s a possible choice for those looking for less noise and better on-road ride comfort than you’d typically get in an M/T tire, while also gaining off-road performance over a typical all-terrain tire.

Federal Corp. was established in 1954 in Taipei, Taiwan, and distributes a wide range of consumer tires to more than 120 countries from two tire factories in Taiwan. Federal Tire North America is a subsidiary of the parent company and is based in Torrance, California.