Goodyear Australia has launched its latest Wrangler all-terrain tyres onto the Australian market – now it’s time to find out if the Goodyear Wrangler AT SilentTrac really do offer quiet performance.
Goodyear Wrangler SilentTrac AT UPDATE: 5000KM: Time has flown, and the Goodyear SilentTrac All-Terrains on my Amarok now have 5000km of wear and tear on them. The majority of my travel has been on bitumen; a mixture of suburban and regional backroads but the last few weeks has seen me hit the trails in earnest.
The wild weather battering NSW across the last month, sunny one day, snowing the next, has meant fiddling with the pressures to get the best mix of weather and load performance. For me, the best-performing tyre pressure, on-road, and able to handle the temperature changes has been 40PSI front and rear.
The SilentTracs fitted are passenger construction with an on-road bias of 70:30, so, it’s expected these tyres will be most at home on the blacktop and, so far, they’ve been great. With only 5000km on them it’s no surprise they’re still quiet on the road, the noise levels haven’t risen since leaving the tyre shop. In fact, the tyres are so quiet I’ve started to notice other noise, like the wind noise from my roof rack.
The SilentTrac tyres feel good through corners, and have handled the dry road conditions well, with emergency braking and driving in wet conditions an element I’m hoping to test in due course.
The work commute has become more enjoyable (read: quieter) and with a slight improvement in fuel consumption so far, however my initial off-road testing in Newnes State forest was what surprised me the most. Goodyear claims its SilentTrac tyres are designed to provide rugged toughness off-road and its DuraWall sidewall technology more resistant to cuts. But, looking at the tyres you’re left with the impression this might just be marketing hype. These tyres have a non-aggressive tread pattern and plain looking sidewall, but the tread seems deeper than other AT tyres I’ve looked at, on top of that the rubber feels quite soft and malleable. This is a combination I believe gives the SilentTracs greater traction levels off-road.
In an effort to travel across every type of terrain possible I kicked off with a beach run. Dropping the tyre pressures, there were no surprises and they offered plenty of grip on both the soft and harder compacted sand.
A tyre marketed to perform on- and off-road, the Newnes area (Blue Mountains, NSW) is a good test ground offering a variety of surfaces, from loamy sections, hard, compact dirt/rock, dried up clay ruts and even a little section of snow along the powerlines track. The loamy terrain did fill the tread at times however it dispersed quite quickly. The biggest surprise, after the high traction levels shown on this trip, is the durability of the sidewalls, they managed to survive rolling over sharp rocks and tree roots, and after a day of wheeling they came out unscathed.
After 5000km the Goodyear Wrangler SilentTracs are performing well in dry conditions both on- and off-road. It’s too early to assess the tyre wear, but what I can say is that from the testing will get a little harder both on- and off-road and, hopefully with the forecasted rain in NSW this week gain an insight into their performance in wet conditions.
If you have any questions or feedback, leave a comment below – otherwise stay tuned.
WELCOME: Those who visited the recent Melbourne 4×4 show will have seen the Goodyear Wrangler AT SilentTrac. Officially launching this week, we were lucky enough to get a set fitted about a month ago and have been running around on them ever since. Fitted to my Amarok which I use as a daily driver, towing caravans and travelling off-road I can tell you the difference in noise levels from my original all-terrain tyres to the SilentTrac was immediately noticeable.
Speaking about the launch of the new Wrangler SilentTrac tyres, Ryan Patterson, Goodyear Asia Pacific President said: “We are ecstatic to release our latest innovation in the Asia Pacific to fulfil the needs of 4×4 drivers who want to experience excellent performance both on and off-road. As the Wrangler AT SilentTrac outperforms its predecessor, and even major competitors, we are confident that this marvellous new product will further empower our drivers to go further.”
“Our long heritage in the 4×4 segment and proven track record in developing award-winning 4×4 and SUV-tyres enabled us to create the latest Wrangler AT SilentTrac, a tyre that allows mid-value consumers to drive confidently with increased traction and toughness for an enjoyable and silent driving experience.” Ryan added.
The Goodyear Wrangler AT SilentTrac is available in 15 to 18 rim diameters in 23 sizes, including 14 for 4×4 passenger vehicles and 9 for 4×4 light truck vehicles. Tyres in the Wrangler range giveaway the intention in their name, for instance, the Wrangler AT Adventure features kevlar in the moulding and is intended to provide improved off-road protection, and these SilentTrac tyres are all about being quiet on-road and perform off it.
Some all-terrains can be very noisy on the road which is due to the tread pattern and larger gaps between the tread blocks. According to Goodyear, the Wrangler AT SilentTrac tyres have been specifically designed with road-based noise control in mind. To that end, the team at Goodyear have designed these tyres with angled blocks and solid shoulders to capture and redirect air to improve on perceived road noise. The tyres, according to Goodyear, feature a thick under tread layer with the aim of absorbing more vibration and prevent its transference into the cabin. Similarly, a larger wearable tread surface than its predecessor improves tyre longevity, with the sidewalls featuring Goodyear’s DuraWall technology which is marketing-speak for thicker gauge rubber which Goodyear tells us will improve puncture resistance.
A couple of thousand k’s of testing over the last month (fitted in 265/70 R17 to my Amarok) confirms these tyres are quieter on road and have performed well generally off-road. To the eye, the Wrangler AT SilentTrac tyres look more like a road tyre, but Goodyear assures us that just because they’re quiet doesn’t mean they won’t still perform when the going gets rough. We’ll continue to update this review regularly, so, stay tuned for the next update covering performance across a variety of terrains.
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