Goodyear Wranger HP AW
WORDS Niky Tamayo  | 4 December 2007

The invitation from Goodyear sitting in my e-mail inbox mentioned the word “slalom”. That’s enough to get me out bed most anyday. But upon reaching the testing site at Filinvest, Alabang on a breezy Wednesday morning, I was greeted by banners proclaiming “Ride in Luxurious Comfort”, and showcasing the new Goodyear Wrangler HP AW. The “Wrangler” moniker, in use since 1977, is familiar to many light truck and SUV drivers. It’s most often found on rugged and durable truck tires meant for mixed on-road and extreme off-road use. So what were we doing testing Wranglers on the slalom? Well, there are clues to be found in the name of this new variant. HP AW stands for “High Performance All Weather”, and to demonstrate the truth of this label, Goodyear, with the help of the Tuason Racing School, showed us how well the Wranglers actually perform. As explained by David Morin, President of Goodyear Philippines and Gener Paul, Product Director for the Wrangler HP AWs (and the popular high performance Eagle F1s), Wranglers have evolved with the SUVs they go on, and the HP is a response to the need for more comfortable and performance-oriented tires for modern SUVs. There are three innovative technologies used in the tire: Silent Block, SmarTRED and Silent Armor. Silent Block refers to a tread design staggered to eliminate drumming and humming at highway speeds through scientific variation of tread pitch. A feature found on premium car tires, but not on many truck tires. SmarTRED uses soft inner tread blocks for good straight line tracking and to provide more surface area for better traction... the tread literally clinging to the road. The hard outer tread blocks, on the other hand, give more cornering stability, and are designed for good mud evacuation for off-road use. Silent Armor refers to the DuPont Kevlar reinforcement woven into the tire, which provides lightweight construction that helps prevent and absorb road noise and at the same time strengthens the tire carcass for off-road and high-stress situations. We didn’t get to test if it was bulletproof, though. Finally, silica inclusions help increase damage resistance and provide 40% longer tread life than the competition. So much for the geekspeak. How well does it work on the road? In wet braking, the Wranglers provided stopping distances consistently shorter than the control tire. A Toyota Fortuner on the control tire (original equipment for this particular variant) stopped in 29.8 meters. Equipped with the Wranglers (same size, same pressure), it stopped in 24.85 meters, as driven by PTCC racing driver Mike Tuason. In the hands of the media, the Wranglers still stopped well short of the competitor tire, with some, like Kris Lim (Chinese Commercial News) and Chris Van Hoven (C! Magazine) stopping well short of Mike’s distance at 23.2 and 23.7 meters respectively. An impressive performance, considering many car tires can’t stop from 80 km/h at less than 25 meters, even in bone dry conditions. That soft inner tread really does wonders for braking. In the silence test, we were driven in another test unit over ropes laid in the road. Coasting down at 40 km/h, tire noise was unintrusive, and they didn’t thump badly as the Fortuner dribbled over the thick 2” cords. Quite a feat, considering the truck’s harsh-riding reputation. In the slalom test, the reinforced shoulder blocks exhibited little tread squirm or vagueness, leading to a sharp turn-in. Despite showing excellent pliancy in the previous test, the reinforced sidewalls paid dividends here, the stiff construction giving good mid-corner stability. From previous experience, the Fortuner’s stock tires slide out into understeer before anything interesting actually happens. On the HPs, the truck pitched, rolled and dived with hardly a whisper from the tires. Throughout the day, the only sign of trouble was people hitting pylons that they couldn’t see from the driver’s seat... from that towering perch, they could well have been orange ice cream cones. This has got to be the quietest and most uneventful slalom I’ve ever attended. It’d take a more comprehensive test to really see how high up on the SUV-tire ladder they land, but with the HPs being this good, I can’t wait to try the Wrangler F1s. All-in-all, the Wrangler HP AW is much better than Goodyear's current offering in the SUV on-road market, the Fortera, and is being introduced as a premium model in the line up. Initial size offerings are all in H-rated high profile 15” and 16” sizes, but David Morin assures us that other sizes will become available in the near future. Good news for those riding on 17” or bigger wheels is the possible availability of V-rated models. The one big question remaining is price. In other markets, the Wrangler HP AW is priced competitively with the Bridgestone Dueler HT, one of the more popular OEM-size truck tires. It betters that tire in terms of on-road performance, yet maintains a modicum of ruggedness and durability with its strong construction and unique tread design. And it’s as quiet as lower-grip “luxury” tires. That grip is the real headliner... I’d heartily recommend these tires for reasons of road-safety alone. While I doubt it'd be as good a mud-plugger as the Dueler HT or Michelin's LTX (another common OEM), does that really matter to your everyday SUV driver? If the local pricing isn’t too far off from the “HT” set, Goodyear may just have a winner on its hands. Special thanks to Carla of Ogilvy for the invitation, Mr. Ron Castro, Mr.David Morin and Mr. Gener Paul of Goodyear, and Mr. J.P. Tuason of Tuason Racing for facilitating this event.

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