Both the Hankook Dynapro AT2 and the Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo 3 have been designed with serious on and off-road traction in mind. That’s why these tires keeps things very comfortable on pavements, and can offer amazing grip on challenging terrains with it as well.
Being a tire engineer, my testing shows that the Hankook AT2 comes out better when it comes to dry directional grip, steering response and overall tread life. And off-road the tire does slightly better on mild muddy tracks. On the other side, the Dueler AT Revo 3 supplies superior wet grip, and fuel efficiency along with sand performance.
Tire Specs
Starting with Hankook Dynapro AT2, this tire has following specs.
- Sizes: 15 to 22 inches
- Speed rating: S and T.
- Load Rating: SL, XL, C, D, E, and F.
- Weight range: 29 to 80 lbs
- Tread depth: 12 to 16.4/32″
- Warranty: 60k miles for all
The Bridgestone Dueler Revo 3 comes in 16 to 20 inches rim diameters, having following specs.
- Speed ratings: S, R, and T.
- Load ratings: SL, C and E only.
- Weight range: 30 to 60 lbs.
- Tread depth range: 12/32″ to 16/32″.
- Warranty: 60k for P-Metric and Metric sizes (Excludes LT Sizes).
Tread Features
The Hankook Dynapro AT2 gives you a 5 rib design. Let’s divide them in to two parts, central and shoulders.
In the middle:
- Tread makes 3 ribs and with them 4 vertical grooves.
- The central most rib contains lugs having notches facing sideways, and stepped edges. Both offer off-road traction.
- And since lugs are wider here, they provide ample rubber to road contact, offering directional grip on highways.
- The surrounding lugs are smaller, and missing such biters, though they carry sipes which are full depth.
On shoulders:
- Shoulder lugs thicker.
- They carry less aggressive sipes.
- They are not serrated.
- And they also don’t make sidewall lugs.
- Though with ridges in between the lateral grooves these shoulders make, they supply amazing on-road lateral traction.
On the other side, the Bridgestone Dueler Revo 3 is yet again another less aggressive A/T tire.
In the middle:
- 3 ribs are seen with a single unique block structure.
- These blocks have a lot of biters, in the form of in groove notches, saw toothed edges, chamfered sides and so on, providing off-road grip.
- And at the same time with their wider design, and closed up lug placement, they are good on highways as well.
- Nonetheless, they make 3 longitudinal grooves providing mud/dirt evacuation.
On shoulders:
- Shoulder lugs are the most densely packed up.
- So although they give off-road bite with notches, and biters on sidewalls, they are still more on-road oriented.
- As the tire turns most of the its weight is placed on shoulders, and how consistent they are in making contact with the road decides steering response, so it makes sense why this tire does better.
Durability
Durability is a must-have characteristic for off-road tires as they navigate through beated paths. To meet this requirement, they incorporate cut-resistant rubber, deep tread voids and internal plies.
Out of both tires, the Hankook Dynapro AT2 although may seem very on-road aligned, it’s internal construction consist of 3 ply polyester casing (with 2 steel belts and 2 nylon cap plies).
Whereas the Bridgestone Dueler Revo 3 only features 2 ply sidewalls (having similar 2 belts, but single layer of polyamide as cap ply). So the tire is not as puncture resistant in comparison.
Highway Performance
To evaluate the dry performance of an all-terrain tire, it’s necessary to analyze 2 most critical factors. Directional grip, and lateral traction. Let’s take a look at them both.
Dry Grip
The rolling traction of a tire on a straight road is known as directional grip, it depends on the central part of the tread, and gets calculated with stopping distances.
That’s why with dedicated central most rib on Hankook Dynapro AT2, featuring wider structure (compared to outer ones), and having solid foundational supports underneath, the tire offers better results.
Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo 3 on the other side, although is pretty great as well, it’s central most portion is still not that capable for providing similar rubber to road contact, in comparison.
Dry Handling
Handling capability is judged by analyzing the tread flexibility and shoulder structure. These factors tell you about, how much a tire generates g forces on turns.
And considering them, I would have to rate both tires equally.
Hankook Dynapro AT2 although comes with a stiffer rubber compound, it’s greater weight (forming larger inertia), still puts it’s handling abilities similar to its counterpart.
With a harder rubber compound, basically, lugs are restricted to bend too much and causing a delay in steering response.
The opposite is happening on Bridgestone Dueler. This tire with it’s relatively softer construction, (both inner and outer), lacks a little.
Though the difference is very marginal, (it’s less than half a second, measuring average handling lap times).
Wet Traction
Wet traction is influenced by the tread compound of a tire, and its structure, which includes both sipes and the grooves.
The grooves help evacuate a larger portion of the water, while the left over is cleaned off with the help of sipes, which literally suck water particles in their slits, (and so they need flexibility to effectively do that).
That’s why with relatively softer tread composition, the Dueler A/T gives it’s sipes more maneuverability to grab in to the watery surface. Moreover, the tire also features a lot more biters apart from just sipes, and they all further help with the gripping.
The Dynapro AT2 on the other side also features decent biting edges, it still shows more overall slippage, mostly when it comes to cornering, as it’s less interlocking siping structure on shoulders, and overall missing biters (like seen on its central rib), can’t produce similar griping efficacy.
Thought the tire does perform slightly better when it comes to hydroplaning (seen with float speed testing). Its shoulder lugs, even though pretty packed up, still allow faster sideways water removal, comparatively, as they not not completely joined up form underneath like the Dueler Revo 3.
Fuel Consumption
The fuel utilization of a vehicle is a function of rolling resistance, which is shaped by the tire’s weight and tread composition.
That’s why the Hankook Dynapro AT2 featuring weight up to 80 lbs with it’s 3 ply sidewalls gets to provide smaller MPGs (so it’s less efficient).
Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo 3 on the other side, with 20 pounds lighter, (comparing heaviest sizes on both), gets to offer better economy.
Ride Quality
There are two main dimensions here noise, and overall comfort.
And considering both, I would have to go with Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo 3.
Noise gets generated with air particles entering through the shoulder voids, and hitting the tread walls. And so with continuous running ribs there (without lateral gaps), the Dueler A/T kills the noise at the source.
Moreover, with it’s 2 rib design, consisting of fatter shoulder blocks, the tire also features better settling of the shocks on roads.
Hankook Dynapro AT2 on the other side, features a stiffer rubber composition. Moreover the tire’s internal construction isn’t helping to that either as there, it features a more rigid composition of 3 ply polyester casing with 2 cap plies of nylon on the very top.
Winter Traction
Although the Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo 3 is not branded with 3 peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) rating, the tire still performs pretty quickly.
The 3PMSF is just an acceleration test on snowy roads, and its given to tires which are at least 10% better in acceleration, compared to all season tire.
So although the tire may lack in the acceleration area compared to Dynapro, it’s handling and braking capability is on par, in comparison.
The tire features a lot of biters as mentioned in the tread section, besides having numerous 3D siping, you also get in-groove notches, and saw toothed edges (towards outer circumferential grooves).
All of these ensure amazing snow grabbing capabilities, similar to its counterpart.
Mud Terrain Capability
Mud is one of the toughest terrains out there, that’s why mud terrain tires were named after it, even though they are just as capable on other terrain types too.
These tires do better with their faster evacuation capabilities as they feature wider tread voids, so the thick slimy mud is easily escaped out, and the tire doesn’t get packed with it.
All-terrain tires on the other hand are very susceptible to mud packing, especially when it comes to on-road oriented ones like these tires we’re discussing here.
Both of them, not only have crowded lugs arrangement, but with continuous running longitudinal ribs, the mud is not effectively allowed to leave out sideways.
Performance on Rocks
On rocks, you need to have a sturdy sidewall construction, along with a lot of biting edges in the middle (part of the tread).
And here we again have some really mixed results.
Hankook Dynapro AT2 on one hand, features greater durability with its 3 ply polyester casing, providing sidewalls with a more robust structure, and allowing for a confidence inspiring ride.
Whereas the Bridgestone Revo 3 offers sidewall lugs and sharp edges shoulder lugs rendering decent biting abilities with lowered air pressure.
Desert Traction
On sand you almost exclusively air down your tires (that’s especially true for deeper terrains), this lowers their overall density, allowing them to float better.
That’s why out of both tires, things are better on Dueler AT Revo 3. The tire comes with a lighter structure, and has sidewall lugs
The Hankook AT2 on the other side comes with a heavier structure and missing sidewalls, so it’s lacking here comparatively.
Summary
So lets summarize all of what I’ve discussed (for the folks who are in a hurry, though it’s not recommended to skip all of the above).
The Dynapro AT2 is a better tire to have when it comes to directional grip, lateral traction and overall steering response. Bu that only goes for dry pavements, as on wet, the tire is below average (among it’s competitors).
Other than that, the tire deals off-road great on rocks and mud, and offers better tread life.
On the other side, the Dueler AT Revo 3 gives out better wet traction, fuel efficiency, and sand traction.
And although it’s not 3pmsf rated, it’s winter traction is almost on par to it’s counterpart.
