The Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro tire offers a complex performance profile, excelling in specific off-road conditions while facing challenges in noise reduction and fuel efficiency. This review dives deep into its key features and areas for improvement across various driving environments.
Table of Contents
Available Tire Sizes
The Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro comes in 15 to 22 inches rims. And these sizes have following specs.
- Speed ratings: Q, R, S, T, and H.
- Load ratings:
- Tread depth: 18/32″ on LT sizes, and 14/32″ on non-LT sizes.
- Weight: 31 to 62 lbs.
- UTQG: 660 A A.
- Treadwear warranty: 55k miles.
Dry Performance
Directional traction and handling are two key areas when it comes to dry performance. Let’s discuss both one after another.
Directional Grip
The concept of directional grip refers to the ability of a tire to maintain traction while moving forward.
And this crucial aspect is evaluated based on the tire’s braking performance, which is influenced by factors such as tread pattern, material composition, and most importantly, the central contact area of the tire.
In this context, the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro excels, providing outstanding straight line traction. And its superior performance is attributed to its three central ribs, densely packed with lugs that feature sharp edges and in-groove notches.
The center ribs basically comes with hourglass-shaped lugs with a unique slanted design that interlocks with adjacent lugs, significantly enhancing grip.
Furthermore, these ribs are filled with numerous biting edges, particularly in the form of in-groove notches, which not only improve directional grip but also contribute to overall traction, including lateral stability.
So overall with closed lug design, along with numerous biting edges, the Milestar provides you with effective enough braking.
Overall Handling
Dry handling performance is underpinned by two critical factors: the tire’s ability to grip laterally and its steering responsiveness.
The tire’s lateral grip, (measured by lateral g-forces), is primarily influenced by the tread design and structure on the tire’s surface.
This grip is crucially affected by the condition of the tire’s shoulders and sidewalls, areas that make the most contact with the road during turns.
This is the reason the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro, noted for its understated shoulders, ensures exceptional contact with the road, leading to outstanding lateral grip.
Plus the notches and various stepped edges further add to the grip maintaining a robust lateral hold.
But yes I have to admit the tire’s steering responsiveness requires improvement.
Despite its lighter weight, the softer rubber composition of the tire causes the lugs to bend more, resulting in a somewhat floaty sensation, especially in LT sizes featuring an 18/32″ tread depth.
This bending of the lugs delays their return to their original shape, manifesting as a lag between steering inputs and the resulting wheel movements.
Wet Performance
Wet performance is dependent on two key factors, wet traction and resistance to hydroplaning.
Let me discuss both.
Wet Traction
In wet conditions, it’s essential for tires to maintain effective contact with the road, as water can easily interfere.
Meaning, if water is not efficiently dispersed off in time, it can lead to significant slippage.
This is where sipes, small slits in the tread, play a crucial role by absorbing water particles and allowing the tire’s rubber to grip the road better.
Now the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro performs adequately in this aspect.
Although the tire has a limited number of sipes, the ones it has are quite effective, thanks to the tire’s softer rubber composition.
This prevents the sipes from hardening, especially during aggressive cornering.
But yes, there are definitely much better options out there when it comes to wet highways.
Hydroplaning Performance
Hydroplaning occurs when water gets between the tread and the road, causing the tire to float.
In this area, the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro performs well. And this is because it features a network of channels across its surface that ensures water under the tread is evenly dispersed through its grooves as it is expelled.
These channels/grooves are also notably deep, with the tire offering an 18″/32″ tread depth (in LT sizes).
And needless to say, this depth further aids in water expulsion by removing a larger volume of water at a given time.
Noise Comfort
Noise is one of the weaker points of the Patagonia A/T Pro, largely due to its stickier, softer rubber composition and less optimized tread pattern.
Basically there are generally two types of noise associated with tires: road-to-rubber interaction noise and noise from air particles. And Milestar tire here lacks in both key performance areas.
With its aggressive tread pattern and stickier rubber, the tire generates a considerable amount of road interaction noise. Furthermore, its tread is not particularly effective at reducing in-groove resonance either.
Moreover, unlike its direct competitors, the tire also does not offer a sufficiently good pitch sequencing.
It’s basically a technology that works by having air particles strike different parts of the tread, creating different tones that cancel each other out.
Fuel Consumption
Fuel efficiency is significantly affected by a tire’s design and structure, particularly its weight and tread composition.
Unfortunately, this is where the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro falls short.
The tire’s deep tread (up to 18/32″), aggressive groove pattern, and stickier rubber compound result in less efficient road contact. This causes the tread blocks to flex and deform more, consuming extra energy.
In simpler terms, the tire creates high rolling resistance, leading to increased fuel consumption.
Off Road Performance
For off-road performance I tested out the Patagonia tire in the following 3 terrain types.
Mud Driving
Although all-terrain (AT) tires are generally not optimal for mud, the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro performs reasonably well in this type of terrain.
I mean sure it doesn’t match the performance of a dedicated mud-terrain tire, of course, it still offers decent traction.
The tire features wide and deep outer channels, with interconnected tread voids that help break down mud and facilitate its evacuation.
The sharp side biters with ramps enhance the tire’s digging capability, creating a scooping effect that helps propel the tire forward in light mud conditions.
On Sand
Navigating sandy terrain can be challenging, primarily due to the tire’s structure and the contact area between the tread and the ground.
Though I have no complaints here with the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro. In fact the tire provides excellent grip and traction, especially in deeper sandy dunes.
This is attributed to the tire’s relatively soft sidewalls, which, when combined with reduced air pressure, increase the contact patch and reduce the tire’s overall density, improving its performance on sand.
Traction on Rocks
The Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro excels in rocky terrains too, adeptly handling sharp rocks, stones, dirt, and gravel.
Although three-ply sidewalls would provide even better protection, the tire’s construction still offers satisfactory defense against sharp objects, with sidewall lugs adding an extra layer of protection.
For stone resistance, the tire features ejectors between each shoulder block that prevent stones from becoming lodged in the tread and eject them as the tire rolls over.
On dirt and gravel, the tire demonstrates impressive handling, with notable responsiveness.
However its not all good. I mean the tire’s lateral traction could be improved, especially on wet rocks.
Basically in wet conditions, particularly during climbs, the tire is prone to slipping sideways, which is a point to consider if you frequently encounter wet, rocky terrain.
Tread Longevity
When evaluating the lifespan of a tire’s tread, the composition of the tire’s compound and its weight are key factors to consider.
The Patagonia A/T Pro features a soft, spongy rubber compound that is more susceptible to wear, particularly on paved surfaces.
And so due to its softer compound and heavier weight, this tire experiences increased friction with the road surface, leading to higher rolling resistance and accelerated tread wear.
Sure the tire provides decent tread depth which typically prolongs longevity. But you should know that it also increases the friction between the rubber and the ground and that’s exactly what goes on with Milestar tire here.
So just like its fuel economy, its overall tread life needs to be improved too.
Ride Smoothness
So a commonly overlooked factor in ride comfort is the depth of the tire tread. Greater tread depth means more soft rubber between your vehicle and the road surface.
That’s why the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro, with its generous tread depth (up to 18/32″), provides ample rubber to absorb and dissipate impacts, enhancing ride comfort.
Plus the tire’s high polymer density acts like a sponge, soaking up bumps and further smoothing out the ride.
Snow and Ice Performance
Stiffness in the tread is detrimental to snow traction, which is why winter tires typically have a softer compound.
Now the Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro features a good enough compound with a some polymers and additives that prevent its tread from freezing and becoming stiff (keeping its biters pliant and effective).
This is why the tire is also rated with the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake symbol, indicating its suitability for severe snow conditions.
Moreover the tire’s strong C-shaped biters help trap snow, creating better friction as snow sticks more effectively to snow.
And yes, the tire’s deeper tread becomes beneficial in deeper snow, as it scoops out a significant amount of snow, with each shoulder block staggered to enhance this effect.
Wrapping Up
So wrapping up, it all comes down to this.
The Milestar Patagonia A/T Pro excels in hydroplaning resistance and off-road conditions, particularly across mud, sand, and rocky terrains, but it shows limitations in noise comfort, fuel efficiency, and tread longevity due to its softer rubber compound and aggressive tread design.
Its dry performance benefits from robust central ribs that enhance traction and braking, although steering responsiveness could be improved.
Other than that, the wet traction is adequate, though not exceptional, and while the tire handles snow and ice reasonably well, overall it faces challenges in wear and noise, indicating areas where refinement is necessary.
