Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus and the Falken Wildpeak AT3w are very powerful all-terrain tires, where Pirelli launched it’s tire is older in comparison, though it did some significant improvements over it’s older unit, but is it enough to compete with Wildpeak? Let’s it’s all here.
Being a tire engineer, I can tell that the Pirelli Scorpion A/T +has better highway capability when things are dry. It’s steering response although needs some refinements, comparatively things are better here, so it shows up smaller handling times. Directional grip however is much better and I have no complaints there, same goes for fuel economy and wear making it a good daily driver for your truck. On the other hand, Falken Wildpeak AT3w offers superior wet traction by a margin where it’s acceleration g forces compliment the g forces of lateral traction. Besides that off road, the tire is again comes up superior in all almost all key areas, even in snow, though both are 3pmsfr.
Detailed review of Pirelli Scorpion: https://tiredriver.com/pirelli-scorpion-all-terrain-plus-review/
Falken Wildpeak AT3w: https://tiredriver.com/falken-wildpeak-at3w-review/
Table of Contents
Design Layout
Both tires are pretty well engineered, and they both come up with the new gen rubber compound with latest polymer composition (which no tire company ever reveals by the way).
Let’s start things off with Falken Wildpeak AT3w (from the middle).
This tire offers bigger shoulder lugs tightly packing central lugs inside which contains prominent Z shaped ones.
These are slanted and equipped with summer sipes which yields on road stability, especially on high speeds. And at the same time they also have edged edges (with stair shaped sides), offering off road bite.
Same can be said about smaller blocks in all directions having notches.
These lugs are although softer, their grip stays in tact as all of the blocks have supporting ridges on sides, keeping them in place, and restricting them from moving a lot.
They all make lateral grooves interlinked with each other, and connecting the wider zigzag circumferential channels next to shoulder lugs.
The shoulder lugs differ consecutively, in shape, and tread features, where you may see notches and stepped edges.
Towards outside, although they don’t make staggered shoulders, they have sharp edges and thick sidewall lugs providing off road capabilities.
On the other side, Pirelli Scorpion AT plus also makes a very similar sidewall lugs and top it’s shoulders are staggered as well (creating scoops on edges).
Though it’s shoulder lugs are smaller here and don’t offer as much interlocking siping pattern.
Towards end, each blocks make small notches facing the outer longitudinal channel.
These vertical grooves contain lugs in between in a similar fashion, and here you can see S and P shaped blocks.
They intentionally did this for marketing reasons as both letters are initials for Pirelli Scorpion.
All of these lugs have rectilinear siping, supporting ridges (groove cones), and off-set edges.
So they offer quite some off road bite, where as their hook shaped lugs with grooves of narrower width offer a great experience on highways as well.
Also one to thing to keep in mind, that although you see an interlocking pattern of siping on top, it’s not like that all the way down to the base.
Meaning they are just full depth rectilinear siping slits.
Useful Info About Sizes
The Falken Wildpeak AT3w has 15 to 22 inches rims with 76 total sizes available.
- All sizes have pretty decent speed ratings, they are available in, Q, R, S, T, and some even have H.
- Tread depth is a lot on this tire, and it goes from 12 to 19/32″, (mostly sizes have 17/32″).
- You get a wide range of load index as well, sizes have SL, XL, C, D, E, and F.
- So weight range is 35 lbs to 79.4 lbs.
- Also, all sizes have 55k miles warranty.
On the other side, the Pirelli Scorpion AT Plus has limited 22 sizes (16 to 20 inches).
- And they have speed ratings of R, S, T and H.
- Load ratings are seen in SL, XL, C, D and E.
- Weight range: 29 lbs to 60 lbs.
- Tread depth range: 13/32″ to 15.5/32″.
- And all sizes have 50k miles warranty.
Tire Toughness
Almost all off-road tires have cut resistant rubber and deep voids that make them pretty strong, but in order to make them tough enough, internal construction has to be engineered well.
In case of Falken Wildpeak AT3w, you are getting a stronger tire, with 2 ply polyester casing, 2 steel belts, and 4 layers of polyamide, 2 under the central tread area and 2 on sidewalls.
The Pirelli Scorpion only offers 2 + 2 + 2 construction, without any reinforcing sidewall plies.
Pavement Performance
On streets, the performance is mostly understood by considering the tire’s lateral traction component, steering response and overall grip.
Let’s talk about them all one by one.
Directional Grip
Due to their squared off design and notches in their tread, all-terrain tires are mostly good in dry conditions.
Pirelli Scorpion AT+ dose better here, as it’s offers firmer lugs with groove cones on sides (which act as supports).
The tire also has less wider grooves here making better rubber to road contact comparatively.
Falken Wildpeak AT3w is also not too far off, but comparatively, it’s grip is slightly on the back seat.
Cornering Grip
How well the tire corners tells about the sideways traction, which is a larger piece of the puzzle in overall traction (the other is directional grip discussed above).
Here both tires offers almost similar traction values, Falken AT3w has powerful elongated shoulder lugs, with connectors in between, so although it’s rubber is softer, it’s lugs stay firm and in place and provide ample lateral g forces.
Pirelli Scorpion on the other hand, has by default firmer rubber layer and it’s rectilinear siping helps a lot in overall gripping (though can’t say the same about it’s wet performance, as you’ll see below).
BTW, if you are wondering why I am considering shoulders here, they are the most in contact with the road when a tire corners.
Tire Responsiveness
Better handling is also contributed with steering response, which basically tells how easy it is to move the tire especially on corners.
But weight also plays a significant role here as well.
Falken Wildpeak AT3w with 2 extra layers of cap plies and larger thickness in it’s rubber gets to have more weight, which is harder to maneuver, so there’s lag between the steering input and the returning feedback.
Basically as the weight increases, tire tends to over-steers more, which then takes some time till it get grip on again.
Pirelli Scorpion is better here in comparison, as it offers direct steering with very a good balance between over and under-steering.
Wet Road Performance
On snowy terrain, you need snow to snow exposure, as snowflakes have arms which tangle in other snow particles, enhancing friction.
Grip on Wet
To grip on wet, you need siping.
Sipes basically are just slits which create suction so water can get slurped in them. That’s how they wipe off the water particles.
So more the number of sipes, better the wiping. But that’s not all, these sipes also need to be flexible in order to contract and expand, otherwise, their efficiency to suck water in won’t be good enough.
Falken Wildpeak AT3w is best in the business here. First off on this tire you get dual siping design, a mixture of rectilinear sipes in the middle and interlocking ones on shoulders.
Though interlocking sipes still have a larger role to play as they cover most of the area, meaning, if you look at the tire’s tread, you’ll note that the tire shoulders are covering more surface area.
Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus on the flip side has rectilinear sipes throughout it’s tread, and they get stiff as the tire corners and turns.
And like mentioned in the tread section, they may look slightly interlocking from top, as the tire wears, you get to see that, siping design constitutes of just straight lines of very small length.
So it’s sipes have very low water holding capacity.
Hydroplaning
Hydroplaning is when a tire can not grip on standing water, so here a tire needs to clear it off quickly, so it would not float.
But usually, hydroplaning is not an issue with highly voided treads, as these bald tires supply a lot of real estate for water to withdraw out rapidly.
Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus although offers very good interconnected web of channels of two longitudinal grooves containing laterally connected tread voids, and open shoulder voids, the tire is still not as good in aquaplaning resistance comparatively.
Falken Wildpeak AT3w simply has more tread depth which goes up to 19/32″, that’s really a lot. So it allows better water flow rate.
Fuel Consumption
The more the tire is hard to roll, the larger the consumption of the fuel.
Here the contributing factors are weight and tread composition (well, these are the main ones). These factors tell how much rolling resistance a tire has.
So Pirelli Scorpion A/T Plus being lighter in weight produces better results.
Falken Wildpeak AT3w has a softer rubber and it’s notches and siping grips with more stickiness producing larger resistance values to tire’s rolling and consuming more fuel as a result.
Mileage
When it comes to tread’s life the tire’s compound and weight are the most important factors to consider, and yes, you can add rolling resistance here as well.
So does that mean Falken AT3w lacks here as well?
I don’t think so, in fact the tire is pretty great here, and the reason is it’s tread depth. With such deep voids of tread, a lot of time is needed to completely burn off this tire.
Moreover, heat is a big culprit in overall tread wear as well, especially when towing, and with heat expelling technology on the sidewalls, the tire improves it’s tread life that way as well.
Pirelli Scorpion AT on the other side, is also good enough here with it’s stiffer rubber, but with less tread depth it’s not able to outperform Falken.
Ride Quality
A tire which is able to dampen the noise and bumps on the road gives you a good ride quality. Let’s see if these two tires are up to the mark in both these areas.
Noise
The tread of the tire including all features, grooves, sipes, have air in them and as the tire moves, that air pumps out and tires to come back in, this produces noise. Moreover, this air also hits the surface of the tread and this generates more noise.
Now with wider grooves, you may think Wildpeak AT3w would be louder, well, that’s definitely not the case, in fact its quite the opposite. The tire has ridges in between shoulder lugs which don’t allow noise to get in.
But that’s just half of the story, it’s actual noise dampening work is done with it’s geometry of lugs, which offer amazing pitch sequencing abilities.
This is done by engineering the shapes of all tread lugs in a way, that when air hits them, they create different tones at different locations, which cancel out the amplitudes (of waves) and dampen the noise.
Pirelli Scorpion AT on the other hand, is noisy, and it get loud with wear, it’s open shoulders allow air to freely pass in and hit the walls with full force generating unwanted sounds.
Comfort
The more the rubber in the tire the better the energy absorption of the vibrations and less the work for the suspensions. So although comfortable tires are good for well, your comfort, they also prolong the health of your vehicles suspension system.
Out of these tires I am comparing here, the Falken Wildpeak AT3w, having deepest tread in the category offers a thicker layer of rubber b/w you and the road.
This tire is also softer, as it’s evident by now, so you get better efficacy in this department.
Winter Capability
Have you ever wondered why winter tires do so good with snowy roads?
They are so capable because of their unique structure which include their softer compound which can bear freezing temperatures.
They also have a ton of siping and various notches which trap in the snow particles and make snow to snow contact (which is significant, as on snowy terrains, you need that, instead of rubber to snow contact).
Most of the all-terrain tires coming in try to have as many of these features as possible. That’s why they also get to have 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake rating allowing them take on sever winter challenges as well (and both Pirelli and Falken come in that list).
Yet with better siping, the handling performance on snow is still better with Wildpeak AT3, whereas the Pirelli Scorpion does things satisfactorily when it comes to braking and acceleration.
Off Road Performance
Off road things get different very fast, as there are so many terrains to consider, let’s take them one by one and see how both tire do on them.
Muddy Terrains
Mud is very slimy and thick, so it need more space, otherwise it would just get stuck.
That’s why Falken Wildpeak AT3w with deeper tread voids provides better mud cleaning. It’s channels effectively evacuates the mud as it’s central lugs with sharp notches and edges break it down in to smaller (easier-to-pass) particles.
Pirelli Scorpion on the other side, does not offer as much of a voided design in comparison, though it’s staggered shoulders help it a lot.
On Rocks
Rocky areas although includes various terrains, the bigger rocks are mostly considered, where tire’s climbing abilities is judged.
This terrain requires tires to have powerful gripping values (in all directions), so a good tire needs to have “a lot” of biters.
So it’s not surprising that I am rating Falken Wildpeak AT3w here as it’s more aggressive and has C shaped lugs “with biters” facing in all directions.
The tire is also more durable on the sidewalls, with 2 extra plies, so no worries there.
And with thicker lugs you move like a pro with lowered air pressure on the tire (which by the way sticks, as it also offers a more powerful rim lock in comparison).
On Sand
Sand is a tricky terrain, here you need width of the tire. And there’s section width of course, but you need to enhance that width, and the only way to do that is by lowering down the air pressure, which you always have to do.
With saw toothed edges, the Falken Wildpeak AT3w is more prone to digging in and getting stuck and this is not a problem for Scorpion, so it does better in the climbing area with it’s lighter weight.
And that’s exactly what you want, you need forward momentum.
Gravel
All-terrain tires are equipped with chip resistant rubber, that makes them very suitable to run on gravely roads, at even high speeds.
But here some tread features like the stone ejectors and groove design also play a critical role.
That’s because some tires have tread design which are more prone to stones/dirt getting trapped.
Both the Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain and Falken Wildpeak AT3w although don’t have proper stone ejectors, the Wildpeak at least wider grooves which allow dirt to leave out easily.
Pirelli’s boy has groove cones which invites dirt to settle in, so comparatively, its not going to outperform it’s competitor here.
Take Home Points
Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus and the Falken Wildpeak AT3w are both all-terrain tires where Pirelli focus on roads, mostly, and Falken does things better on rugged tracks.
That’s because Falken AT3w has wider tread voids which offer bigger groove bite and so it can grab in a better way.
