Vredestein is a premium Netherlands brand and they have been in the market for over 26 years. It’s tire, Vredestein Pinza A/T as the name suggest is an all terrain tire that is built to perform under a budget. It’s making it name amazingly famous as it’s very great on road where its dynamic response meets your expectations.
Being a tire engineer, from my perspective, the Vredestein Pinza AT is a very powerful A/T for dry roads, as it communicates with the steering inputs without lagging even slightly. If you are coming from a passenger tire, you aren’t going to feel any difference in overall performance, it’s that good. But the tire suffers on wet roads, where it’s overall lateral and directional traction need improvement. Off road the tire is above average, considering it’s focus in mostly on road, though it makes a great tire for sand
Quick Facts
- Vredestein Pinza AT offers 38 total sizes in 15 to 20 inches.
- It’s speed ratings go up to H, where you’d also see T, R and S ratings as well.
- Load ratings are available in SL, XL, C and E.
- Weight range of the tire: 28 to 60 lbs.
- Tread depth is 12/32″ mostly and few have 16/32″.
- Tire offers UTQG rating of 650 A B.
- All sizes have 3PMSF and M+S ratings.
- 50K miles warranty for LT sizes.
Tread Design
Vredestein Pinza AT offers an on road oriented design with conventional 4 circumferential channels, diving ribs. Let’s start with the outer most rib, shoulders.
The shoulder lugs of the tire run in pairs, where each consecutive block is staggered on itself.
The varying length and width of these lugs that you see is for making multi pitched design, for noise reduction.
Speaking of which, the tire also has connectors in between which also help with tread noise, more on that later.
The sidewall lugs are there for the sake of it, as off road they don’t help much, but they sure enhance the tire’s look no doubt (though it’s subjective).
Towards middle, Pinza A/T makes a continuous central rib with groove notches, and these make narrower longitudinal channels compared to outer two.
The surrounding ribs aren’t continuous, but they run in pairs (having foundation supports underneath).
Lastly, all lugs get to have zigzag full depth siping, which (try to) provide wet road traction.
Durability
The durability of this tire is amazing, especially when you check out LT sizes, as those get to have 3 ply sidewalls.
So this means they have 3 ply polyester casing (as the inner most layer).
This cover of polyester is topped with 2 steel belts which are then wrapped with a single cap ply of nylon to enhance the tire’s stability.
The LT sizes have Hexabead technology, so they make very powerful beads, which means you can run the tire with very low air pressure.
Non LT sizes on the other side only have 2 ply sidewalls, where rest is same, 2 steel belts and a single ply nylon.
Dry Performance
On road performance is calculated by 3 main things, tire’s response, dry grip and lateral traction.
Let’s talk about them all one by one.
Dry Traction
Dry traction is sub-categorized in to two main dimensions, directional grip and lateral traction.
Let’s talk directional grip first, which is calculated by stopping distances (when fully braked from a specified speed).
Here how much rubber is meeting with the surface is very crucial, and this combined with tread’s composition, and other features like weight and rolling resistance tells you about the grip.
For directional grip, central area of the tread is seen as that makes the most contact, and for lateral grip, shoulder are focused.
Vredestein Pinza AT focuses on both, it’s central rib makes a continuous path, while the surrounding ribs also have reinforced foundation supports, so it’s rubber stays in tact, meanwhile the sticky composition combined with notches hold on to the surface of the road.
Similarly, on shoulders all blocks are interconnected with each other with the help of tie bars, so they keep their movement restricted providing you with a stable lateral traction.
Steering Response
If we talk about the steering response of the tire, Vredestein Pinza AT feels very sporty, but only on dry roads, where on wet you will feel things slightly over-steering especially with the LT sizes.
But on road, the steering communication is very fast, where even minor inputs generates quick and minor returning feedback.
That’s the tire is also rated up to H for speed rating, which is above average for an all-terrain tire.
Wet Performance
The overall performance on wet roads is seen with 2 major dimensions, one is the wet traction which tells about directional and lateral response of the tire, while the other is hydroplaning, where grooves come in to action.
Let’s talk about them in detail.
Wet Grip
Vredestein Pinza AT is going to feel slightly lagging here, and this is mostly because of it’s rigid construction.
And if you go with non LT sizes, which are 2 ply polyester, the tire still has very connecting tread, that don’t allow the sipes flexibility to wipe water away efficiently.
The sipes basically suck water underneath them by creating a vacuum (as there’s always air in them and when it meets with the surface, the air gets pushed out, and negative pressure is created).
Now although its siping have interlocking pattern which helps with elasticity, they joined up ribs (with tie bars) don’t allow as much movement still, so traction gets limited a little bit.
But still compared to other A/Ts its not that bad, but how well it performs on dry roads, the wet performance does not meet your expectations.
Hydroplaning
When a tire floats on water, the phenomena is called hydroplaning or aquaplaning. To avoid this grooves are designed on the tread, to path the water out.
Vredestein Pinza AT although offers good enough 4 circumferential channels, the channels are not laterally connected properly (because of the ridge in between the lateral grooves), so this tire does great on directional hydroplaning tests, but on curves there’s a bit lag.
Winter Performance
Vredestein Pinza AT is a great tire to have on snowy terrains, the tire does great in almost all tests, acceleration, braking, handling and response (to name the important ones).
The central rib of the tire is equipped with snow vices which grab the snow very easily, and the groove notches ensure the trapped snow stay stuck.
This is significant as you need snow to snow contact there (as snowflakes stick on other snowflakes, that’s why we have the terms “the snow ball effect”).
The tire also offers a softer rubber which very resistant to stiffen up with even very low temperatures. That’s why the tire earns 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake symbol.
Comfort
Comfort of the tire is simply it’s ability to soak up the imperfections of the road and it depends on the tire’s make up and tread composition.
the imperfections of the road offers a good mixture of both, especially on euro metric sizes which get to have 2 ply sidewalls.
The softer construction is able to absorb the vibrations of the belts, while the spongy rubber on top ensures those vibrations get dampened before reaching in to the vehicle.
Overall ride quality of the tire is also dependent on the noise and here the tire great again with it’s closed up design.
Closed up pattern is great for noise reduction as noise is just air and the more the groove space it has, the more easily it hits the surface of the ribs.
Fuel Efficiency
Fuel efficiency depends on rolling resistance and this is where this tire really impresses me.
Mostly, when I review other tires which are so good at providing dry grip, they come with the price of higher rolling resistance (so more fuel is required to roll them).
But the Vredestein Pinza AT surprisingly offers very good fuel economy.
It’s design basically form a perfect combination of softness and rigidity. The softer rubber of the tire, basically wants to stick on the roads, menacing friction, whereas the ridges between the voids help them leave off quickly, so overall less fuel is burnt as a result.
The rolling resistance of the tire also affects the tire’s tread wear, and this tire again with it’s dual compound takes a little while to wear off.
That’s why it comes with 50k miles warranty for LT sizes and a whopping 70k miles warranty for P metric tires, which is above average.
For Your Info: Out of all tires I reviewed, the least consuming fuel All-terrain tire is Firestone Destination AT2, you can check out it’s review here, https://tiredriver.com/firestone-destination-at2-review/
Off Road Performance
Off road there are many different terrains to consider, so let’ take a look at all of them one by one.
Dirt and Gravel
Although the Vredestein Pinza offers decent dirt and gravel traction, it’s missing stone ejectors invites a lot of dirt to settle in quickly, and this not only loses the traction, but also damages the tread, though it’s rubber is chip resistant.
It’s directional grip however is better compared to handling (on light gravely roads), as there it’s reinforced foundations also act as dirt ejectors a little bit.
Mud traction
On mud, you need a bald tire which can clear off the thick slimy mud off quickly, as you don’t want mud to mud exposure, as that does nothing for traction.
Vredestein Pinza A/T is not good on mud, even on a minor muddy terrain.
It’s shoulders are tightly packed and they allow mud to leave out sideways, and it’s continuous middle ribs also don’t offer lateral path for mud to leave out.
Moreover, Pinza also does not offer proper mud scoops on sides, not it’s sidewall lugs are big enough for that.
Sand Traction
Sand is tough one, as here besides having driving skills you need some features of a tire which can help with big and deep dunes.
The tire first of all has to be light in weight, second, it should provide paddles (scoops), third, it should offer a good tread print, and lastly, the tire should have a powerful bead locker.
Vredestein Pinza AT keeps its weight low, even with 3 ply sidewalls, so that’s a go for it. The tire comes with good enough rim locks and you can low on the pressure to provide tread print.
Moreover, you also get a decent tread area contact with sand with lower pressure, though the sidewall lugs don’t help here too much.
The sidewall lugs would have done great for this tire, and that goes for rocks as well.
Traction on Rocks
On rocks sidewalls are very crucial both internally and externally, and although the Vredestein Pinza AT offers 3 ply sides, which is great, it does not offer good enough lugs on top, so with lowered pressure you don’t get enough traction values like other A/T tires.
The tire is also missing biters in the middle. The stepped edges on the blocks in the middle and the stepped edges don’t offer as impressive of a chewing power.
To Conclude
The Vredestein Pinza All Terrain (A/T) is overall a very competing tire no doubt, where it shines the most on dry roads with excellent directional and lateral grip combined with responsive steering.
The tire also offers all season traction, where it’s winter performance is quite a show, rewarding it with 3PMSF and M+S ratings.
But on wet roads, the tire has a limited performance to offer, and it can be improved a little bit.
Also the 3 ply sidewalls is a over-kill on this tire, as the lugs on top don’t suit it a lot, nor they give a lot of biting off road.
