Originally Posted by dogememe
Good luck with your Dynapro HTs. I've had them on my Escape for 50k miles and they absolutely suck. No traction in any condition. I had Dynapro ATs on a previous vehicle and they were absolutely fabulous on and off road!
Well, definitely not the case with the Dynapro HT RH12 model (current one) that I got to drive yesterday. I got the truck back yesterday and had some unique conditions to test it in, and they were superb. Equal or better in those conditions to the Toyo Open County ATs that came off that morning. Granted the Toyos were almost at the wear bars, but I've had them for years and know how they've been - and they've been excellent and w/o much degradation in performance until they got down to ~3/32nds.
The interstate east of here had been closed the night before from heavy snow, ice, and accidents (Snoqualmie Pass), so I left the dealership and ran up there to check them out! Very good - roughly equal to the Toyo ATs last winter (which were very good in deep snow, ice, etc.). I came back down to the pass to town and a new round of precipitation was pushing up the valley and dumping a lot of rain down low - I checked later and about 1/2" in ~2 hours - pretty good rain. I tried some panic/emergency stops on some straightaways w/no other traffic around, from 55/60 mph on a very wet road surface in continuous moderate/heavy rain. I was thresholding the brakes and not using the ABS; trying to really see what I could do with them/feel from them. They were VERY good - shorter distance than the Toyo, and more linear. The Dynapro HTs were also much quieter.
My observations stack up with 95% of the reviews I've read online. I can understand if they don't act like performance tires in the dry, but they seem to do what they advertise and most people agree. I know that inflation, rotation, vehicle dynamics can all really change how a tire feels car to car and I can't speak to the Escape. But I am very satisfied and with the amazing deal GM was offering (they were well under $300 installed for all four after rebate!), I'm very pleased.
If I needed a real AT tire, I'd definitely go buy the Dynapro AT w/o reservation based on my readings, reviews, and sampling these HTs.