First Drive: Yokohama Introduces New Geolandar A/T G015

Bustling with anticipation for the 50th Annual Easter Jeep Safari, Moab, was already filling up with with excited visitors a week before the start of the Safari. Many were aftermarket manufacturers getting an early start at the Spanish Trail venue. Yokohama told us they chose this time so that the introduction wouldn’t interfere with the Safari.

Since the Geolandar A/T G015 tire is a combination all-weather and all-terrain tire designed for pickups (full- and mid-size) and SUVs of all sizes, an off-road trail and an extended highway trip were needed for a full test. That’s why Moab is an ideal location for this location—trails of all ratings abound and are readily and easily accessed.

Rather than staying in town for the entire event, Yokohama set us up at Sorrel River Resort. The resort is located about 20 miles upriver from Moab on the road to Grand Junction, which provided nearly 50 miles of highway testing for noise and traction. Both proved to be excellent—very low road noise and quite high pavement traction.

The Yokohama team also picked an excellent guide for our test drive. Dan Mick—for whom Mickey’s Hot Tub was named—has been a four-wheeling fanatic and off-road tour guide for more than three decades. A legend in his own time, Dan and his son Richard led us to a fantastic trail—Fins and Things. Rated a 4 on a 10-point scale, Fins and Things provides sand, slick rock, steep climbs, and sharp drop-offs. In other words, almost anything you’ll encounter on a modest desert exploration trip short of rock crawling.

Remember, the Geolandar A/T G015 tire is designed primarily for pickups and SUVs, but it will work well on Wranglers also, especially if the Wranglers are used mostly for modest off-road expeditions and daily drivers. The all-terrain tire is engineered for durability and is intended to improve traction for SUVs on any surface and in any weather condition, including snow. The G015 meets the Rubber Manufacturers Association’s severe snow service criterion and is stamped with the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake symbol. According to Yokohama’s literature, the tire’s exclusive orange oil compound and advanced tread is designed to combine to provide superior handling and road grip.

“The Geolandar A/T G015 delivers outstanding traction in any condition, both on road and off,” said Andrew Briggs, senior director of tire business planning, product planning and sales operations. “It’s the toughest and most versatile Geolandar yet and it’s built to last, providing some of the best mileage in the industry.”

Yokohama notes that the Geolandar A/T G015’s updated size lineup now covers 96 percent of the market for today’s full- and mid-sized pickups and SUVs. Its limited tread-wear warranties are 60,000 miles for P/E-metric and 50,000 miles for LT-metric sizes.

Available for shipping on April 1, 2016, the G015 will be offered in 60 LT and P/E metric sizes with more sizes coming along in future months. The tire we evaluated in Moab was an LT285/70R17, about half with outlined white letters (OWL) and the remainder without OWL.

The Jeeps on which the test tires were mounted were new Wrangler Sport models, two- and four-door models. The red Unlimited Sport I drove (with Dan Mick as my passenger) had less than 200 miles on the clock. Sport models do without lockers, without low gears, and have 2.79:1 low range gears, so they were an excellent choice for the all-terrain tire testing—traction was due to tire and not gears. They’d all received a modest lift of between one and two inches to accommodate the 32-inch Yokohama Geolandars.

Because tire prices vary so widely depending on where they are purchased—and our space limitations—we can’t provide prices for the Geolandar A/T G015 at this time. Go to http://www.yokohamatire.com/ for a full list of size availability and prices.