Hercules Tire & Rubber Co. recently hosted a pair of driving events for customers, supporting the launch of the all-new Hercules Terra Trac AT II light truck/SUV radial.
Separate events were hosted in May and June in Pearsall, Texas, at a tire test facility there, and in the backcountry around Moab, Utah. And both were held well in advance of Hercules’ July 1 launch date for the new tire.
The Texas event in June drew 20 tire dealers, who drove the new Terra Trac AT II and competitive products both on the track and through the facility’s off-road area. The day kicked off with a brief educational presentation on the features and benefits of the new tire, test results the company had developed, and information about launch and distribution plans for the Terra Trac AT II.
Part of the event focused on the tire’s wet traction performance versus a popular Tier 2 competitor. Participants went through the wet pad course in a GMC Yukon, taking four laps on each tire. When not on the wet pad, dealers pulled hot laps in a Baja race truck shod with Hercules Trail Digger M/Ts.
The “all-terrain” part of the day was spent on trails with six Jeeps featuring the new tire, allowing dealers to experience first-hand the tire’s abilities on dirt, rock, sand, mud and deep water, with a challenging incline with rocky and polished concrete surfaces to cap things off.
The two-day May event in Moab saw 15 dealers go trail riding in Jeeps outfitted with Terra Trac AT IIs and other Hercules light truck/SUV tires. A technical briefing started things off before guests “warmed up” on the Fins n’ Things Trail, which featured “tight turns, loose rock, lots of sand and uneven, rocky terrain,” according to Hercules officials.
Day Two saw drivers tear off on the Hell’s Revenge Trail “to get a better taste of slick rock, complete with white-knuckle inclines, declines and off-camber approaches,” Hercules said.
Tire Details
The Hercules Terra Trac AT II is the successor to the Terra Trac A/T, which the company said was quite popular during its decade-long market life. The new model features 29% m
ore sipes than the previous tire, and a 17% improvement in treadlife, Hercules said, thanks to the Terra Trac AT II’s new silica-infused AT-C all-terrain tread compound.
The “blatantly aggressive” tread design improves stability over the previous model, Hercules claimed, and “independent testing saw the Hercules Terra Trac AT II out-perform its best-selling predecessor and other popular all-terrain offerings in dry handling, dry braking, wet handling and wet braking tests.”
The tread design features “tusk-shaped grooves” to aid both water evacuation and all-terrain traction, stone ejectors, and beveled and rounded tread elements to battle uneven wear. Enhanced tread block buttressing improves block stability, Hercules claimed, while a mold profile shape creates a more stable contact patch.
“The Terra Trac AT II isn’t just a better tire – it’s an all-new tire developed using everything we’ve learned in nearly 10 successful years with the Terra Trac A/T,” said Joshua Simpson, vice president of marketing for Hercules. “Consumers want – expect, really – high performance with great value.
“The Hercules Terra Trac AT II gives our dealers an edge by enabling them to offer exactly that – a quality tire that offers enormous value and delivers security, longevity, control, quiet and stability.”
The Terra Trac AT II is available in 46 SKUs comprised of P- and LT-metric sizes. All sizes offer a 60,000-mile/100,000-km limited mileage warranty, road hazard protection and Hercules’ 30-day “Trust Our Ride” test drive, the company said.
