Mike Melton reviews the new Falken AT4W tire, which replaces the AT3W with larger tread blocks and harder rubber meant to add 5,000 miles of life. The trade-off: worse wet traction, which he sees as a bad deal since safety matters more than extra mileage.
You either love these tires or hate these tires right here. So this is the new Falken AT4W. Now they used to make the AT3W, they discontinued it. Let me tell you the difference between those two. Now they did improve the mileage on the AT4W. Your tread blocks are a little bit bigger. What they did, they sacrificed some of the wet traction to get you a little bit more mileage. So a lot of people are liking the AT3W better than this AT4W. One of the reasons why is because that wet traction— they did take away the wet traction to get, get more miles, which they never should have did that for 5,000 more miles. That was one of the dumbest things that Falken ever did, because the rubber compound's a little bit harder on this tire to make it last a little longer for you. Now me personally, I'd give up to 5,000 more miles to have better wet traction, to just, you know, to just be safer on the road. Now they no longer make the AT3W, so you're not ever going to see it again. So you got the AT4W. If you want the Falken, we can get them for you. So this is what they look like— semi-aggressive tread, side, on the side. Nice, you know, they look good. They usually don't balance out all too well. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. But if you want a set of these tires, just come see us, stwdirect.com, or give us a call, 704-240-9075.
