Hercules Terra Trac ATII

Just wanted to drop in and say I got these tires and they're AMAZING. Certainly gives credit to people who say it's a myth that expensive tires are always the best.

For my size, 245/75/16, these were only $115/tire which is pretty much impossible to beat for a high quality AT tire.

Snow and wet performance due to the substantial siping is EXCELLENT. These feel as good in the snow and wet as the dedicated snow tires (non-studded Winterforce's) I had on my last Tacoma.

Also, these are the quietest AT tire I've ever driven on. They are as quiet as a quiet all-season. Noise level is comparable to the stock Dunlop all seasons which the truck shipped with. Even at speeds up to 75 MPH, they are silent.

Would highly recommend to anyone.

 

Where did you get those from? They seem pretty hard to get.

 

I had a set on my work truck.

They were great when new but wore fast and got loud. Great traction though.

 

You are showing two different pictures. The first is a photo I took for my review of the Terra Trac A/T. The second picture is of the A/T II.

I do agree, however, that the Hercules tires are an incredible value for a well built tire.

As for being hard to get, they just need to be ordered about a week in advance from most tire shops.

 

Ha, I didn't even know that was your photo. I needed a pic of the tread without snow on it and that pic was the first google image result!

 

I got them from my local Hercules dealer. They had them in stock.

 

No worries. The A/T II is pretty new from Hercules. There is going to be a fair amount of confusion between the two until the new design gets established.

 

Didn't realize there was an older terra trac. Looking at it now, seems they made lots of improvements. The guy in this thread that said they got noisy and wore fast is probably talking about the original terra trac. The at2 is a 60k mile tire.

 

I'm running the original AT on my patrol vehicle. So far they are still super quiet and haven't lost any traction. You can read my review of them here.

 

Looks a lot like the Big O Big Foot AT.

 

Something that a lot of people don't think about is how deep the sipes go into the lugs. Most budget tires will only have very shallow siping into the lugs. So, the tire handles great at first, but as it wears down wet/snow traction suffer. I'm not commenting on these tires specifically as I'm not familiar with them, just something to keep in mind when shopping.

 

+1, on the picture of the big O big foot tires, you can see the siping is only about 15-20% as deep as the lugs. it is hard to see how deep the siping is on the OP's pictures because of the shadow's. after the siping gets worn away they probably perform closer to an m/t tire on wet roads.

 

I'm not sure how deep they go on the original A/T as I haven't worn them down that far yet, but according to Hercules' website, the A/T II has very deep siping.

http://www.herculestire.com/terra-trac-at-ii

 

They can be resiped when the original siping is gone.

 

Aftermarket siping is great for snow and wet weather traction but will absolutely destroy your tires in a lot of off road situations. If you notice, the factory siping only extends into the center of the lug, it doesn't cut the sides of the lug like aftermarket siping. Aftermarket siping is great in the correct situations. Sorry, I'm a former tire nerd. Put myself through college working at Discount Tire for 5 years.

 

Just picked up a set of the Terra Trac AT II in 265/75/16 flavor in a C load, so far great handing in the wet as we just got pounded with rain in southern California, very quiet, and great price. 60,000 mile tire that is stamped " Made in the USA", thats what I've been looking for.

 

I currently run the original terra trac at and will agree with Maticuno that they are undervalued tires. I drove about 1/2 across Canada with them when new from Toronto the Regina, Sask at the end of March in 2012 and have had them in minor off road situations since then. Very good tire. When I replace these in the fall I'll be leaning toward the new at2's, probably 275/70/17 in C.

My old man needed new tires for his 2010 F150 with 4.6 V8 and I suggested these new at2's. He has them now in E load and they are exceptionally quiet, and smooth on road. Decent snow traction as we were up at the cottage this past weekend on snow covered gravel roads, mostly in 2wd as well. Firm ride, though I imagine almost anything would be compared to the worn out stock goodyears . Its also a pretty good looking tire too in the larger size. (compared with OP's 245's)

 

Any updates on the at2? ?

 

I know this is an old thread, but a buddy of mine recommended me to get these tires, so I decided to pick up a set of 285/75 16's today. Going to put them on their first outing tomorrow. They definitely do look nice.

 

I have a set of AT II's on my Tacoma, they came on it when I purchased it. Going out to the snow in a couple of weeks, I'll let you know how they did.