Before we get some more wheel time with the new Toyota 4Runner, I had a chance to hoon around a bit in the old one.
You know, I still have a strong respect for the long-lived fifth-generation 4Runner, even as we’re just about to publish some brand-new videos on its replacement. It’s been a solid and stout companion for hundreds of thousands of people over the years…but “sports car” it is not. I definitely wouldn’t normally consider sliding one around on an uneven snow and ice-covered track — but that’s exactly what I was able to do here, thanks to a day out at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Strictly speaking, Bridgestone didn’t just bring a group of journalists out there just to screw around. That said…there was a ton of fun to be had throughout the day’s ice driving course, in which we also checked out the Toyota GR Corolla and GR86 on Bridgestone’s latest Blizzak 6 performance winter tire. Here in the 4Runner, we’re trying out the new Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent, which launched last year as a new premium all-terrain tire for the truck and SUV segment.
What is the Bridgestone Winter Driving School?
Before getting into more detail on the Dueler A/T Ascent, a bit of a primer on the driving school itself, in which instructors teach drivers how to hone their winter driving skills.
At its core, Bridgestone’s Winter Driving School has been teaching drivers how to handle winter driving conditions since 1982, bringing in students from every state in the U.S. and dozens of countries around the globe. Driving instructors hail from a wide range of backgrounds, including racing series ranging from autocross to performance rally championships to touring car, stock car, vintage road racing and hill climb events. As you’d expect, some of that wealth of experience also comprises ice racing and precision driving challenges.
The driving school venue itself, located about 15 minutes outside Steamboat Springs, spans about 88 acres, with three purpose-built snow and ice-covered tracks. Our day of ice driving in a fleet of Toyotas mainly focused on Track 2 (roughly 15 acres) with a host of tricky spots to test your driving prowess, from off-camber corners — on a four-inch-thick layer of solid ice, no less — to elevation changes and surfaces that became rutted out and slicker over every run.
Courses span anywhere from a half-day (4 hour) session to two full days of instruction, while one-on-one private lessons and corporate training exercises are available, if you can afford it. Prices start from $355 (at time of writing) and go up several hundreds or thousands of dollars from there, depending on how much intensive winter training you’re looking for.
So, what is the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent on the 4Runner all about?
In the mix of driving everyday Toyota Camrys and Highlanders as well as the sportier GR Corolla and GR86, Bridgestone threw two fifth-gen 4Runners into the mix. The idea here was to actually get an idea of how the latest Dueler — the first in Bridgestone’s A/T lineup to feature its new ‘Enliten’ technology (more on that below) — actually stacks up to the competition. In our day of testing, we ran another 4Runner on Pirelli Scorpion A/T Plus tires, driving three laps around an insanely slick ice course before a back-to-back comparison with Bridgestone’s new offering.
In the run-up to our drive, Bridgestone did provide some technical data on the Dueler A/T Ascent’s stopping distance and handling capability using a 5th-gen 4Runner. Keep in mind, these numbers are the company’s own internal testing figures (so you’d expect them to be favorable, if they’re mentioned at all):
Snow performance testing (P-metric/passenger vehicle tire standards):
| Tire | Stopping Distance | Lap Time on ice course |
|---|---|---|
| Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent | 109.2 feet | 78.2 seconds |
| General Grabber ATX | 116.7 feet | 80.6 seconds |
| Pirelli Scorpion A/T Plus | 126.7 feet | 84.6 seconds |
| Michelin LTX A/T2 | 129.0 feet | 85.2 seconds |
Snow performance testing (LT rated tires):
| Tire | Stopping Distance | Lap Time on ice course |
|---|---|---|
| Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent | 111.6 feet | 82.5 seconds |
| BFGoodrich T/A KO2 | 135.4 feet | 86.9 seconds |
| Michelin LTX A/T2 | 179.8 feet | 93.3 seconds |
The idea with this new Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent, launched last year, is to offer solid snow traction, off-road capability and decent on-road performance with a 60,000-mile tread wear warranty. The company’s Akron, Ohio design team geared this tire to be an all-around solution that is 3-peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) rated, so you get year-round capability without swapping over to a dedicated winter tire, like a Blizzak DM-V2 or Blizzak LT. The Dueler A/T Ascent is also billed as a more premium option, priced above the A/T Revo 3, that you can get on a wider range of wheel sizes, from 17-inch wheels all the way up to 22s found on today’s swankier trucks and SUVs. In total, the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent is available in 35 different sizes, and start off around $250 a piece.
Bridgestone’s new Enliten technology debuted here on the truck side, and is coming to the Blizzak 6 on the car side, before fanning out to the rest of the company’s tire lineup over the next five years. It is effectively an initiative to reduce environmental impact of individual tires using more recycled materials, while also improving durability and performance capability.
That branding will probably just bounce off you or me as the lay individual, but the question is whether you can actually feel the technology in action, especially against competition like the Pirelli Scorpion A/T Plus.
Thing is, Pirelli’s offering is already an impressive tire in its own right. They’re well designed with block edges shaped to grab and provide better grip in cornering, while the in-block sipes help evacuate water to prevent hydroplaning. They’re remarkably smooth and quiet on-road and offer up the same 3PMSF rating as the Dueler A/T Ascent.
In this sort of simulation of tricky snow-on-ice driving conditions, the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent did make a strong case as the better performer, even if it’s still really close. Taking the old-school 4Runner (in 4WD high, with traction control on) around the course including slaloms and tight corners at about 20-25 mph, the Duelers did indeed perform better under braking and were a bit quicker to respond to steering input before the situation simply devolves into debilitating understeer. That said, neither tire is the absolute pinnacle of off-road capability — an important distinction if you plan to tackle some more hardcore off-roading.
Essentially, the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent is about as well-rounded and capable an all-terrain as you can currently get under the Bridgestone brand. From there, your path would have to shift toward the Firestone Destination (still a Bridgestone subsidiary), or toward a similar sort of aggressive rival offering like the BFGoodrich KO3 or Goodyear Wrangler Territory AT.
If you’re a 4Runner fan (and I unashamedly am) and want more a comprehensive solution to see you through all seasons with occasional trekking off the beaten track, though, the Dueler A/T Ascents are worth the money. While we didn’t get to experience them on a longer road trip, some testimonials show good signs of their quietness and confidence-inspiring handling capability on-road.
