Both Firestone Destination XT and Falken Wildpeak AT3w are All Terrain tires capable of providing performance on rugged terrains while keeping your ride comfortable on highways. A Good All Terrain tire has to be best on both worlds and that’s all these tires strive to be.
Ironically, where one AT tire attempt to increase it’s traction abilities off road, it almost always has to compromise on road, and vice versa. But that’s where these two come in. Both of these tires have a unique pattern along with rubber composition that allows them to have a good balance between both worlds.
Table of Contents
Tread Pattern (Things To Know):
Falken Wildpeak AT3w
Firestone Destination X/T
With the Firestone Destination XT, the tire shows a pretty aggressive look featuring 3 main blocks in the middle that repeat through the tire.
The central block (highlighted with red color) looks like an “S”, while the surrounding 2 blocks are mirror images of each other.
These blue colored blocks have saw-tooth edges facing shoulder blocks and are seen with supporting ridges which acts as reinforced foundations.
Side Note: The saw toothed edges you see on blue highlighted blocks are actually called snow vices.
All these blocks are prominently separated by zigzag longitudinal grooves, which divides the shoulder blocks.
On the other side, the Falken Wildpeak AT3w also shows some alphabets. Here they are Z and C shaped.
The Z shaped (highlighted with green) has ramps/stepped edges on sides. And other than that, these blocks are seen with rectilinear sipes, chamfered edges but it’s also common with the surrounding blocks.
Speaking of surrounding blocks, they are seen with notches (which give them the shape “C”), and these blocks also have supports on sides which act as reinforced foundations.
Moving towards shoulders, the Firestone Destination X/T although technically provides staggered shoulders, they barely make traction scoops.
The blocks here are square-shaped blocks with deep slits on the outer margins, along with rectilinear siping.
On sidewalls, this tire makes U shaped lugs and it’s quite similar to the ones on Falken Wildpeak AT3w.
But still it’s more aggressive there, as you can see.
Same goes for the shoulder blocks where they make saw tooth edges on the outer edges and on the inner, they have ramps on one blocks and traction notches on the other.
The blocks also make more efficient siping of interlocking design (again full depth).
How are these tires on road?
On road performance is divided in to 2 main sections, dry and wet. If we start things off from dry, both tires are simply great here and there is only a negligible difference between both which does not matter in the overall picture of performance.
But here one thing to note is that on Firestone Destination XT, steering response is better and it feels more natural as its not that stiff, whereas on Falken Wildpeak AT3w, there seems to be a slight delay between the steering input and the tire’s feedback, (which is also felt more on dry compared to wet roads).
Speaking of which, Falken Wildpeak AT3w is simply amazing on wet pavements. It’s significant because usually aggressive off road tires lack in this area.
It’s handling and grip performance simply jumps out of the paper. The tire offers very high density of silica which keeps its rubber softer and allows sipes to have greater flexibility.
The shoulder blocks have more efficient siping, and they are bigger so they cover a large part of the tread, so water is wiped off very effectively.
On the other side, the Firestone Destination XT provides rectilinear sipes on shoulders, which provide very less lateral aid to this tire. So the tire does not do good on corners.
Side Note: I don’t know what’s going on with Firestone, but their both popular variants, the XT and the AT, both lack a lot in lateral traction.
Which tire is stronger?
Durability is very important when it comes to all terrain tires, or should I say off road tires. And here a tire must have a stronger sidewall which can protect from getting punctured by thorns, sharp rocks, logs etc.
If we talk about Firestone Destination XT, the tire provides 2 ply polyester, 2 steel belts and a single ply on nylon. With just single ply of nylon the middle part of the tread is weak, and similarly with just 2 ply polyester underneath the sidewalls, they are also not durable enough either.
The Falken Wildpeak AT3w although provides same 2 ply casing and 2 steel belts but the tire also has 2 layers of nylon and 2 extra layers on sidewalls made out of polyamide.
So the tire is better protected here in comparison, as it’s sidewalls are 4 layers thick.
Traction on Rocks:
Falken Wildpeak AT3w provides more aggressive sides in every way. Like we just talked about in the durability, the tire has 2 extra layers of polyamide running under the sidewalls, the tire provides you more confidence off road with sharp rocks and thorns.
It also offers more aggressive side biters where each shoulder blocks is staggered on it self and this make saw toothed edges providing the tire with lateral traction.
Firestone Destination although provides you with very similar U shaped sidewall lugs just like it’s competitor, the tire’s less aggressive shoulder blocks don’t offer as efficient biting abilities when you pressure them down.
Also on gravel and areas filled with stones, both tires have the issue of stones getting stuck as they both don’t offer stone ejectors.
Winter Performance:
Both tires provide really good traction on snow, that’s why both of them are stamped with 3 peak mountain snowflake rating.
And although the 3PMSF rating is just an acceleration test, these tires are also great when it comes to braking and handling.
But if we compare, the Falken Wildpeak AT3w does things better with deeper snow while the Firestone Destination X/T is great with on road snow.
The Destination X/T provides you with more biters (which grab the snow more efficiently), for example the tire has snow vices which capture the snow particles, as shown.
This provides better snow to snow contact, which enhances traction.
Similarly the slits on the shoulder blocks (also can be seen in the image) do the same.
The Falken Wildpeak A/T 3w on the other hand, although provides full depth interlocking sipes on shoulders along with C and Z shaped blocks with stepped edges, it’s still not enough to capture as much snow comparatively.
So the tire lacks slightly. However as the tire has more tread depth, its deals with deeper snow in a much better way.
Note: Even though these tires have 3pmsfr, they still aren’t able to outperform dedicated winter tires.
Mud Performance:
Mud is a very difficult terrain, make one wrong move and you are stuck. Here you need tires which are very good at keeping themselves clean, that’s because mud to mud contact has no traction (things here are opposite compared to snowy terrains, one might say).
Now both of these tires although are not so good at self cleaning, the Falken Wildpeak AT3w has a little advantage, the tire offers deeper channels, so it can evacuate more volume of mud at a given time.
The tire also offers more weight and sidewall biters which act as diggers and scoopers, pushing mud back and providing a forward push in return.
The Firestone Destination XT, on the other side, does not offer better serrated shoulders and it’s sides are not tough enough to dig in as effectively.
Moreover, the tire is good at trapping, as seen in snowy traction above, so it tends to get packed with mud quickly.
It’s inner grooves with snow vices are not as wide so slimy mud has a hard time to leave the tread.
So, What’s the Verdict?
Both tires have unique features which make them perform differently on various terrains, the Firestone Destination XT first of all is a very fuel efficient tire, and it performs great on dry roads.
Falken Wildpeak although performs great on par on dry roads, it’s not as fuel efficient and is going to wear off a little faster, but on wet roads, the tire shines like a pro. It outperforms its competitors in nearly all tests, grip, handling, lateral traction, concreting stability, you name it.
On snowy terrains, both tires provide ample traction and are 3 peak mountain snowflake rated, but still if you have to pick one, the Firestone Destination XT shows a little better efficacy overall.
The rest is mud, rocks, and other types of terrains, and let me save you some time by saying is, overall the ball is going to be in Falken Wildpeak AT3w’s court here.
