As the lucky owner of both a 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness and a 2023 Ford Bronco Sport Badlands, let me be clear about something up front. The BF Goodrich Trail-Terrain T/A+ is not built for hardcore off-roading. You are not going to crawl Moab on these, and you are not meant to. We all know that's the legendary KO3's job. This tire is aimed squarely at crossover, SUV, and light-truck owners who spend their weekends on dirt roads, park in wet grassy fields at events, bump down kayak and canoe access trails, and dabble in light soft-roading without pretending their daily driver is a rock buggy. That is a huge slice of the buying public, and BFG built this tire to serve it well.
The Trail-Terrain T/A+ is an updated design, and the numbers BFG is backing it with are worth noting:
- 10 percent improvement in wet-weather traction and stopping distances.
- 25 percent gain in tread life, and a healthy 5 percent bump in fuel economy thanks to lower rolling resistance.
- Treadwear warranty of 65,000 miles, which tells you BFG is confident its new rubber compound goes the distance.
BFG got the tread pattern right the first time with the original Trail-Terrain T/A, so the big difference in the new “Plus” version is the magic rubber. I sat down with Joni Epting, Product Development Engineer for the Trail-Terrain T/A+, and she put it plainly during our in-person interview.
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The BFG Trail-Terrain T/A tire performed well in its prior carbon-black, low-silica compound, but has significantly improved performance using its new high-silica compound, which is even noticeable to the touch.
That last part stuck with me. You can feel the difference in the rubber before you ever mount it on a wheel.
Speaking of wheels and what BFG bolted these to, our test fleet was a good cross-section of what these tires are meant to live under. We ran the 2026 model year Ford Bronco Sport Badlands, a Toyota RAV4 LE, a Toyota 4Runner, a Chevy Tahoe, a Subaru Outback Wilderness, and a Chevy Colorado pickup. That spread covers five-passenger crossovers all the way up to a full-size body-on-frame SUV and a midsize truck, which is precisely the audience BFG is targeting. A Ford Maverick would have been a great tester as well, but we all know the Bronco Sport has a similar setup. I asked how the popular Honda Passport TrailSport was overlooked, and was told that the tire size is still pending for that exact model and trim. Of all the vehicles we sampled, my opinion is that the Outback Wilderness would benefit most from this tire over the OEM-spec tire.
As a Bronco Sport Badlands owner myself, the BSBL is where I had the most calibrated feel for the new tire compared to others I have experienced. On pavement, the Trail-Terrain T/A+ was noticeably quieter than an all-terrain like the (very good) Falken WildPeak A/T3W I normally run, and it was MUCH quieter than a dedicated off-road tire like the BFG KO3. If you have lived with an aggressive A/T on the highway, you know the droning hum I am talking about. This new Trail Terrain T/A+ tire leaves the annoying sounds behind, and for a vehicle you commute in five days a week, that matters. Even mounted to the hybrid RAV4, which has zero engine sound much of the time you drive it, the Trail Terrain T/A+ was hard to call anything but "normal" in terms of road noise.
Handling was crisp on paved sections and similar to what an all-season touring tire would offer. I will offer one caveat. In the XL spec sizes, the ride felt a touch stiffer than some of my fellow testers expected. I want to be fair about that, because conditions were not kind to a controlled impression. We set out at around 40 degrees, and the day climbed to roughly 90 by the time we wrapped, so relative tire pressure was almost certainly rising on us. I suspect the stiffness was as much a tire pressure story as a construction story, and I would want a longer, more controlled test before hanging the complaint on the tire itself. Due to unseasonably hot, dry weather, wet-testing and snow testing were not possible.
Off pavement is where the Trail-Terrain T/A+ earned its keep and excelled in its mission. We took all of the test vehicles onto dirt roads and through gravel sections, then pushed into some genuine light off-roading. That included ascents and descents over rocky terrain, and across small loose boulder fields, the kind of thing a trailhead road or a backcountry access route actually throws at you. We "forded" a shallow stream. These were not staged or groomed surfaces prepped by BFG, but actual public areas near Vail, Colorado. The tires handled it easily. After we were done with our driving, we examined the tires for tread and sidewall damage and found none. No chips, no chunks pulled out of the tread anywhere we could see, which is reassuring for buyers who want one set of tires to handle both the commute and the cabin road. One thing I noticed was that once we hit the pavement, the tread shed a fair bit of the tiny stones retained by the tread blocks. They ticked and dinged the wheel wells as we drove the first quarter mile. The Falken all-terrain tires I have been running for a few years don't do that at all, but the Michelin X-ICE winter tires do it a bit. This was not a problem, mind you, but I am always honest and complete when reporting on any tire, in any scenario.
A word on looks, because buyers care, as they should. The sidewall profile is sharp and looks rugged. Better yet, because the tire is not directional, you can run it as a white-wall or a black-wall, depending on the vibe you are going for. That flexibility is a nice touch and gives owners of vintage vehicles, as well as new models, a styling lever without having to buy a different tire.
One test footnote: I noticed that BFG didn’t stick religiously to the OEM’s tire size specs. BFG’s team selected a tire of 10mm added nominal width to the Bronco Sport Badlands, for example, running 245s instead of 225 or 235-width tires. This seemed like a great move, since nearly every owner always wants that extra bit of footprint if the rubber won’t rub.
Overall, the Trail-Terrain T/A+ performed as expected across most of our day, and the reduced noise was a clear win over the competitive tires in this segment that I've owned and tested. For the right owner, the one who enjoys dirt roads and trailheads rather than tackling rock ledges, this is a smart, quiet, durable choice. On a personal note, I drive the dirt roads and private trails of central New Hampshire on a weekly basis, and I appreciate all-terrain tires once I’m there, but listening to them howl on the hour-plus drive from Metro Boston gets exhausting. And who doesn't want a tire designed with fuel economy in mind? I’ve been searching for a quieter tire that is capable off-pavement, and I think I’ve found it. Watch for an upcoming test with the Ford Bronco Sport Badlands as our sample vehicle.
If you’ve owned the BFG Trail-Terrain T/A tire on your own vehicle, we’d love to hear your ownership impressions in the comments below. Tire Rack has a very high rating for this tire line, but we always value reader impressions more.
All images by John Goreham.
John Goreham is a 14-year veteran of Torque News. An accomplished writer and a long-time expert in vehicle testing, Goreham also serves as the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and has a growing social media presence. He’s also a 10-year staff writer and community moderator for Car Talk. Goreham holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an undergraduate Certificate in Marketing. In addition to vehicle and tire content, he offers deep dives into market trends and opinion pieces. You can follow John Goreham on X and TikTok, and connect with him on LinkedIn.
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