If you’ve got a light truck or SUV that spends almost all of its time on the pavement and not off the road, highway-terrain or all-season tires are usually the best solution. Like automotive all-season tires, highway-terrain tires for SUVs are designed for a great balance of solid road manners, year-round grip, refined ride quality, muted road noise, great wear properties, confident braking ,and handling that’s consistent and predictable. Highway-terrain tires are designed around many of the same features as automotive all-season tires, but with tread compounds and internal construction that are beefed up a bit so they can accommodate the added weight and towing or hauling requirements of trucks and SUVs.

That’s exactly what you can expect with the RB-SUV from Ironman. The RB-SUV is a highway-terrain tire that’s designed to meet all those expectations, making it a great value and performer for a variety of light trucks, SUVs and crossovers. Let’s go in and get a closer look at this tire with this Ironman RB-SUV tire review:

Features and Benefits

Here are some of the innovations and design features that the Ironman RB-SUV has to offer:

• Advanced tread compound is designed for improved wear properties and enhanced traction on wet pavement
• Network of circumferential and angled grooves fights hydroplaning on wet roads by efficiently routing water through and behind the tire’s contact patch
• Continuous center rib is designed for solid straight-line stability and road manners along with steering response that’s quick and precise
• Smart shoulder design is reinforced for solid road manners, nimble cornering ability
• Tread design and placement of tread blocks are computer tuned to mitigate road noise by canceling select frequencies and overtones
• M+S rated for mud/snow traction
• Covered from the factory with 60 month/55,000 mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty with road hazard coverage

Pros and Cons

PROS:

• Ride quality is controlled with low highway noise
• Reliable traction on wet or dry pavement
• Road manners are solid and composed
• Generous limited manufacturer’s tread life coverage

CONS:

• Not good in heavier snow
• Can be a bit louder on some pavement surfaces
• Not good off-road

SimpleTire’s view on Ironman RB-SUV tires

Are you familiar with SimpleScore? SimpleScore is the rating system that the SimpleTire team developed to give you a quick, at-a-glance idea of any tire’s strengths and weaknesses. We take stock of the tire’s specs, manufacturer’s info, customer reviews and other data points, then take that info and process it to a 1-10 numerical value for the categories of traction, handling and longevity as well as an overall average SimpleScore number. In the case of the Ironman RB-LT, the SimpleScores look like this:

Ironman RB-SUV

• Traction: 7.7
• Handling: 8.0
• Longevity: 7.3
• Overall average SimpleScore: 7.7

When it comes to highway-terrain tires for SUVs, it’s probably not reasonable to expect cornering, responsiveness and maneuverability to be on the same level as a performance-oriented all-season or UHP passenger tire. With the Ironman RB-SUV, though, cornering and maneuverability are confident and predictable even when going into a curve or highway onramp fairly hard. Steering response is accurate and immediate without the problems with numbness or sluggishness that some light truck tires have. For cornering ability and overall handling properties, the Ironman RB-SUV is a tire that shows few vices, with good controllability and a stable feel.

On the highway, straight-line stability and road manners are stable and composed, and ride quality is accommodating and controlled, if a little firm at times. Noise levels are unobtrusive, if maybe not as muted as a Grand Touring passenger tire. All in all, the Ironman RB-SUV is a tire that you can rely on, on wet or dry pavement, with the kind of year-round versatility that comes with an all-season passenger tire. And like all-season passenger tires, this isn’t a tire that’s designed for good performance off-road or in heavier snow, although it does have the M+S certification for mud and snow traction. A 55,000 mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty is right about in line with what you’d expect from most at this price range, and Ironman’s road hazard coverage does sweeten the deal a bit.

Vehicles the Ironman RB-SUV is a good replacement tire for

The RB-SUV from Ironman isn’t featured as OEM on any trucks, but it would make a great replacement tire for light trucks, SUVs and crossovers such as:

• Ford Explorer
• Ford Expedition
• Ford Escape
• Ford F150/F250
• Chevrolet Silverado 1500/2500
• GMC Sierra 2500
• Buick Encore
• Buick Enclave
• Chevrolet Uplander
• Chevrolet Suburban
• Chevrolet Tahoe
• RAM 1500/2500
• Jeep Grand Cherokee
• Jeep Wagoneer
• Toyota Tundra
• TOyota Tacoma
• Honda PIlot
• Honda Ridgeline
• Honda CR-V
• Toyota 4Runner
• Nissan Pathfinder
• Nissan Titan
• BMW X5
• Chevrolet Traverse
• Dodge Journey
• Ford Edge
• Genesis GV70
• Honda Pilot
• Hyundai Tucson
• Jaguar F-Pace
• Jeep Grand Cherokee
• Lexus RX350
• Mazda CX-7
• Nissan Rogue
• Tesla Model X
• Toyota RAV4
• Volkswagen Taos