For drivers of sedans, coupes, and minivans, all-season tires are often the best all-around choice. All-season tires are designed for long, even wear, a quiet and accommodating ride, nice stable road manners at highway speed, handling that’s predictable and consistent, and dependable, confident traction in just about every kind of weather conditions other than heavy snow. Of course, light trucks, SUVs and crossovers have pretty much taken over all the family car and daily-driver duties that used to be performed by sedans, minivans, and station wagons, so it just makes sense that those vehicles should have their own all-season tires too.

With so many choices in the all-season tire arena, it just makes sense that they’re available at every conceivable price point, from spendy premium tires to affordable tires from lesser-known brands. In most cases, the price is tied in directly with the quality you can expect, but not in the case of the Summit Trail Climber SUV2. The Trail Climber SUV2 is a budget-priced all-season tire that comes with a premium set of features and performs well above expectations for its price point. Let’s get in there and get a closer look with this Summit Trail Climber SUV2 tire review:

Features and Benefits

Here are some of the great design features and innovations that make the Trail Climber SUV2 a great value and an outstanding performer in the world of all-season tires:

• All-season tread with wide circumferential grooves that mitigate any tendency toward hydroplaning by efficiently routing standing water away from the tire’s contact patch
• Redesigned footprint puts more rubber in contact with the road for better wear properties, improved braking, handling, and overall traction
• Continuous center rib is designed for solid, stable road manners and quick, light steering response
• Optimized shoulder profile encourages even wear along with predictable, capable handling
• Summit’s SPPS noise reduction technology helps to isolate certain frequencies and overtones for a muted ride on the highway
• Covered by a 60,000 mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty
• Enhanced rubber formulation is optimized for long wear and great traction on wet or dry pavement
• Reinforced shoulder blocks and block edges help to provide great handling properties and crisp cornering ability
• Tie bars at the shoulder enhance tread rigidity
• Jointless bead design with a spiral wrap around the bead wire for enhanced structural rigidity and a boost in ride quality
• Full-depth sipes multiply the tread’s surface area and traction with hundreds of tiny hair-thin slits to slice through standing water or slush

Pros and Cons

With the Summit Trail Climber SUV2, this is a tire where the Pros are far outweighed by the Cons:

PROS:

• Very affordable price point
• Dependable traction and handling properties
• Generous limited manufacturer’s tread life coverage
• Great wet-weather performance and traction

CONS:

• Not good off-road
• Not good in heavier snow
• Can get a little noisier on some pavement surfaces

SimpleTire’s view on Summit Trail Climber SUV2 tires

Are you familiar with SimpleScore SimpleScore is the proprietary ratings system that we here at the SimpleTire team developed to give you a quick at-a-glance idea of a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. We take into account the tire’s technical information, manufacturer info, specs, customer reviews, and other data points, and then we distill all that to a 1-10 numerical score for the categories of traction, handling, and longevity, along with an overall average SimpleScore number. For the Summit Trail Climber SUV2, the SimpleScores break down this way:

Summit Trail Climber SUV2:

• Traction: 7.6
• Handling: 8.1
• Longevity: 9.0
• Overall average SimpleScore: 8.2

With an all-season tire like the Summit Trail Climber SUV2, you probably shouldn’t expect the kind of cornering ability and steering response that you’d get with a summer tire or UHP tire. Still, the Trail Climber SUV2 is agile and quick; it goes where you point it, with a cornering ability that’s accurate and predictable. Response to driver input is light and direct but never overly touchy or twitchy, and straight-line cruising at highway speed is solid and assured without being numb or sluggish.

On wet pavements, the Savero SUV’s groove system does an admirable job of resisting any tendency towards hydroplaning, with decisive braking performance and handling thanks to the combination of small tread blocks and lateral sipes. Ride quality is refined (although it can get a little firm but controlled on rough pavement), and the Trail Climber SUV2 doesn’t lose its composure easily over broken pavement or irregular surfaces. Summit’s SPPS system does a great job of keeping road noise down, although pattern noise can get a little louder on some pavements. A 60,000-mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty is pretty remarkable, even more so when you consider that SimpleTire’s price on the Summit Trail Climber SUV2 ranges from a very low $77.99/tire to $172.96/tire. We tend to think that warranty coverage sweetens the deal quite a bit on this tire.

In many cases with tires at the low end of the price spectrum, you’re going to get what you pay for, and everyone probably realizes that right out of the gate. With the Summit Trail Climber SUV2, though, this is a tire that’s capable of punching far above its weight class in terms of features, performance, and overall value. It would be an especially good choice for an older vehicle that needs tires, but you don’t want to empty out a bank account to do it. It’s a tire that stacks up quite well with premium tires that cost much, much more and the SimpleTire team would recommend it without reservation.

Vehicles the Summit Trail Climber SUV2 is a good replacement tire for

The Trail Climber SUV2 from Summit 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
• Buick Enclave
• Chevrolet Uplander
• GMC Acadian
• Jeep Grand Cherokee
• Honda Ridgeline
• Toyota 4Runner
• Nissan Pathfinder
• BMW X5
• Dodge Journey
• Genesis GV70
• Hyundai Tucson
• Jaguar F-Pace
• Lexus RX350
• Mazda CX-7
• Tesla Model X
• Toyota RAV4
• Volkswagen Taos