| Pros | Cons |
| Best-in-class braking performance on wet roads | Struggles in the mud |
| Exceptional handling and drivability in the rain | It can’t seem to get past larger rocks easily |
| Some of the shortest recorded stopping distances on dry roads | Somewhat underwhelming off-road performance |
| Outstanding dry tarmac handling | |
| Little to no road noise in the cabin | |
| Decent performance on hardpacked and rough surfaces | |
| A comfortable ride with minimal bumps reaching the cabin | |
| Long tread life with a generous warranty for treadwear |
Finding the ‘best’ option largely depends on your priorities, preferences, and lifestyle when it comes to truck and SUV tires. For instance, if you mostly ride around on streets, your best bet is probably to go with highway or touring tires. On the other hand, if you’re an off-road enthusiast, you need a set of off-roading tires. All terrain tires like the Continental TerrainContact A/T are the happy middle ground.
For tires that do decently well in both scenarios, you’ll have to go with all-terrain tires.
They mix a bit of off-road and on-road performance to allow you to take your truck or SUV anywhere without any serious performance hiccups. This sense of freedom has made all-terrain tires the most popular choice for truck and SUV owners.
However, the problem is that not every all-terrain tire does justice to that name. With different models, you’ll find that they excel in particular scenarios and lag behind in others.
For instance, the focus for this review — the Continental TerrainContact A/T — is geared towards an optimal on-road experience.
However, that doesn’t categorically make it a wrong choice. For an SUV owner that prefers luxury over anything else and barely ever goes off-roading, it makes perfect sense to go with a tire like the Continental Terrain Contact A/T.
Let’s look at some of its key features, durability, design, and how it performs in certain domains like snow, off-road, and on-road.
Continental TerrainContact A/T Features
Continental has advertised this tire as an ideal all-terrain option providing a comfortable and quiet ride on the pavement while also effectively handling hardpacked surfaces like gravel, dirt, and grass.
The German tiremaker rarely disappoints with their truck and SUV tires. To put weight behind those bold claims, they’ve used a unique +Silane enhanced all-weather compound for the Terrain Contact A/T’s tread.
It’s an advanced rubber that goes a long way in improving the tire’s durability. It also enhances its grip on dry and wet surfaces.
The mild all-terrain pattern helps with the tire’s on-road feel, while the TractionPlus Technology improves its off-road capabilities.
Continental seems to have put a lot of thought into this tire’s tread design. It features stable tread blocks that improve the responsiveness and feel as you steer them.
This goes to show that they’ve geared the TerrainContact A/T towards enhanced on-road performance. Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing as it targets a specific portion of the market.
Dry pavement performance
The TerrainContact A/T doesn’t share many similarities with hardcore offroad tires in the market. Everything about the tread design and compound quality points towards a more road-centric approach from Continental.
Dry tarmac seems to be the native condition to get the best performance out of the TerrainContact A/T. Ideally, that shouldn’t be the case with a tire marketed as an ‘all-terrain,’ but it works in the best interest of buyers that mainly stay on-road with their SUVs and trucks.
With these tires installed, you won’t have to compromise your ride quality on streets and the highway. In some tests, it even beats certain top-tier highway truck tires. That’s not an easy feat, especially for an all-terrain tire.
As soon as you take it out for a drive, you’ll be greeted with quick response times, smooth steering, and a thrilling road feel.
The level of traction you get on dry roads is also levels above many of its competitors. You also get some of the shortest stopping distances within the all-terrain category for SUVs and trucks.
Performance on snow
Even on light snow, you get ample traction to drive well and stick to the road. It’s no better than a dedicated winter tire, but it’s completely usable in areas that get low to medium levels of snow in the winter.
Off-road capabilities
Off-roading is where the Continental TerrainContact A/T somewhat suffers compared to its competition. However, with record-breaking dry and wet pavement performance, off-road expectations should logically be modest.
Compared to dedicated highway tires, you’ll get much better stability, braking, and traction on hardpacked surfaces with this tire.
It also matches up favorably against several tires within its league but doesn’t beat any with a considerable performance margin. Then again, none of those come close to its on-road performance either.
One of the weakest off-road points of the TerrainContact A/T is large rocks. The traction isn’t sufficient to get past those, especially if it rains.
Performance in wet conditions
On the brighter side, here’s one of the TerrainContact A/T’s strongest suits — rainfall. It extends its on-road lead against the competition on wet roads. Even at 50mph, it stops about four feet shorter in the rain than the next best all-terrain tire in terms of braking performance.
Cornering, hydroplaning resistance, and traction, are all excellent too. Without any oversteer or understeer to speak of, the Terrain Contact A/T is easily one of the best performers on wet roads.
Conclusion
The Continental TerrainContact A/T offers the best-in-class on-road performance for an all-terrain tire. Most drivers wouldn’t even tell it apart from the top-tier touring tires in the market.
It also performs pretty well on snow, as long as the winters don’t get too harsh where you live.
It makes up all of its off-road shortcomings with an exceptional on-road driving experience.
If you use your truck or SUV mostly for traveling and driving around the city, the TerrainContact A/Ts will serve you well — even when it snows.