The Falken Ziex S/TZ05 is one of the best-selling offerings of the Japanese tiremaker, and it’s designed to be the ultimate all-season performance tire for SUVs and trucks. Falken has employed their latest and great tech designing the S/TZ05 to enrich it with max performance in all seasons.
The tire is composed of an enhanced all-season tread compound rated for deep mud and snow (M+S). Combine that with the tire’s non-directional 5-rib tread pattern, and you get exceptional traction on wet and dry roads.
The tire’s wide-angled shoulder blocks contribute to its sturdiness, even treadwear, and road grip. The solid center rib leads to a snappier steering response through strong lateral support.
Since it’s for trucks, SUVs, and crossover vehicles, the Falken Ziex S/TZ05 is built to be sturdy. Its durability comes from two steel belts, nylon reinforcement, and a polyester cord body. That’s why Falken has backed this tire up with an impressive 50,000-mile tread guarantee.
Enough with the nerdy details — let’s see how the tire performs in the real world.
Dry Roads
Being a performance tire, the Falken Ziex S/TZ05 is native to dry roads. Almost everything about the tire tread design contributes to its exceptional performance and traction on dry roads. The steering feels snappy and responsive, and that’s special for a large tire like this one. As a driver, you always feel completely in control regardless of the speed and conditions. Cornering also feels stable throughout, and braking distances are pretty short. Overall, the Falken Ziex S/TZ05 is a star performer on dry roads.
Wet Performance
The same story continues on wet surfaces. The Falken Ziex S/TZ05 handles wet roads like a boss like any other top-tier performance tire. Its design has practical solutions for rainy conditions, such as taper-cut tread blocks that channel water away to manage hydroplaning risks. As a bonus, those tread blocks add to the tire’s aesthetic!
The tire maintains desirable levels of stability as you cruise through the city in the rain, and the braking won’t let you down either.
Overall, there’s not much to complain about when it comes to the Falken Ziex S/TZ05’s capabilities in wet conditions. You might have to be careful in the corners, but that’s also just a general safety measure in the rain — regardless of the tire you’ve got under your truck.
Snow Performance
The tire handles snow quite well, which makes sense since it’s an all-season tire with an M + S rating. It maintains safe levels of traction on light snow, better than many other similarly priced competitors in its category. But with that said, it’s no winter tire, so you shouldn’t get it if you live in northern areas with freezing temperatures.
However, if you don’t get icy roads and thick layers of snow where you live, the Falken Ziex S/TZ05 can comfortably get you around the city in the winters.
Off-Road Capabilities
The tire’s tread isn’t designed to take on the rough surfaces of the off-road world. Falken doesn’t mention the tire’s off-road capabilities anywhere on the Ziex S/TZ05’s page, so that should tell you it only belongs in the city or the highway.
With that said, every truck or SUV tire is sturdy enough to get you out of a rough off-road patch in a pinch, but that’s where the Falken Ziex S/TZ05 draws the line. Any prolonged off-road adventure might destroy the tread.
Ride Quality
The Falken Ziex S/TZ05 isn’t just sporty, but it’s also comfortable for everyday use — that’s what makes it unique. The polyester cord body helps manage treadwear and contributes to smoother ride quality. The tire eats up small and big road imperfections pretty well. Though the road noise might get slightly obtrusive at higher speeds, it’s not too much. Overall, we’d say it offers a pretty comfy ride for a performance truck tire.
Conclusion
The Falken Ziex S/TZ05 has become one of the brand’s best-selling offerings since its launch in late 2012. Its best feature is a well-engineered tread design that achieves desirable handling and dry/wet traction on pavement. The steering response is exhilarating, and no driver wants much more than that from a performance tire. Falken made no serious compromises on comfort for all this either, which is what makes the Ziex S/TZ05 such a compelling buy at its price.
They’ve even made the tire durable, and the 50,000-mile treadwear guarantee is a testament to that. The only real downsides would be the tire’s performance limitations in extreme winters and off-road scenarios, which is where most all-season touring tires would give in. All things considered, if you’re in the market for a sporty tire for your truck that hardly ever goes off-road, the Falken Ziex S/TZ05 definitely deserves to be shortlisted.