I went to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast to experience driving the new Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain A/T 002 tyres…
…which were fitted to the Isuzu D-Max…
…and Isuzu MU-X. I have spent a fair bit of time in both vehicles with my family, including a lot of sand driving, so I was looking forward to seeing how different tyres affected the ride.
The new Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain A/T 002 tyres are designed to be great everyday tyres for road driving in the wet and the dry and are also to take you off-road confidently and comfortably at the weekend or for family holidays. I know from driving various off-roaders that while chunky tyres can look great and get you further off the beaten track, for many of us the daily compromise of extra road noise, wobblier ride and sometimes scary wet-weather grip and braking on bitumen ends up being a bit much.
We tested this theory with a group of other car journalists as we drove through Noosa on the bitumen at school drop-off time. There wasn’t additional road noise, and the ride wasn’t hard or too soft, so I think they will be great for families where motion sickness is a problem.
We crossed over on the barge to the Noosa North shore, where we all regrouped for a briefing…
… and let our tyre pressure down slightly, ready to drive on the sand up the beach.
It’s a glorious day, and the Sunshine Coast winter weather is at its best: big blue skies and warm sunshine. Being mid-week, the sand isn’t chopped up, the north shore is quiet, and the ocean is very inviting.
It’s low tide, so we have plenty of beach to drive on. We head north along the Noosa North Shore, and the Isuzu MU-X is very comfortable.
A procession of Isuzu vehicles, the MU-X and D-Max, is heading north along Teewah Beach. They leave snaking tyre tracks behind them, and you can see the imprint of the Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain A/T 002 tread, which is newly designed to perform in both on- and off-road environments. The inner hexagonal block shape is for good traction and braking on a range of surfaces, and the spacing and rib shaping allow water to evacuate and provide optimal grip.
The drive is excellent, and the tyres handle well on the soft sand higher up the beach as well as the hard sand near the water.
For many people, tyres are the last thing they think about, and are a bit of a grudge purchase but they are essential as they connect our car to the road surface. If we have bad tyres, our car can't do its job safely or effectively.
Nearing the northern end of the Teewah beach, we take the short Leisha Track to the western side of the point, where we are treated to a breathtaking view of a calm, flat, turquoise lagoon—it's incredible!
We eat lunch while looking out across the lagoon, watching tiny soldier crabs marching near the water's edge and suddenly burying themselves under the sand.
It's an excellent time for us to all discuss how we have found the tyres and the driving and reflect on the drive so far.
After lunch, we switched to the Isuzu D-Max for the drive back. This way, I could experience how the Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain A/T 002 tyres affect the ride and handling of the ute.
With a little more time to play around and experience driving in the soft and hard sand the tyres and vehicle feel great to drive.
As the tide is coming in, we get to have a little fun going through some small water crossings, too.
The tyres grip well through the soft, chopped-up sand of the beach exit back at Noosa North Shore, and I feel confident in both the D-Max and the new Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain A/T 002 tyres it is wearing. They also look the part!
We wash the vehicles and re-inflate the tyres to drive back on the bitumen.
Back across on the barge, I'd like to try driving on the Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain A/T 002 tyres for my school runs and see how they affect my kids' comfort and motion sickness.
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