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Last updated 7/16/2024 - Originally published 7/16/2024
Written by SimpleTire
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Light trucks, Jeeps, crossovers, and SUVs are everywhere on the roads these days, and in most cases, all-season tires are a great choice for them, for all the same reasons that people who drive sedans and minivans love them. All-season tires are a great choice for dependable traction year-round with long treadwear, capable handling, a quiet and comfortable ride, and civilized, composed road manners. But (a pretty big but)...if your truck is equipped with 4WD and you have a real need to get off the pavement in mud, snow, gravel, or loose dirt (or if you have to deal with severe winter conditions), you’re likely to find out right off that those all-season tires are going to fall short of getting the job done for you.
Modern all terrain are designed for little in the way of tradeoffs: durability, and off-road mastery along with sedate and predictable behavior on the street. Tire manufacturers’ design teams design their all-terrain tires around the horsepower, torque, center of gravity, weight, handling, and braking properties of modern trucks, and SUVs. They’re durable with confident, consistent traction off the highway, but they can still deliver the kind of ride quality and road manners on a long road trip that won’t leave you worn out from a noisy, bone-rattling ride.
Today we’re going to look at the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T and Cooper Discoverer AT3 LT. These are premium all-terrain tires from prestige brands, with a lengthy heritage of quality, and performance, and both are loaded with top-quality materials, great features, and innovations. In this head-to-head comparison, you’ll see us refer frequently to the SimpleScore numbers for each tire. If you aren’t acquainted with SimpleScore, it’s the system that the team at SimpleTire developed to give you a quick at-a-glance idea of a tire’s performance and value. We look at reviews, specs, and other data points, then take that info and process it down to a 1-10 numerical value for the categories of handling, traction, and longevity, as well as an overall average SimpleScore for any given tire. For the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T and Cooper Discoverer AT3 LT, the SimpleScore numbers are as follows:
Like with any 1-10 rating system, any tire with a SimpleScore of 9 or better is obviously delivering some pretty good performance and value in that category. The Toyo and the Yokohama are both very capable tires, but of course, SimpleScore is designed as a 30,000 ft view that doesn’t really go into detail on a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. While the Mickey Thompson and the Yokohama are both great tires, they have some key differences that we’ll take a closer look at in this head-to-head comparison.
Let’s get started with one of SimpleTire’s best picks for an all-terrain tire, the Baja Boss A/T from Mickey Thompson. The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T comes to the game with SimpleScore numbers of 9.8 for traction, 8.8 for longevity, 9.4 for handling, and an overall average SimpleScore of 9.3. With an asymmetric all-terrain lug tread and Mickey Thompson’s innovative Extreme Sidebiter wraparound lugs at the shoulder, the Baja Boss A/T is a tire that’s designed for superb grip in mud, loose dirt, gravel, or other difficult terrain and has the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service.
The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T is tough as nails, too, with a durable silica-infused tread compound and Powerply XD construction that features over 50% more denier cord in its reinforcement layers and is protected by an up to 60,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty from the factory. Even with those impeccable off-road credentials, the Baja Boss A/T is surprisingly well-behaved (and quiet) on the pavement, thanks to that asymmetric tread and an optimized contact patch. SimpleTire’s price on the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T starts at $189.09 per tire.
Next up is the Cooper Discoverer AT3 LT, here at the SimpleTire team, we’ve always felt that the Cooper is a great value, and great performer overall, and gets SimpleScore rankings of 8.5 for traction, 8.2 for longevity, and 8.6 for handling, with an overall average SimpleScore of 8.4. The AT3 LT is a commercial-grade tire that’s built for heavy load ratings, and durability that’s equally matched with its year-round traction and performance. The Discoverer AT3 LT has a silica-rich tread compound for great wear properties (and 60,000 mile manufacturer’s treadwear warranty) with a 2-ply polyester casing, twin steel belt package, and single-ply nylon reinforcement layer that helps to enhance durability and high-speed stability. Engineered to be just as capable at handling mud, dirt, and gravel as well as the interstate, the Cooper Discoverer AT3 LT is designed with an aggressive all-terrain block tread with stone ejectors, Rugged Traction Shoulders with alternating cleat and lug edges and multiple zigzag sipes that help to ensure grip in wet or snowy conditions. The Snow Groove Technology package incorporates sawtooth edges in the block edges, actually trapping and holding snow for snow-on-snow traction. SimpleTire’s price on the Cooper Discoverer AT3 LT starts at $208.99 per tire.
With a SimpleScore of 9.8 in the traction category for the Mickey Thompson vs 8.5 for the Cooper, this one’s not even a very close competition. First off, Mickey Thompson has the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service, while the Cooper doesn’t. The 3PMSF rating doesn’t come lightly, and that’s a significant plus for the MT. In addition, the Mickey Thompson’s combination of Extreme SideBiters, and lug tread with good self-cleaning properties (so there’s always a clear section of tread to dig in as the wheel turns) means confident performance on or off the pavement, with good control and short braking distances. Our decision:
ADVANTAGE: Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T
Again, with a SimpleScore of 9.4 for the MT and 8.6 for the Cooper in the handling category, the two tires are barely in the same ballpark. Nobody expects all-terrain light truck tires to have the kind of nimble handling, and steering response as a UHP or summer tire for sports sedans, but the casing, tread face, and shoulder design of the Mickey Thompson provide the kind of rigidity that any tire needs to resist “tread squirm” and deformation while cornering or making hard maneuvers. It’s designed to keep the tread planted firmly on the pavement while the vehicle’s momentum tries to keep the truck pointed in a straight line rather than changing direction. The MT shows little tendency toward understeer or oversteer, with a steering response that’s direct and quick. Our decision:
ADVANTAGE: Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T
When it comes to the longevity category, it’s usually the limited manufacturer’s tread wear warranty coverage that tells the whole story and determines SimpleScore numbers. In this case, though, it’s a bit of a similar situation – the MT has an up to 60,000 mile warranty vs a 60,000 mile package for the Cooper, yet the Mickey Thompson comes out on top for SimpleScore with a solid 8.8 vs 8.5 for the Cooper. In an instance like this, it comes down to reviews and inputs from customers. The Cooper is tough and durable for off-road use, but the damage-resistant tread compound of the Mickey Thompson and its reinforced construction with a 50% more denier cord is what moves the needle on SimpleScore rankings. Our decision:
ADVANTAGE: Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T
When it’s time to buy tires, the question you need to ask yourself is: what do you need out of your 4WD-equipped truck or SUV? If you go off-road regularly, if you live in a rural area with gravel roads, ranch roads, oilfield lease roads, or logging trails, or if you live in a part of the world where you have to handle rough winter weather and several inches of snow that lingers on the roads for days or weeks, a premium set of all-terrain tires are a good choice. The Mickey Thompson and the Cooper are both good performers in snow and are both capable of getting you around in conditions where all-season tires are going to fall short.
They’re also durable and dependable enough to prevail in rough off-road conditions but are refined enough to not drive you nuts with road noise, vibration and squirrely handling on a long road trip. Both tires are capable and composed for everyday driving duties, so if that sounds like your situation with your truck, we’d recommend either the Mickey Thompson or the Cooper without reservation.
Here’s what it all finally comes down to. Mickey Thompson has been specializing in all-terrain, and mud-terrain tires for a long time, with a successful track record of rally and motorsports wins to back them up. Those rally-tire designs inform the Baja Boss A/T, and it’s a tire that excels in all the important categories. The Cooper Discoverer AT3 LT is also a solid performer and presents good value, but when you do a head-to-head comparison in all the SimpleScore categories, Mickey Thompson comes out on top consistently. Then, figure in the price point of the two tires – $208.99/tire for the Cooper vs $189.09/tire for the Mickey Thompson – and it’s clear that the MT is the tire that offers a better bang for the buck. We’re impressed with the Cooper Discoverer AT3 LT, but at the end of the day, we feel that the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T is the tire that offers a better bang for the buck.
Still not sure which tire to buy? Fortunately, SimpleTire is here to help as our helpful agents are more than happy to assist you in selecting the right tire for your ride and budget.
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