Cooper Discoverer Rugged Trek vs Goodyear Wrangler Workhorse AT: The last time we looked into the all terrain segment, we showed how Goodyear’s Wrangler AT Adventure showed clear competency in off-road & dry performances over the highly popular BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO. As these 2 products are more focused on off road properties, we would like to introduce 2 other products which maintained the off road chunky patterns but comes with the elusive 3 peak mountain certification.
Cooper’s Discoverer Rugged Trek was launched in 2021 and has been developed specifically for the North American market. While Goodyear’s Wrangler Workhorse AT was also launched in 2021 with an all season focus and it is also available only in the American market. Without further ado, let’s bring these 2 tires head to head and see who comes out on top!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from Tire Rack’s Testing On-/Off-Road All-Terrain Tires 2021 test. A total of 4 tires were tested on Tire Rack’s proving ground. The graph below shows the comparison between Cooper Discoverer Rugged Trek vs Goodyear Wrangler Workhorse AT based on the relevant performance category. The Discoverer Rugged Trek was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.
As both tires are classified as an all season tire, Tire Rack has included snow & ice in its testing portfolio. A detailed testing on snow including acceleration, braking & handling were provided. There are however no off road tests this time around and we have to depend on the snow & ice test for hints. The tire size of interest is a 265/70R17 which is a common tire size for Chevrolet Silverado 1500 & Toyota FJ Cruiser. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle in summer conditions was the 2018 Ford F150 4×4 while a 2018 Chevrolet Tahoe RWD was used for winter testing.
Wet
The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria. In regards to wet braking, Discoverer Rugged Trek was totally dominant as it managed to out brake Wrangler Workhorse AT by 16.5 feet (5m) which is a huge margin in tire testing.
With the advantage gained in wet braking, Discoverer Rugged Trek continued its dominance in wet handling with a 2.25 seconds advantage in lap time against Wrangler Workhorse AT. For the subjective wet handling rating, Discoverer Rugged Trek fared much better with a subjective score of 6.5/10 compared to 5.9/10 of Wrangler Workhorse AT. Overall, Discoverer Rugged Trek is clearly the best performing wet tire.
Wrangler Workhorse AT:
- -10% in wet braking
- -3.1% in wet handling (subj)
- -5.5% in wet handling (lap time)
Dry
As for dry, safety is usually not an issue as the braking distance is much longer than wet. However this is the default daily usage and the tires have to perform at a very consistent level. While things favored Discoverer Rugged Trek in wet, Wrangler Workhorse AT took back some pride in dry braking. Wrangler Workhorse AT managed to brake 1.7 feet (0.5m) earlier compared to Discoverer Rugged Trek from a speed of 50mph (80km/h) down to 0.
Wrangler Workhorse AT:
- +1.9% in dry braking
Noise/Comfort/Ride Quality
Ride quality, noise & steering/handling was tested and Wrangler Workhorse AT came out half a node ahead at 7.58/10 rating compared to the 7.08/10 rating of Discoverer Rugged Trek with noise being the main differences.
Wrangler Workhorse AT:
- +2.5% in average of Noise, Comfort & Ride Quality.
Snow
As both tires have been rated as an all season tire, we were thrilled when Tire Rack included snow on its testing list. As mentioned in the beginning of the article, both tires are equipped with the 3 peak mountain label to legally certified the tire as a winter tire. Hence they will need to pass a certain threshold of snow traction level as determined by the legislation.
It turns out Wrangler Workhorse AT was really strong on objective snow. It stopped 5.7 feet (1.7m) earlier than Discoverer Rugged Trek from a speed of 25 mph (40 km/h) to 0. It was also better when it came to snow acceleration as it took 1.6 feet (0.5m) less distance to accelerate from 0 to 12 mph (20 km/h). However when it comes to snow handling, the test results favored Discoverer Rugged Trek with a quicker lap time of 1.3 seconds and a higher subjective snow handling (+0.38 points). Both tires showed different strengths here with Discoverer Rugged Trek being good in subjective snow while Wrangler Workhorse AT was better in objective snow.
Wrangler Workhorse AT:
- +10.2% in snow braking
- +5.2% in snow acceleration
- -1.9% in snow handling (subj)
- -1.9% in snow handling (lap time)
Ice
Objective ice was dominated by Wrangler Workhorse AT as it out-braked Wrangler Workhorse AT by 10.2 feet (3.1m) from a braking speed of 12 mph (20 km/h) to 0.
Wrangler Workhorse AT:
- +20% in ice braking
UTQG rating
We have previously shown that UTQG tread wear rating can be a good indication of your expected mileage. Below are the UTQG values of both of the tirelines.
| Brand | Tireline | Size | Tread Wear | Traction | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooper | Discoverer Rugged Trek | All | 600 | A | B |
| Goodyear | Wrangler Workhorse AT | All | 580 | B | B |
The mileage warranty for Discoverer Rugged Trek is at 60,000 miles while for Wrangler Workhorse AT it is at 50,000 miles. Even though Discoverer Rugged Trek has a higher UTQG tread wear rating of 600 compared to 580 of Wrangler Workhorse AT, it has a 10,000 miles difference in mileage warranty coverage with Discoverer Rugged Trek having the upper hand.
Taking into consideration these 2 factors, we believe that Discoverer Rugged Trek do have a slight advantage in expected mileage compared to Wrangler Workhorse AT. The big differences in wet braking was also reflected in the UTQG traction rating as Discoverer Rugged Trek was labeled “A” while Wrangler Workhorse AT has a “B” rating. For more in depth information about UTQG, please check out this article here. We even have a free download on the latest UTQG values from the leading tire manufacturers.
Price
In terms of pricing, Wrangler Workhorse AT was found to be 9 dollars cheaper than Discoverer Rugged Trek for the size 265/70R17. Cooper is well regarded as a premium product in America especially in the off road segments.
Tire size: 265/70R17
Wrangler Workhorse AT: $215
Discoverer Rugged Trek: $224
Difference: -4% more cheaper for Wrangler Workhorse AT.
Summary
Overall, both tires excel at different performance segments. Discoverer Rugged Trek was strong in wet and subjective snow performances while Wrangler Workhorse AT was good in dry, noise & objective ice/snow. Both tires are equally matched and we could not pinpoint a clear winner. This would depend on your specific requirements and optics. Enjoy!