Goodyear Fortera SUV tires

Sure, All-Wheel Drive, 4-Wheel Drive, and Traction Control all promise to keep your car or truck on the road when Mother Nature decides to throw a blizzard or a torrential downpour between you and where you want to go. But here’s the thing: that tech means nada without good rubber on your tires.

So after slip-sliding my way through the winter on a set of once-burly knobbies that, after 70,000 miles, looked like Kojack’s head, I knew it was time to replace my treads. To that end I threw a set of Goodyear’s new Fortera SUV tires on my aging Toyota 4Runner. They feature something called SilentArmor Technology, which is G’Year’s fancy way of saying they put a tough Kevlar layer in the tire that helps protect it from nails, rocks, glass, and random tire slashings from painfully bored adolescents.
Now Kevlar is all fine and dandy, and the next time I roll through a neighborhood hellhole of sharp detritus and teenage angst, I’m sure I’ll appreciate the fact that I got out without a tire going flat, but this is not why I fell in love with the Forteras. No, I became enamored of their performance after spending two hours driving through a summer hail and thunderstorm at 75 miles an hour without so much as one hair-raising hydroplane moment, regardless of the sheets of water pouring off the asphalt. In my wake there was a parking lot of stopped cars and trucks too timid to continue down the Interstate. In gear terms it was the equivalent of say, spending years riding a hardtail mountain bike and then hopping on a full-suspension rig. Suddenly whole new worlds of travel opportunity opened up to me, namely, arriving at my pre-determined ETA no matter what the weather. When you travel with small children and their persnickety nap schedule, this is COOL. 70,000-mile tread life; $115 each, 330-796-2121, www.goodyeartires.com