There are easier places to test a set of all-terrain tires than the middle of the Florida Everglades. But where’s the fun in that?
We recently fitted our Lexus GX 460 with a set of Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent tires. Since the GX is our daily driver, we wanted something that could handle normal life on pavement without limiting where we could go when the pavement ended. So, naturally, we took them to the swamp.
The Neighborhood That Never Was
More specifically, we headed into Picayune Strand State Forest, a massive stretch of restored Everglades with a pretty unusual history. Decades ago, developers carved hundreds of miles of roads and canals through the area and sold thousands of lots to buyers hoping to own a little piece of Florida. The problem, however, was that much of that land was wetlands. You know, typical Florida stuff.
Picayune Strand feels a little strange once you know what you’re looking at. In the 1960s, developers constructed roads and canals through this enormous stretch of wetlands and sold thousands of lots to people dreaming of their own piece of Florida. Many buyers never saw the land in person, and some discovered that what they’d purchased wasn’t exactly ready for a house. It was quite the bait-and-switch scam, and the area is somewhat of an urban legend around here.
Decades later, nature is slowly taking it all back. The canals are being filled, the Everglades are being restored, and old roads now disappear into miles of cypress, palms, and swamp. Driving through it today feels like exploring the remains of a neighborhood that never existed, because that’s exactly what you’re doing.
Today, the state is working to restore the natural flow of water through the area, but some of those old roads remain. With gravel, washboard surfaces, soft sand, puddles and plenty of places to get a Lexus dirty, they gave us exactly what we were looking for.
The Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent Got A Proper Florida Test
The terrain at Picayune Strand changes constantly, which gave us a chance to see how the Dueler A/T Ascent handled several different surfaces in a relatively short distance.
The loose gravel and washboard sections were probably the easiest part. From there, we found softer sand, rutted sections and plenty of standing water. The GX never felt like it was struggling for traction, even when the surface underneath us became loose or wet. It is summer right now, so some of those areas had a lot more water than I was expecting.
There is some tire technology working behind the scenes here. Bridgestone uses what it calls Precision Saw Tooth Edges, combining staggered shoulder blocks with a traction-focused center rib designed to provide off-road traction while maintaining comfort on pavement. Full-depth 3D sipes add more biting edges and tread stability for wet and wintry conditions.
We couldn’t exactly test the winter part in South Florida, but we found plenty of opportunities to test the wet part. Balance, yeah?
That’s what I wanted to know about these tires. An aggressive tread pattern looks great on an SUV, but if I’m buying an all-terrain tire, I actually want to be able to use it.
Of course, most of our driving doesn’t happen in the Everglades. The GX still has to run errands, sit in traffic, and spend plenty of time at highway speeds. Bridgestone’s ENLITEN technology is designed in part to support a quieter, more comfortable ride, and that’s something we’ve been able to experience every day. In fact, we took the extremely dirty GX out for tacos after we filmed the video. Now that is what I’m talking about when I say that I want a tire that does it all.
Despite the more aggressive tread, road noise isn’t an issue at all. In fact, they even feel a bit quieter than the tires we had on before. We can drive it to dinner one night and point it toward a dirt road the next morning without changing anything (or the opposite, in this case).
Bridgestone also designed the Dueler A/T Ascent compound with tread life in mind. That’s something we’ll need considerably more miles to evaluate, but it’s an important part of the equation for a tire that’s expected to handle daily driving along with the occasional adventure. At the time of this review, we’ve put more than 1,000 miles on them without issue.
One Small Detail Made A Big Difference
There was one other requirement we had when choosing tires for the GX: we wanted a full-size matching spare. Our original tires were 265/60R18, but we moved up to 265/65R18 with the Dueler A/T Ascent. That created one question we couldn’t answer until we tried it ourselves: would a full-size matching spare still fit underneath the GX with the factory tow hitch?
We spent a lot of time trolling GX Facebook groups and Reddit pages to see if anyone else was running the same setup, but we didn’t find much. Having a matching fifth tire makes a lot more sense if we’re going to take the GX farther off pavement, but space underneath a GX 460 gets tight, particularly with the factory tow hitch.
Fortunately, the answer was yes. Our matching Dueler A/T Ascent fits in the factory spare location with the OEM hitch still in place. It’s a relatively small detail until you’re miles down a dirt road and actually need that fifth tire (because you know I am not staying in the Picayune Strand. Let’s be honest).
And that brings me back to why we went into Picayune Strand in the first place. We came to Picayune Strand to see how the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent handled away from pavement. Gravel, washboard roads, soft sand and standing water gave us plenty to work with, and the tires handled all of it without complaint. More importantly, we left knowing we could take the GX places we probably wouldn’t have considered before.
By the end of the day, the GX was considerably dirtier than when we started, we’d learned more about the strange story behind a part of Florida we’d driven past countless times, and we’d found a few roads we probably never would have explored otherwise. The tires were what gave us a reason to go.
