Is the Nokian Outpost nAT the Best All-Terrain Tire You’ve Never Heard Of?

If you’re shopping for all-terrain tires for your truck or SUV, you’re probably looking at the standard options: BF Goodrich K02, Falken Wildpeak, or Cooper Discoverer AT3. Maybe if you’re deep in the weeds, you’re researching Toyo Open Country, or General Grabbers. All good tires, all will get the job done. It’s hard to claw marketshare away from that group, especially the first three, but Nokian, a Finnish company best known for their winter tires, is giving it a solid effort. 

This past fall I picked up a set of Nokian’s newest all-terrain tires, the Outpost nAT. I run LT 265/75/R16s on my 2016 Nissan Frontier SV 4×4. The tires are made in Nokian’s Dayton, Tennessee, factory, a brand new factory built so Nokian can better serve the North American market. 

They’re burly LTs, so yeah, my already abysmal gas mileage took a hit, but I only put 4,000-5,000 miles per year on my truck so I’m not that concerned. Impressively, especially for AT tires with deep, aggressive lugs, they’re whisper quiet on the road. I have a set of Nokian’s soft-roader tires, the Outpost APTs on the family car, and they’re actually much louder than the nATs. Not sure how they pulled that off, but it’s impressive. 

I’m a Nokian fan because pretty much every tire they make has the three-peak mountain snowflake certification, meaning they’re solid in the snow. And these are absolute beasts in snow. I know going in when I buy a set of Nokians they’ll be fantastic in winter. My experience with the tires during the rest of the year has been great—total confidence in nasty rock gardens, deep mud, a sandy wash. They just work. And, they’re not the same tires everybody else has. Which matters to contrarian me. 

Check ‘em out here, or wherever your order your tires online (but please support your local tire shop!): Nokian Tires

Words by Justin Housman