NASHVILLE, TN – Workers, who take their trucks through muddy, off-road worksites, or off-road enthusiasts, who tackle the toughest terrain, have a new replacement tire option, the Firestone Destination™ M/T. The new Firestone Destination M/T, introduced to the marketplace on September 1, by Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire, LLC (BFNT), is a full traction-depth tire featuring UNI-T® technology for excellent wet and mud handling.

“The Destination M/T is the first Firestone light truck tire to be built with the company’s exclusive UNI-T® technology,” said Shu Ishibashi, president, North American Consumer Tire Sales Group, and executive vice president, BFNT. “We designed this to be a very tough, heavy-duty, max-traction tire that is for off-road work truck applications, such as use in gas or oil fields or use by border patrols, park rangers, power company fleets, ranchers, farmers, or just for fun.”

The Destination M/T features a square footprint and more rubber between the bottom of the skid and the steel belts, than standard all-terrain or light truck tires, to protect the body plies. It also features additional rubber between the outside sidewall and body plies and has a high void to help clear debris from the tread. No tread siping provides excellent cut resistance and longer wear. Additionally, a 40 pitch-length design around the circumference helps keep noise to a minimum.

The tire, which is pinned for studs to assist in winter driving conditions, incorporates Bridgestone/Firestone's DMR™ Max Traction Light Truck Tire innovative patent-pending technologies including:

• All sizes are built with Dura-Loc 3.0™, a unique high-strength tie-in construction, which combines three full polyester body plies, two high-tensile steel cord belts and a full nylon cap for outstanding resistance to on- and off-highway hazards.
• Mud and Off-Road Traction, which is the result of a unique over-the-shoulder tread/lug design that provides Extraction Traction ™ to help pull the vehicle through deep mud and ruts. Wide wrap-around lugs and special tread element shapes and angles help deflect road hazards from the shoulder areas as well as improve self-cleaning in muddy and snowy conditions.
• Rim Guard™ Off-Road Protector Rib helps protect the tire by deflecting off-road debris from between the tire bead and rim area, and also keeps the lower sidewall stiffer making the bead fit tighter to the rim.

The Destination M/T also incorporates several elements from Firestone’s extensive experience in the agricultural tire industry to help increase traction, including design elements taken from a 23? bar angle tractor tire, the best angle for straight-ahead pulling.

The all-position tire initially will be available in 11 sizes, in load ranges ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘E’ for a variety of heavy-duty and max-traction applications. Destination M/T comes with a choice of blackwall or raised white lettering.

Other target consumers for Destination M/T include those who do extensive heavy-duty towing of boats, horse trailers or travel trailers, Ishibashi said.

UNI-T®; is an acronym for “Ultimate Network of Intelligent Tire Technology” found only in Bridgestone, Firestone, Dayton and select associate brand tires. One of its core technologies is a Computer Optimized Component System, CO•CS®;, which uses a super computer to help determine an ideal combination of tread design, casing shape, materials and construction for a particular application.

Tires with UNI-T®; have a special O-Bead®; that eliminates overlapped joints in the bead assembly, affecting the way a tire interacts with the rim, and provides a rounder assembly for improved stability.

The use of L.L. Carbon®;, or Long Link Carbon, an advanced form of carbon black, produces a stronger tire, better able to resist cracking, chipping, tearing and excessive wear.