Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus: 12,000 Miles of Dirt, Rock, and Washboard
After 12,000 miles on the Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus, I've got a simple summary: this tire surprised me. I didn't want to like it. My go-to for years has been the BFG KO2, and I've watched too many guys spend good money on "all-terrain" tires that fold the second the washboard gets rough. But the Scorpion All Terrain Plus earned its place on my 4Runner through a full season of Arizona backcountry. Here's what broke, what didn't, and where I'd run it again.
What Makes the Scorpion All Terrain Plus Different
The Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus is Pirelli's answer to the KO2 and the Toyo Open Country A/T III. It's a true light-truck all-terrain, not a street tire with lug-shaped tread glued on. The tread block design is tighter than a mud-terrain, with stone ejectors between the lugs — I've pulled plenty of Flagstaff basalt out of those grooves, and I never had to dig a rock out with a screwdriver. There are sizes in both P-metric and LT, and the LT versions carry a three-peak mountain snowflake rating. That matters if you cross the Mogollon Rim in December like I do.
The compound is harder than I expected. That's a trade-off: it means longer tread life and less chunking on sharp gravel, but it also means you lose a little bite in wet clay. I've run them aired down to 18 psi on the Schnebly Hill trail and they conformed to the rocks without tearing up the sidewalls. The sidewall is reinforced, though not as thick as the KO2's. If you're rock crawling against ledges, keep that in mind. I air down and pick better lines.
On pavement, these tires are quiet. I mean genuinely quiet — closer to a highway tire than a mud-terrain. Not a single harmonic whine at 70 mph, which is more than I can say for the Trail Grapplers I ran years ago. The brake feel stays predictable on wet asphalt in a monsoon downpour near Payson. That's where the "Plus" in the name shows up: Pirelli put real street engineering into it, not just a more aggressive tread.
Dirt, Gravel, and Washboard: The Real Test
The Tonto National Forest service roads are a beating. Washboards that rattle your fillings, decomposed granite that's harder than concrete, and the occasional embedded rock that'll slash a passenger tire. I ran the Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus through a 400-mile loop from Flagstaff down to Sedona and back, mostly on unpaved Forest Service roads. The tires handled it without a single flat or sidewall cut.
On loose gravel climbs, they dig in predictably. In fact, on the rocky shelf road up to the Mogollon Rim, I never felt the rear end step out like it did with the old Duratracs. Where the Scorpion gets less confident is slick rock with a film of dust. It's a harder compound, so it doesn't grab like a soft-terrain tire. On wet sandstone near Oak Creek Canyon, I had to use 4-Lo and a bit more throttle than I wanted. Still, it got me through.
What 12,000 Miles of Arizona Does to Them
Here's the thing I care about most: how the tire wears. After 12,000 miles — roughly 70% on pavement, 30% on dirt — the tread depth measured out at 11/32nds. That's only a couple of 32nds off the new tread depth, which works out to a realistic 45,000–50,000 miles of service the way I drive. I rotate every 5,000 miles and keep them at 40 psi on the highway, 30 psi on gravel. No cupping, no feathering, no funny wear at the edges.
The only failure I've had isn't really a tire failure. A sharp piece of caliche cut a section of tread on the rear passenger side near the sidewall — enough to warrant a plug and patch. It held for the rest of the season. That cut would have damaged lesser tires, but the casing was thick enough to take it. I've got that tire in the Parts Graveyard with a photo of the wound and the GPS coordinates of where it happened. It wasn't the tire's fault; it was the rock.
Sizes, Prices, and My Verdict
The Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus comes in common sizes from 17 to 20 inches. I run LT265/70R17 on my 4Runner, which is the size most overlanders will pick. Pricing at the time I bought mine ran about $180 to $220 per tire — about the same as a KO2, slightly less than the Toyo AT III. Costco and Discount Tire both stock them, and I've seen rebates from Pirelli in the spring. The 50,000-mile treadwear warranty is standard, though Pirelli prorates it just like everyone else.
Would I buy them again? Yes — for a rig that spends most of its miles on pavement and weekends on the trail. If I were running the Rubicon every month, I'd stick with a dedicated mud-terrain. But for an overland build like mine, where I drive a thousand miles to reach the trail, the Scorpion All Terrain Plus is the right balance of comfort, grip, and durability. It's not the most aggressive tire out there, but it's honest. It hasn't broken in the backcountry, so I recommend it.
For winter driving, look for the LT three-peak versions; the P-metric tires ride softer but stay mostly on pavement.