Cooper Evolution HT Review

The Cooper Evolution HT is an all-season tire specifically designed for modern crossovers, SUVs and light trucks. Often you’ll see the HT badge attached to tires indicating that they are “highway terrain” tires. What this normally means is that it’s a tire that combines the best features of an all-season with an all-terrain. That’s not really the case here.

PROS

• Premium performance
• Bargain price
• Great ride quality
• Some off-road grip when you need/want it

CONS

• Tread wear warranty could be longer

While we do trust that Cooper puts a decent amount of off-road tech and durability into almost all of its truck tires, this particular tire leans more on the side of an all-season touring tire – meaning the focus is more on a premium drive quality.

The tread pattern is your basic 5-row layout of an all-season tire with significant circumferential grooves running the length of the tire to evacuate water and prevent hydroplaning.

Look a little closer and you’ll notice some of the tread rings are actually cut into divisions. This serves multiple purposes, one of which is preventing excessive tire noise as the tread wears down over time.

This design (especially on tread rows 2 and 4), which sort of looks like a feather, also serves to deliver added biting edges in low grip circumstances like rain or snow, while at the same time the tread blocks are actually still all connected, which helps them deliver better dry weather performance.

Combined with shoulder tread blocks that feature an inboard reinforced rib, these tires get top marks for turning responsiveness and react predictably on even very large SUVs and pickup trucks. They’re also confident, stable and quiet on the highway.

As for the tread, it’s made from a high-silica compound, which gives it the ability to offer both flexibility in wet and cold conditions, as well as that dry weather stability to deliver the performance you expect.

If we do have anything negative to say about this tire, it’s that we’d expect a higher tread life guarantee than 60,000 miles. However, we do appreciate that these are quite affordable, so that shouldn’t make much of an impact in your buying decision.

Overall, these tires aren’t going to wow you with any great performance feature, but they really are a very impressive premium crossover tire at a very affordable price.

Cooper Evolution HT Price

The Cooper Evolution HT ranges in price from around $120 per tire for a 15-inch size to roughly $180 per tire for the largest 20-inch size. Retailers may sell for less.

Cooper Evolution HT Warranty

Cooper covers the Evolution HT tire with a 60,000 mile treadwear warranty, plus the brand’s 45-day test drive guarantee.

Cooper also backs all of its tires with a limited factory warranty. The company will replace any tires found to be defective (through either materials or workmanship) if the fault occurs in the first 2/32-inch of tread wear. Defects found after that time will be replaced on a pro rated basis.

Cooper Evolution HT Sizes

15-inch sizes
235/75R15
265/75R15
265/70R15

16-inch sizes
225/75R16
235/75R16
245/75R16
265/75R16
215/70R16
225/70R16
235/70R16
245/70R16
255/70R16
265/70R16

17-inch sizes
245/70R17
265/70R17
235/65R17
245/65R17
265/65R17

18-inch sizes
255/70R18
265/70R18
235/65R18
255/65R18
275/65R18
245/60R18
265/60R18
255/55R18

19-inch sizes
255/60R19
245/55R19

20-inch sizes
275/60R20
275/55R20
245/50R20
265/50R20

Is the Cooper Evolution HT Good in Snow?

Cooper knows how to make impressive winter tires and they offer that technology in some all-season options to deliver what is known as a four-season tire. While that’s not the case here, the Evolution HT is an excellent performer in winter conditions, as far as all-season tires go. While we would still recommend proper winter tires if you live somewhere that gets regular snow, these tires are some of the best at actually offering grip in all-seasons.

What is an HT Tire?

Tires marked with HT are generally Highway Terrain tires. These tires combine features of an all-terrain tire with that of an all-season. The result is a refined on-road focused ride with longer tread life, while it does retain some capability for occasional, light off-roading.