I used to wonder what the daily experience was like for a Crosstrek or Pilot owner who’d decided that mounting a set of dedicated, bulky off-road truck tires was going to revolutionize their overall SUV adventures.

Back-to-back rides in recent weeks with the off-road-focused 2026 Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek edition and the special Jeep Gladiator Sport Willys ’41 edition suggested that yes, you can in fact put too much tire on a vehicle that’s going to spend most of its life on paved roads and streets. 

But the payoff for both (plus those Crosstrek and Pilot owners) was indeed a much more engaged and capable experience during my low- and medium-intensity off-road drives.

The three-row Nissan surprisingly went the deepest into the overlanding end of the pool in its special edition. The $50,215 Rock Creek Pathfinder model builds on the largely revised 2026 standard model, adding upgraded suspension and a half inch of extra lift – 7.7 inches total. 

Besides a super-tall tubular roof rack (ladder not included), Rock Creek’s combination of blacked-out body trim, special bumpers, LED fog lamps and logo-emblazed leatherette seats is further enhanced by both a boost in output and some marvelously too-good-for-its-own-good tires.

Under the hood, the 2025 model’s holdover 284-horsepower/259 lb-ft 3.5-liter V6 gets a slight bump to 295 hp and 270 lb-ft, which comes in handy when trying to get the vehicle rolling with its outlandish new rubber. That’s a set of Toyo Open Terrain A/T tires that are legitimately square edged and ready for an Amazonian mudbath, mounted on attractive 18-inch gloss-painted aluminum wheels with faux-beadlock rims. 

The width and grip of the tires, unfortunately, also requires much more aggressive tug-of-war steering inputs during low-speed situations in civilization, and mean that ride quality can be legitimately brutal on broken Colorado pavement. Mileage also takes a big hit with Pathfinder’s Rock Creek edition, with a 23 mpg figure on the highway, versus 27 on the more traditional SV and SL trims.

However, when you do get to gravel or muddy trail conditions, suddenly the Pathfinder is not only smoothly capable but considerably more spacious and comfortable than its Jeep counterpart.

I buzzed along happily on washboard with a great mix of buoyancy and grip. Curiously, on lower-speed, freshly paved twists and turns, they’re also so wide they feel like sticky Corvette tires. 

Meanwhile, in my long-awaited first drive in Jeep’s pickup truck rendition of the four-door Wrangler, the Gladiator Sport trim gets its own range of off-road-oriented tweaks in this $57,640 Willys ’41 edition. It’s a tribute to the company that provided that very first World War II go-anywhere, do-anything Jeep. (It’s also one of six special editions for Gladiator, including a purple Rewind edition that looks like an ’80s ski jacket.)

Here, in addition to an Army-styled paint job and unique olive drab metal wheels – plus some unique color tweaks to an interior otherwise identical to other Wrangler four-doors, and a tactical rail on the dash – the big change is a set of high-grip Firestone Destination A/T2 tires.

I was consistently blown off by other Gladiator drivers on street tires who pretended they had more power, but that’s posturing that the very same 3.6-liter V6 and its 285 horsepower didn’t need to demonstrate on these tires. 

That old-school engine fits nicely off-road with the truck-Jeep’s appropriately bouncy ride – the addition of a 60.3-inch-capacity cargo bed doesn’t exactly soothe Wrangler’s already jouncy experience. But if you slow down and act like you’re in an actual vintage Army vehicle, it’s more fun, and will also get you closer to the 19 combined mpg figure.

As a result, I spent two full days splashing through puddles and inching over rocks in the Gladiator. With the Sport trim’s Command-Trac high-low 4X4 shifter joyfully clunking into position, you can also electronically lock the rear axle and effortlessly scoot up a ridiculously steep, loose slope, or slowly inch your way back down with extra-effective crawl control. 

The Gladiator already comes in eight trim levels, topping out with the even-more-capable Rubicon X; the Willys ’41 is mid-pack mechanically but also features removable partial/full-panel roof and doors, making it a one-of-a-kind entry in the current pickup market. The bed here featured a full spray-in bedliner, tiedown rails and accessory power.

A caveat to Gladiator’s extra truck bed capability is the reality that a 218-inch-long off-roader meant some multi-multi-point turns on the trail; after a few days of that, I had more respect for people who used to off-road in full-sized Jeep Comanches.