Mastercraft Courser HSX Review

Mastercraft Courser HSX Tour is the highway tire designed primarily for Vans, Pickups, SUVs, and light trucks. Cooper (owner of the Mastercraft brand) manufactured these tires with the aim to offer a smooth and comfortable ride with responsive handling and an-all season traction with long tread life. They are available in almost all of the popular SUV tire sizes.

Features of the Mastercraft HSX Tire

  • All-season touring tire designed SUVs and light trucks
  • 3D sipes for stability, even wear and improved handling in Wet and Dry conditions
  • Cooper’s R-Tech construction also used in Courser HSX for responsive handling
  • Wide Circumferential grooves for efficient water evacuation and hydroplaning resistance
  • Ventless molding for aesthetics and good appearance of the tire
  • Touring rated
  • Asymmetrical tread pattern
  • M + S rated
  • 60,000-mile treadwear warranty

How Good is Courser HSX on Road

HSX Dry Road Test

mastercraft courser hsx review

The Courser HSX tire is a touring highway tire with the aim to provide you a comfortable ride on your SUV. At the same time, it gives a dependable performance on highway and street roads. It has a nice and balanced feel on the road and doesn’t wobble at high speed. It has good straight-line traction and grips the road well when cornering. Braking in dry is also good with stopping distance from 70 mph almost comparable to other competitor brands.

R-tech technology in sidewalls make the tires more responsive to driver’s input so there is weighty steering feel to it. This helps in making any emergency maneuvers and the driver can change lanes with more confidence.

When taken off-road, the Courser HSX can handle dirt and gravel roads without a problem, but you could be in trouble with rougher and more uneven roads like sand and mud. Don’t forget that the HSX is a highway tire.

HSX Wet Conditions Review

Given that the tires are designed for wet and dry conditions, they perform at an above average level for wet conditions. The Courser HSX has wide grooves for evacuating water. This gives it good traction in wet conditions and helps avoid hydroplaning. Starting and stopping HSX tire on a wet road is not a problem, it won’t slip or skid when driven at an average speed.

Courser HSX is not a performance tire and doesn’t have that feeling of ultimate wet grip. It’s possible to oversteer when taking a corner at a high speed on a wet road. You have to be careful when driving in heavy rain and avoid pushing the tire to its traction limit.

HSX Snow and Ice Review

Although HSX is rated as M+S, it doesn’t come with the threepeak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) symbol. The 3PMSF symbol indicates the tires can perform in severe snow and icy conditions. The tire tread and rubber aren’t designed to perform great on the ice and heavy snow. But you can drive these tires in winter and light snow conditions with some precaution. The 3D sipes built into the tire improve traction in very light snow, getting you where you need to be in light winter weather. They won’t slip and skid when stopped and started at slow speed but slippage could be an issue at high speed on snow.

In short, If you are caught out in winter with these tires, you can be confident that you’ll be just fine, but you should be sure to drive more carefully and reduce your speed. If you live somewhere that gets heavy winters then we’d have to recommend getting dedicated winter tires.

Comfort and Tire Noise Review

Mastercraft touring tires are generally comfortable on the highway and streets. They big sidewalls of HSX absorb the impacts from potholes and bumps. If the tires are balanced and the wheel alignment is done well they won’t vibrate or wobble at high speed on a highway. If you experience vibration issues with brand new HSX tires, get them checked for balance. Also, the problem could be caused by wheel bearing or the tire assembly so get those inspected as well.

Courser HSX is a bit noisy and you could hear the road noise coming into the car cabin. Although the noise level is not that bad and could be overcome by the car stereo. But you need to keep in mind that the HSX get noisier as it ages like any other tire. But if you keep the tires rotated regularly and get them balanced, they would wear evenly and won’t product unbearable sounds. Because if the tire wear is irregular it develops lumps and the hum of the tire gets louder.

Is HSX the right Tire for me?

The Mastercraft Courser HSX tires are compatible with most SUVs, cargo vans, and pickup trucks. As the tires are so popular, they are available in a range of sizes. We’re sure that you can find one that fits your vehicle. They are available in rim sizes between 15 and 20 inches, which should let you know the number of fitments on offer.

Most sites that let you buy tires have tools that allow you to input the make, model, and trim size to find the right fit for you if you aren’t sure which specs your vehicle requires. Be sure to use such a tool or have the measurements at hand because a different trim on a vehicle requires a different tire size. Fitting the wrong size tires to your vehicle is a major safety hazard.

Mastercraft’s Warranty

As well as offering great performance in all conditions, a smooth ride, and efficient handling, the Courser HSX tires should last a good long while too. There are too many tires that come with short lifespans, but this tire isn’t one of them. They last for an average of 50,000 – 70,000 miles and perform consistently for all that time. This is pretty impressive for an all-season tire, and it’s just the cherry on the top of this impressive tire. Of course, how long the tire really lasts depends on where and how you drive. Therefore, different people can expect different treadwear distances.

Mastercraft has 60,000 mile treadwear warranty on this tire which is good and competitive with other SUV touring tire brands. They also offer 45 day trial period for you to check out this tire and return it with full refund if you aren’t happy with its performance.

Also Read: