Multi-wheeled off-road vehicles performance depends not only on the total engine power but also on its distribution among the drive axles/wheels. In turn, this distribution is largely regulated by the drivetrain layout and its torque distribution which is constrained by the interaction between the wheels and the terrain (rigid or soft soil). In this paper three-dimensional, non-linear Finite Element Analysis (FEA) off-road tire models on rigid and soft terrain were developed using PAM-CRASH and the general trends of vertical load-deflection, cornering characteristics and aligning moment on rigid terrains are compared with published measured data of a similar tire for validation purposes. Non-linear tire look-up tables for rigid and soft terrain were developed based on FEA off-road tire simulation results and used for vehicle simulation using the multi-body dynamics code TruckSim. The predictions of vehicle handling characteristics and transient response during lane change test on rigid road at different vehicle speeds were compared with simulation results for same vehicle configuration using real experimental tire data. Simulation results are compared on the basis of vehicle steering, yaw rates and accelerations. The published US Army validation criteria has been used to validate simulation results.