Evaluating Toyo’s Open Country A/T II Tires
Toyo just introduced its Open Country A/T II light truck tires in September, and since I’d had a chance to run the first version Open Country A/T’s a little over a year ago, I was asked to evaluate the new ones and compare.
The A/T II tires are reported to be quieter than the A/T version of last year and I can report that they clearly are quieter. You may hear a slight hum in the back seat of the cab, but very little sound from the driver’s seat, and depending on the pavement, sometimes nothing at all. They are certainly quieter than Wrangler’s A/T tires we tested a year ago. Only a standard passenger tire could be quieter.
I can’t attest to the increased 65,000-mile tread wear warranty (from 50,000), only having about 1,500 miles on these tires, but I have friends who ran the original Open Country A/Ts for way more than 50,000 miles.
My Titan is a two-wheel drive and I use it to pull about 7,500 pounds of boat, trailer and gear. The Open Country tires made this tow platform so much more stable than the factory tires that I wondered why they weren’t presented as original equipment.
I didn’t get the tires to go mudding in a 2WD, but my daughter hangs out with her hunting buddies and I can tell when she brings home a muddy truck, she’s been into — and out of — some pretty sloppy stuff.
I wanted the tires to help get my payload off the launch ramp. That isn’t all that easy at low tide, especially with “suburban” tires. A couple of times I couldn’t do it without some help. But these tires are grippy, and at all but the lowest tides we can get ’er off the ramp without excessive squealing and always without the fuel hogging $5,000 4WD option.
As I cycled through the tires on the first test, I finished with a set of Michelins. They were the strongest passenger tires available, no doubt, but I’m glad to have Toyos back on the Titan.
