Toyo AT III 285/65R18 on OEM 18's

[RammerJam]

I ran 12.50x33's on 8" rims on my Bronco for a couple years. I finally broke down and bought some 10's. Cheap Chinese rims back when cheap meant really inexpensive. Ran those for the next 8 or 9 years. Loved that old beast. I used to get it stuck in so much mud, I had to deploy a Danforth Anchor (22 lb, IIRC) and hook my winch line to it. (Trees don't grow in the swamp) I had water coming in through my doors several times. Almost to the window a couple times. No clue how it kept running. Maybe because I was at a 30 degree angle. Beer may have been involved

I will never go back to too small rims. Getting by is just getting by. Not knocking it, just saying....

And yeah, I sacrificed a couple of anchors to the mud gods. Most of the time, you could run over them and break them loose. But not always.

A 12.50" wide tire is approximately a 315 in metric terms. I'd recommend a 9'' rim for on-road use and a 10'' rim for occasional off-road use. The 10'' wheel really lays the tread down nicely.

 

[AH64ID]

I've heard some unkind words about Cooper in the past.

The same can be said about nearly every product, especially with the internet.

 

[RammerJam]

The same can be said about nearly every product, especially with the internet.

Agreed. But if I got it on the internet, I'd post the link.

I got it from some guys that work on cars for a living. The reason I won't swear by it is they're not in tires, they both own repair shops.

And about the only people that complain more than mechanics is soldiers so.... Take it for what it's worth

 

[lawdog1]

I am on my second set of Toyo AT on stock rims. 285/65/18. I am very happy with the tire. Run 60lb up front, 80 in the back, got 45K out of first set and I towed a camper 15% or so of those miles. They were not to the wear bar but were close. I rotate, balance and align every 6 month when I do oil and filter change.

 

[AH64ID]

It took my dad 2 sets of Toyo AT’s to approach 45K miles. The first set was done at 16K, and the second set at 23K. Both were warrantied, but still not worth the hassle. He hasn’t ran Toyo since.

My first and only set made it to 25K before they we’re worn past useful tread and were scary on anything by dry pavement. True to Toyo style, as admitted by multiple dealers, they turned to hokey pucks at 4/32nds and made it thru the 40K mile warranty. The only reason I kept them on was I ended up in Arizona for a few months and they were mildly ok on dry pavement. I haven’t ran Toyo LT’s since. I did run one set of Toyo 19.5’s after being “assured” they would last. 80% of the tread was gone in 25K miles on a 5 tire rotation. Overpriced and underperforming.

Toyo will not ever get my money again.

 

[Tuesdak]

So you're not sure

Just trying to rule out driver error vs tire defect.

I've had multiple sets of coopers over the last few years and I have not seen what he is experiencing.

Looking over my tire history I have come to the conclusion that the AZ dessert heat and road conditions just cut tire life down to 1/3 of their expected life. Discount Tire who's Headquarters is in Scottsdale, AZ has some nice whitewash B.S. on their website that, as usual, fails to answer the question about tire life HERE in AZ. Link to mush...

The Cooper HT3 HT's I tried were at 4/32" before 20K miles. BFG's melted quicker than the OEM TrashForce I have on now. The Michelin LTX A/T2 were wearing fast and took a landscaper "fell off the wagon" tree branch through the sidewall going past the dump on Hwy 87.

I had good life from the prior generation Cooper HT3 that didn't have the treadwear warranty. Had good life (near 50K) from some OEM Bridgestone DuravisM700 HD's. (Not made in 18") Followed by Michelin Defenders getting near 60K. But these "decent wear life" were running mostly at night delivering auto parts or RV's all over The USA vs. just in the Phoenix area.

I did run across a review for the AT3's doing the same thing as my buddy's truck. Looks like they had a rough time getting turned down for local warranty as well. I had some Cooper Zeon's do this to me in the past and the GM dealer inspection during warranty service caught it: no problem with warranty on em for me.

https://us.coopertire.com/tires/discoverer-at3-xlt

"After approximately 9,000 miles of road use the tires all began to develop circumferential cracking on the sidewalls near the wheels."


I run the Michelin XPS rib on my 5th wheel after the new Goodyear ST cried uncle and started cracking badly in the tread in less than 1 year. XPS not made in 18" sizes.

Even looked at the Toyo M-55 ... although I use more of a highway tire.

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/threads/cooper-discoverer-stt-pro-tires.267998/

 

[Tuesdak]

And at the end of the day if short life is the norm I got a set with the 60K treadwear warranty. Discount Tire's exclusive Cooper Discoverer ATP II. $51 per tire cheaper than the flagship AT3 and 4LB heavier. (Run them before a decade ago on a 6.5TD Suburban.) Not really seeing a difference over the AT3's ... maybe I am missing something.

https://us.coopertire.com/tires/discoverer-atp-suv

 

[RammerJam]

A little off topic but related.....

My right front tire seems to be wearing more than the others. If I want to get an alignment, do I have to get the weld on my drag link ground or cut? This is on my OEM Firestoned tires

Truck handles well, no real vibration -- Not enough to bother me a whole lot. It's not like my old F150 on the highway but it's good enough that I drive it 1,400 miles one way in the Summer (when there's no Kung Flu) without wanting to check myself into a clinic.

But anyway, have any of you got an alignment and did your steering wheel stay straight?

 

[Cummins12V98]

Most likely the weld will need to be cut to re center the steering wheel.

 

[Ozymandias]

No need to open the weld, maybe your steering wheel is a little bit off center afterwards. Depends on how much off your alignment is right now.

 

[Tuesdak]

@RammerJam rotate the Trashforce tires and see if one or two is causing a radial pull. I had to break arms to get one tire replaced under warranty due to how fast they wear. I used the spare for the other one. More wear on the outside of the tread was visible.

The proper procedure is to replace the welded parts and they want you to weld the replacement parts. That could have changed. Of course updated parts are an option.

Already the truck has less pull to the left with the good tires on it. I will align it again just to be sure.

 

[RammerJam]

@RammerJam rotate the Trashforce tires and see if one causing a radial pull. I had to break arms to get one tire replaced under warranty due to how fast they wear. I used the spare for the other one.

The proper procedure is to replace the welded parts and they want you to weld the replacement parts. That could have changed. Of course updated parts are an option.

Already the truck has less pull to the left with the good tires on it. I will align it again just to be sure.

I have about 21k on the OEM tires, over half of it mixed driving..... City, burbs, rural. About a third of it highway.

I don't really care about the Firestoned tires enough to bother rotating them but I'm getting ready to put some Toyo's on it and I don't want to muck those up.

The front passengrer side tire isn't 'horrible' but it's wearing a little more than the others. It very well could be my driving habits, it could be a weak tire, or it could be it needs to be re-aligned. If it needs much of an alignment, I suspect the Toe.

But it runs good, no vibration to speak of, just the usual 70-75 MPH harmonics, no pulling one way or the other (hard to tell down here, there's so much drainage built into the roads).

I might just buy the tires at Sam's and, since they give (or used to anyway) free rotation every x,000 miles just have them rotated once in a while.

Just trying to get my ducks in a row before I do anything.

 

[Tuesdak]

New tires mean an alignment. IMO costs less than tax on new tires. Esp. Now that the suspension has settled in on a new pickup.

 

[RammerJam]

New tires mean an alignment. IMO costs less than tax on new tires. Esp. Now that the suspension has settled in on a new pickup.

This is my first HD pickup so maybe the rules are different in that regard. But I've lived in S Forida for 43 years and have never done an alignment in that time, period.

Our roads don't get torn up by frost and overweight trucks as much as they do in some areas. There are, however, certain parts of S Florida that have nasty roads but very few. But not mile after mile after mile like up North in industrial areas where building bad roads badly is a way of life

But I will give your advice serious consideration. Would you go with the Thuren specs or go back to factory specs?

 

[Tuesdak]

The Firestone tires were doing this to me and having to "hold" it there. Even after 3 dealer alignments (factory settings) and two different tires. Now I never aligned my 2003 as I got it used, tires wore flat even, and the steering wheel was straight.

The new tires don't do this and only making sure things are where they need to be as the dealer never gave me the alignment report. I am going to use the Thuren specs.

 

[R.Taylor]

Trans-Force..... Must be the San Francisco limited edition tire.