From Toyo M/T to M-55 (1 Viewer)

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Not sure if this is the best place for this, but seemed to make more sense than sticking it in the 80's tech forum... Mods, please feel free to move it if you can think of a better place.


M/T to M-55

Back in August of 2008 I bought a set of Toyo M/T’s, size LT255/85R16. I had them installed with 8 oz. of “Offroad” Dyna-Beads in each tire. I did 5-tire rotations about every 3,000 miles. At about 12,000 miles the tires have 0.36” tread depth remaining. Tread wear has been nice and even, though there has been some chipping of the lugs. Tread depth was 19/32” new, so tread wear has been about 0.02” per thousand miles. I thought I had a little more mileage on them, and I thought the treads were worn down a little more than they actually are, but my maintenance book and calipers don’t lie.

Even with 0.36” of tread remaining, they are a bit chewed.

chewed.jpg


I’m not unhappy about “only” getting 12,000 miles out of this set of tires. Keep in mind that close to 5,000 of those miles were on sharp rocks and “gravel” like you see here:

rocks-1.jpg


In my opinion the M/T’s held up surprisingly well!

Before I bought the M/T’s, I was almost at the coin-flipping stage to decide between M/T’s and M-55’s. Redline and other members over at ExpeditionPortal helped me narrow it down to that point, but the final reason I decided on M/T’s was because the owner of the local tire shop told me that the seismograph crews out here were routinely destroying BFG’s, but seemed to vanish from the tire shop after they switched all their trucks to Toyo M/T’s. The only flat I had in the 2+ years I’ve had these tires was from a 1/4” diameter nail that punched through one of the tread blocks.

Bottom line is that I have nothing at all to complain about regarding the M/T’s… I could probably squeeze another year and a full 20,000 miles out of these tires, but I’m ready for something new.



During the time I used up the M/T’s, a coworker used up a set of Toyo M-55’s in size LT285/75R16 on a ¾ ton Chevy pickup that carries both a 4-wheeler and about 300 lbs of land surveying equipment on a daily basis. He got about 45,000 miles on the M-55’s before the tread wore down to the point where the raised “rock guard” in the middle of the tread was almost one solid line of tread. This guy is pretty hard on tires, so a fairly aggressive tire giving him that many miles (with no flats) is impressive! He’s about 15,000 miles into his second set of M-55’s with zero complaints, so I decided I just HAVE to give the M-55 a try.

Tire size? I considered downsizing to a LT235/85R16 on the FJ80, since I only have “stock height” OME springs, 6-inch wide wheels, and 235’s would look the part on my Africanized cruiser. But after considering pros and cons while bumping around the boonies for a couple of months thinking about tires, I decided to stick with 255’s if for no other reason than the fact that I can run them at around 40 psi continually on this truck. 40 psi(+/-) combined with the 255’s taller (more flexible) sidewall, gives a MUCH smoother/softer ride than the 65 psi I’ve been running in the 235’s on my surveying truck. I use the FJ80 for showing rural property in my real estate brokerage, so I don’t want to mess around with airing down/up with customers in the truck.

A few pics:

I know it’s old vs. new, but you can see the difference in tread void.
sidebyside.jpg


I went with “Off Road” Dyna Beads again - 8 oz per tire is the smallest bag they sell… They worked GREAT with the M/T’s!
DynaBeads.jpg


New shoes!
255M55s.jpg


I’ll update the thread as I get some wear on these. For now, all I can say is that driving around town at 30 mph, the M-55’s are noticeably quieter, smoother, and softer at 42 psi. Also, I don’t feel the lugs hitting the ground when coming to a stop. I have to do about 50 miles off the pavement tomorrow, so I’ll have a lot better feel for them after that.
 
Not sure if this is the best place for this, but seemed to make more sense than sticking it in the 80's tech forum... Mods, please feel free to move it if you can think of a better place.


M/T to M-55

Back in August of 2008 I bought a set of Toyo M/T’s, size LT255/85R16. I had them installed with 8 oz. of “Offroad” Dyna-Beads in each tire. I did 5-tire rotations about every 3,000 miles. At about 12,000 miles the tires have 0.36” tread depth remaining. Tread wear has been nice and even, though there has been some chipping of the lugs. Tread depth was 19/32” new, so tread wear has been about 0.02” per thousand miles. I thought I had a little more mileage on them, and I thought the treads were worn down a little more than they actually are, but my maintenance book and calipers don’t lie.

Even with 0.36” of tread remaining, they are a bit chewed.

chewed.jpg


I’m not unhappy about “only” getting 12,000 miles out of this set of tires. Keep in mind that close to 5,000 of those miles were on sharp rocks and “gravel” like you see here:

rocks-1.jpg


In my opinion the M/T’s held up surprisingly well!

Before I bought the M/T’s, I was almost at the coin-flipping stage to decide between M/T’s and M-55’s. Redline and other members over at ExpeditionPortal helped me narrow it down to that point, but the final reason I decided on M/T’s was because the owner of the local tire shop told me that the seismograph crews out here were routinely destroying BFG’s, but seemed to vanish from the tire shop after they switched all their trucks to Toyo M/T’s. The only flat I had in the 2+ years I’ve had these tires was from a 1/4” diameter nail that punched through one of the tread blocks.

Bottom line is that I have nothing at all to complain about regarding the M/T’s… I could probably squeeze another year and a full 20,000 miles out of these tires, but I’m ready for something new.



During the time I used up the M/T’s, a coworker used up a set of Toyo M-55’s in size LT285/75R16 on a ¾ ton Chevy pickup that carries both a 4-wheeler and about 300 lbs of land surveying equipment on a daily basis. He got about 45,000 miles on the M-55’s before the tread wore down to the point where the raised “rock guard” in the middle of the tread was almost one solid line of tread. This guy is pretty hard on tires, so a fairly aggressive tire giving him that many miles (with no flats) is impressive! He’s about 15,000 miles into his second set of M-55’s with zero complaints, so I decided I just HAVE to give the M-55 a try.

Tire size? I considered downsizing to a LT235/85R16 on the FJ80, since I only have “stock height” OME springs, 6-inch wide wheels, and 235’s would look the part on my Africanized cruiser. But after considering pros and cons while bumping around the boonies for a couple of months thinking about tires, I decided to stick with 255’s if for no other reason than the fact that I can run them at around 40 psi continually on this truck. 40 psi(+/-) combined with the 255’s taller (more flexible) sidewall, gives a MUCH smoother/softer ride than the 65 psi I’ve been running in the 235’s on my surveying truck. I use the FJ80 for showing rural property in my real estate brokerage, so I don’t want to mess around with airing down/up with customers in the truck.

A few pics:

I know it’s old vs. new, but you can see the difference in tread void.
sidebyside.jpg


I went with “Off Road” Dyna Beads again - 8 oz per tire is the smallest bag they sell… They worked GREAT with the M/T’s!
DynaBeads.jpg


New shoes!
255M55s.jpg


I’ll update the thread as I get some wear on these. For now, all I can say is that driving around town at 30 mph, the M-55’s are noticeably quieter, smoother, and softer at 42 psi. Also, I don’t feel the lugs hitting the ground when coming to a stop. I have to do about 50 miles off the pavement tomorrow, so I’ll have a lot better feel for them after that.

Thanks for reporting. The review was very thorough. I had originally wanted the Toyo Open Country MTs but they just weren't available in this neck of the woods. I will get a set once I get back to the States as I want to save the tread on my Maxxis Creepy Crawlers for occasional weekend fun.
 
Got 'em dirty today...

PA280751.jpg



Initial impressions/observations after driving 47 miles on rocks/gravel and about 30 miles on the highway today:

- The M-55's throw smaller rocks. Instead of hearing "thunk" I hear "click".

- The M-55's are much quieter than the M/T's were. I didn't really notice the M/T's were noisy until they were gone.

- The truck feels "lighter" - hard to explain, but steering seems easier, pavement seems smoother, and bumps seem softer. I was running the M/T's with 40psi and these have 42psi, so the difference is purely related to tire construction.

Of course, no snow, ice, wet pavement, etc, but I can't imagine these things won't be better than M/T's for those applications. If they are even close to being as tough as the M/T's, I'm VERY happy with the switch!
 
I am running the 255 M/T and was thinking of the M55 for my next set of tires. was hoping they would be a little nicer on the road and hoping to not give up much off-road ability.

Did u ever have a flat with the M/T? I am constantly amazed at what they will take. I will be interested to hear how the M55 work out for you.

Are those spots for studs in the M55? do they have a snowflake on the sidewall?
 
The cruiser is still looking sharp with that paint scheme. I went to a Dick Cepek Radial FC-II on the 100 series. I did it after seeing a set of Redline's and how well they were wearing.

They came with a generous 20/32nd's tread depth and I'm getting right around 3200 miles per 32nd of tread wear. At this rate of wear, if I drive them to 4/32nd's I should get around 50k out of them. Again, that is if they continue to wear at the current rate. Wear bars appear at 2/32nd's and studies have shown that there is a dramatic increase in stopping distances below 4/32nd's.

The only downfall is that I don't think they come in the killer 255/85 size. I went with a 285/75 which is a 32.8" tall tire.

I dig the new skinnies and think they would look great on the troopy. I can't wait to see your reports and when it's time for new tires, don't discount the FC-II's. I can't believe the wear on your MT's.
 
I am running the 255 M/T and was thinking of the M55 for my next set of tires. was hoping they would be a little nicer on the road and hoping to not give up much off-road ability.

Did u ever have a flat with the M/T? I am constantly amazed at what they will take. I will be interested to hear how the M55 work out for you.

Are those spots for studs in the M55? do they have a snowflake on the sidewall?

I had one flat with the M/T's - a huge nail right through one of the tread blocks. The tires were TOUGH, though. I did quite a bit of driving out through the brush with them - not recklessly, but not much concerned with bushes and 6-12 inch rocks that I always VERY carefully avoided in the past.

The M/T's were great tires for that kind of stuff, but not the most comfortable ride on pavement. I guess I just got used to them because I didn't realize how rough they felt until I got these M-55's mounted.

Yes - the M-55's have holes for studs. Not much use for snow/ice tires down south here, but I've heard these are pretty popular in Canada.


24HOURSOFNEVADA,

The M/T's did get pretty chewed for the amount of mileage they have on them. BUT again - 5,000+ of those miles were on various sizes of that hard, "gypie" limestone you see above in the last pic I posted. Not bad performance at all! If the M-55's hold up as long, I'm happy, simply because of the better ride. They seem to wrap around the bigger rocks better than the M/T's, so they might end up chipping less and lasting longer, which would be great.

Old Suzy is still looking purty! Next week she's finally getting an ARB bull bar, then as soon as Iron Pig has them available she'll get one of their rear bumpers... and some trim packers to level her out and boost her up about 1/2" higher than she sits right now. I just can't bring myself to to do an actual lift on her, though.

...at least not yet. We'll see how she handles with the extra 300 lbs of steel.
 
Just a heads-up: Dyna Beads do not work well in my M-55's.

The town I live in is waaaaaaay out in the boonies. Speed limit in town is 30mph, and speed limit everywhere within 65 miles outside of town is 75mph. I just got home from a 600 mile trip where I drove about 150 miles on roads where the speed limit was between 50 and 60mph. That is very much the "unsweet spot" for the Dyna Beads... Between about 45 mph and 60 mph, the steering wheel wobbled quite a bit. The beads seemed to work fine with the M/T's, but I never really drove them 45-60 except on the way up to or down from 70.

Monday morning, the Dyna Beads are getting shop-vac'd out and I'm getting some good old fashioned wheel weights.

Other than that, I'm still loving these tires!
 
M 55

I have a set of M55's on my dodge 3/4 deisel 4x4 3 yrs and 40,000 mi.
Finally wore them out !
Mostly around town and hwy driving
couple trips to moab each year .I am putting another set on
this week before the snow comes back.
I loved them.
A little less agressive than a M/T
but not as lame as most A/T's.
 
That tan paint looks great, tires too.
 
One of the front tires needed close to 8 oz. of lead to balance. The rest were under 4 oz, so maybe I just had one tire that didn't get along with the DynaBeads. Either way, the 45-60mph wobble's gone, so I'm happy. Smooth as glass now!
 
I have both of these tires on my fleet of Cruisers - the M55s on a BJ74 and the MTs on an HZJ77. They are ~very~ different in their behaviour in snow and ice with the M55s being quite superior.

I have done some mild off-roading with the MTs and some more difficult off-roading with the M55s. The M55s don't have as much traction as a wider tire like a 33x12.50, but that's not why I bought them - I got them for toughness and decent traction.

I have seen both of these tires chew up terrain like mad, and hold up to insane abuse. I can say that BFGs will not even come close what the Toyos will take - had a few sets of BFGs and I would not have another set.

The MTs are not noisy for an MT, and they are smooth and offer good steering response and decent wet traction.

The M55s do like to pick up small stones and fling them out once you're up to speed.

Thanks for the review.


~John
 
I have both of these tires on my fleet of Cruisers - the M55s on a BJ74 and the MTs on an HZJ77. They are ~very~ different in their behaviour in snow and ice with the M55s being quite superior.

I have done some mild off-roading with the MTs and some more difficult off-roading with the M55s. The M55s don't have as much traction as a wider tire like a 33x12.50, but that's not why I bought them - I got them for toughness and decent traction.

I have seen both of these tires chew up terrain like mad, and hold up to insane abuse. I can say that BFGs will not even come close what the Toyos will take - had a few sets of BFGs and I would not have another set.

The MTs are not noisy for an MT, and they are smooth and offer good steering response and decent wet traction.

The M55s do like to pick up small stones and fling them out once you're up to speed.

Thanks for the review.


~John

this is my current debate on what one to buy in the spring.
 
I had one flat with the M/T's - a huge nail right through one of the tread blocks. The tires were TOUGH, though. I did quite a bit of driving out through the brush with them - not recklessly, but not much concerned with bushes and 6-12 inch rocks that I always VERY carefully avoided in the past.

The M/T's were great tires for that kind of stuff, but not the most comfortable ride on pavement. I guess I just got used to them because I didn't realize how rough they felt until I got these M-55's mounted.

Yes - the M-55's have holes for studs. Not much use for snow/ice tires down south here, but I've heard these are pretty popular in Canada.


24HOURSOFNEVADA,

The M/T's did get pretty chewed for the amount of mileage they have on them. BUT again - 5,000+ of those miles were on various sizes of that hard, "gypie" limestone you see above in the last pic I posted. Not bad performance at all! If the M-55's hold up as long, I'm happy, simply because of the better ride. They seem to wrap around the bigger rocks better than the M/T's, so they might end up chipping less and lasting longer, which would be great.

Old Suzy is still looking purty! Next week she's finally getting an ARB bull bar, then as soon as Iron Pig has them available she'll get one of their rear bumpers... and some trim packers to level her out and boost her up about 1/2" higher than she sits right now. I just can't bring myself to to do an actual lift on her, though.

...at least not yet. We'll see how she handles with the extra 300 lbs of steel.

You're not gonna like it. Unless you have a need for the armor, I wouldn't spend your dinero. Your use seems to indicate OEM bumpers are fine. Your 3FE would suffer more than my 1FZ on hills, not to mention the handling differences of a significantly heavier rig. Believe me, it's an addiction. the bumpers won't be enough. Then there's sliders, skid plates, a winch, etc..........

Your rig is really appealing as it is now. The color, the flare less look and the tires look awesome! I went with the 255/85R16 myself, for my summertime ATs. I think you'll be fine with your tire choice, unless you get caught in a cloudburst or blizzard away from pavement. Carry a set (4 for the Landcruiser) of chains in the back to be prepared for almost anything.

We have some pretty sharp rock out here in Central Oregon, also. You might consider running a little lower on your psi in your tires to avoid tire damage, especially on the side walls. I used to run mine in the high 40s also. I thought that the harder (psi) the tire, the better protected it is from damage. But consider a balloon: Which is easier to pop or damage? A fully inflated one, or a half inflated one? Yes, off road or slow speed running, the more flex the tire has, the better chance it has to avoid serious damage. This is in addition to the additional traction. Pavement and high speed running are a different story. There you want less flex to avoid heat and the consequential wear.
 
On tire psi - These tires are rated for something like 3,400 lbs at 80psi... According to the Toyo load chart, I'm good at 42psi with this truck. At 42psi these tires wrap around rocks pretty well - a LOT more than the M/T's did. I parked on top of a fist-sized rock out at the ranch the other day and when I noticed the tire wrapped around it, I thought I was getting a flat. Checked the air pressure and it was still 42psi. The tires don't seem too squishy driving around on the pavement, or build up any heat, so I'm happy with it.

On bumpers - I've had the ARB front for about a month and I really like the peace of mind. Deer get pretty thick on the highways here after dark, and some seem hell-bent on doing the kamakazi thing as you drive by. I haven't hit one in this rig yet, but have come close a few times. Nice to know the dumb critters won't take out the radiator if they succeed in their mission!.... The rear bumper's primary job is to get the tire out of the cargo area inside the truck. I HATE hanging a tire underneath the truck, so the Iron Pig seems the simplest solution, and only weighs about 150lbs without the tire. Should balance out the front pretty well.
 
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We run M-55s exclusively on all the work trucks - 1 ton Ford diesels, can't beat the M-55 tires.

Really like the 255/85 size as well
'
 
I am running the mts and the side lugs really pull me up and out of the huge ruts here in az . Looking to swap tires soon to the km2s or stick with what i have or go with 55s
 
Need to replace my tires on my tow rig, duramax 3/4 ton. are the M55 tires loud on the highway? what is the load rating on these as well?
 
Need to replace my tires on my tow rig, duramax 3/4 ton. are the M55 tires loud on the highway? what is the load rating on these as well?
They are a lot quieter than the Toyo M/T's! You can hear them, but after driving the M/T's for a couple of years, the M-55's seem pretty quiet to me.
 
Here's a photo that shows one reason I'm liking these tires, and why I really like the 255/85R16 size for the kind of driving I do. The tire is at 42psi, so it rides firm enough for highway use and yet still has enough flex to wrap around some of the rocks I drive over. I get a much smoother ride and I think/hope I'm a little less prone to getting flats than if I was using 235/85R16 or 265/75R16... and I don't have to mess with airing down/up all the time.

M55flex.jpg
 

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