Installed Toyo MTs - First Impressions

[CreeperSleeper]

LOL! The sickness is amazing!!!

I was going to tell Nay this, but when you get your Trxus, mount them on the wheels, fill them up to 80 or 90 psi and leave them in a warm room for 24 or so hours. Then bolt them to your 80 and lower the pressure to what you would like to run (I ran 35 psi in mine) and it should be pretty true. You may not even need to run weights.

BTW, I was hunting out of Gilchrist last weekend and thought about you... Hope all is going well!

 

[slamd58]

LOL! The sickness is amazing!!!
!

My dislikes all of you guys on this board. She says you are all bad influences... However she keeps paying the Visa bill so it must be OK.....


I will see if I can get my buddy at Schwabbies to put the tires in the back with the increased pressure for a day or two before mounting them. Between that trick and Dyno Beads... I hope to have nice smooth tires....

 

[Ebag333]

My dislikes all of you guys on this board. She says you are all bad influences... However she keeps paying the Visa bill so it must be OK.....

Best kind of ....an enabler!

 

[Nay]

LOL! The sickness is amazing!!!

I was going to tell Nay this, but when you get your Trxus, mount them on the wheels, fill them up to 80 or 90 psi and leave them in a warm room for 24 or so hours. Then bolt them to your 80 and lower the pressure to what you would like to run (I ran 35 psi in mine) and it should be pretty true. You may not even need to run weights.

BTW, I was hunting out of Gilchrist last weekend and thought about you... Hope all is going well!

That's an interesting approach, would like to hear how that is working out and what the theory is behind it.

I would still convince anybody to go and get Trxus, such a great tire.

I am really liking the Toyos, they are so smooth at 37 PSI. I am thinking I will groove them if I am not completely happy with winter performance. The factory siping that cuts halfway into the inner tread blocks is a perfect pattern for grooving them completely along that line.

This would add a lot of lateral traction and turn the inner tread into a higher rock traction design - probably add a lot of performance in the rocks by doing this along the Krawler theory. You can get a grooving knife for about $70, and it would allow me to go back to being non-conformist after such a conformist move

 

[Nay]

Who said anything about shipping?!? We don't live that far apart! I realize that the MTRs would be the same boat I'm in now, but I know that Eric likes the Toyos better, so it would be to help him out. Hopefully (fingers crossed), I will have 37" or 38" Swampers on my 80 before the baby comes...

I forget that Idaho and Oregon share that little bit of border.

You better get those tires before the baby comes, after that your 80 budget will become your diaper budget and *mud* will take on an entirely new meaning

I can give you much advice on high traction baby wipes

 

[ginericLC]

I forget that Idaho and Oregon share that little bit of border.

You better get those tires before the baby comes, after that your 80 budget will become your diaper budget and *mud* will take on an entirely new meaning

I can give you much advice on high traction baby wipes

A little bit of border These are substantial sized states. Our border is bigger than the circumference of some states.

I agree, get all the stuff you can before the baby arrives.

I like the Kirkland wipes from Costco. Even if they weren't inexpensive, I'd still buy them, they are some of the better ones out there. Use about a 1/3 of the bag and then it jams nicely in the map holders in the front of the 80.

I think Creepers dissatisfaction with the Toyos on his 80 is because he doesn't use his 80 like the typical 80 user. He treats his 80 like a buggy. If I lived where he lived I don't think I'd have a tire that didn't say Swamper on the sidewall. Whereas I'm in the high desert and happy with them, he's in the freaking humid forest. I can also say if I lived there I wouldn't be wheeling an 80 or any other wagon for that matter. Their trails are tight and slick. With that said, you gotta give him credit for wheeling a big rig in those conditions.

Back to tires:

I did love my Toyos but I put a lot a highway miles on getting to wheeling. In 07 I did Rubicon, then drove down past Death Valley, back up the coast, home to Idaho, up to Montana for the Divide Ride for more wheeling, home, back to Montana and to Wyoming for some wheeling, on to Colorado to do some more wheeling, to Utah, and home. 10,000 miles in 9 weeks with lots of days wheeling in a lot of different conditions. Not once did I cuss at my Toyos. I also never had any failure which is unusual for me.

I agree with what folks say about the Toyo MT, BFG MT, Hankook, MTR, Cooper STT, Pro Compe Xtreme MT, DC Mud Country, etc... as being an all terrain tire. Add some siping to any of them and you have a good all around tire. If you are playing in the Mud you need a Mud tire: Swampers, some of the Pitbulls maybe, I haven't seen much else that is a serious mud tire. If your wheeling includes a lot of mud, get a real mud tire or you'll be unhappy.


On the new BFG MTs I have a friend who has them in the 285/70/17 on his Taco. I'm impressed with the sidewall strength compared to the old MTs. The old MTs sliced like butter on our lava rock. These have held up really well. I think to make them a good all around tire they need a little siping. My gut tells me from previous BFG MT experience that without the siping they are going to suck on hard pack snow and ice.

Tires are so subjective! I mean that two ways. People have opinions and their opinions are based on their experiences. Experiences vary greatly on terrain, vehicle set up, and the amount of tolerance you have for noise and vibration. The other part of the experience is the tire shop who is helping you with the experience. Did they do everything right? Or did they screw the pooch? How good of an experience you have depends upon a lot of how they are set up.

 

[Firedog]

I would still convince anybody to go and get Trxus, such a great tire.

Tires are so subjective! I mean that two ways. People have opinions and their opinions are based on their experiences. Experiences vary greatly on terrain, vehicle set up, and the amount of tolerance you have for noise and vibration. The other part of the experience is the tire shop who is helping you with the experience. Did they do everything right? Or did they screw the pooch? How good of an experience you have depends upon a lot of how they are set up.

GinericLC, you are so right, I have sat here and read several people talk about how great the trxus tires are.... you cant even give them away in the mid-atlantic! In fact, a friend gave us a half worn set just to get them off his truck, we put them on a trail only truck and tried them out.... after a couple outings, we pulled them off and put them in the trash! They were completely useless!
I don't doubt that people have luck with them in different areas, but everyone needs to remember, the trails are not the same everywhere you go!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

My dislikes all of you guys on this board. She says you are all bad influences...

And your welcome!

That's an interesting approach, would like to hear how that is working out and what the theory is behind it.

I would still convince anybody to go and get Trxus, such a great tire.

I am really liking the Toyos, they are so smooth at 37 PSI. I am thinking I will groove them if I am not completely happy with winter performance. The factory siping that cuts halfway into the inner tread blocks is a perfect pattern for grooving them completely along that line.

This would add a lot of lateral traction and turn the inner tread into a higher rock traction design - probably add a lot of performance in the rocks by doing this along the Krawler theory. You can get a grooving knife for about $70, and it would allow me to go back to being non-conformist after such a conformist move

I have no idea why it worked, but it did... He has been running his with no weight for quite a while. That includes letting it sit for about a month on 10 psi...

I'm also thinking about taking a grooving knife to my Toyos (if Eric doesn't want them)... I figure I can't make them any worse!

I think Creepers dissatisfaction with the Toyos on his 80 is because he doesn't use his 80 like the typical 80 user. He treats his 80 like a buggy. If I lived where he lived I don't think I'd have a tire that didn't say Swamper on the sidewall. Whereas I'm in the high desert and happy with them, he's in the freaking humid forest. I can also say if I lived there I wouldn't be wheeling an 80 or any other wagon for that matter. Their trails are tight and slick. With that said, you gotta give him credit for wheeling a big rig in those conditions.

Why thank you, Eric! That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[Nay]

It's beginning to feel a lot like...Halloween

Yes, that means the first real snow of the year, or in last night's case, sleet and snow leading to a nice icy hardpack this morning. The exact kind of morning where I have so loved my Trxus MT's for years. Time to try out the Toyos.

I'm impressed, at 25 degrees on icy hardpack they were about as good as the Trxus. I did my usual heavy throttle testing on an uphill corner in my neighborhood and the lateral traction was predictable and true, much better than I expected it to be and far better than you get with a BFG AT ko, which I have tested in similar conditions in the same spot to the effect of rapidly drifting off the road.

Braking performance was good and I tested it in a number of places from somewhat crunchier conditions to really packed and slick hardpack. In places where Subaru's were tail wagging pretty bad I could also get some slip, but slick ice is slick ice. No MT or AT does well on that stuff, and there was no sudden slipping, no breaking of lateral traction, everything predictable. Probably not quite Trxus level performance on that stuff, but very close. I would think a siped Toyo MT would probably exceed the Trxus MT in these conditions.

Now this was just one test, as one of my major complaints with BFG's harder compound is the tendency to freeze up, and the Toyo is probably a harder compound than Trxus. We'll see how the Toyos do in heavy snow conditions at 10 degrees, at 15 below, and in single digits when the hardpack is frozen solid. Plus there is blizzard performance.

But a slightly wet icy hardpack with temps in the mid 20's is probably the worst condition we face in pure traction, and they passed the test for certain. I am taking siping off the table for now (maybe as they age I'll do it) as it isn't feeling like it will be necessary. We'll see.

First crawling test in a couple of weeks.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Just wait until the lugs round...

 

[Nay]

Just wait until the lugs round...

They'll get worse, they all do...

 

[FirstToy]

Good point

Here's the new rubber.

WTH happened to your truck?

 

[Nay]

WTH happened to your truck?

Durabak

 

[Nay]

So the pull and drifting were the usual culprit - PSI too high. I tried to run them at 38 PSI since that's what the FAQ says , and just like my trxus MT's it would hardly stay on the road. They were absolutely no better at the higher PSI than the trxus.

I had figured that with the much flatter Toyo tread that they could handle higher PSI than the trxus, and honestly it was a reason I went with them, but that is out the window. The tire still rounds up as PSI goes up and doesn't have good tread contact on my (relatively light) rig in the upper 30's. At 33 PSI everything is good again - I'll probably drop to 31-32 where my trxus had a real sweet spot. I'd probably go up to 35 max with a heavy load of passengers and gear. Both are load range E tires and they behave very similarly.

So the net here, really, is not much. If I could have it my way, I'd have Toyo make the Trxus MT with the same compound and I'd buy it in a 37x12.5x16.

I'll be wheeling them hard on Saturday and that will pretty much round out my initial impressions outside of the first deep snow (18"+).

 

[-Spike-]

Freaking ICE? We've got 90 degree temps! WTF

-Spike

 

[Tapage]

Freaking ICE? We've got 90 degree temps! WTF

-Spike

got the same here .. mmm but ya . I'm in Panamá ..

 

[Nay]

Freaking ICE? We've got 90 degree temps! WTF

-Spike

It's been warm here since then. At 7,400 feet elevation it almost snowed in early August, it can get cold in a hurry.

So I tested the tires out crawling one of my favorite trails, Old Chinaman Gulch. On our relatively grippy granite on this trail, the Toyos did well (most tires do). I will say that I like the extra tread width, my rig felt a bit more stable, and the Toyos were very good in the sand to rock transitions. I think this is an area where they are probably better than trxus as a tradeoff to what I expect would be decreased performance in wet to rock transition.

These tires barely fit at full stuff, the tread width definitely makes a difference and I can just get them to rub. The sidewalls live up to their reputation - I took a stupid line and rotated the driver's rear into a rock that was actually inside the rim once it wedged in. Took some creative hi-lift work to where I could back out, putting a ton of pressure on the sidewall, and you can't even tell except that the rim has rash around the entire lip.

The tread on the other hand took quite a bit of abuse, certainly as bad as the softer trxus, so it may not be realistic that these will last any longer than the trxus given that tread life is not based just on road use.

I'm happy with them. There is nothing earth shattering here one way or the other, I'd say the Toyos are performing about as advertised.

Some pics:

 

[Nay]

I was actually able to get a tiny bit of rubbing on the upper spring perch in the front wheel wells. Definitely a wide tire

 

[Romer]

Dave - I run my Toyo's at 42 and dont have any of the issues that you describe, but I think my truck is heavier. I may let some air out and see if I notice the difference. Might be a few days, driving the Roadster while the weather is still nice.

 

[Nay]

Dave - I run my Toyo's at 42 and dont have any of the issues that you describe, but I think my truck is heavier. I may let some air out and see if I notice the difference. Might be a few days, driving the Roadster while the weather is still nice.

My driver's side knuckle studs are loose and two backed out completely. I was wheeling in that condition in the pics above

This is almost certainly the cause of the pull, so I'll retract all PSI comments on the Toyos until it is fixed as I plan to run them in the 35 -37 PSI range if possible.