Events/Trails Road trip suggestions? (1 Viewer)

[Diytech123]

Hi Diytech123. From my cursory read, looks like you're looking for a well balanced tire that doesn't sacrifice too much in noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), yet looking for solid capability and durability in mild trail use, but with a need for cold/snow weather performance?

I think you're looking for an AT tire, but do understand it might give up something to gain something. There's a span of mild to aggressive AT tires. It's also a slippery slope down the AT route, for a cool and aggressive looking tire that ultimately gives up something in daily use.

The list of AT tires on the market today that are Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMSF) rated:

View attachment 2014087

• BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2
• Cooper Discoverer A/T3 4S
• Cooper Discoverer A/TW
• Falken Wildpeak A/T3W
• General Grabber APT
• General Grabber AT 2
• General Grabber ATX
• Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar
• Hankook Dynapro AT-M
• Kumho Road Venture AT51
• Nitto Exo Grappler AWT
• Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus
• Sumitomo Encounter AT
• Toyo Open Country C/T
• Yokohama Geolander A/T G015

Of these, I can only speak for the Falken Wildpeak A/T3W as that is what I have on my LX. It's a touch less aggressive than the benchmark KO2 largely on account of a softer rubber compound. That quality helps it have better cold/wet whether traction and a bit less noise. I've been absolutely happy with my choice on this tire and would buy again.

In regards to sizing. The easiest no brainer upgrade in tire size is simply to go one aspect ratio up. Stock is 285/50/20 at 31.2" overall diameter. A 285/55/20 would be a super easy fit. It's also not too tall that it'll result in much noticeable clearance, brake, or power impact at 32.4", yet will fill the wheel wells nicely. I'd highly recommend that size. As you're going up in overall diameter, you'll gain sidewall even without downsizing wheels. I would have never said this 10 years ago, but 20" wheels with large diameter tires have proven to be a great combination. For better on road handling and stability. Yet enough sidewall to airdown on trails to have sufficient traction.

I run a slightly more aggressive size - 305/55r20 at 33.2" tall but I recognize it may not be for everyone.

View attachment 2014098

@TeCKis300 Thank you for a very detailed reply! You sound like a true professional with the detail, justification and above all trying piece together my ramblings on what tire to choose from and asking advice everywhere...... Thank you....

I wanted to go with the best possible combination of size, handling and some offdrive capability. Since I live in Chicago area, I need to travel 15-16 hours to venture into a decent terrain, and my daily driver is highway. So 90-95% of my drive is city/highway roads. Since I ached to have an LX, and I have it now, on the occasions when I am offroading (may be gravel roads, and decent trails not too super rugged) I needed a jack of all.

I will look at Falkens.... May you should share this post on another thread on Tire advice as well !

Thank you, have a great night.

By the way, great stance and fantastic looking LX you got there!

 

[Diytech123]

@TeCKis300 Thank you for a very detailed reply! You sound like a true professional with the detail, justification and above all trying piece together my ramblings on what tire to choose from and asking advice everywhere...... Thank you....

I wanted to go with the best possible combination of size, handling and some offdrive capability. Since I live in Chicago area, I need to travel 15-16 hours to venture into a decent terrain, and my daily driver is highway. So 90-95% of my drive is city/highway roads. Since I ached to have an LX, and I have it now, on the occasions when I am offroading (may be gravel roads, and decent trails not too super rugged) I needed a jack of all.

I will look at Falkens.... May you should share this post on another thread on Tire advice as well !

Thank you, have a great night.

By the way, great stance and fantastic looking LX you got there!

Thought of updating -

Finally I ended up buying 18 inch 2019 Tundra TRD take off wheels/tires. Since the wheels were costing a lot and I got a package deal with the Michelin LTX AT2 tires, I went with that on eBay. I know with all your inputs I went with a different route of Michelin s. They seem to be noisier than I expected. My Blizzaks were way quieter than AT2s. Other Michelins I rode were quite and so I was surprised this tire coming from them. I need to see how good or bad they are in next couple of months. Since I am not planning any major offroading, I suppose I can live with them. But for long drives it might be a concern though. Well ...

 

[GordJ]

I have Michelin AT2’s on my LC and my LX. I am surprised that you find them noisy because that hasn’t been my experience at all. I had a buddy (Mercedes suv owner) comment on how quiet the ATs were. I’m wearing 285-55-20’s and I haven’t found anywhere they’re deficient. Great on wet pavement, which is the most important feature for me, and capable on everything else that I’ve used them. Right now we’re halfway to Haida Gwaii, sitting in the trailer getting ready to drive to the ferry in Prince Rupert tomorrow. Much like Toyota, I’m a Michelin guy and have been since my’90 4Runner.

 

[Diytech123]

I have Michelin AT2’s on my LC and my LX. I am surprised that you find them noisy because that hasn’t been my experience at all. I had a buddy (Mercedes suv owner) comment on how quiet the ATs were. I’m wearing 285-55-20’s and I haven’t found anywhere they’re deficient. Great on wet pavement, which is the most important feature for me, and capable on everything else that I’ve used them. Right now we’re halfway to Haida Gwaii, sitting in the trailer getting ready to drive to the ferry in Prince Rupert tomorrow. Much like Toyota, I’m a Michelin guy and have been since my’90 4Runner.

I am running Michelin LTX AT2 275P/65R18. I have Michelin Defender LTX on my Acura and Primacy on my ES and I felt they are great. In fact I passed on Bridgestone Duelers for Michelin AT2s. So I was surprised. Or I night be new to AT2s.

I am thinking whether it's roof rack adding to the noise? Or may be Chicago roads I observe it even at low speeds so it can't be wind noise.

 

[linuxgod]

If the tires are new they may need to break in a bit. I found my Nitto Ridge Grapplers got quieter after 500-1000 miles (though they're still noisier than the factory P-metric Bridgestone tires).

Pavement is noisier than asphalt, so keep that in mind as well.

You can partially rule out the roof rack by closing the sunroof cover. I find that cuts down a lot of wind noise caused by the maxtrax, kayak racks, shovel, etc piled on my rack).

 

[Diytech123]

If the tires are new they may need to break in a bit. I found my Nitto Ridge Grapplers got quieter after 500-1000 miles (though they're still noisier than the factory P-metric Bridgestone tires).

Pavement is noisier than asphalt, so keep that in mind as well.

You can partially rule out the roof rack by closing the sunroof cover. I find that cuts down a lot of wind noise caused by the maxtrax, kayak racks, shovel, etc piled on my rack).

I am hoping that's the case. Does keeping PSi at high could be the cause too?

 

[linuxgod]

incorrect PSI can cause noise, yes. You get more, or less, tread on the road, making contact and slapping the pavement in ways the engineers did not intend. @gaijin can weigh in as to correct tire pressure for your size

 

[Diytech123]

incorrect PSI can cause noise, yes. You get more, or less, tread on the road, making contact and slapping the pavement in ways the engineers did not intend. @gaijin can weigh in as to correct tire pressure for your size

@gaijin is fantastic, he gave me the numbers and I am using his guidance. I will monitor for next 1000 miles and report back. Now I am working thru my TPMS issue with new wheels and tires and hope to get it resolved.

 

[gaijin]

@gaijin is fantastic, he gave me the numbers and I am using his guidance. I will monitor for next 1000 miles and report back. Now I am working thru my TPMS issue with new wheels and tires and hope to get it resolved.

For anyone following who is interested, my recommendation was:

The RCTIP for the P275/65R18 tires on your LX570 is 28psi F/R.

Did you finally decide to run 28psi as per the recommendation?

HTH

 

[Diytech123]

For anyone following who is interested, my recommendation was:

The RCTIP for the P275/65R18 tires on your LX570 is 28psi F/R.

Did you finally decide to run 28psi as per the recommendation?

HTH

@gaijin, I am running that 28 PSI. I came across the possible reasoning for the noise (Discount tire website) "Off-road tires are particularly noisy on the highway because of how much air passes through their deep, aggressive tread patterns that make them so excellent for off-road use. If you’ve ever heard a lifted pickup with massive off-road tires pass you on the freeway, this is exactly what is happening." Since this is my first time running AT tires and the noise I am observing feels more like wind noise...I am suspecting this could be the cause.

Regarding TPMS - I am waiting to see a programmed set of TPMS sensors to arrive, so that I can get rid of my TPMS warning light that came up since I swapped my tires. I thought Tundra TPMS sensors that came with the wheels would work on Lexus but they don't it seems.

Your suggestion on my LX reading the tire pressure from old tires is spot on and that turned out to be true as well.

 

[Diytech123]

I have Michelin AT2’s on my LC and my LX. I am surprised that you find them noisy because that hasn’t been my experience at all. I had a buddy (Mercedes suv owner) comment on how quiet the ATs were. I’m wearing 285-55-20’s and I haven’t found anywhere they’re deficient. Great on wet pavement, which is the most important feature for me, and capable on everything else that I’ve used them. Right now we’re halfway to Haida Gwaii, sitting in the trailer getting ready to drive to the ferry in Prince Rupert tomorrow. Much like Toyota, I’m a Michelin guy and have been since my’90 4Runner.

May be I was trying too hard and too critical to hear the noise... So I might be hearing it too much... I will let it go ... since I moved from Bridgestone Blizzaks to AT2s and was expecting super quiet ride. But they are comparable... I will get used to it.

 

[Samuraj]

how about ; sedona ,las vegas, page , moab ,ouray in september ? 2020 2 weeks

 

[Taco2Cruiser]

how about ; sedona ,las vegas, page , moab ,ouray in september ? 2020 2 weeks

sounds fun

 

[highrisk]

how about ; sedona ,las vegas, page , moab ,ouray in september ? 2020 2 weeks

That does sound fun. I've been at home way too long now. I could use a solid road trip.

 

[Samuraj]

Yea ... not so fast ...corona is not going away , they are talking about closing up again

 

[highrisk]

Yea ... not so fast ...corona is not going away , they are talking about closing up again

This is true.

The only reasonable travel could be dispersed camping. I don't think my wife is ready to stay in a hotel yet............she sure isn't going to camp for two weeks.

At least I've saved a bunch of money on child care, camps, and vacations!

 

[dcs111]

This is probably the wrong place to pose this question, but is anyone headed to Moab in September 2020? We are gearing up to road trip from GAto NM, AZ, UT, CO, Missouri and back with an Rpod and looking to connect with anyone who may want to do a little light trail riding! Thanks, DS

 

[linuxgod]

This is probably the wrong place to pose this question, but is anyone headed to Moab in September 2020? We are gearing up to road trip from GAto NM, AZ, UT, CO, Missouri and back with an Rpod and looking to connect with anyone who may want to do a little light trail riding! Thanks, DS

I'm not, but we did Moab in 2017 with a trailer as well and I can offer a few suggestions.

• Most camping in the Moab area was FCFS. We stayed in the Ken's Lake campground though there were sites further up the road to the east of Moab that we could've stayed at along the river. Ken's Lake is about 10 minutes south of Moab. It's USDA or USFS I think. Maybe $15/day, there's a lake you can see and drive over to if you want to swim (though the beach is pebbles, not sand), and there's a nice ~1 mile hike to the east to a waterfall you can swim in if you're there in the late afternoon. It was our basecamp for the trailer, so any exploration we did during the day but we came back and slept there at night.
• Get the Funtreks book if you're going to do any trails. Moab has trails for everyone with a vast array of difficulties - everything from green-rated dirt roads to the kind of red-rated trails that will make you call the trip To Hell And Back...
• We entered Canyonlands Island in the Sky via Potash Road and the Shafer Switchbacks. It's an easy trail (road, almost) but the Shafer portion has a nice view heading up into the park. There's a spot on the Potash section where they filmed the end of Themla and Louise (I've never seen the movie but my wife was excited about it)
• We did a section of White Rim before we hit the aforementioned switchbacks. The first 10 miles or so we did wasn't very difficult and was also really cool. I do want to go back at some point and do the entire rim, but it's multi-day and IIRC requires a permit to overnight
• We tried Long Canyon but the area on the east side was washed out so we had to turn around after the first 1/2 mile. It looked like a cool way to exit that section of Canyonlands. Also doesn't appear to be very hard normally.
• For a more challenging trip (moderate difficultly) we did the Colorado Rover Overlook in the Canyonlands Needles district.
• Canyonlands was my favorite park for exploration, but don't miss Arches.
• If you have more time to explore in UT, I'd try to hit Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef at least.

 

[Scylth]

This is probably the wrong place to pose this question, but is anyone headed to Moab in September 2020? We are gearing up to road trip from GAto NM, AZ, UT, CO, Missouri and back with an Rpod and looking to connect with anyone who may want to do a little light trail riding! Thanks, DS

I did East TN to Durango, Colorado, to Silverton/Ouray, to Montrose, to Moab via Rim Rocker Trail, to Bryce Canyon via I-70/24/12, to Vegas, to Hoover Dam, to North Rim, and home during the last week of May, with 4 of my kids. We went back and forth on taking the homebuilt trailer with a roof top tent, but in the end decided not to as it would give us more versatility on the Rim Rocker and in Moab, and packing it up every day is a pain. So we took a couple of pop ups and a couple swags, and I slept on a foam mattress in the 200. 8 day trip, 4950 miles. Covered a ton of ground, saw amazing things, so much so that by the time we got to the grand canyon, the kids and I were like, "huh, that cool", and kept going. In retrospect, when I do it again, I'd like to go slower and not be tired the whole trip. At that time, many CO restaurants were closed, and if we'd wanted to stay in a hotel, it was closed. UT was open for business, which was good because we showed up in Moab exhausted and decided to spend some Hilton points at the local resort and spent the afternoon swimming in the pool. Half of what we wanted to do was closed either for Covid or snow, but was still a trip we'll never forget. Even stumbled across parts of the Trans-America Trail, which is in the spirit of how this trip was conceived 2 years ago when we started doing it in segments. If you have any specific questions about how we handled different aspects of the trip, shoot me a message.

To answer your question, I'd do the trip again in Sept if it didn't interfere with my kids schooling - it was that much fun.

To the original author of this thread, sorry for hijacking your thread if this got away from the original intent.

 

[dcs111]

I'm not, but we did Moab in 2017 with a trailer as well and I can offer a few suggestions.

• Most camping in the Moab area was FCFS. We stayed in the Ken's Lake campground though there were sites further up the road to the east of Moab that we could've stayed at along the river. Ken's Lake is about 10 minutes south of Moab. It's USDA or USFS I think. Maybe $15/day, there's a lake you can see and drive over to if you want to swim (though the beach is pebbles, not sand), and there's a nice ~1 mile hike to the east to a waterfall you can swim in if you're there in the late afternoon. It was our basecamp for the trailer, so any exploration we did during the day but we came back and slept there at night.
• Get the Funtreks book if you're going to do any trails. Moab has trails for everyone with a vast array of difficulties - everything from green-rated dirt roads to the kind of red-rated trails that will make you call the trip To Hell And Back...
• We entered Canyonlands Island in the Sky via Potash Road and the Shafer Switchbacks. It's an easy trail (road, almost) but the Shafer portion has a nice view heading up into the park. There's a spot on the Potash section where they filmed the end of Themla and Louise (I've never seen the movie but my wife was excited about it)
• We did a section of White Rim before we hit the aforementioned switchbacks. The first 10 miles or so we did wasn't very difficult and was also really cool. I do want to go back at some point and do the entire rim, but it's multi-day and IIRC requires a permit to overnight
• We tried Long Canyon but the area on the east side was washed out so we had to turn around after the first 1/2 mile. It looked like a cool way to exit that section of Canyonlands. Also doesn't appear to be very hard normally.
• For a more challenging trip (moderate difficultly) we did the Colorado Rover Overlook in the Canyonlands Needles district.
• Canyonlands was my favorite park for exploration, but don't miss Arches.
• If you have more time to explore in UT, I'd try to hit Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef at least.

Thanks for the advice!!! We are doing map and YouTube Evans now. We will add this to the list of awesome! BTW your post on towing with a 200 is gold and very helpful for setting up the rig.