Road tire recommendations?

Looking for road tire recommendations as I retire the stock ones. I have Blizzak's for the winter, and 99% of my driving is on-road so I dont need anything meaty for off-road use. Are "All Season" the way to go even if I have winter tires?

My use is 50% pulling a 6000# utility trailer or full payload using just the bed.

Thanks for any suggestions. Hard to know whats good just looking at Tire Rack or Discount Tire.

 

Me 2 Manfred......although one of the mechanics that I trust is saying good things about Continental tires.

 

I have cooper AT3 4s and really like them.

made in USA , 65k warranty, severe weather rated, smooth and quiet , lightweight

 

I’m a road guy too. I went with the Michelin Ltx. Smooth tire and does well in snow.

 

Your search can stop. Michelin LTX MS2 all the way. Best road truck tire I have ever owned. If you cross rotate them every oil change you will get 60-80k out of a set. Smooth ride, great traction and look better than an all highway tire.

 

Thanks for the recommendation!

 

Nokian. This is the way.

*russia war has made nokian scare for the time being*

all seasons aren’t all season. They are 3 season tires. All weather are all season. That being said:

nothing compares,to a dedicated winter tire. Since you run blizzaks in the winter (a solid choice) you can use a 3 season of which I’d recommend (if you can’t get nokian) the above mentioned ltx. Just be sure to swap tires when it gets around 7oC.

if you run an all weather tire you can keep them on longer in the fall and put ‘em on earlier in the spring.

 

Where are those made?

 

I'll second this, as well.

I run load range E version because of lots of towing . I got 90 k miles out of my last set. I think I rotated them 3 times.

 

the michelin defender is a better tire than the Michelin AT. I have run both. Also suggest you look at Nokian, I am currently running their Outpost AT and they have proven to be some of the best AT tires I have ever tried.

 

I have been very impressed with the Continental TerrainContact A/T tires I put on my Tundra last spring. Smooth ride, quiet, great grip particularly in the rain.

 

How are the Outposts doing so far? I need some new tires and saw how light these were for their size. There are limited YouTube videos on them and it is hard to find any other information on them.
Thank you.

 

I can’t believe it took 11 posts to find the word Defender. Best pavement tires ever.

Probably the best tire ever. Only problem for most people is, they don’t look tough.

 

Cooper AT3's. Great ride, and wear well. I'm on my 2nd set.

 

Originally the company (Nokia) is out of Finland and known for premium snow tire markets.

In or around 2003 Bridgstone bought a huge chunck of their stock, like 2 million share or so.

They operate independently of Bridgestone and have a manufacturing facility in Dayton Tennessee.

I have a set of their older Rotiva AT plus tires on my tundra and like them pretty much.

Their current tire is the Outpost nAT for the tundra which replace the Rotiva AT plus line.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua6Tf-CRrbY

 

What size are you running? I picked up a set of Falken AT3w take offs from a TRD PRO for $500 285/65/18 and a set of 265/70/18 Michelin LTX trail from a SR5 TRD off road for $300 locally...the Michelins are the most road focused. Either one is available on closeout for a great price from TireRack and are the lightest available so you don't kill your gas mileage. Plenty of 265/60/20 take offs out there too.

 

Mine are the previous tire to the N version, just Outpost AT. My understanding is that these were made in Russia maybe, and due to all the issues there Nokian left the country quickly and didnt even take the molds for the tires so production was stopped. The Outpost nAT is the replacement for the Outpost AT.

They have been my favorite AT tires I have run so far.....ever, and I have run a bunch of different brands and styles in the past 40 years. When I lifted my Tundra, I wanted to step up to a 285/75-18 from 275/70-18 Wildpeaks. Now I did like the wildpeaks, great and tuff tires. What I didnt like about wildpeaks - they are really heavy so hit performance/MPG and whatever rubber compound they use always looked kind of dirty/discolored. They got much dirtier looking than other brands I have tried. They are firm and do impact ride more than other brands in my experience. Still good tires and great for offroad, certainly overkill for my application of mainly road use with some offroad.

So I was looking at 285/75 offerings and the Nokians (even in that 35inch size) were actually way lighter than the 33inch wildpeaks I was running, had a better tread warranty and seemed a fit for my use.

Nokians have been spectacular. The rubber compound is premium, tuff yet soft and compliant, best I have used. They stay clean and look great. I rarely need to use rubber conditioner on them vs having to apply it at ever wash to try and keep wildpeaks from looking grey/brown/dirty. They ride so much better than any of the other ATs I have tried and even though they are 2 inches taller than my previous wildpeaks, truck performance is noticeably better because they are lighter. MPG improved as well about 1mpg which seems crazy since they are bigger.

So for me they have been great and when it is time to replace them, I will look at Nokian again.

 

How many miles do you get out of them?

I had two sets of hankook dynapro at2 on my Tacoma, they were a great tire and lasted 70k+ miles. The only issue is they were noisy. It could also be because my Tacoma was an SR5 2011 and there may not have been as much interior sound deadening compared to my Tundra.

 

Cross rotating every 5k dramatically reduces cupping on outer edges of front tires. This is one of the main reasons tires get louder as they wear. The other reason is tread design. The more open the tread design is the louder they will be.

 

I run Nokian Outpost nAT,s. Fantastic tire. Mine have the same ratings as stock, so same load, exact same ride. Snowflake rated and are real good in the snow. No real AT hum to them and at 80 are dead silent. I run them year round and have zero issues in Canadian winters.
I went up one size to 275/60/20 so lost about 2 mpg….. but I don’t need winters so great trade off. Look good too.

 

Defenders on past Suburban, YukonXL, Tacoma all went over 70K mi and not one tire related issue. (Sub & Yuk towing a 7500# trailer) As soon as these OEM Fake-ens are through on our new Tundra, Defenders are going on there too. Curious about these new CrossClimate 2s though. Have read good things about performance in the wet and snow. Michellins are Great tires!!!

 

Defenders are an amazing tire.

 

Thank you so much for this write up and photo. I am currently running 37 inch Cooper AT3's and they are at 49,000 miles of mixed use. I am going to go back down in size to a 35 and saw the weight listing of these Nokians and couldn't believe it. They have a great price on them currently at my local discount tire plus I still get some money back on the 37's with the warranty they have on them.

I have seen all the limited YouTube reviews on them but I don't trust influencers or their message.

I will decide if I want the Toyo AT in a 35x11.5x17 versus the Nokian 35x12.5x17 and see what happens.

Thanks again.

 

The 35’s are F rated and are not light. One website had them at 45 lbs which is obviously wrong but they are pushing 70lbs.

 

Odd. Discount tire has them listed at 59lbs. They are all over the place with information.
My other option is the Toyo Open Country ATIII in 35x11.5x17.

 

Defenders on my '05 Tundra. Fantastic tire! CrossClimate 2s on my Lexus RX. Great tire in all kinds of weather, just a little more road noise because of harder rubber, and hence, the shorter warranty. But in the snow and rain, they are monsters!

 

I used Michelin LTX M/S2 and Defender LTX M/S on my 1st gen. They were good tires.

Bridgestone Alenza A/S Ultra on Gen 2 Tundra now. They are good so far, and seem to have a traction improvement over the OE Dueler H/L.

I have heard that the latest Defender LTX M/S2 are noisier and have a stiffer ride than the previous Defender LTX M/S tires. So much so that the owner claimed, "if I had wanted the noise of an all terrain tire, that's what I would have bought". I did not drive or ride in said vehicle though. These have been filtering in the supply chain over the past year or so. Time will tell, although Michelin typically makes a solid tire.

 

Good to know about the XClimates. Just saw some today on a crossoverSUV. Very aggressive looking. Not sure about added noise though. Enjoy not hearing tire noise.