Toyo M/T again worn down after 25'000miles! Need better tires! Bighorn, Dynapro, KM2

[Blade76]

Ok... this is now my 2nd set of Toyo Open Country M/T (first was Made in USA, set now Made in Japan) and again they wear down so fast, it hurts every time I take a look after a day of driving!
They won't make more then 25'000miles and I don't really like to use the tread so much on those bad roads down here in south america with my almost 4tons of car weight!
Here a pic of the rear right tire, has a few broken off lugs on the side and on one spot some nylon sticking out of a cut. I will change it soon with the spare tire. Got about 5-6mm left on this tire. It got now 17'600miles on them. (corrected for the 5th extra spare wheel I include in rotation)

I love how strong the Toyo's are, but would like to get more than 20-25'000miles IF that is possible with my car weight and an MT tire?! The lugs are also starting to BREAK OFF on the rear tires, right at the 90degree edge where the outer lugs starts.

Yes, my alignment was checked several times. I also have this right pull, but I somehow got used too although I must admit, it's not nice..

I still have 8 months of south america traveling and will see some bad muddy areas in the Amazon and also a good amount of paved roads on the last part before going home. In Europe it will rather see lots of paved , WET roads I must admit. Also snow.

So what do you guys recommend? I want a STRONG tires, I have LOTS of weight and the strength of the Toyo's was always a plus for me. I only have 1 spare tire.
I will also have to see what kind of tires I can get down here, the selection is very limited!

I know BFG M/T KM2 are available in my 285/75R16 size in Bolivia for 250$.
Also Hankooks Dynapro MT03 are in Bolivia for 260$.
Or Maxxis Bighorn in Peru for 196$, that's VERY cheap compared to the Toyo's or others!
And Mickey Thomson Baja MTZ for 380$ in Peru.
Toyo's I inquired now in Peru, Bolivia rarely gets them.
Chile & Argentina where I am right now are too expensive for tires! That's no option, although they probably would get a bigger tire selection.

Size is: 285/75R16.

Car is a 1993 HZJ75. More infos on our blog: http://www.pawsontour.com/iea/english-version/car---equipment/car---equipment.html

I was going towards the Bighorns, but just saw now that they are only Load Range D in my size! I don't think that would be smart with my 3.6-3.8tons?
We do drive more 4x4 stuff than the average overlander we meet, but also have much more car problems and stuff failing on us. I guess that's the price you pay? So I am looking for a strong tire that really can handle the weight but still offer us good mud, sand and wet road behavior.

Thanks for inputs!

 

[F40]

I like my Hankook's... Honest question, what are your tire pressures on and off-road?

 

[MaverickTRD]

from my experience and reading online I don't think you're going to find a much more durable option than the Toyo MT. you say your rig is 4 tons??? Thats 8k lbs. You'd be hard pressed to find much of anything last long with that weight.

Have you considered to the Toyo M55 tire? Its geared heavily toward 1 ton diesel rigs

 

[98dango]

I have 315 Big horns on my superduty 7800 lbs even day. I got 30k out of this set and there not done yet. I would buy another set but I'm going bigger and they don't. I do have chunks out of the tread but any tire will do that in the rocks hear. They do get louder as they where down.

 

[cdthiker]

I run the Hankook Dana Pro ATM in 10 ply
I have 55k on them and they have about a third tread left. It is starting to wear faster now.
BUT I have a tacoma.

However a lot of those miles have been off road and under load with Fire wood etc.
A lot of those miles have been for 4x4 driving.


Been super pleased with how they hold up. I am looking at the m55 for my next set. Every one give me crap for runningsuch a heavy tire on the taco but they just last and last and last.


If you are running 4x4 rocks, I am surprised you are gettgin that many miles off them. I worked for a program in utah that ran full size rucks out in the oilfields. 20 k was about the limit of just about anything. THey never ran the m55 or the danapro, lot of the other rigs were running the m55 and they swore by them.

My program ended up with a lot of toyos, wranglers, BFG etc. they all sucked on those roads

 

[Blade76]

thanks for the inputs!
Tire pressure on pavement is around 60psi on rear and 50psi on front.
When I drive on good gravel roads I don't bother to air down, but the more washboard, the more I air down because it gets very uncomfortable in our leaf spring vehicle! I usually air down to 43psi on rear, 36psi on front. If big washboard I also go down to 30psi on rear and 22psi on front, but this doesn't happen to often.
In sand (didn't drive to often yet) I go down to 25psi rear, 15psi front. The car digs in VERY fast in sand and although in L4 and Turbo on the 1HZ I have a hard time to drive on sand without killing the engine.
On rocky offroading I am around 45psi rear, 36psi front.
Those are average numbers, I usually try and go lower if it's still too hard, depending on the road.

98dango - I got about 7900-8400lbs depending how full the tanks (water&diesel) are. Wasn't the Load Range D of the Bighorns a problem??

I drive about 30-60% (depending of country) on paved roads. In Peru it was more like 30%, in Ecuador more like 60% paved. Now Argentina was lots of pavement because of the long distances, but also offroading on sharp rocks. Chile so far lots of pavement.
I hardly drive faster than 50mph on pavement, but do on gravel to smooth the ride.

My Toyo MT are much quieter than the BFG AT I had on when I bought the car! I was surprised, but I don't bother at all with the noise of the Toyo MT. Since I drive around 50mph I find the noise very ok. I heard the Bighorn is very loud though.

I don't know if I can get the M55, but IF, I am not sure it would give me good mud performance, would it?

 

[MaverickTRD]

Well you might only get average mud performance with 40-50k treadlife instead of great mud performance for 20k probably going to need to compromise something. But again I dont have a rig quite as heavy duty as you their may be better input on options not even considered yet in this thread by those that do

 

[wreckdiver1321]

As others have said, with that amount of weight, I'd be surprised to see any mud terrain tire last over 20-25k. That's kind of the nature of the mud tire.

 

[Regcabguy]

My neighbor has 35" Toyo MT's on his 3500 Dodge CTD. These tires survived a run towing a toyhauler to Honduras and back. No flats,nothing. He estimates he put 18K on them. As stated you're doing the best you can with this tire.

 

[wADVr]

For a mud terrain tire I think you have about the most durable out there- especially for a 8k rig and sounds like you need that durable of a tire where you are using them. I would not go BFG or bighorn, my personal experience is they are way less durable and wear faster. I got just about 75k out of my toyo MTs on my 3500 CTD that towed often and was city driven a lot as well. Also I noticed a drastic decrease in stability with other tires, the toyos have think sidewalls regardless of weight rating.

If you think they would hold up to the abuse I'd say look at the Toyo m55s or maybe the new BFG AT(no experience just looks promising enough to look into) I ran Hankooks for a bit and had uneven premature wear and the rig rode horrible. The issue went away totally with new tires of the toyo brand. Had coopers and liked them but we're load range d so they had to go before I got too many miles on them.(not enough sidewall strength to safely tow IMO)

 

[kojackJKU]

Have a look at pro comp extreme MT or Cooper ST Maxx. probably two of the longer lasting tires out there.

 

[deserteagle56]

I put a set of Maxxis Bighorns in the LT225/85R16 size on my Wrangler which rarely sees pavement. 7,000 miles later they are about half worn out so I'm sure I'll get only about 15,000 miles out of them. They are VERY loud on pavement! But a tough tire - despite all the gravel and rocks the lugs still look pretty good and no flats or breaks yet.

 

[Box Rocket]

If you don't need an MT I suggest the BFG AT KO (or KO2). I've had 3 sets of those on my 80 series cruiser and the first set had 75K miles on them and the current set has 60K miles on them with good tread still left. I've always impressed with their performance in the dirt too. Underrated tire IMO.
.
tire on the right is one of my ATs with 60K miles on it. Still in great shape.

 

[Blade76]

ok, will look i nto the Cooper too!

The Toyo RT is not really made in overlander sizes, only fancy american pick up sizes. (17, 18" etc)

The BFG AT I already had when I bought the car. Hated those tires... louder than my Toyo MT (!!!) and on gravel roads they were sandblasting all the time the wheel housings! I hardly have a stone flying around with the Toyo MT, on the BFG AT all the time.
Also on road the Toyo MT felt more responsive. On snow the BFG AT sucked too. Didn't test the Toyo MT on snow though...
All in all I felt the Toyo MT was a much better tire, but the thread wear is really low...

Will start to look into the AT... I thought that for my Amazon trip through Bolivia it doesn't really matter if I take an MT or AT with my big weight. The Toyo MT got me stuck a few times in mud. I have 4 4x4 chains with me that I can use if it gets very muddy. The rest of my trip will be on gravel and pavement before I get home. Probably better to get an AT tire that has better wear mileage.

 

[Blade76]

ok, will look i nto the Cooper too!

The Toyo RT is not really made in overlander sizes, only fancy american pick up sizes. (17, 18" etc)

The BFG AT I already had when I bought the car. Hated those tires... louder than my Toyo MT (!!!) and on gravel roads they were sandblasting all the time the wheel housings! I hardly have a stone flying around with the Toyo MT, on the BFG AT all the time.
Also on road the Toyo MT felt more responsive. On snow the BFG AT sucked too. Didn't test the Toyo MT on snow though...
All in all I felt the Toyo MT was a much better tire, but the thread wear is really low...

Will start to look into the AT... I thought that for my Amazon trip through Bolivia it doesn't really matter if I take an MT or AT with my big weight. The Toyo MT got me stuck a few times in mud. I have 4 4x4 chains with me that I can use if it gets very muddy. The rest of my trip will be on gravel and pavement before I get home. Probably better to get an AT tire that has better wear mileage.