Toyo Open Country Tires

Speaking of Dyna Beads and Toyos... So far I have about 3000 miles on these tires. Again, using NO weights - only 8 oz per tire of "off road" Dyna Beads. So far so good. What little tread wear there is is nice and even, no vibration, etc while driving...

I'm about to do the first tire rotation, bringing the "spare" into the mix, so I'll let y'all know if that causes any vibration or anything.

Nice update.

I was wondering the other day what, if any affect the Dyna Beads have on airing down? If they could possibly get sucked up into the valve stem when I pull my valve cores to lower tire PSI? Any thoughts on that ashooter.

ashooter said:

Speaking of Dyna Beads and Toyos... So far I have about 3000 miles on these tires. Again, using NO weights - only 8 oz per tire of "off road" Dyna Beads. So far so good. What little tread wear there is is nice and even, no vibration, etc while driving...

I'm about to do the first tire rotation, bringing the "spare" into the mix, so I'll let y'all know if that causes any vibration or anything.

Click to expand...

The "off road" Dyna Beads are larger so they supposedly won't mess with your valve stems/cores. They're MADE for airing down.

I never air down, so I don't have any first hand experience, but so far so good with my use.

MTs still pull on 4Runner/Dyna Beads

As detailed is many of my posts, I really like and respect the Toyo MT. Unfortunately this tire in 255/85R16 hasn’t worked well on my ‘06 Toyota 4Runner. Since my last posts here the Toyota has been tweaked/improved, I’m certain the Light Racing adjustable A-arms are perfectly set-up, and I have driven the car thousands of miles without any problems, including tire pull, while running Maxxis Bighorns and Cooper ST tires.

I wanted to give the Toyos another chance on the 4Runner so I spent the time and money to have the Toyo Open Country MT 255/85R16s pulled from my F350 wheels and mounted on a set of Toyota TRD rims. I've also been intrigued by Innovative Balancing’s Dyna Beads and decided to try them in the Toyos.

No Toyo MTs for the 4Runner

The Toyos still pull slightly to the right on my IFS 4Runner, just as they did before. I don't know what the issue is with this car, but it doesn't like these tires. Flyingwil doesn't seem to have these issues on his IFS pickup, but I sure do. These tires will eventually go back on the F350 where they are happy and don't pull.

No Dyna Beads either

I have really liked my Centramatic tire/wheel balancers on my F350 and wanted to try the Dyna Beads on a vehicle for which there are no Centramatics available. Like ashooter, I put 8-oz. of 'off-road' Dyna Beads in each tire during mounting, no other weights were added. At slower speed there were no negatives, the tires rode fine. But at 55-60 MPH on up to 75 the tires started to jump and wobble and rode terribly. The beads were clearly NOT balance the tires adequately.

After about 20-miles of driving I confirmed that:

1) Toyo MTs and my 4Runner are getting a divorce.

2) The Dyna Beads didn't work with these tires on this car. (I purchased two sets of four 8-oz. bags of off-road beads, so I may test the Dyna Beads again later in another tire.)

As an aside, I drove back into my shop, pulled the Toyos, reinstalled my Cooper STs (my street/all-terrain tires/winter tires), then did the same test drive loop. The traditionally balanced & 15-pounds lighter per tire Coopers felt perfectly balanced and smooth (as they always do) and are a little quieter.

Redline,

Might I suggest that you leave the DynaBeads in the Toyos and see how they ride on your F350? I took another long (for this truck) trip the other day where I actually got a chance to drive on some smooth pavement and the beads seem to work fine. This FJ80 is a solid axle truck with roughly 1 year old OEM shocks and Old Man Emu springs, and I run these Toyos at 42 psi... The truck lets you feel EVERY irregularity in the road, so sometimes I wonder if the DynaBeads are doing their job. Most of the highways around here are pretty patchy, but every time I hit some pavement that is obviously new she seems to ride like glass. Also, the truck still rides fine after my first 5-tire rotation - no odd tire wear, no noticeable difference in handling. I think I have about 4000 miles(?) on these tires so far.

I wonder if your IFS is doing something to make the beads not work, as well as causing the tire pull??? Seems strange, but I'm starting to think building up a vehicle is kinda like building up a precision rifle, where there are so many variables working with/against each other that one combination that works perfectly on one rig just flat sucks on another. Magic and gremlins!

Redline, before you remount those Toyos to your Ford - put them on someone elses 4Runner. If they pull on that one you'll know it's the tires; if they don't you'll know it's your 4Runner.

I now have a friend who has a recently lifted an 04 4Runner which these Toyo 255s may fit on. The tire pull and balance are two different issues. The tire pull was here before, without the Dyna Beads. The Dyna Beads not working to my satisfaction is a new issue.

Putting the Toyos back on the Ford WITH the Dyna Beads will be a pain as the tires need to be dismounted and mounted onto Ford wheels.

Ahhh... I didn't think about you having to move the tires to a whole new set of rims (it was 0-dark-thirty). I'd be interested to hear what they do on your buddies 4-Runner though, just out of curiosity.

Redline said:

Centramatic continuous wheel balancers I have on the truck are still doing their magic

Click to expand...

How do you like them ?

I like them lots, just wish they were made for more cars/4x4s and fit more wheels.

They work with my stock Ford Aluminum wheels that had the Toyo MTs on them, but not with the 16x8 American Racing wheels I recently purchased as a second, "street" set of wheels or my set of stock F350 steel wheels.

jfarsang said:

How do you like them ?

Click to expand...

Toyo ATs

For those who own the Open Country

Balancing issues?

Absolutely none.

Wear?

For the size / type, about what I've expected. first set saw 35k

Rock Traction? i.e., are they too hard or not flexible enough, etc.

aired down, they've been fine on rock.


Anything else of note?
A great tire but $$$$

No More Toyo MT for Redline

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get together with my friend who recently purchased and lifted a 2004 V8 4Runner to check the Toyo MTs on his rig. I don't doubt that the tire pull was 'my car' as I'm sure there are many 4th Gen 4Runners and '05-up Tacomas/FJC (similar chassis) that are running Toyo Open Country MT tires without problems.

Before too much time went by (it's already been close to a year) I wanted to return the Toyos to Les Schwab for 'ride complaint' as they were still within 2/32" of new where I could get a full refund. No reason to have $1,000.00 worth of tires sitting around that the Mall Crawler chassis doesn't care for.

"IF" I need or want a different load-range-E 255/85 with beefy sidewall lugs in the future it will have to try the KM2.

jim65wagon said:

Redline, before you remount those Toyos to your Ford - put them on someone elses 4Runner. If they pull on that one you'll know it's the tires; if they don't you'll know it's your 4Runner.

Click to expand...

Tire Pull, Not only w/ Toyo MT - "Ply Steer"

In fairness to the Toyo Open Country MT I wanted to update this thread with a few additional notes regarding the tire pull issue I have experienced.

Although the '06 4Runner in question has had another very recent 4-wheel alignment and is 'in spec' it also didn't like the BFG KM2 in 255/85 I recently mounted (for 100-miles) causing a similar tire pull to the right like the Toyo MT months ago.

Throwing on a set of Maxxis Bighorn in 255/85 or 285/75 MT/R on the same 16x7.5" wheels cures the pull. The point is that it's not just the Toyo MT.

Cooper Tire Engineer Conversation

During a conversation with a tire engineer about many things tire, I relayed the tire pull issue I had experienced with the Toyo MT (and now KM2). His comment was, more than tread design tire pull had to do with the tire plies.

Looking at my notes:

"Ply steer" / "residual aligning torque" can cause a vehicle to steer to one side. In North America you want some ply steer to the left, for obvious reasons. He stated this depends somewhat on how the belt plies are applied to the belt closest to the tread surface (& ground).

I think a new thread is in order:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=446288#post446288

Well, the Toyo MT's are not completely bullet-proof... I finally got my first flat - a nice big nail straight through one of the tread blocks. Pulled it out, patched it up, and good to go. I haven't abused these things, but I HAVE taken them places I would have avoided with any previous tire. So far so good.

I don't remember exact numbers without looking in my maintenance book, but I probably have around 9,000 miles on these and they seem to be wearing nice and even. There are a few rock cuts in the rubber and the tread blocks seem to be rounding off as they wear, which I assume is because of how much the fairly soft rubber flexes... No big chunks missing or anything like that.

I've been running about 38 lbs in them on my FJ80, and rotate every 5,000 miles, so they're just about due for the 2nd rotation. Dyna-Beads still seem to be working okay, but there's a little vibration around 50mph give or take a little. Once I get up to about 60mph, all is good.

FWIW - I may change my mind when it comes to tire-buying time, but right now I'm thinking my next set of tires might be Toyo M-55 235/85R16. This truck is really geared too high for 33+ inch tires, and I've been in a lot of places where I had to ride the brake even with the truck in 4-low 1st gear. A little shorter tire would help that some, and I really don't NEED that extra 1/2 inch of ground clearance I have right now with the 255's. Also, in the event that I did destroy a tire, getting a replacement 255 would be a real pain compared to a 235... We've had a set of 285/75R16 M55's on a company surveying truck for the last 6 months or so, and they are GREAT for what that truck does: +/- 500 miles per week of highway and 100 miles per week of dirt/rock roads. I drive my Cruiser in a little rougher country with a higher rock/pavement ratio, but I still think the M55 would be a more practical tire for me.

All tires are fragile... I thought you were going to say you popped a sidewall , glad you didn't.

The conditions you noted for the work truck are perfect for the M55, lots of highway with more than typical (rugged) off-highway miles. I think Toyo still sells lots of M55s for this type of use.

LT235/85R16 is a great tire size. The 255/85, particularly the heavy & lugged Toyo MT, is a lot of tire is you don't have the gears to turn them.