Toyo Open Country AT3 initial impressions
It’s always exciting to get a new set of 4WD tyres, and we’re onto our 5th set on our 2016 Isuzu Dmax, mid way through our Lap of Australia. I was very close to getting the Falken Wildpeak AT3W’s, but ended up with Toyo Open Country AT3 all terrains instead, on both our vehicle and Hybrid Camper trailer.
Toyo 4WD tyres are not new to me, and in this sense, I was keen to try something else, but they still seemed like the most sensible option. Our second set of tyres were the Toyo Open Country AT2s, and then we’ve just worn out our 4th set out, which were Toyo Open Country RTs, or Rugged Terrains.
I was happy with both sets, but particularly loved the extra traction from the RT’s initially. Once the tread had worn down though, they were nothing amazing off road, and it was time to swap them out for something else.
What did we pay for the Toyo Open Country AT3’s?
We got 6 Toyo Open Country AT3 tyres from The Tyre Factory in Traralgon for $320 each, plus a $16 disposal fee. That makes the total cost $2016 for 6 tyres, fitted and balanced, and I was fairly happy with that. You’ll note we paid full retail price for these, and once again, have zero incentive to rate them better than they actually are. In fact, if they’re no good, I’m 100% going to tell you that.
How are the Toyo Open Country AT3’s going?
We fitted these tyres one day, and the next we drove out into the High Country again, for several weeks, taking on tracks like the Crooked River Track, then Billy Goats Bluff and Blue Rag Range before they were even a week old. It’s very fair to say they’ve been punished already and seem to be holding up pretty well.
Noise
I immediately noticed a difference in noise when we fitted these, and had read a few people’s comments saying that they’re noisier than the previous generation. Our Toyo RT’s were certainly noisier than a normal AT, and it got worse when they got older, harder and had imperfections in their wear.
The Toyo AT3 when new seemed to be quieter, but it had a different frequency, and it will be interesting to see how this progresses as they wear and get harder. I suspect they won’t end up being that quiet.
Rocks getting stuck and flicking out
One of the first things I noticed was that we were getting a lot of little rocks stuck in the tyres, which would inevitably eject at high speed, once you really got rolling. There were times where we’d pull into camp and I could count 5 – 10 rocks in each tyre, and we never had that sort of issue with the Toyo RT’s, as the lugs and gaps were bigger. I’m not sure if this is really an issue (asides from potential punctures if it really gets wedged), but it’s a bit annoying.
On the gravel roads through the High Country, there was a constant peppering noise when driving down the road, with rocks clearly getting picked up and flicked, and this was never noticeable with our Toyo RT’s.
Traction
The new Toyo AT3’s are more aggressive than the previous AT2’s, and I expected to have slightly less traction than new Toyo RT’s, which I feel is pretty accurate. They certainly have a lot more traction than our worn Toyo RT’s, with only about 3 – 4mm of tread left above the wear indicator.
Yes, I could have run them longer, but I wasn’t keen on going into the High Country and doing some of the more difficult 4WD tracks without a tyre that had plenty of tread and traction.
So far, I’m really impressed with the Toyo Open Country AT3’s in terms of traction. We’ve done some fairly nasty tracks where you’d get front end bounce easily (like the rock steps on Billy Goats Bluff), and there’s been minimal slippage.
On the Crooked River track, there’s some decent crossing exits to do with wet tyres, and they still seemed to crawl up with only the occasional chirp, which gives some real confidence when straddling nasty holes or ruts. The last thing you want to do is break traction and slide into a hole, doing nasty panel damage or worse.
Chipping and damage
Some of the tracks we did in the High Country were pretty brutal in terms of sharp rocks, and steps, and I supposed I should have expected some damage to the tyres. There’s a number of chunks out of the lugs in different places, and whilst it doesn’t look terrible, I’m not sure the Toyo RT’s would have done this.
We’ll do a full review on the Toyo Open Country AT3’s
Obviously, this is just our thoughts from a month or so of using the new Toyo Open Country AT3’s, and we’ll be doing a comprehensive review once we’ve done at least 20,000km, so stay tuned!
Have you been running the Toyo Open Country AT3 tyres? How have you found them?
