Nitto vs. Toyo

[jage]

Originally Posted by TwoVans

Has anyone ever cashed in on the 65k tread life warranty on the Toyo A/Ts? Did they laugh at you when they saw your van?

Well on my Nitto with 50K (through Discount Tire not Nitto) when my 28Kish tires were shot they offered me a pittance, and a smaller pittance if I drove out the next 5K from rotating the slightly treaded 2 to the back one last time. It was like $160 and then like $50 if I drove them out (or something I really don't remember the amounts) for all 4 basically. It was little enough compared to new tires that it didn't prompt me to buy new tires even though I needed them. That's pretty bad considering they were shot only a little over half of the tread warranty- it's more like having a coupon for your next set than a warranty.

[Angel]

I replaced my Toyo open country AT's at 37,345 miles with the same tire, only slightly larger. Did not even think about a mileage guarantee so I did not ask.

My Toyo's now have 32,000 miles on them and may last another 10,000 miles. I like them but I have nothing with which to compare them.

Angel

[EMrider]

I got about 40k on my Toyo open country ATs and replaced them with the same tire last month.

Did not ask about a mileage guarantee and don't take those claims seriously anyways.

R

[Kelso]

I have toyo MT's that I siped and have put to the test on all sorts of snowy roads. They've done very well in most situations. They're great in fresh snow and packed snow, but aren't as strong on ice or in slush. They do fine in those conditions, but if there's any loss in performance in winter conditions, it's in slush and ice. They've even done well towing in winter conditions.

All in all, I think they're great tires and would not hesitate to get another set. They're surprisingly quiet and smooth on the highway as well.

[winvest]

I just put Toyo AT II's on my truck and really like them. They do dart and wander at speeds over 80 mph, which shouldn't matter in the van. The mileage guarantee on the light truck versions is only 50,000 miles though, not 65,000. And of course, it's pro-rated, so you probably won't get much when you do trade them in.

[jage]

Originally Posted by winvest

They do dart and wander at speeds over 80 mph, which shouldn't matter in the van.

But it does. Speed limit in a lot of places is 80mph, if you're doing the speed limit and have a blowout you need to accelerate (as with any blowout) to regain control, and if the remaining tires choose that point to "dart and wander", well that's bad.

And you can't tell me nobody drives over 80... how else did you find out they dart and wander?

Update: I'm fairly certain I'm keeping the ATIIs on my Taco. I'm glad I have a long time before making a decision on the Sporto, so I'm glad other people are trying them.

[REF]

Have Toyo open country M/T with about 35K on them, as long as we're posting milage out of tires here, thought I would share. Looking at replacing them shortly with the same, was hoping to get to the end of fall/beginning of winter with them but want to save one for a spare (didn't rotate my spare in, so will use that as 1 new one) and they are pretty worn and planning trips to moab and a drive to powell in the next 2 months....

[GAR]

Originally Posted by jage

Speed limit in a lot of places is 80mph, if you're doing the speed limit and have a blowout you need to accelerate (as with any blowout) to regain control, and if the remaining tires choose that point to "dart and wander", well that's bad.

I want to comment on this person's advise so others do not follow it. While "jage" may well have intended to post what he believed was safe practice, its not. Its not my intention to call anyone out on this, but rather offer safe driving advise.

When a "blowout" of a tire occures, DO NOT accelerate the foward speed of your vehicle. Maintain the lane position, and move to the right shoulder when safe. The "old school of thought" by many well meaning driving instructors was to teach folks to press on the gas for a "few seconds" immediately after a blowout so as to keep them from jumping on the brakes, but was never intended to accelerate the foward speed of the vehicle, but rather reduce the rapid deceleration caused by the blow out.

Ideally, its best to let the drag created by the vehicle and its blown out tire, naturally slow it down, and then move the vehicle safely to the right shoulder. Its also important to drive to a safe location off the freeway "if" reasonably possible.

Nothing worse than making it to the shoulder, only to have your vehicle and or yourself hit by another vehicle while changing the tire. Personally, I'd rather ruin the rim and be in a safe tire change location, than risk having some idiot on his cell phone drift over and take me and my family out.

Gar

[Dirk Mitchell]

I ran Toyo Open Country ATs on My 2002 Tundra (Lifted Air bags loaded heavy) and my F-350 7.3 CrewCab that replaced it. (That one was lifted as well and heavy due to it being a diesel). I bought both of them at Les Schwab so this may be partially due to their service. On the Tundra I had just under 40k miles on them and there was a broken stop sign laying across a country road (65 mph 2 lane) I had no where to go and hit it at about 45mph and shredded the front passenger one. I put on the spare and then went into Les Shwab because of the roadside warranty. With the tread life warranty the tread looked good to me but long story short I paid around 100.00 and got 4 brand new ones so they and Toyo took pretty good care of me.

The ones on my F-350 started to wear funny on the front after about 15k miles. Not due to suspension I had all that rebuilt with Moog and it drove better than new even with 200k miles on it. I also always rotated them so not sure what happened. I took it in because the inside shoulder was wearing badly and for about 50.00 they replaced them all. That set had about 30k on them when I sold the truck and they still looked good.
Come to think of it I had a set on my Bronco before the Tundra that I ran for about 30k miles and they still looked really good when I sold that. I have been really happy with the Toyos. I got a steal on my Yokohama Geolanders that I put on my current F-350 because I was buying a set of Yokohamas for my wifes Subaru at the same time otherwise I would have went for the Toyos again. I do like the Yokohamas so far but only have about 5k on each of them.
As for Nitto I do not have good experience with them. None on trucks but the rubber compound on the ones I had on my IS300 kept balling up and delaminating. They replaced them twice and they still had issues, one causing a wreck and 12k in damage to my car so when that happened they were replaced with Yokohamas. I won't ever use a Nitto tire again due to that but with that being said it may be just a bad batch or something.

[JoeH]

For the record, Toyo also makes Nitto. I'm not sure if they use the same rubber compound but depending on which tire they are made in China, Japan, or the US. Both companies are Japanese owned but Nitto's headquarters are in the US. Not sure about the parent company.