GA Tacoma Owners BS Thread

Morning y’all

 

I see you obviously got a landscape hustle, you still dabble with the digital art world?
Interesting times ... industry just went full throttle to cloud/work from anywhere environments.

 

I'm kind of thinking of going with the Yoko Geolander ATS in 285/70/17. 90%+ of my driving is highway, but I also do enjoy getting out and exploring.

The most challenging terrain I've encountered out here would have been the muddy slope on Musterground/Auger/Horespasture/Chestnut Mountain Rd. Other than that, maybe Charlie's Creek? I don't like the idea of a highway tire, and the Geolander seems to be a pretty close to highway all-terrain.

I currently have the General Grabber AT2 in 265/70 and love them, but they aren't available in 285s (ATX is, but it is an E rated and I don't need/want that).

I'm thinking the Geos should be able to handle anything that GA is going to throw at them and be more comfortable on the highway. Someone change my mind (or strengthen the though).

 

I had a buddy that ran those on his Xterra, he always said they were the best sleeper tire he ever ran.

FWIW, my dad was in a similar boat with the whole 90+% highway driving, he went with the Cooper AT3’s for the Taco, got them from Discount. They had a rebate going on at the time which made them hard to pass up, idk if it’s still going on though.

 

Cooper AT3

I'll add that the Falken AT3W I currently have, have been just as good performance wise (on/off road) as the multiple sets of Coopers I've had previously. They do seem to have become the new 'bro' tire on TW (which matters zero to you and I dig that about you ), and got some bad rep early on for balance issues. Mine had some minor balance issues in the beginning, but honestly I'm not picky. Its a truck. I drive it. End of story.

 

Was seriously about to say "General Grabber ATX" until the comment of the E-rated. I absolutely love mine in the 265/70. They definitely won't be my last set of Generals.

I do second AT3's. Only Cooper I wasn't overly impressed with was their Discoverer RTX (NTB exclusive) as their wet weather traction started tanking after 20k, otherwise was a good tire especially for the rather low price.

I believe Open Country AT-III or AT-II have LT (load C) and P metric (load SL) at a 285/70

 

Good to know. I have read a ton of reviews on the Geolanders and almost every review sounds like they are trying to write an advertisement for the tire. The only negatives that I've found so far are: doesn't do well in mud or deep snow (~18"+) and some have said that the soft compound cuts easily (but that may have been the previous design).

It looks like the Coopers are 1 lb lighter than the Yokohamas. Description on the Cooper AT3 mentions nothing about the severe snow rating. While that isn't a deal breaker, my in-laws do live up a gravel switchback road and can get some heavy snow. We visit them often enough, that this is a consideration. That said, my SIL has the AT3 on her Tacoma and she lives with them.

The Wildpeaks look to be about 5lbs heavier than the Geolanders. Both have the sever snow rating. I did consider them, but I prefer to keep the weight down and I do remember lots of people having balancing issues.

https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tires/toyo-tire-open-country-a-t-iii/p/88428

I did consider the ATIII, but at 10lbs heavier per tire, that seems like a lot of unnecessary unsprung weight.

I'd love an aggressive AT or even MT from a looks perspective. Something like the Toyo Open Country RT , Duratrac, or Ridge Grappler. But the reality is that I'm getting older and I still use the truck to commute 60+ miles a day when I have to go to the office. Hence trying to convince myself to get something less aggressive (despite my wanting to go more aggressive).

I also realize that going to a 285 instead of sticking with 265 is going to hurt gas mileage some...but my mpg already sucks so I don't want to make it suck more than I have to.

 

I think there’s also variations of the AT3 (4S and XLT come to mind); my dad got the standard AT3. He hasn’t had any complaints about them yet. I’d put Goodyear TrailRunners on it when I gave the truck to him, and he says compared to those the ride is much smoother and handling is much tighter.

 

On a slightly different note, who all here is running an Ultragauge in their cars/trucks?

 

Nope, I hate computers now. I have. I thing to do with them. Just landscaping these days.
I couldn’t sit in the seat 14hrs a day anymore. I had my own biz called Atlanta Motion GFX as well. My schedule sucked

 

I do.

 

As do I, but lone first gen so probably not applicable for your question

 

Which ones do y’all have, and did you order them from the Ultragauge website? I was looking at getting one, but their website looks like it’s straight out of 2001 so it isn’t the most user friendly.

 

Not to sound like an dick, but what purpose do they serve?

 

I went with the cheapest wired one since I wanted it to stay in the truck and since my truck is old I don't need all the new fancy stuff to work with the 2015+ blah blah blah crap. Yeah the website sucks

 

Plugs into the OBD port and displays info from the ECU and such. Basically it’s a status monitor for the things that you don’t have factory gauges for.

 

Gotcha. Sounds like there’s a reason I never bought one. Another thing won’t pay attention to.

Carry on.

 

I have the original wired one and the window suction mount. The mount cracked after 8+ years but was easily fixable with epoxy and a ziptie. The UG works pretty well. Supposedly it can be programmed to read trans temp, but I have not gone down the road of how to do that. Trans temp is the one thing I wish it would show by default. The Scangauge, which is significantly more epensive IIRC, shows trans temp.

You can read basically any information that the ECU has. It also does calculations like average MPG and instantaneous MPG. This is what I primarily use mine for. You can also calibrate it so that if you get bigger tires, use more fuel than it thought, etc., it can adjust for accurate calculation. Even down to current speed.

It is also AMAZING at reading trouble codes. One might think "big deal, I'll just go to AutoZone and have them read the code for me." But what AutoZone or comparable cannot do is read you pending trouble codes. I think an error has to be received at least twice if not three times before the actual CEL comes on. The UG will alert you to pending codes before they become full blown. You can also clear trouble codes without having to disconnect the battery or hook up another OBDII reader.

You can also get things like incoming air temp, O2 sensor readings, engine temp, engine load %, etc. TONS of options.

 

I have an extra one it’s yours if you want it

edit: you will have to find a mount for it

 

if @MDB Taco doesn't want it, I'll take it.