Help Choosing New Tires - Falken vs Toyo + Wildcards

I've had the Wildpeaks for about 8k miles now. Got them on Amazon end of last year when they were on sale for $155 each. Great performer. Ride pretty good but starting to get a little balance vibes now. May need to have them re-balanced. Tire shop said they balanced nicely when they were first installed. They are 265/75-16 166T so a little bit stiffer. I do run higher pressure in them as well (34 front/36 cold per chalk test). I could drop a couple of pounds to make them ride smoother but I carry a constant heavy load so it doesn't really bother me (or my wife..). so far they seem to be wearing evenly. Great in the wet. A little noisy when cornering. Rubbish riding in extreme cold (near single digits). I even dropped my air pressure when we had that extreme cold snap this winter with some light snow. Again, performed flawlessly but rode like a chuck wagon when the temps were in the single digits. That doesn't happen that much in S. TN so it doesn't bother me. So for the money they were a no brainer.

 

These are not untrue statements. That said, people tend to run their tires with WAY too much air, which makes these tires in particular more prone to vibration. If you’re running the 116T and look at the inflation tables, you should air down to 27psi. I know people will lose their shit and pound the table saying 32-35psi but the load/psi tables do not support such high levels of psi for our truck weight. I aired down to 28 and was astonished as to how much better the truck rides without any loss in mileage. And the tread picks up an even contact patch as well whereas before my back tire edges weren’t making full contact. There’s a fetish around inflating the fuck out of these tires which is truly perplexing to me. Maybe try less air.

but I read that folks who run higher psi have no issues with wear (rollo67 above) which further confuses me!

 

I'll try that. Seems like most of the time I'm putting about 30-32 psi. I'll try airing down some for daily driving, and report back once I have some results.

 

28 seems to be the sweet spot for me - nothing crazy

 

Curious... how many miles have you got on them? They have a 55K tread wear warranty but I guess that wouldn't cover balancing them. Is there one that's problematic (feel it in the steering wheel or seat)? Or did the shop say that it's pretty much all four? Did you have them try road-force balancing?

I know every tire I've ever had has gotten "harder" as they age and the tread depth declines... but what you're experiencing is a little worrying. Did the seller offer any solutions like pro-rating replacements or anything?

 

Ours feel a tad hard, but that's compared to the basic soft-ish "car tires" it had on it when I bought it. I'm going to try going from 30psi to 28psi and see how that feels.

 

Most folks with balancing issues on falkens seem to happen from the start, as if some of them aren’t made right. Mine were bad right from the beginning. After a month of mine I couldn’t take it anymore and had discount trade them for something else.

I think if they’re good, they’re good, if not, they aren’t.

 

What size and load range do you have? Tire pressure should be based solely on that, using stock as a baseline and a pressure calculator to tell you where to put the new ones.

 

What did you end up putting on instead? Assuming balance is better, but how do they compare otherwise?

TIA!

 

The falkens were on my frontier, 265/70R17 SL. At that time I switched to the General Grabber ATX, same size and load. Was much better. The falkens had slightly better traction but everything was better to me with the generals. Not a lot of complaints about the complaints I had though, so maybe I was an odd case.

On my Tacoma, I’ve only had the E KO2s (265/70R17) - yuck; swapped to Toyo ATIII 265/65R17 XL and have been thrilled with them. Smoothest tire I have run no doubt.

my next tire will be 255/75R17 C Toyo ATIII. I want them now but I need to make myself use up the smaller ones since I paid for them.

 

I probably have 30k on them or less. They were imperfect from day 1, but I've just put up with it. They seem to have good and bad days, so to speak, and I've always wondered if they could develop a flat spot after sitting, because that's exactly what it feels like to me.

Every time I take it to Discount Tire, they claim that they're balanced, but its never helped. The slight vibration/wobble has always been around.

 

They're OEM size 265/70R16 112T, load range SL (standard load). Door jam label says 30psi all around.

 

Huh, well that's a pain. I've had numerous tires that flat-spot, even overnight and especially in cold weather. The longer they sat the worse it was. The worst ones usually took a few miles of driving before they'd settle down. After that they were fine, but I really, really don't like unbalanced tires, so I get it.

So far the Falkens aren't bouncing or vibrating or anything.

 

So, your stock tire size is euro metric (non-p) 265/70R16, but Falken sells that size in P265/70R16. There’s a difference, which many folks don’t know. P Metrics carry more load at at the same pressure than non-P (euro) metrics.

You should actually be running those at 27 psi based on the stock sticker 30 psi recommendation and should be adjusting according for a P265/70R16. The calculator says 27 is correct in your case.

 

Good info. My only complaint with the Falkens so far is that they ride a bit harder and that they're a bit noisier, but again, they replaced basic all season tires that were very soft and very quiet. I like a good, quiet ride, but figured it's a truck and the Falkens are all terrain truck tires, so the harder ride and a little more noise go with the territory.

 

Toyo Open Country AT3. Buttery smooth, good traction, snow rated, low weight, high tread mileage warranty.

Everything negative I've heard about wildpeaks I've heard multiple times. A family member runs wildpeaks on his f150. They always seem out of round and are noisy. They're cheap though. Well, they used to be.

 

Oh... that's excellent info! I was not aware of that. So maybe 28 would have been close, but I'll try 27 and post back. Thanks my friend!

 

The Toyos were my second choice but they were beat out a bit by the Falkens for rain/snow/ice traction (we get all of that here) in TireRack's side-by-side that I posted about earlier. Pricing was another consideration, but the performance and safety was more important to me.

The Falken's ride is smooth, so can't complain about that. Per @BLtheP I'm going to try dropping the pressure a bit and see how that feels (and sounds). Really glad that Discount Tire stands behind whatever I get if I need to switch though.

 

G’luck!

My Jeep buddy lowered his from 28 to 25 the other day (per the calc) and said it was a world of difference. On the other hand, I’m supposed to run 31 in my XLs and my future C’s will need 37.

 

If your main driving activity is City driving, daily driver, lots of freeway……….
Toyo AT3 OR the Falkens
265/70/17 for my 2021 Sport

loved the Toyo Open country’s 265/65/16 on my 2nd gen……trying to find something similar

have leveled my 2021 with Billstein 5100s

Michelins are way too much $ and slipping on quality