Toyo, Mickey Thompson, or Cooper?

joelbunge · January 8, 2013

I am due for new rubber and have been contemplating for a long time on what to do. I currently have 33x12.5-18 Toyo Open Country MT's on the truck. I love the way they look but I did not have a great experience with them as far as road noise and wear. These issues deffinately stem from a bad allignment job right from the start(long and very frustrating story). But in the end, the tires wore uneven and quickly, and are extremely loud now. I understand that the noise issue is largely in part to the uneven wear caused by the alignment wich also caused ball joints to go bad (which also didnt help the tires)

Any help on the following questions is very much appreciated.

I love the look of MT's and Toyo's and Copper STT's in specific. My issue is I am a little sick of the loud road noise. I understand that MT's are going to be louder than road tires, but I am hoping there are a few tires out there that are aggressive with manageable road noise. I was looking hard at the Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ in hopes that they would be much quieter than the Toyo, but I have seen some conflicting reviews on this. I then looked into Cooper STT and Toyo MT because if they noise from theo Mickey Thompson is simular to the MT I would like to stick with those aggressive tires. Does anyone have experience with any of these tire options, and what are your thoughts.

My final question is a fitment question. I would like to go with a bit larger tire, and was thinking about going a little taller than 33's and narrower than 12.5. I have the Rancho 4" (5") lift and my wheels have 0 mm backspacing. If I go with something like a 295x70-18 (34.3x11.6-18) will I have a rubbing issue?

Thanks again for all the help!

cparks555 · January 8, 2013

Toyo's cannot be beat as far as looks and road manners IMO. I swithched from Toyo's to BFG All -Terrains because I was tired of the "hum", and it just looked kind of off to me. A lifted truck needs an aggressive tire to set it off, I'm back to running Toyo's again for this reason. I think VT_Z71 has 295/70/18 on factory wheels with a bit of trimming, on 0 offset I'd expect to trim some.

jdubya · January 8, 2013

I just bought a set of nitto trail grapplers (I know they are not in your narrowed down list) in 33's. I like the look a lot, and they have a little more road noise than the Goodyear durotracks that I had on before but it is not crazy. Plus in the snow they are amazing! No rubbing or trimming needed on stock 17's with a 2" level.

blackout07 · January 8, 2013

Toyos or MT, and I would be prepared to trim.

8.1HD/ALLISON · January 8, 2013

Had a set of Mickeys on my last truck and loved them. I will be going back to them, probably for the wifes suv and my truck. The biggest thing on the road noise is to make sure you have front end in alignment and keep them rotated. Had a set of baha claws and they were not that loud. I also rotated them every 5k. And the front end was dead one, because I did it myself. Check the specs on alignments, there can be a huge difference between"in the green" and dead on.

Frogfish · January 8, 2013

Why not get a proper alignment in the first place?

joelbunge · January 8, 2013

Why not get a proper alignment in the first place?

I had it aligned right after the lift was installed, like I said before, long and frustrating story but in the end the guy who did it (a local old timer who everyone said is the best) did not do a good job and before I noticed and got it fixed it was too late.

As far as trimming, I dont mind trimming some but do not want to trim any metal.

Thanks again for the responses!

joelbunge · January 9, 2013

This guy appears to be running the exact set up I am considering and claims to not have a rubbing issue.

http://gmfullsize.com/forum/showthread.php?t=217881

CKNSLS · January 9, 2013

Is there such a thing as a quiet Mud Terrrain tire? Just asking?

VT_Z71 · January 9, 2013

I actually have 285/75/18 Toyo MTs (35x11.5x18) on stock rims. Only trimming necessary was the corner of the lower plastic valance under the front bumper (no biggie). I love the tire height, just wish they were a tad wider. Might be going with 315/70/18s here in the near future, but otherwise love the size.

joelbunge · January 9, 2013

That looks great VTZ71! The offset on my wheels pushes the tire out a bit more so that will help with the looks of the narrow tire, but also may cause a rubbing issue. How do you like the toyo's? and didnt you have cooper's at one point as well, how did the compare to the toyo's?

Thanks for the help

VT_Z71 · January 10, 2013

Thanks for the compliment. I answered the exact same question a few weeks back, so I'm copying directly from that post.....but yeah I'd go with Toyos hands down.

I've had both. My STT's were nice, but only lasted a little over 20k before they started wearing fast, getting loud and knocking out of balance. I then went to the Toyo MTs. My first set had about 40k on them and were still in great shape when I took them off to upgrade to a larger size (again with Toyos). I sold my previous set to a guy with a Duramax for some pretty good money. My current set is as good as always, and I'm already considering selling them off / upgrading in size again.

Also, around my parts, the Toyo and Cooper run about the exact same pricewise (cheaper than Micky Thompson, Dick Cepek and even NIttos for the most part)

joelbunge · January 10, 2013

After looking into available tires at 295x70-18, it appears nitto is my only option. I am pretty set on either toyo or Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ so now my options are Baja ATZ's at 305x70-18 (34.8x12-18) or stick with 33x12.5 toyos or 285x70 (33.7x11.2) or 285x75 (34.8x11.2)

I am leaning towords the baja atz's because I take my truck on the sand dunes (nothing major, just cruise to the beach) and my toyo's tend to dig instead of float in the deep sand.