Toyo Open Country R/T Review is built with a slightly different intent than all-terrain and mud-terrain tires, that’s why this tire sits right in the middle. Besides being called Rugged Terrain (R/T), they are also considered hybrid tires.
Being a tire engineer, in my opinion, the Toyo Open Country R/T is a great off road tire which is also capable of performing well on roads, but this goes only for dry roads as the tire lacks in wet conditions with limited number of sipes. But this is a compromise you make for a very unique off road performance here the tire grips well on rocks mud and sand. Where it rocks on rocks, and is great on muddy trails, but you’ll may notice these tire lacking behind slightly on sandy slopes, as these tires are quite heavy with 3 ply sides.
Important Sizes Info
The Toyo Open Country R/T comes in 15 to 24 inches (rim diameter) where only a single size is available in 15″ (31X10.50R15LT), and just 2 in 24″.
Maximum sizes are in 20″, just FYI.
All sizes offer decent speed ratings (given the tire’s aggressive design), they come up with T, where some sizes are also seen with Q.
Load ratings of this tire offers in a wide range where you see sizes with SL XL, C, D, E, and even F.
Speaking of weight the lowest weighing tire (of course is SL, 265/65R18) and weighs about 43 lbs while the heaviest is the 38X15.50R24LT with F load rating weighing 100 lbs.
Talking about tread depth all sizes get to have depth in between 13 and 19, where mostly sizes have 18.9/32″, where few of them have 16.4/32,and the left 4 have 13.5/32″ (the lowest).
Also note that all sizes come up with 45k miles warranty.
Compare Toyo R/T With Others
Durability
Rugged terrain tires are very tough because their tread is made out of cut resistant material (halogenated isobutylene rubber with silica addition), but the main durability comes from the inner construction.
The Toyo RT provides a thick 2-layered nylon covering beneath it’s rubber.
If you dig in deeper, these layers sit on 2 steel belts, which are topping up the 3 ply polyester casing of this tire.
The polyester casing is the only inner layer which covers the sidewalls from underneath, so the Toyo R/T gets to have 3 ply sides.
Where the inner part of the tire gets to be as durable as it gets (even when it comes to mud tires), which is 3 + 2 + 2 ply construction.
That’s the reason the tire weighs so much going up to 100 pounds.
Ride Quality
Although there are other factors involved, the balder the tire gets, the louder and less comfortable it’s ride becomes. That’s why All terrain tires are still better here compared to mud tires, which are notorious for being super loud and uncomfortable.
The rugged terrain tires sit right in the middle here, so although they are not that comfortable, things are still manageable. (And of course all that compromise if for off road performance).
This comfort of the ride is judged by analyzing two key areas, the tread noise, and the bumps absorption, lets discuss both.
Noise
Being a tire engineer, I can assure you noise is one of the most complicated subject when it comes designing tires.
There are so many key variable involved here, resonance frequency, tread spectrum, groove geometries (which tells you about pitch sequencing), groove resonance, rolling noise… the list is endless.
So let me save you some time by telling you, that Toyo RT isn’t going to be so bad overall (considering all it’s sizes), and comparing with with other RT options you have in the market.
But that does not mean it would provide you with a comfortable ride.
Ride Comfort
Besides secondary suspension systems of the vehicle, the tire play a major role in overall ride quality.
Here the tire’s overall structure is analyzed, where the rubber composites tells you about the absorption of energies and the internal construction determines the load transmission efficacy between your vehicle and the surface.
The Toyo Open Country R/T does not provide good enough suspension to the bumps. With stiffer rubber on top, the tire’s tread is hesitant to compress and stretch, so it does not blend with the imperfections of the road.
Similarly, its inner make up of polyester casing and rigid cap plies don’t allow efficient dampening of the vibrations.
Off Road Traction
Off road things although get though, it’s no issue for a rugged tire, as it can pretty much handle everything.
Let me share it’s working on different terrains.
Rock Traction
The Toyo Open Country R/T does everything right on this terrain, in fact I was really confused on which tire to bring on top best rock climbing, we stuck between Nitto Ridge Grappler and the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T, after a considering a lot of factors and discussing things with other design engineers I work with, we decided to put these tires in the following order.
- Nitto Ridge Grappler at the top.
- Mickey Thompson AT as 2nd.
- And Toyo RT with a very close margin got to be in the 3rd place.
And let me tell you why is that, actually the stiffer rubber of Toyo RT is not as sticking on rocks while the other options have spongy rubber which simply hugs the surface.
Moreover, the sidewall lugs of Toyo RT are not as impressive, where you can see how aggressive they other tires are in the detailed links added.
Nitto Ridge Grappler detailed review: https://tiredriver.com/nitto-ridge-grappler-review/
Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT detailed review: https://tiredriver.com/mickey-thompson-baja-boss-at-review/
Muddy Terrain Performance
Mud needs tread to clean off itself quickly so they don’t get packed. And the balder the tire gets, the easier it if for mud to leave.
Now Toyo R/T although is not a mud tires, it’s not an all terrain tires, so you still get a good enough baldness with this tire.
If you scroll down to the tread section, you’ll see that the tire has outer wider grooves which are also connected with slanted horizontal ones. So this way mud is able to leave in both directions, and this is what provides efficient cleaning.
Moreover, on this terrain, you also don’t want aggressive digging, what that means? Well put simply mud is a soft terrain and its easier to go down rather than move forward. So the goal is not to go to china, so you need less diggers on the sides which Toyo R/T provides.
So this tire provides better forward dynamic capabilities as well.
Sand Traction
On sand you need footprint of a tread and a shoveling design.
Now we have seen in the tread section how the lateral voided tread provides scooping elongated lugs, so no problem here.
But sand also requires a tire to be light in weight and that’s means, and here Toyo R/T lacks a little, so it faces a hard time climbing on sand.
The blocks on sidewalls although provides good footprint overall, the stiffer compound of this tire is not able to mold with more flexibility, so a little bit of sand traction is limited here as well.
So overall these tires are below average on sand, especially during on the slope.
Highway Performance
The tire’s aggressiveness compromises it’s highway performance which includes its feedback times, grip and lateral stability.
Let’s discuss all these highway factors one by one.
Tire Feedback
The Toyo Open Country R/T provides very impressive values when you compare this tire with others in the Rugged terrain/hybrid category.
That’s because the tire offers a very great contact patch from both middle and on sides, so with that its able to offer you with directional and lateral stability.
Being an RT, it offers a very direct steering, and although things seems to go under a little bit on tight roads, it’s still manageable.
Traction on dry roads
Dry grip is directional proportional to the exposure the rubber makes with the asphalt. The more the better.
This is because when more of the tire’s rubber get to stay in contact with the surface, the more the friction gets enhanced.
In case of Toyo R/T as you can see from it’s design, it’s pretty straight forward. And although a lot of contact gets eaten away with tread voids, its enough for providing ample grip, though make sure your your set of tires has optimal pressure, as Toyo RT is very pressure sensitive.
Dry highway Handling
When on tight corners, the whole weight of the tire gets translated towards the shoulders, it can be both inner and outer, depending on the turns. The good thing about Toyo Open Country R/T is that it offer a symmetrical pattern, so there is equal grip on each sides, which enhances lateral stability.
Another factors here is the area of the tire’s tread getting to meet up with the road while cornering. And as you can see in the tread section above, the ribs there (on sides) are smooth and even, allowing this tire to make a direct grip with the surface.
Wet Performance
Wet griping is a crucial part for Rugged terrains, and although they are good at hydroplaning (another key component), they still aren’t able to provide decent overall traction.
Let’s discuss both these factors.
Wet Traction
The Toyo Open Country R/T is not good at wet gripping. The tire does poorly in 2 main key factors here, the siping density and the rubber composition.
It offers very few sipes on it’s tread and even those are not that effective as they become rigid while braking and turning.
And the tire already has a very rigid rubber composition where very less silica is present, so tread is not able to soak up the water efficiently.
Hydroplaning
Hydroplaning is measured with float speeds which tells how fast a tire can move on water without floating. So overall it all depends on water evacuation.
In case of Toyo RT, the highly voided tread of the tire makes it very easy for water to leave quickly, so the tire has no issues performing here.
Snow Performance
Toyo Open Country R/T is not 3 peak mountain snowflake rated, and tire is very stiff to provide any king of traction on hard packed snow and ice.
Basically with freezing temperatures, the stiffer rubber of the tread gets even more rigid, and this way the tire lacks it’s flexing abilities which compromises overall winter traction.
That’s why winter tires are made so soft.
But you can still get a workaround with these tires (if you are skilled driver) on deeper snow, as with wider channels, and scooping lugs, an acceptable dynamic response can be created with these tires.
Tread Wear
Tread wear depends on the tire’s composition along with the overall structure, which determines the rolling resistance.
It’s also dependent on the tread depth, as deeper the tread, the longer it would take to wear off.
The Toyo Open Country R/T that’s why offers a good tread life and comes with a warranty of 45k miles.
The tire offers 19/32″ of tread depth to most of it’s sizes, which is quite a lot, and although it also weighs a lot (up to 100 lbs, with full width cap plies of nylon), it’s stiffer cut resistant rubber is able to still slow down the wear.
To Conclude
Overall the Toyo Open Country RT is overall great option for someone who likes to stay on roads with a hybrid tire, and yes who can compromise a little on it’s wet grip.
A pro tip though, if you have to run these tires in rainy season, just lower down the tire pressure it’s going to help with the traction, also always drive these tires in rain with traction control ON at all times.
The tire offers a great wear resistance, and it very robust with 3 ply strong sidewalls which can take on pretty much any kind of sharp close encounters.
