Toyo Open Country RT Trail Review

The Toyo Open Country RT Trail seamlessly bridges the gap between all-terrain and mud-terrain tires, carving out its niche as a rugged terrain tire. Often dubbed “hybrid,” such tires merge the best of both worlds. Let’s check this tire out in greater details.

Tire Sizes

The Toyo Open Country R/T Trail comes in 16 to 24 inches rims, having following specs.

• Total sizes: 47.
• Speed ratings: Q, R, S and T. (Learn all about speed ratings here).
• Load ratings: SL, XL, C, D, E and F.
• Tread depth range: 13.5 to 16.9/32″.
• Weight range: 43 to 98 lbs.
• Not rated with 3PMSFR, only M+S available.
• UTQG: 600 A B.
• Tread warranty: 45k miles.
• LT sizes have 3 ply sidewalls, while P metric have 2 ply.

Key Highlights

The Toyo R/T Trail excels in:

• Dry Traction: Offers above-average grip and shorter braking distances.
• Handling in Rocky and Muddy Terrains: Delivers durability and enhanced traction, suitable for challenging off-road conditions.
• Performance in Sand: Effectively prevents sinking in soft terrains due to its moderate weight and specialized lug design.
• Noise Reduction: One of the quietest in its category, minimizing road noise efficiently.
• Fuel Efficiency: Maintains a solid road connection, particularly in non-LT sizes, reducing lug flex and improving fuel efficiency.

Areas needing improvement:

• Steering Response: Experiences understeer and delayed response at higher speeds.
• Wet Grip: Limited siping and stiff tread compound reduce effectiveness in wet conditions.
• Snow Performance: Lacks sufficient grip for ice and compacted snow.
• Ride Comfort: Harder rubber composition leads to a less comfortable ride.
• Tread Life: Smaller tread depth impacts overall longevity.

Design of the Tire

The Toyo Open Country RT Trail is a beautifully crafted tire, where a total of 4 ribs are seen.

The middle two ribs of the tire are composed of two distinct blocks, each featuring a variety of unique characteristics.

These blocks have sharply chamfered edges and deep cuts or notches that extend in various directions, enhancing the tire’s grip at multiple angles.

Additionally, these lugs include siping, although there is room for improvement as they are not full-depth.

Together all these blocks make a web of grooves, joining up the outer circumferential channels.

Moving towards outer ribs, the shoulder lugs form a very minimalist design.

They are although staggered, they don’t have any kind of notches on them, and the sidewall lugs they make are also not aggressive enough.

Need a clearer path through the all-terrain tire maze? Start with my detailed overview on the A/T tire home page: https://tiredriver.com/all-terrain-tires/

On Road Performance

For optimal performance on dry highways, consider three critical factors: grip, handling, and the tire’s responsiveness to inputs.

Let’s see how the tire performed in each of these key areas.

Steering Response

Although the Toyo Open Country RT Trail, as a semi-RT tire, features robust construction, this very fact does not allow it to stand out in terms of steering response, especially when compared to lighter off-road tires.

So what do I mean by that?

Well, the tire has a 3-ply polyester casing coupled with thick steel belts, and these significantly add to the tire’s overall weight, which causes a diminished under and over steering balance (as the tire corners). And this happens mainly because of the inertia.

As a result, the tire tends to understeer when cornering, leading to a perceptible delay between the steering input and the wheel’s response. This becomes particularly noticeable at speeds above 50 mph.

A Must Read: Do All-Terrain Tires Slow You Down? – https://tiredriver.com/do-all-terrain-tires-slow-you-down/

Dry Traction

While numerous factors influence dry traction, two stand out: the tire’s dry grip and its cornering capability (often gauged by lateral G forces).

Achieving optimal dry traction requires maximizing the rubber’s contact with the road. So, simply put, more contact results in better grip.

However, off road tires present a challenge. Their tread features like grooves and notches, reduce the rubber’s contact with the road.

Nevertheless, the Open Country R/T Trail strikes a commendable balance, offering an above-average dry grip and shorter braking distances.

The tire’s handling also deserves praise, as its shoulder blocks, subjected to increased pressure during cornering, maximize road contact due to their lack of tread features.

However, this design might compromise its wet grip capabilities. See below.

Wet Performance

Navigating wet tarmac poses unique challenges. Since water is incompressible, the only solution for maintaining traction is to efficiently disperse it.

And tires achieve this through optimal hydroplaning resistance and an effective wet grip. I evaluated these elements below.

Wet Grip

The wet grip of a tire is closely tied to its tread composition and siping (both in quantity and design).

That’s why here, the Toyo Open Country R/T Trail lacks, as it has limited tread features, where particularly noticeable is its sparse siping on its shoulders, often limited to a single sipe per block.

This design significantly undermines its grip.

This is because sipes play a crucial role in absorbing and dispelling water, as they literally suck water particles into their slits.

And Toyo Open Country RT Trail with limited number of those slits, which by the way, are also not full depth, is prone to slippage on wet corners.

And yes, its stiff tread compound is also not helping, as this rigidity hampers their ability to effectively channel water, further compromising the grip.

Hydroplaning

A tire’s resistance to hydroplaning, or aquaplaning, is defined by its ability to quickly clear water from its grooves, ensuring it remains grounded and avoids “floating” on water.

And since speed is the culprit here (as with greater tire rolling speeds, chances of hydroplaning increases), the overall resistance to this is measured with float speeds.

“Float speed” refers to the maximum speed at which a tire can traverse standing water without losing traction due to floating.

Now the Toyo R/T Trail gives you multiple grooves in its central rib, connecting to the external circumferential channels. And this design provides ample pathways for water evacuation, granting the tire commendable hydroplaning resistance.

So simply put, the Toyo R/T Trail exhibits adequate resistance to hydroplaning, despite its shortcomings in wet grip.

Side Note: Compared to Toyo, the new Falken Wildpeak RT provides you with better wet traction, you can review the tire here: https://tiredriver.com/falken-wildpeak-rt-review/

Snow Performance

The Toyo R/T Trail, while does not offer a 3-peak mountain snowflake rating, still demonstrates decent competence on deep snow-covered terrains.

However, it’s worth noting that the tire falls short when it comes to ice and compacted snow.

The primary reason is its lack of sufficient biters tailored for snow grip.

Nevertheless, its design features swooping lugs, adept at gathering snow, which in turn helps in maintaining forward momentum, where the tire thick lugs throw back the thick snow and pulls itself forward.

Tackling Challenging Environments

A tire that excels across a spectrum of challenging environments needs a multifaceted design approach. Let’s evaluate how the Toyo R/T Trail fares in different challenging terrains.

Rocky Areas

The Toyo R/T Trail showcases a commendable performance on rocky terrains, where one of its notable features is the 3-ply sidewall construction which is complemented by thick rubber lugs on top.

These lugs not only fortify the tire’s most vulnerable areas, meaning the sidewalls, but also amplify grip and traction by ensuring more rubber contact with rocks.

And yes speaking of sidewalls, they are equipped with powerful biters, which enhance the overall rock climbing experience (especially), with lowered air pressure.

Muddy Areas

Mud is pretty tough, but not for this beast of a tire.

The Toyo RT Trail incorporates a myriad of inter-connected channels, both lateral and longitudinal, facilitating the easy expulsion of mud in all directions.

And yes, its staggered shoulder lugs function effectively as mud ejectors, repelling thick mud and consequently aiding in forward movement.

Though the tire could have still performed better if it was given a slightly more tread depth.

For Your Info: Out of all tires I’ve reviewed, the New Goodyear DuraTrac RT (review), provides you with best over mud traction. In fact, the tire is also included for it, in my list of top A/T tires, which you can review here: https://tiredriver.com/best-all-terrain-tires/

Sand

In sandy terrains, the importance of a lightweight tire cannot be overstated. It prevents the vehicle from sinking too deeply into the soft landscape, a primary cause for becoming immobilized in such environments.

While at first glance, the weight range of the sizes for the Toyo RT might suggest it’s on the heavier side, this perception is deceptive.

I mean, only one size exceeds 90 lbs. And so on the whole, its weight is relatively moderate, especially when compared to other RT tires on the market.

Additionally, the Toyo RT is equipped with laterally aligned lugs. When paired with its robust sidewall lugs, the tire delivers exemplary performance on sandy terrains.

Comfort and Noise

Comfort and noise are two different parts of overall ride quality.

Let me start off here with noise, where the Toyo R/T Trail stands out for its remarkable on-road quietness.

I mean among hybrid tires, it’s one of the most silent I’ve encountered. And coming to this tire from an AT variant, you’ll only notice a slight difference.

So why is that?

Well, this is attributed to the tire’s innovative design with strategically angled tread blocks that utilize variable pitch technology.

This ingenious approach generates varied sound frequencies from distinct tread portions that counteract each other, thereby minimizing overall noise.

On the other side, when it comes to ride comfort, or you can say impact comfort/performance, the Toyo R/T Trail can get some improvements.

The tire basically does not offer, what you call a softer rubber composition. So its rubber does not efficiently absorb impacts.

Same is going on internally, where its 3-ply polyester construction is also not pliable, resulting in a more jittery ride.

Fuel Consumption

Fuel consumption for tires hinges on a myriad of factors, including the tire’s weight and tread compound. These basically tell you about the tire’s rolling resistance.

And here the Toyo R/T Trail holds its ground well, especially when compared to others in the category.

Although the tire doesn’t have compact tread blocks, especially around the shoulder lugs, its relatively rigid rubber ensures a solid road connection. This minimizes lug flex during cornering, especially, thus enhancing efficiency.

Moreover, this lug flexing is further limited by the tire’s smaller tread depth (comparatively), where it only goes up to 17/32″.

However, this negatively affects the tire’s overall tread life. Though you can still take LT sizes above 50k miles easily if you follow my guide here: https://tiredriver.com/how-to-increase-tread-life-on-tires/

Conclusion

So to sum things up quickly, the Toyo RT Trail gives you a decent performance across varied terrains and conditions.

It’s hybrid design although may not do so well on roads, especially when it comes to wet conditions, it still offers superb off road grip on all types of terrains, including mud, rocks and sandy dunes.

But yes, speaking of on-road, the tire with ts impressive on-road quietness truly distinguishes it amongst its peers.

And yes, the tire’s ability to maintain a respectable level of fuel efficiency, given its structure and weight, also speaks volumes of its engineering prowess.

Yet, potential buyers should be mindful of the balance between tread depth and tread life.