A Look At Toyo’s New Open Country A/T III Tires!

Toyo pulled out all the stops designing their new Open Country A/T III. They had to, as there are many excellent all-terrain tire choices available today, including Toyo’s own Open Country A/T II. Compared to the outstanding Open Country A/T II, the Open Country A/T III incorporates advances in tread design, construction, and all-new compounding, resulting in significant performance improvements in wet and dry conditions while maintaining long tread life.

The Open Country A/T III will soon be available in 127 sizes for truck, SUV, and CUV owners. We usually test heavy-duty LT and flotation tires and the Open Country A/T III is available in those sizes, but this time, we had Hurricane Tire Pros in Hurricane, Utah, mount a set of P/Euro-Metric 265/60R18 Open Country A/T III tires on a Jeep WK2 Grand Cherokee.

We chose these smaller, OEM-size tires because there are many who are looking to upgrade their SUV for daily driving, adventure touring, overlanding, or just plain backcountry exploring. Wimpy OEM tires are usually the first replacements made. We found The Open Country A/T III to be vastly superior to the OEM tires, working well on the street, sand, rocks, and dirt. We’ll have to wait for snow and mud.

The Open Country A/T III comes with a 65,000-mile warranty for P/Euro-Metric sizes, and a 50,000-mile warranty for LT and flotation sizes. It’s also backed by a 500-mile trial offer. Like the older A/T II it replaces, we found the Toyo Open Country A/T III tire shares the top of the all-terrain tire heap with few others. With its high-mileage tread life warranty, strong construction, and great performance, the A/T III is a great value.

Specifications (as tested)

Tire: Toyo Open Country A/T III

Size: 265/60R18 (Jeep WK2 Grand Cherokee OEM size)

Wheel: 18×8”

Weight: 39 pounds

Inflated Overall Diameter: 30.5”

Section Width: 10.7”

Maximum Load: 2337@44psi

The stock Jeep WK2 Grand Cherokee-size P/Euro-Metric 265/60R18 Toyo Open Country A/T III is manufactured in the USA. While LT and flotation sizes are beefier, even the smaller sizes are built to be tough and feature sidewall protection for SUV owners who venture beyond the beaten path.

Severe winter rated with the Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake (TPMS) symbol, the Open Country A/T III can be used instead of chains in states that allow it. Many times, good snow performance translates to good sand performance, and during our test the Open Country A/T III turned out to be a superb sand tire.

The 265/60R18 A/T III has two steel plies, two polyester plies, and one nylon ply in the tread for strength and puncture resistance. The sidewall has two polyester plies. It’s hard to beat nylon for strength and resilience.

The Open Country A/T III has a more aggressive tread than the A/T II it replaces, yet is quieter on the highway. With its new tread compound and design, it delivers cut and chip resistance and excellent off-road grip in most mediums except gumbo mud. An evenly distributed void area, increased lateral grooves, and staggered shoulder lugs enhance traction on all surfaces, including snow. Stone ejecting blocks kick out stones from grooves. The 3D multi-wave sipes enhance wet and snow traction and reduce irregular wear.

Check out how the 3D sipes spread out to work even in fine sand.

We found the Open Country A/T IIIs work very well in combined rock, dirt, sand, and any medium we tried them on.

Slickrock, even slickrock with sand on it, was no barrier to the Open Country A/T III tires.

P/Euro-Metric size tires will spend much of their lives on pavement. The Open Country A/T III excelled here, providing a controlled, quiet ride and great lateral stability. Like other Toyo tires, they ran straight and true with no radial or lateral runout and took very little weight to balance.

Okay, let’s admit it. Looks matter. The Toyo Open Country A/T III tires made the Jeep Grand Cherokee look tougher than it did on its wimpy OEM shoes. Check out the tracks we made getting to this spot. It was a slight uphill grade, the sand was fine, deep, and dry, yet the Toyos allowed the Jeep to motor through without difficulty.

Sources

Toyo Tire
https://www.toyotires.com/product/open-country-at3

Hurricane Tire Pros
https://www.hurricanetirepros.com/

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