Coming from a motorcycle perspective, tires are very important. This is because tire grip makes the difference between safe turns and stops and a wreck. Traction makes the difference between making it thru the snow or up a trail and being stuck.

I tend to trade tires well before the wear bar gets to the surface. Many may see this as wasteful. Probably the same folks who shop for tires by price.

For my 4Runner, each tire exchange is right at $1,000, and I tend to trade tires out at 50,000 miles. That's where the 2 cents per mile comes from.

Having tried a lot of brands and types of tire, I keep coming back to Goodyear. The P version and not the stiff E version. Silent Armor or maybe this time the Adventure All-Terrain. Both are top Tire Rack rated too.





Many here are holding out for the ATKO2. My poor road experience with the ATKO keeps me from that purchase. Since 90% of my use is on pavement, I demand great traction when stopping on wet roads, and grip when turning on rain slick corners.

Compared to road tolls, gasoline, or all the other costs of 4Runner ownership, spending 2 cents per mile for top tire performance is a good value.

I look at tires on other SUVs and PUs to see how the front tires are wearing. Most front tires are worn on the outside edge, which shows poor suspension design or alignment. Even a new F-150 shows serious outside edge wear. (Driven for work like me, the Ford part-time 4x4, 4 door, EcoBoost gets 12.3 mpg.)

My 4Runner shows flat and even tire wear across the tread. Even wear front to back without rotation. Despite so much off-road use the alignment never changes.

Toyota did it right.

I also looked at the suspension lift on Jeeps, Fords, Chevys and Dodge PUs at 4 Wheel Parts, waiting for dealerships to pick-up the modified vehicles. I was amazed at how frail the front suspension components looked, considering just how heavy those vehicles are. Ford and especially Jeep did have some impressive links. Across the range, the upper control arm looked very weak. The lower elevating component looked very weak.

Do you consider that expensive?

Those Goodyear aren't made anymore. There are changes and versions with similar looking but different tires.

2 cents is just the cost of driving. Compared to gas, tires are cheap.

I switched to the ATK02s.

$0.02/mile isn't bad compared to tires on performance cars/motorcycles! My last set of tires on my Volvo came in around $0.03/mile, and the most recent set is looking to be more like $0.09/mile (much stickier summers that get abused regularly). My CBR600RR is around $0.06/mile for a rear tire and about 1/3 of that for a front.

The General Grabber AT2s on my 4Runner are about 17,000 miles in and are hardly showing wear yet. Love em! And for $670 for the set (after a $100 discount) they're certainly worth the money.

ATKO2's, as in the BFG?

How many miles do you have on yours?

Mine are around 60% tread. And they're terrible [read:terrifying] on wet ashphalt. Acceptable in all other circumstances. They were okay for the first year or so, though.

I wonder if my standards are high or not aligned to the type of tire (an AT on-road).

The IRS allows reimbursement of 58 cents per mile... burn rubber.

I've heard the older KO2s are pretty bad in the wet. The newer ones are apparently better though.

Wear on the outside shoulders on the front tires is also an indication of tires not being rotated at appropriate intervals, or the driver corners hard frequently.