The first part is a quote from another thread. From me a few months ago.
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The one tire I would stay away from is Toyo AT2. I've had a LOT of balancing problems with them. So far I've had 7 tires to get 4 that sorta balance. 2 are good enough to use up front and 2 are only able to be static balanced - so they're kinda only used on the rear tires (and yes that means I don't rotate them). None of the 7 could be balanced with road force balance without having so much weight that you'd have to double or triple stack tape weights on the rim and they usually don't stay on when you do that. I only have 35k miles total - and they were the second aftermarket set, so they haven't had a ton of miles on them.
The plus side is that they have proven to be really durable in all sorts of terrain and have great traction on the rocks. They're pretty quiet on the street. And they're pretty good in snow/ice conditions. I'm probably going to ditch the whole set and buy something else in the spring. I have one last offroad trip planned this fall and then I'll be running on my street wheels/tires until spring most likely.
I think it may be just an issue with this particular size or something. Lots of good reviews on them. Maybe I'm just unlucky? I have no idea. All I can say for sure is that my experience would push me toward something else just for balancing issues. Everything else was good.
Flash forward to yesterday. I finally got some time to go to the tires shop. Local discount tire. I had a phone conversation with Toyo's customer service folks and then took the tires to the shop. I have 2 brand new tires with less than 20 miles on one of them, and maybe 1000 on the other. And I'm currently at 7 tires so far - 3 of them were rejects. One of the set of 4 had a bulge from an old patch in the tread area. Discount Tire didn't think it was safe to work on that one. No problem. I agreed after looking at it. Not one of the other 3 would balance. Keep in mind 2 of them are basically brand new. The other has about 10-15k miles on it - and is about half way worn out. (yeah they wear fast for the first half of the tread, the lower tread is harder rubber I'd bet).
Anyway toyo then basically said that they don't trust what I'm doing with them because I didn't have the tire shop mount them on the vehicle. As if I'm taking them home and putting them on what? A 1 ton with 6x5.5 wheels? WTH? And we argued for about 30 minutes about whether it matters at all what they're going on if 3 consecutive brand new tires couldn't be balanced when brand new. If they can't balance new - why would the vehicle they're going on matter? Their general claim was that this was such an anomaly to have 7 out of round tires for one customer that it must be my vehicle (yes - even though they couldn't balance them in the shop brand new). - and yes we tested the wheel runout and balance. We also put a different tire on the wheels and both balanced and road force balanced them. - Perfectly round wheels, low weights on other tires.
They apparently think that I must be abusing them by using them offroad. Somehow I'm doing it even before I leave the tire shop. I'm kind of a badass like that. They wilt under my strong gaze. But at the same time they told me it was perfectly fine to run them at 15psi on the trails, and recommended I not go over 26psi for highway driving. Yeah - they said 26psi is the correct street pressure for a 4runner with those tires, I heard them correctly. 35psi is way too high. They also agreed that they were the appropriate tires for a 4runner.
The tire shop guy also spoke with them on the phone and had the same argument. In the end - Toyo did agree to buy them back and either send a new set or just credit back through the supply chain the costs and the tires are going back to Toyo (or in the trash I don't know what actually happens to them).
Discount tire was excellent to work with. No issues whatsoever with them. They spent a good deal of time messing around with my junk. Never charged me for anything after the original purchase, and for the difference in cost of the new tires compared to what I paid for the other ones.
So - I chose not to replace them again with more of the same. At that point I'd be putting on tires 8-11. At some point it's just not worth repeating the same foolishness.
I really loved the performance offroad. I only had one flat the entire time. But I suspect I need to eat some crow and accept that at least Toyo's P rated tires are not built well enough to use offroad - or possibly even on road. With the exception of the one tire with a rock through the tread, none of the others had any visible bulging or other sign that they were breaking down. I don't know what else I can really conclude about why they were so problematic. I've argued quite a bit on here over the years that LT tires are overkill and P rated tires are fine for on and offroad use. I'm kinda mixed on it now. Is it a manufacturer specific problem? Or just an anomaly? I'm not sure.
I don't do a lot of hardcore offroad use. But I also ended up buying a complete 2nd set of wheels/tires for highway use because I got so tired of the steering wheel vibrations from those tires. So for my replacements I ended up just buying Cooper AT3s in 285/75/17. I was on the fence between STT Pros in a 285/70 or AT3 in a 285/75. I decided that I rarely go in deep mud, and I usually get high centered rather than stuck from tire traction, so the taller tire is going to be better for me than the more aggressive one. And they should run pretty quiet too, which is pretty standard for my offroading to drive a few hundred miles of highway each direction. They're almost 34" tall, hopefully they fit without too much cutting. We'll find out maybe next week. Since I only put them on for offroad trips, they only get maybe 2-4k miles a year. I doubt I'll regear or anything like that.
Anyway - long story, but that's my saga about toyo AT2s. I've defended P rated tires for a long time on here. They've been all over Moab and through the Rubicon without any complaint. Great traction overall in the dirt. But just wouldn't stay round. And that's a deal breaker for an all terrain tire IMO.