COMPLAINT ABOUT DUNLOP AT's

[atomic punk]

Awful.

The visible signs of wear at only 25k is downright awful.

 

[Fred MaN]

I have an "06" sport and I do drive quite a bit so after the summer I put new tires on for winter just to be safe.

The lack of tred depth on the Dunflops just made me worried about winter. And I have had some cheep no name tires on other SUV's that were better in the rain.

 

[Lone Ranger]

Yup, I too must not be flogging my 4Runner enough

I am with you guys, I don't know what the problem is. I have driven mine for 2+ years in everything from heavy rain to heavy snow coming down on highways in upstate New York to 12+ inches in NJ and MD with none of the problems reported. No traction problems at all (I have the 4WD V-8). I have towed a boat and pulled it up a ramp w/o traction problems.

I don't doubt that you can get better tires, but the Dunlops are not particularly bad tires and not something you should be getting rid of at 5 or 10K miles for no other reason than some postings on the Internet. I wouldn't necessarily buy them as replacement tires, but I wouldn't toss them out prematurely either if you already have them on a truck.

I think there is a bit of unsupportable feeding frenzy or piling on going on here - someone posts something negative, and suddenly everyone is a critic. I don't mean to criticize the posters or start a flame war, but I wonder how many were doing things that would cause any tire to break loose?

 

[Kmvreter]

I am with you guys, I don't know what the problem is. I have driven mine for 2+ years in everything from heavy rain to heavy snow coming down on highways in upstate New York to 12+ inches in NJ and MD with none of the problems reported. No traction problems at all (I have the 4WD V-8). I have towed a boat and pulled it up a ramp w/o traction problems.

I don't doubt that you can get better tires, but the Dunlops are not particularly bad tires and not something you should be getting rid of at 5 or 10K miles for no other reason than some postings on the Internet. I wouldn't necessarily buy them as replacement tires, but I wouldn't toss them out prematurely either if you already have them on a truck.

I think there is a bit of unsupportable feeding frenzy or piling on going on here - someone posts something negative, and suddenly everyone is a critic. I don't mean to criticize the posters or start a flame war, but I wonder how many were doing things that would cause any tire to break loose?

No flaming. Just chiming in with my critique on a topic.
As stated, I'm just driving normal in everyday traffic. I'm still running them to get some life out of them. At 77,000 Km (48,000 mi) they are at the end of what I consider their traction life even though they have tread left. I'm comparing them to purely previous subjective tire experience. They suck but aren't dangerous.

 

[atomic punk]

My stock Dunlops are balanced, rotated, and the T4R's front end is aligned according to schedule. And I travel 97.4% on road. So it's nothing that "I" am doing to cause them to prematurely wear. It's a negative bandwagon thing at all - especially when it comes to treadlife. Treadlife is not subjective, it's objective. A drunken village idiot can look at tires and see if there is tread or no tread.

Alot of people think the stock tires are bad, alot of people think they are good. That lends me to believe that the Dunlops' reliability is not repeatable, and that anyone purchasing a set is just gambling that they will be happy with them. Meanwhile, when I hear and read (from multiple sources) that 9 out of every 10 people with Revos or Michellens LOVE their tires, I'm more inclined to spend that extra money on those, knowing that my chances of being happy with them are WAY better.

(steps down off box)

 

[tomhaney1]

I'm just driving normal. Like noted above, these Dunflops have deteriorated over time. The first sign of pulling into traffic with a little pep in wet conditions (lots of that this year) and they want to break loose. I throw her into 4x4 and away I go. You may not notice this if you have a V8 with fulltime 4wd. They aren't dangerous but I shouldn't have to use the good capabilities of the truck to compensate for the poor traction of the tires.

Same thing here. I think the vehicle is compensating too much for the poor performance of the tires. I have driven probably over 60 individual vehicles in my life, from classics to sport cars, to industrial grade trucks and the one thing that always makes a difference in how they handle is whether the tires are appropriate for the vehicle. Sure, if you push a Porsche Turbo out of a corner you will most definitely induce oversteer but a 4500 lb. curb weight suv with less than 300 hp should roll over before the tires skip- its just plain physics. There's an old saying that there are two things you should never comprimise on- shoes and tires.

 

[tomhaney1]

My stock Dunlops are balanced, rotated, and the T4R's front end is aligned according to schedule. And I travel 97.4% on road. So it's nothing that "I" am doing to cause them to prematurely wear. It's a negative bandwagon thing at all - especially when it comes to treadlife. Treadlife is not subjective, it's objective. A drunken village idiot can look at tires and see if there is tread or no tread.

Alot of people think the stock tires are bad, alot of people think they are good. That lends me to believe that the Dunlops' reliability is not repeatable, and that anyone purchasing a set is just gambling that they will be happy with them. Meanwhile, when I hear and read (from multiple sources) that 9 out of every 10 people with Revos or Michellens LOVE their tires, I'm more inclined to spend that extra money on those, knowing that my chances of being happy with them are WAY better.

(steps down off box)

I agree, except for the reliability issue, well sort of. I wasn't initially worried about the tires because I had a set Dunlop Sport A2's on a BMW and another set of Dunlop Sport 5000's on a Lexus LS 400 and they were both phenominal tires, not Michelis Pilots or anything, but nonetheless great treadwear and actually very good traction in the rain and snow. In fact, I didn't even run winter tires when I had the Sport 5000's. I don't know why these tires are so bad except for maybe they are P rated tires that just aren't up for the vehicle's characteristics...Anyways, I have tomorrow off (Veteran's day) so I shall go to the dealership service department and plead my case.

 

[atomic punk]

... There's an old saying that there are two things you should never comprimise on- shoes and tires.

3 things....
and #3 is a good education, never comprOmise on that! j/k


tomhaney1:
I meant to speak only of the reliability of the workmanship and quality of these particular stock tires, not Dunlop in general. I hear ya - I had a set of Dunlop Radial Rover A/Ts on my jeep a few years back and I was happy with them. Since they were way less expensive than BFG & Michelin, I had to take it for what they were worth, and they proved to be a good value for the $$.

 

[tomhaney1]

3 things....
and #3 is a good education, never comprOmise on that! j/k


tomhaney1:
I meant to speak only of the reliability of the workmanship and quality of these particular stock tires, not Dunlop in general. I hear ya - I had a set of Dunlop Radial Rover A/Ts on my jeep a few years back and I was happy with them. Since they were way less expensive than BFG & Michelin, I had to take it for what they were worth, and they proved to be a good value for the $$.

No worries I got your point. Someone should inform or good ol president on "#3"

 

[nyc4runnin]

im guessing that all the people that have the dunflops have sport editions ???? :awais:

 

[tomhaney1]

im guessing that all the people that have the dunflops have sport editions ???? :awais:

You know that is a good point. If anyone has them on other than SE please let us know...

 

[beeper]

I have a 05 sport with Dunlaps....I do all on road driving with some snow ,not much in central Pa. had the tires rotated every 5k and have about 22k on them and replaced all 4 with Yoks geolander hts 051. I could have gotten another maybe 8k out of them. The deal with a Totota lease is that you can replace the tires with any brand but all 5 have to match. So I wasn't going to buy 4 new Dunlaps so i took the tires off now put on the Yoks and wil run them till its time to turn in and put the Dunlaps back on. got them from Tirerack and they did go by me. So far so good buy only had them for a couple of weeks.

 

[Kmvreter]

im guessing that all the people that have the dunflops have sport editions ???? :awais:

No, see my signature.
But that brings up a good point. Maybe there is a difference (production variation) between the 16" and 17" that contributes to any perceived traction differences.