As a professional photographer and avid adventurer, Josh from @The_Explore_Life and @Clacy_Photography is constantly snapping sweet photos of his Mitsubishi Triton in stunning settings all over Australia but to get the perfect shot, you’ve got to get there first. Hear what Josh has to say after nearly 2 years going coast-to-coast on the Open Country R/T in this guest post.
I’ve had the pleasure of running Toyo’s Open Country R/Ts since they were first released in Australia in mid-2018. I knew the tyres had been a big hit in America and with a little convincing from my tyre supplier, I ended up pulling the trigger on a set of 305/70/R16s.
Fast forward 2 years, 65,000kms and one and a half laps around Australia, including some of the most demanding and remote terrain I could’ve thrown at the car, and to say I’ve been impressed with these tyres would be an understatement.
Having always run smaller all terrains in the past, I was cautious about picking something more aggressive as a replacement. I was worried about road noise, fuel economy and a more aggressive tread on a bigger tyre being less well behaved on the bitumen where (regrettably) the car spends most of its life.
However, from the first drive through back streets and around some roundabouts, I realised just how grippy and responsive these Toyos were compared to other brands I’d run in the past.
Initially, I doubted that this level of grip would be maintained through the life of the tyres, but I can happily report that they are still as sticky as the day I got them. As for performance in the wet, they’re very well mannered and it takes quite a bit of effort to make them step out if you have the correct tyre pressures for the weight of your car. Road noise has been minimal and hasn’t increased much since I purchased them, unlike other brands I’ve run where they get more and more noisy as they wear down!
Little things in the tread pattern really do make a world of difference, like the how the centre blocks lock together for stability on any surface and the open shoulder blocks dig for traction in mud or when straddling ruts to try and stop you sliding off the track.
You can feel the development and testing that’s been put into the Open Country R/T as soon as you drive on them; they just work in the real world and are awesome in the sketchy stuff but great on sealed roads too.
They’re bloody tough and my trip up the Gibb River Road really proved that to me. It’s a tyre graveyard out there, with massive sharp rocks littering the track and most of them impossible to spot until it’s too late to avoid them.
My convoy spent hours playing spot the shredded tyre and the other car I was travelling with fell victim to 3 punctures where the Toyos came out unscathed. Call it luck, different driving styles, whatever you’d like, but the Open Country R/T is a very heavy-duty tyre and they can take a beating, which mine definitely have.
I’ve taken these tyres through almost every terrain imaginable, from the undisturbed soft sand of WA’s remote beaches and the unforgiving corrugations of the Kimberley to the greasy mud of QLD’s Glasshouse Mountains and the stupidly steep, shaly climbs of the Victorian High Country. The Open Country R/T has handled it all over 65,000kms and I’ve been blown away by their performance, plus I reckon they’ve got at least 20,000kms left in them!
So, are these the tyres for you? If you’re building a touring vehicle to see the most remote corners of Australia or looking for a tyre to run on your daily that hits Fraser Island or Glasshouse on the weekend, in my opinion, Toyo’s Open Country R/T is hands down the best option available for 4WDers like me who like to push it off-road but still care about keeping things comfortable between trips.
