Toyo Open Country R/T Review [2023 Updated]

By Tire Expert, Joe Steffen

Who says you can’t find honest, unbiased tire reviews anymore? If you hear anyone saying this, send them here, where I will give you a completely unbiased and fair review that you can trust.

I have worked in the tire industry for nine plus years. I have done it all, from installing tires to selling them. I know what people like, don’t like, and truly want when searching for their cars next set of new shoes!

Today I will do an in-depth review of the Toyo Open Country R/T, it is a hybrid rugged terrain which means that it’s a mixed tread design between an all-terrain tire and mud-terrain tire. It was built by combing tread patterns from the Open Country A/T 3 and Toyo M/T. Utilizing both tires in their construction provides increased durability and off-road performance.

Hybrid tires are newer to the tire market and becoming more popular with manufacturers like Cooper following suit.

Now let’s see where this excels and some of the drawbacks!

Feel free to jump to any sections below if you want a specific review of this tire.

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Pros

Cons

Ratings

3.0

2.5

3.0

4.0

3.5

2.0

4.0

Wet Traction:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Dry Traction:

★★★★★ 4.0/5

Snow Traction:

★★★★★ 2.0/5

Ride Comfort:

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Ride Handling:

★★★★★ 4.0/5

Ride Noise:

★★★★★ 3.5/5

Hydroplaning:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Tread Life:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Value For $$$:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Traction - Toyo Open Country R/T

I will say hybrid tires are fun to review because when it comes to off-road traction, their capabilities are unmatched by the rest of the all-terrain market. Since this tire is built up from the mud and all-terrain tread designs, you will get fantastic dry traction.

When driving in dry road conditions, you will notice that it offers great traction, some of the best I have seen in off-road tires. The most consistent feedback I hear from consumers who have these tires on their vehicles is that stopping capability is unmatched compared to all-terrains and mud-terrains tires.

Do not buy these tires for any form of snow use!

They are not as terrible as their sister tire, the Nitto Ridge Grappler, but that’s not saying much. It can be dangerous in heavy snow since they do not come with a three peak mountain snowflake, the rubber compound is not designed to stay soft in sub-forty-degree weather.

The scalloped shoulder blocks help you in off-road mud, dirt, sand, and snow. Providing better off-road snow traction doesn’t help you when you are on the road with this tire. I feel like nothing can prevent these from sliding around in ice and snow conditions.

If you purchase these tires and live in heavy snow conditions, make sure you have a set of winter tires!

For wet weather use, they are safe. Given that you follow safe driving practices, depending on how heavy the rain is, you may find it as if you are on a slip-n-slide.

I have seen customers take them to local tire shops that provide siping services to add extra sipes improving their wet weather traction.

The Open Country R/T was designed for kicking mud and other off-road debris out of the tires using built-in stone and mud ejectors. This does you no good for wet weather traction.

This could be the tire for you if you’re looking for a great off-road tire that provides excellent dry traction and safe wet weather traction.

However, if you’re looking for an excellent year-round off-road tire with great snow traction, I recommend the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac. I had these on my Toyota 4Runner and found that when it came to snow, I couldn’t have felt any safer.

Traction Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Ride Comfort - Toyo Open Country R/T

The Toyo Open Country R/T is one of the market’s heaviest passenger/light truck tires. Using a 3-ply polyester construction on light truck applications and a 2-ply in P-metric helps this tire prevent punctures from rocks and other off-road debris.

It does not help provide on-road comfort. The downside of using so many extra plies in this tire makes it prone to sending road vibrations through the tire and up to the steering wheel/seats.

While driving on this tire, you will feel everything in the road, every bump, dip, crack, etc. If you are an avid user of off-road tires, this may not bother you, but beware, as it is much worse than your typical off-road tire.

The P-metric tires are not as rough on the road due to their lighter weight and lower ply construction, and it is designed for vehicles such as Toyota 4runners and half-ton trucks(Ram 1500s).

It doesn’t mean it’s the most comfortable rugged terrain tire, but if you want these tires and want to get the best possible ride comfort, given that it’s a safe vehicle fitment, the P-metric will offer that.

Ride Comfort Rating: 2.5/5

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Ride Handling - Toyo Open Country R/T

Having such a thick overall tire construction does have its benefits, with one of them being handling. Weighing so much helps this tire hunker down on the road and gives you confidence when maneuvering at high speeds.

How they designed the shoulder blocks feels like they’re literally biting the pavement.

Due to the extremely stiff sidewalls, thanks to its durable sidewall compound, when making sharp turns and sudden jerks, you will feel minimal body roll. Body roll is when the vehicle feels like it’s rolling over/tilting when making turns.

There’s no question, and I think it is a far superior handling tire compared to the Cooper Discoverer Rugged Trek and Nitto Ridge Grappler.

It gets even better when they hit the trails. I have heard nothing but great things from consumers saying how well this tire handles on their trucks/SUVs.

I am a little bummed that I never got the chance to have this set of tires on my 4Runner, I live near the Moab trail in Utah, and I would have loved the opportunity to take these puppies out there.

I recommend this tire when looking for a superior handling off-road tire.

Ride Handling Rating: 4.0/5

★★★★★ 4.0/5

Ride Noise - Toyo Open Country R/T

This is one of my nit-picky categories to review, as there is nothing more I can’t stand than loud tires. My hearing is bad enough as it is. I don’t need another reason not to be able to hear my wife talk on long road trips.

To my surprise, this is one of the quietest tires for off-road applications.

Combining a mud and all-terrain tire seems to provide a quieter ride. Toyo uses “optimized tread pattern arrangement,” a fancy wording for having the tread blocks integrated.

This pattern is also used on tires like the Nitto Ridge Grappler, which makes sense given that Toyo owns Nitto Tire.

Most good things have opportunities, and they are incredibly prone to cupping and irregular wear patterns due to the scalloped shoulder blocks. Cupping can generate so much noise you can hear the vehicle coming from a mile away.

Ensure all your vehicle’s suspension components are in good shape and perform proper tire maintenance to try and avoid these problems.

I recommend these Toyo tires if you like to take your daily driver on trails over the weekends. They offer quiet road noise and an excellent balance between traction for off-road conditions with good handling when driving around town or at higher speeds on city streets!

Ride Noise Rating: 3.5/5

★★★★★ 3.5/5

Hydroplaning - Toyo Open Country R/T

Hydroplaning can be extremely scary and unsafe, especially in more oversized vehicles, which are the majority of what I see these tires on.

Offering a deep open tread depth and heavyweight allows these tires to cut right through thick pools of water when brand new. I have had a few consumers tell me of experiences leading vehicles to lose traction in deep water slightly.

This could be from them not using safe wet weather driving habits, as I have also heard consumers tell me they have no problem.

When these tires start to wear down, they lose some of their hydroplaning resistance. They have minimal siping that disappears with tire wear, preventing them from adequately evacuating water when worn.

Due to the mixed reviews of hydroplaning resistance, I gave them a slightly above-average rating, as they offer safer hydroplaning resistance than the Cooper Discoverer Rugged Trek.

Hydroplaning Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Tread Life - Toyo Open Country R/T

There are not many tires like the Toyo Open Country R/T, but compared to the competition, you will see that they offer better tread life than the Ridge Grappler. However, they are not better than the Rugged Trek.

I have seen these tires get as little as twenty-five thousand miles and as much as fifty-thousand, which exceeds the treadwear warranty of forty-five-thousand miles.

Due to the wide range of miles I have seen on this tire, I can’t give it better than an above-average tread life rating. How many miles you receive out of this tire will heavily depend on what fitment they go on and your driving habits.

Regarding how well the rubber compound holds, I would expect five years on this tire before seeing signs of dry rot. More commonly, they wear out before they have a chance to age.

This tire offers a lot of benefits, however, if you were looking for better tread life, I would recommend the Cooper Discoverer Rugged Trek.

Tread Life Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Value For Money - Toyo Open Country R/T

Toyo tires have some of the most expensive rubber on the market, especially their M/T tires, this tire is no exception. I found this tire, on average, forty to seventy dollars more expensive than its competitors.

While comparing this tire in terms of off-road traction, I found it better than their competition in the Ridge Grappler and Rugged Trek tires. Overall traction was very similar, with these tires having the respective categories they do well in.

With all other factors combined, I believe you are getting above-average value, with the only tire offering better value being the Cooper.

The only way I see you getting the best bang for your buck is if you use this tire for what it was built to do, providing top-notch off-road capability.

Value For Money Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Final Verdict - Toyo Open Country R/T

The Toyo Open Country R/T tires offer aggressive sidewall designs, a big lug tread pattern, and extreme overall durability, making them great for towing and trail exploring. Putting these tires on your Jeep Wrangler will surely make it stand out from the crowd.

We saw where it had opportunities and where it excelled. The opportunities are snow and wet weather traction and ride comfort. If those things aren’t a concern for you, this could be a great tire choice.

To say these are the best tires out there would be an overstatement. Due to their high price and lack of lasting tread life, you will be spending a lot of money to replace them if you drive a lot of miles frequently.

I gave this tire a very average rating because of everything I talked about, but that’s not to deter you from purchasing this if you are looking for a strictly off-road performance tire.

While comparing it to the Nitto Ridge Grappler, Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac, and Cooper Discoverer Rugged Trek, I found that where one was lacking, another excelled. Hence, it’s up to you to decide what is most important. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all!

Meet Your Tire Expert

Joe Steffen

Joseph Steffen is a trusted expert in the tire industry, with nine-plus years of experience. He has worked as a tire installer, tire salesman, and more recently a writer for various companies, providing honest feedback and advice to those who need it.

Tire Recall Information

I found no active recalls on any tires in the open country line, with this line of tires rarely seeing recalls. I would be confident in purchasing any Open Country tires from Toyo as they manufacture them with high quality.

The Toyo tire I did find an active recall on was the Proxes A27, it is a minimal recall, but it is still unsafe as the recall could cause sections of the tread on affected tires to detach. Click this link for the brief on this recall for more information.

Warranty & Tire Sizes

Warranty Details

Tire Sizes

Warranty Details

Tire Sizes

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the Toyo Open Country A/T and Toyo Open Country R/T?

There are quite a few differences between the A/T and R/T, with the biggest being that the R/T is mud+snow rated. In contrast, the A/T comes with a three peak mountain snowflake rating. This means that the A/T can perform in sub-forty-degree weather without losing performance.

What does the R/T mean on the tire?

The R/T in Toyo Open Country R/T stands for rugged terrain. Rugged terrain means that it is a hybrid tire that consists of different tread patterns being combined to offer more versatility in certain conditions.

What is the difference between AT and MT tires?

A/T stands for all-terrain, while M/T stands for mud-terrain. All-terrain tires are designed for both on and off-road use, while mud-terrain tires are designed to be used in more extreme off-road conditions.