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Last updated 7/18/2024 - Originally published 7/18/2024
Written by SimpleTire
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Light trucks, Jeeps, crossovers, and SUVs are everywhere, and in most cases, all-season tires are just fine for all the same reasons that people who drive sedans and minivans love them. All-season tires will deliver dependable traction year-round with long treadwear, capable handling, a quiet, comfortable ride, and civilized road manners. However, if your truck is equipped with 4WD and you need to get off the pavement in mud, snow, gravel, or loose dirt (or if you have to negotiate severe winter conditions), you’re likely to find out pretty soon that those all-season tires are going to fall short of getting the job done for you. Modern all-terrain tires are designed for the best of both worlds: durability, off-road performance, and tame and predictable street behavior.
Tire manufacturers’ design teams develop them around the horsepower, torque, center of gravity, weight, handling, and braking properties of modern trucks and SUVs. Though durable and tough, with confident traction off the highway, these tires can still deliver the kind of ride quality and road manners on a long road trip that won’t leave you exhausted from a teeth-rattling, noisy, and droning ride.
Today we’re going to look at the Toyo Open Country A/T III and Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar. These are both premium all-terrain tires from top brands, with a lengthy reputation for quality and performance, and both are loaded with top-quality materials, great features, and innovations. In the course of this head-to-head comparison, you’ll see us refer several times to the SimpleScore numbers for each tire. If you aren’t familiar with SimpleScore, it’s the system that the team at SimpleTire came up with to give you a quick overview of a tire’s performance and value. We look at reviews, specs, and other data points, then take that information and process it down to a 1-10 numerical value for the categories of handling, traction, and longevity, as well as an overall average SimpleScore for any given tire. For the Toyo Open Country A/T III and Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar, the SimpleScore numbers are as follows:
Like with any 1-10 rating system, anything with a SimpleScore of 9.0 or better is obviously delivering some pretty good performance and value in that category. The Toyo and the Goodyear are both very capable tires, but of course, SimpleScore is designed as a 30,000-foot view that doesn’t go into detail on a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. While the Toyo and the Goodyear are both great tires, they have some key differences that we’ll take a closer look at in this head-to-head comparison.
Kicking things off with the Toyo Open Country A/T III, let’s just note right out of the gate that this is an excellent choice for a 4x4 vehicle; it’s the kind of tire you should think about for the grip and durability that you need to get you through fun adventures on sand, snow, mud, or rocks. That kind of traction and control off-road doesn’t necessarily mean you have a serious compromise on the ride comfort, sharp handling, civilized road manners, and low noise that you’d expect with premium all-season tires. That might sound like a tall set of expectations, but that’s exactly what you can expect with an all-terrain tire like the Toyo Open Country A/T III. The internal construction details of the Open Country A/T III include a polyester casing, two steel belts, a spiral-wrap polyamide cap layer, and a durable cut-and-chip-resistant tread compound.
Toyo covers the Open Country A/T III with an up-to- 65,000 mile manufacturer tread life warranty, which we figured was worthy of a SimpleScore of 8.9 for longevity. The tire’s symmetric all-terrain tread features a high void ratio, meaning it easily sheds stones, mud, and debris from the tread grooves as the wheel turns, so there’s always a clear section of tire to dig in. The Open Country A/T III also is designed with an extra-deep initial tread depth for long wear as well as traction. It comes as no surprise that the Toyo Open Country A/T III has the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake certification for severe winter service (SimpleScore of 9.8 for traction). Cornering, braking, and steering response are also direct and sharp, thanks to the shoulder design, sipe pattern, and stable internal construction of the Open Country A/T III for a SimpleScore of 9.3. All in all, the Toyo Open Country A/T III is a robust, capable choice in an all-terrain tire, with performance that’s equally in its element on- or off-road.
Just from the model name itself, you’d expect the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar to be one rugged, durable tire with robust performance off the pavement, and you’d be right on the money with that. The Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar is designed with two high-tensile steel belts over a polyester casing and a double layer of spiral-wrapped DuPont Kevlar cord to stand up to cuts and punctures, as well as an enhanced load rating. It also features a cut-and-chip-resistant tread formulation (with an even more heavy-duty rubber compound for Pro-Grade versions of the tire) and is protected by a 60,000 mile warranty for a very solid SimpleScore of 8.6 for longevity. With its deep tread depth and aggressive all-terrain block tread, the Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar has the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service and receives a very strong SimpleScore of 9.6 in the traction department. The Kevlar-reinforced Durawall sidewall and shoulder mean more than just off-road durability – it also helps deliver the rigidity you need for handling and steering response that is sharp and precise, for a handling SimpleScore of 9.2. Long wear, dependable traction, and a quiet, controlled ride – that’s what you can expect with this great all-terrain tire from Goodyear.
When one tire has a SimpleScore rating of 9.8 for traction (the Toyo) and the other has a 9.6 SimpleScore (the Goodyear), our job as reviewers gets pretty tricky. Both tires have aggressive all-terrain tread patterns with well-designed systems of lugs, tread blocks, and sipes. Both tires are 3PMSF-rated for severe winter service. When the margin is that close between the two tires, we end up turning to consumer reviews to make the call, and reviews for the Toyo indicate a better level of grip on pavement and a slight edge in performance for muddy or loose-dirt terrain. It’s a heck of a close call, but our decision is:
ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country A/T III
So how do the Toyo and the Goodyear rank for handling as far as SimpleScore ratings? The Toyo comes in with a SimpleScore of 9.3, vs. 9.2 for the Goodyear. The stable internal construction, shoulder design, and interlocking network of sipes for the Toyo Open Country A/T III give it the rigidity and stability that it needs for cornering that’s predictable and consistent and steering response that’s direct and precise. Neither the Toyo nor the Goodyear are going to have the kind of nimble handling and cornering you’d expect with an automotive performance tire, obviously, but reviews and specs indicate that the Toyo has a definite edge in this department. Our decision is:
ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country A/T III
Now let’s talk about longevity, with Goodyear showing a SimpleScore of 8.3 vs. 8.9 for the Toyo. This is one of those instances where the limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty tells the whole story: the Toyo has a limited manufacturer that ranges from 50,000 miles to 65,000 miles, whereas the Goodyear has a 60,000 mile coverage. That’s enough to tip the scales in favor of the Toyo Open Country A/T III, and our decision is:
ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country A/T III
Ask yourself, what do you really need out of your 4WD-equipped truck or SUV? If you go off-road regularly, live in a rural area with ranch roads, oilfield lease roads, or logging trails, or if you live in a part of the country where you have to deal with rough winter weather and snow that lingers on the roads for days or weeks, a premium set of all-terrain tires is a good choice. The Goodyear and the Toyo are both 3PMSF-certified for difficult winter conditions and are capable of getting you around when all-season tires give up. They’re also durable and dependable enough to excel in rough off-road conditions but are civilized enough to not drive you nuts with road noise, vibration, and twitchy handling on a long road trip. Both tires offer good warranty coverage and are capable and composed for everyday driving duties, so if that sounds like your situation with your truck, we’d recommend either the Goodyear or the Toyo without reservation.
Here’s where the rubber meets the road (yes, pun intended, sorry in advance). The Goodyear Wrangler line has been one of the most respected tire families in the business for decades, and the Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar is a great example of why that’s the case. It’s a tire that’s designed to perform in some very difficult situations, with dependable traction and control in snow, loose dirt, thick or soupy mud, sand, or gravel. It’s very capable and can definitely deliver and meet expectations on all of those, but the Toyo outranks it on all of the SimpleScore categories. Toyo’s engineers clearly did some things right with its design, starting with its heavy-duty tread compound and including its extra tread depth, redesigned footprint, reinforced shoulder, and pretty much the entire package.
As strong of a performer as the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar is, it’s our opinion here at the SimpleTire team that the Toyo Open Country A/T III presents a better value and bang for the buck. With that in mind, here’s a look at the prices: the Toyo Open Country A/T III is available for $162.81, as against $163.96 for the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar. Not much to choose between then in terms of prices, is there?
Still not sure which tire to buy? Fortunately, SimpleTire is here to help, and our helpful agents will be more than happy to assist you in selecting the right tire for your ride and budget.
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