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Last updated 10/30/2024 - Originally published 10/30/2024
Written by SimpleTire
Are you acquainted with the highway-terrain category of light truck and SUV tires? A useful way to think of highway-terrain tires is that they have a lot in common with all-season passenger tires. In the passenger tire world, all-season designs take up 84 percent of the market, and for good reason. Passenger all-season tires are a one-stop-shopping solution with great wear properties, a generous limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty, handling that’s predictable and capable, composed road manners, year-round traction, and a quiet and refined ride. They’re the Gerber Multi-tool of the tire world, and though highway-terrain tires have a lot in common with all-season tires as far as designs and performance parameters, they also have beefed-up construction and tougher tread compounds to handle the extra weight and power of a truck. Trucks and SUVs are everywhere you look these days, they’re now assigned to the family-car role that used to belong to sedans and minivans (and station wagons a generation ago), but even many 4WD-equipped trucks spend almost their entire service life on pavement. That makes highway-terrain tires a good option for many drivers, just like all-season tires are for drivers of sedans and minivans.
Today, in this head-to-head comparison, we’re going to be taking a look at the Firestone Transforce HT2 and Toyo Open Country H/T II. In the course of this comparison review, you’ll see us refer to SimpleScore numbers for both tires; if you aren’t familiar with SimpleScore, it’s a proprietary rating system devised by the SimpleTire team to give you a quick, comprehensive idea of a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. We look at the tire’s technical information, the specs, manufacturer information, customer reviews, and other data points to come up with 1-10 numerical values for the categories of traction, handling, and longevity, along with an overall average SimpleScore. In the case of the Firestone and the Toyo, the SimpleScore numbers shake out like this:
Firestone Transforce HT 2:
- Traction: 8.2
- Handling: 8.4
- Longevity: 7.5
- Overall average SimpleScore: 8.0
Toyo Open Country H/T II:
- Traction: 8.4
- Handling: 8.5
- Longevity: 9.1
- Overall average SimpleScore: 8.6
As you can see, these are two premium highway-terrain tires that compare well to each other and get high marks all around, but as handy as SimpleScore is, it’s still the 30,000-foot view that doesn’t really get into the details of each tire. Let’s go in and take a closer look at this Firestone Transforce HT2 vs. Toyo Open Country H/T II tires comparison review:
Toyo Open Country H/T II tires
Toyo’s Open Country H/T was already a known quantity, and with the Open Country H/T II, Toyo built on that success with updates and upgrades to ensure that it lives up to Toyo’s reputation for quality, performance, and value. The Open Country H/T II is designed from the ground up with a heavy-duty tread compound for extended tread life and beefed-up internal construction. Strategically placed multi-wave sipes enhance traction in wet or wintry weather and minimize uneven wear, and its system of expanding shoulder grooves, wide adaptive circumferential grooves, and angled/lateral grooves does a great job of offering dependable grip once the weather starts getting ugly. Like other tires from Toyo, the Open Country H/T II makes it easy to personalize your truck’s looks with two separate sidewall designs – classic on one side, and sporty on the other. It is also available with an outlined white letter sidewall on select sizes. The Toyo Open Country H/T II is covered by a limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty of 50,000 miles for P-metric sizes and 70,000 miles for LT sizes. SimpleTire’s price on the Toyo Open Country H/T II starts at $129 per tire.
Firestone Transforce HT2 tires
With the Transforce HT2, Firestone has designed a highway-terrain tire that’s durable enough for the demands of use on commercial vehicles. The Transforce HT2 gets a strong SimpleScore for traction thanks to its combination of circumferential grooves, sawtooth-edge sipes for winter grip, and lateral grooves, all working together to deliver the grip you need in wet or wintry conditions. Handling is another real strong point with this tire thanks to its tread design and shoulder that’s reinforced to resist the stresses of cornering that could otherwise lead to tread deformation and “tread squirm”. The Transforce 2 is designed with an optimized contact patch that puts the most rubber in contact with the road for even wear, with a rugged internal design and a tread compound that stands up against cuts, punctures, abrasions, and scuffs. The tread pattern and design of the Transforce HT2 also help save fuel over the life of the tire by reducing rolling resistance. The Firestone Transforce HT2 loses some points on longevity, partly because this tire doesn’t feature a treadwear warranty (many commercial-grade tires don’t). SimpleTire’s price on the Firestone Transforce HT2 starts at $160 per tire.
Toyo Open Country H/T II vs Firestone Transforce HT2 tires on traction
With SimpleScores of 8.2 for the Firestone and 8.4 for the Toyo, this one’s really close. Neither tire is built for off-road use, of course, and neither tire has the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service, so you probably shouldn’t count on either the Firestone or the Toyo to get you through several inches of snow. The Toyo edges ahead in the traction category thanks to a well-designed set of tread features; including its multi-wave sipes, slotted shoulders, and circumferential and angled grooves that all work together for dependable grip in wet, dry, or light wintry conditions. We’ll admit, though, that when the SimpleScore numbers are this close and two tires have such a similar set of traction features, it’s usually the customer reviews that move the needle on SimpleScore, and customers are telling us:
ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country H/T II
Toyo Open Country H/T II vs Firestone Transforce HT2 tires on handling
Traction and handling have a lot to do with each other. Think about it: if you aren’t getting a good grip with all four wheels when you enter a turn, your handling is likely to be a bit unpredictable with a tendency to oversteer or understeer. That can mean a vehicle that’s a little dicey to even keep under control at times, but that isn’t the case with the Toyo and the Firestone; they both come to the game with pretty solid SimpleScore numbers (8.5 for the Toyo, 8.4 for the Firestone). With both tires, handling is confident and predictable, if maybe not up to the crispness of a performance tire. Steering response is light and accurate, braking distances are short, and road manners are composed and civilized. Again, since things are so close here when it comes to design and performance, we defer this one to customer reviews and the customers are telling us:
ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country H/T II
Toyo Open Country H/T II vs Firestone Transforce HT2 tires on longevity
With a SimpleScore of 9.1 for the Toyo and a 7.5 for the Firestone in the handling category, this one’s an easy call. The lack of a limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty for the Firestone means that it pretty well gives up the game to the Toyo in this category, although Firestone does back their tire with an impressive suite of coverage (just not a mileage warranty). A 70,000 mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty for the Toyo is hard to beat any way you cut it, and our decision is:
ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country H/T II
When to use each
The question here is, what are your realistic needs and expectations for a set of light truck tires If you take in a lot of off-road adventures in mud, sand, loose dirt, or rough country with lots of obstacles, then these are probably not the best tires; instead, all-terrain or rugged-terrain tires would probably be a better option. If you have to deal with difficult winter weather every year and snow that piles up 3 or 4 inches deep and lingers on the pavement for days at a time, then the Firestone or the Toyo might not be the best choice. On the other hand, if you need a dependable set of tires, ones that are durable enough for commercial uses such as towing heavy trailers or hauling heavy loads (while still delivering great road manners, ride, and handling), then you won’t go wrong with the Firestone Transforce HT2 or the Toyo Open Country H/T II. These are tires that would be right in their element as replacement tires for vehicles like the Chevy Silverado 1500/2500, RAM 1500/2500, Ford F150/F250, Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Tundra, Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Acadia, Nissan Titan, Jeep Wagoneer, Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Land Cruiser, Dodge Durango and Honda Ridgeline.
Which one should you choose?
Here’s where things start to get tricky. As we’ve seen, both of these tires have their plus and minus points. The Toyo does outscore the Firestone in all the pertinent SimpleScore categories, but only by a whisker. Then the Toyo is the one to beat when it comes to longevity thanks to its manufacturer's tread life warranty coverage (compared to no tread life warranty for the Firestone), and that changes the dynamic when it comes to value in a pretty significant way. So let’s think about prices: $159.96 starting price ($639.84 for 4) for the Firestone vs. $128.33 ($513.32 for 4) for the Toyo. After taxes, installation, and fees, that comes out to a pretty considerable price spread between the two for the whole set of tires. Let’s just leave it at this: if you can afford the Firestone and put a high priority on its handling and traction properties (but are willing to live with no mileage warranty), then go with the Firestone. If you’re on a bit of a tighter budget, you should opt for the Toyo. You won’t really be making a bad call either way.
Still not sure which tire to buy? Fortunately, SimpleTire is here to help as our helpful agents are more than happy to assist you in selecting the right tire for your ride and budget.