Factory Falken AT3's only getting around 18,000 miles

Has anyone had any issues with the Falken AT3 tires getting VERY short life span? I just changed mine today, and at 15,000 miles, I had 4/32 tread left! I generously estimate that I would have gotten another 3,000 miles at best! I never mistreated these tires and religiously rotated every 5,000 miles. My truck was brand new when I got it. Never wrecked, never driven hard by any stretch and never saw a burnout. I was disappointed to the point that I didn't even consider replacing them with replacements of the same tire.

I just want to know if anyone else has seen this type of problem. Thanks.

 

I’ve heard of pretty poor performance and longevity from the OEM “Mildpeaks.” They are reportedly both a softer compound and shorter tread depth than the consumer grade Falken Wildpeaks, which I’ve heard great things about. I’m at about 7k on my stock Falkens and am not nearing replacement yet, but can already see wear.

 

If you bought them new, they have (had) a 55k warranty and paperwork for that usually comes with the vehicle. At least both my Toyota's came with it. Never heard of those wearing THAT poorly. They weren't AT3WA's by chance were they? Those were developed as OEM tires for RAM and were not as robust ast AT3A's for better fuel economy numbers on their trucks, but they still should not have worn out that quickly.

You might want to read this article: https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2023-toyota-tundra-trd-pro-yearlong-review-update-6-tire-test/ According to this, Falken and Toyota engineered that tire again for their oem specs trying to increase MPG, ride comfort, cabin noise, etc.

What I really find interesting is that when the guys in this article swapped out for regular non-oem Wildpeaks, their average fuel economy went from 15.3 to 13.3. That is worse than I get with my 2020 Tundra V-8 running Falken Rubitrek tires. I average 16 according to my truck's computer and lost only about 0.5 MPG from the OEM Michelin LTX AT2's that came on it and the Rubitrek's are quite a bit more aggressive. I have about 10k on these Rubitrek's and they look almost new.

 

I'm not really sure, to be honest. All I know is that they were OEM 20 inch Falken AT3's that came on a 2023 Tundra TRD Off-Road brand new. If I were one to go out here and do burn outs and other rather stupid things that obviously compromise the life of tires. I would completely understand. As it was though, they lasted from 15 February 2023 until now, late April 2024. 15,000 miles was what is on the truck, which I have owned since new. I told the guy who did my lift to take them and do whatever he wanted with them, but just don't put them back on my truck! Every 5k miles, I had them rotated by Toyota. There was even wear, but excessive wear. With only 4/32 left on them, they were in the yellow zone still, but bearing down on the red zone quick. With wear like that, I'll NEVER flat out buy a set of tires by Falken!

 

Well, I completely understand your frustration, but honestly, it is misplaced by swearing off any tire manufacture based on any OEM product they produce. It is the vehicle manufacturer who makes demands of the tire manufacturer to comply with their specs for their OEM tires, or they don't get the contract. Falken just produced the tire Toyota wanted so they could meet CAFE/MPG goals amongst other things in order to make the truck more appealable to buyers. That's why the guys in that article lost 2 mpg switching to a non-oem tire. No way Toyota was going to meet the standard with a tire off the shelf. The reality is, today no OEM tire is all that good, no matter who the vehicle or the tire company is. You can find all kinds of anecdotal evidence of that all over these forums.

 

I have never heard that there are different specs until recently, but I am also very new to forums. It looks as though companies would be wary about putting their name on a "less than" product. I build decks for a living and would never in a million years dream of putting my name on an inferior deck. That is NOT how you stay in business! It surprises me that tire companies would be willing to compromise their name for the long run just to make a bit more money in the short run. I have learned this in the business....... If you build someone a good deck, they will tell 3 or 4 people. But having seen terrible decks built by others, the owners had to have told 100 people or more! Word of mouth is either your best friend or your worst enemy. As for me..... I'm hell bent on keeping it my best friend!

 

Hey, I totally get it. You'd think for what a PRO costs, the last thing you should have to worry about is less than premium tires. I suppose an argument could also be made to put some blame on government since the manufactures are trying every trick they can find to squeeze out any advantage they can get over the other guy by meeting or exceeding the CAFE standards. That's why you see things like when VW lied about their diesel engine efficiencies and had to pay hefty fines.

 

You are correct! Some of the regulations are just unrealistic. Face it..... burning a fossil fuel is bad, but that's where we are at. It isn't sustainable and it is anything but good for the environment. I thank God daily that I won't be here in 100 years to see the mess everyone is in. It's liable to be a Waterworld situation, complete with "smokers" and people with gills!

 

@WhiteDevil1978 watch the first 3-ish minutes. It's about motorcycles, but it applied here as well.

https://youtu.be/Tv97i_-V7hA

 

I’m changing out my Falkens next week for the AT4W. The 3s last me 67k miles on my 1 ton with some aggressive towing for probably 20k of that 67k. Probably just got a bad set from overseas. You can request tires from the US that are made in Buffalo NY. Up the road from me. I would swear them off just yet

 

That was actually so good, I watched the whole thing.

 

It's definitely good info, and explains things that many don't think about. I was just noting the first couple minutes as it directly deals with tires and why OEMs are usually not as good as what you buy later.

 

I watched it too! What a-holes!