What are the stock tires?

I bought a low mileage 2021 SR5 TURD Sport a couple weeks ago and the tires on this thing are eh on dry and absolutely horrible on wet stuff. I’m curious if they’re the stock tires or not. They’re p275/55R20 Bridgestone Dueler H/L

 

Toyota uses different tires as OEM on different trim levels, but yes, the Bridgestone Duelers were the OEM tires on the TRD Sport.

 

Got it, thanks. I read a lot about how the stock tires sucked so I was curious if that’s what I still had on it or if the PO replaced crappy tires with new crappy tires.

 

If you want to stay with a highway tire, stock size, and best mileage and wet traction, I highly recommend the Michelin Defenders.

 

I will eventually move to something a little more aggressive. I do very little off-roading (mainly just driving around campgrounds or at the dirt bike track) but I need to have something more aggressive to show people how cool I am.

 

Some people just replace in kind so it is possible that it was replaced, depending on the miles you have on your truck. I only got 32,000 miles out of mine. I replaced it with Cooper AT3 XLTs and got 78,000 miles out of them.
Most people seem to get limited miles out of their OEM set, which led to long discussions on here about how OEM tires might be "special" tires made by different brands specifically for OEM use on new vehicles - optimized MPG, soft comfortable ride, etc.... but at the expense of long tread life. I don't know if there was ever conclusion on if that is true or not. But, on my current 2022 Tundra, it came with Falken Wildpeaks, but it is a different version of it, not the popular AT3 that a lot of people replace them with. On my Falkens I also only got 33,000 miles, and again replaced them with the Coopers.

 

Lol, well in that case, the Toyo Open County AT III or the Nitto Ridge Grapplers. Toyo and Nitto are the same company and excellent tires.

 

The stock tires aren't bad for an all season highway tire but that's about all their good for. Rain: adequate. Snow: aweful. I got about 45k out of mine. I have Kenda Klever AT2's and have been happy with them so far. (20k miles)

 

Yea the truck only had 14,500 miles when I bought it so I would be surprised if they were replaced already. Certainly a possibility though

 

I work for a tire company. I can attest that OE tires are different than RE (replacement) tires. We make the OE tire for Ram 1500 which is specific to only that vehicle. The replacement tire which is nearly identical is a different part number and slightly different design. This is the case across our entire brand. I cannot confirm though if other tire manufacturers do the same.

 

Then this is what you need.
SL rated for a better ride.
Much quieter and wears better than my BFG KO2s did.
Happy medium of a street and AT tire.
I run a 275/60/20..

Goodyear Wrangler UltraTerrain AT | Discount Tire

 

My 2016 came with 285/55/20 KO2s and my 2019 came with 275/55/20 Duratracs. Both were good although I think the KO2s held up better.

 

Curious, why do manufacturers do this? I'm assuming the final uncomplicated answer is money/profit. But why would a Toyo Open Country supplied on a manufacturer vehicle be different than a Toyo Open Country supplied by an after-market vendor (just an example as I don't know if Toyo does this or not, but I do know that several tire manufacturers do).

 

To make them lighter (for emissions and mpg testing) to make them cheaper (cause duh) and who cares how fast they wear out? Just come buy some new ones from us at the dealership! Kinda like the ink that comes with a printer.

 

In short, to obtain the contract from the auto manufacturer. Contracts = $$$. So we can earn the contract for Ram 1500 for example and the Ram factory will be buying a tire that has been engineered specifically for a Ram 1500. Weight, traction, wear pattern etc. Then at the same time, we will produce the same 275/55/20 that most half ton trucks use that isn't necessarily designed for just the ram but will apply to all mfg's. I'll do some digging today to see if I can find some data between equivalents of an OE and RE tire. I'm sure the production of the OE tire is cheaper than the RE tire. Including new product development and engineering costs.

 

You're not wrong at all lol

New ones at the dealership (lets say you're walking in and wanting to buy your next set of tires) wont be the OE tire but it'll be the replacement tire. Dealerships will obviously charge their massive upcharge too since they can and they will.

 

I bet tread depth on the OE tire is closer to passenger car spec than truck spec.

 

I'm guessing a "lower cost" rubber compound too, among other things.

 

What I got out of talking to some people here today is that OE tires are generally lighter and engineered to the specific vehicle based on vehicle weight. Main focus is for quietness, fuel economy and the EPA standards that the manufacturer of the vehicle has to meet.

 

Makes sense. Good info. Did they say what they're doing to make them lighter?

 

Thank you for the information.

 

Thanks for this information. My next question then is how can a regular consumer tell, if they go to buy a new set of tires, if they're getting an 'OE' version of a tire or the 'Replacement' version (which I'm assuming is a better quality product overall) other than taking the dealer/vendor's word for it?

 

The tire often has a tell in the tire labeling. For example the Wildpeaks on the new Tundras are Falken Wildpeak AT3W "A", not the regular AT3W ones. More street friendly. Anything Goodyear that comes on a vehicle OEM is trash. Trust me. Some research will reveal the differences in tread depth and tread wear rating. Anything under 400 is a low tread wear rating for a regular tire.

 

I’ll ask tomorrow!

 

I believe OE would only be shipping to the vehicle manufacturer. Dealers and other tire shops (Walmart, Sam’s, NTB etc) would all be ordering the replacement. There’s major tire distributors that purchase from tire manufacturers and then sell tires to small shops. These distributors are essentially middle men.

 

Exactly. 400 and lower tread wear rating is garbage.

 

As with any time talking to an engineer, I get the response of "It depends" followed by 15 minutes of data. Tires will have a SKU number as their identifier. OE and replacement tires have different sku's. So if you know what the sku is for the OE, then you'll know on your next set if it's the same or not. When I asked about purchasing tires from a dealer if they're OE or not, the response I got was, "possibly" lol so it's really up to the dealer if they want to stock OE or have other options available.

When I asked about compounds and weight @Black Wolf I got the response of "it depends" (see a trend here?) so OE is not always necessarily lighter or lesser compound. It's just different. Essentially OE tires are designed for the vehicle it's going on. So a prius will get a tire that will minimize rolling resistance and maximize MPG's while a Mustang would get a tire that will maximize performance and grip. It's all for maximizing sales. Ford won't put on a fuel sipper tire because it's direct competitor, the camaro, will have a performance tire.

 

Thank you