OEM Falken Wildpeaks — worst traction ever?

Of 9 Toyota trucks purchased in the last 40 years, these Falken Wildpeaks that came on my 2024 TRD are by far the worst snow traction tire of all others.
Truck barely moves in packed snow or icy roads in 2 wheel drive. Only slightly better in 4 wheel drive.
My luck is we are having record lake effect snow this winter in central NY.
Second worst OEM tire were Dunslops that came on a Tacoma.
I hope that Toyota will find a better tire for TRD for 2026.

 

Winter tires good sir. I take the Toyota OEMs off for the winter and drive em April to October or so. The Dunlops on my 4runner were terrible in snow and ice as well as the Tundras Bridgestones. Then once the Oems get to 6/32 into the bin.

 

Same experience here with the 20" O.E. Mildpeaks. We've barely had any snow this season so far, but what little we've had they've been terrible in. Can't wait to be rid of them.
Also: 2nd worst O.E. tires ever were the Dumflop runflats I had on an AWD Infiniti.

 

You are right Ponderosa, if I want top performance it means running true winter tires.
I just want something that approaches reasonable winter traction so I don’t have to swap the tires out twice a year and store them.
If I don’t trade to a 2026, most likely will replace with Michelin Defenders.
They were a great winter traction tire on my 2018.

 

I have dedicated steel rims with snow tires for the winter, we get our share of snow in NH. Buy some used steel rims and snow tires,there well worth it for safety..

 

I have non-OEM Wildpeaks on my '22. They're good enough in winter up here in the frozen wastelands of Hoth that I haven't felt the need for dedicated winters yet.

I do run studded Nokians on my Best Gen though.

 

I forgot about Nokians. From the snow experts in Finland.
Definitely will take into consideration next winter.

 

I got dedicated snow tires for the because I had a 76 mile round trip commute to work. Plus I like the fact OEM wheels do not get any salt.

 

I use my Best Gen for my commute, partly because of the winter tires.

 

the oem Falkens are garbage, their tread depth is 50% of a regular non-oem Falken AT3/AT4.

I quickly switched out the oem falkens for non-oem AT4s. They are great in snow, they suck in rain though. If I had a do-over again, i'd go non-oem AT3 (which worked very well before in rain and snow).

 

I believe the OEM falkens are not 3 peak rated. So that is probably why not great in the snow. I have the nonoem at4 and they are good. I think the at3w were better in snow but are similar in the rain.

 

Reference thread: AT3w versus AT3wa
https://www.tundras.com/threads/falken-wildpeaks-at3w-vs-at3wa.129671/

TLDR: (The "wa" is the OEM tire to stay away from.)

 

OEM Tires that came with the trucks are not designed for long term use. Sort of like the half full printer cartridges that you get with a new printer these days. I had OEM geolanders on my Tundra when purchased. Switched them out to Wildpeaks a few days after I brought the truck home. Cant complain, so far so good.

 

i do wish they had put in some proper AT tires on, for the price of the TRD Pro and what it stands for, it's a bit absurd they put on these POS Falken imitation AT3s

 

I replaced my quickly with KO3s. We've had ice, snow, rain, just about everything lately and they have performed great. I have about 2000 miles on them now.

 

You need to roll around with weight in the bed...it's suggested, for steroidal traction l, to put as many pounds in the bed as ones engine weighs in...my v8 weighs 447lbs and when I have x8, 60lb sand bags in, I can go anywhere in confidence...