Bridgestone as ultra vs michelin defender ltx ms

How is your experience with Toyo AT3 compared to Defenders?
What tire size you have and load?
How many miles you have the Toyo AT3?
Do you go off road?

More interested to learn about what's bad about Toyo AT3?
(Plenty of info how good they are. Very hard to find the other side. People tend only talk good even when they pay their own money.)

Thank you

 

I had them before the Michelin's, good for about 15K, then got so loud I got these and sold them off. If noise doesn't bother you, they are good to go.

 

This is for my TRD Pro, so

 

Kmeeg, I love the Toyo AT3’s but if you’re looking for negatives, I can list a few. Keep in mind, this is in comparison to the Defenders.

The Toyos are about 30% louder
The Toyos are rougher on pavement, less compliant
Even though the Toyos are very good in wet weather, nothing beats the defenders.
The Toyo’s are far more sensitive to changes in psi.
I lost about 1 mpg switching to the Toyos

Other than those items which I can easily live with, the Toyos are great tires.

Here’s some food for thought, if you’re primarily on road, the Defenders should be your pick as I believe they are a better crossover tire, mostly road to dirt, but are still very capable off-road. Simply put, the Defender is better off-road than the Toyo is on road.

 

Good info, def will keep that in mind. Thank you..

 

Thanks to Bulldog for the pic. They look great in my opinion

 

I am enamored with the Toyo's as my next tire as well and to Kmeeg's - point the Pro is already annoyingly noisy!

The Defender really seems to be a winner of a tire, but it looks like such a road tire for a 4WD 4R. Looks shouldn't matter, but they do - unfortunately!

We put Toyo AT3's on our 2013 Honda Pilot last year for our son to have in Bozeman, MT for school and he said the Pilot did incredibly well in the snow.

 

First off, I’m sure you didn’t put AT3’s on an Accord, but on the off chance that you did, please post a picture. That would be interesting.

The thing with the Defenders, just try not to look at them but instead, focus on how smooth they ride. I’m perfectly happy with my Toyo’s but I know I would be just as happy with Defenders. 2 completely different tires, but both great for their intended uses. The easiest way to choose would be to identify where you’d prefer the performance to be, on or off road.

 

Agreed....which is why I had to put a set of Ray's on mine

 

Ha! My bad! I meant to say Pilot. One of our other son's drives a Honda Accord.

 

I’m running Michelin LTX AT/2. They work great for me, on and off road.
Defenders:


AT/2:

 

Same here. AT2. Best tire I have had on the 4Runner.

 

New trucks this area often come with Michelin AT2's which drivers mostly take off at the dealership because that tire don't work well on ice or hard pack snow covered highways and aren't a good year round choice. Sites like Craigslist, Marketplace etc here are littered with inexpensive new and semi-used AT2's, pretty good summer and mud tire though.

 

Anybody have pics of the AT 2 on their 4R. It’s looks slightly more aggressive ok than the Defender in stock photo

 

I have used AT2s through Maine winters and they see lots of activity aired down in the North Woods. Perform very well for me. This will be the first winter with that tire on this specific truck. If you are looking for an aggressive look though, these are not your tires.

Link to not very great photos of the tires...

https://www.4runners.com/threads/5th-gen-4runners-in-scenic-locations.7967/page-83#post-385505

 

“Aggressive” tires look that way mostly due to those non-functional lugs on the sidewalls.
Here’s a couple of action pics.

 

Thank you. Those look pretty good. I have the same silver ORP. I think it helps if you can kind of guess what it’s going to look like ahead of time

 

Not well known but Michelin makes a 3 Peak winter tire with identical siping and tread block pattern to the Defender but with softer rubber compound for winter temperatures, siping is what makes Defenders work on ice roads though.
"The Michelin LTX Winter commercial light truck tire provides excellent winter traction and grip through snow, ice, slush, dry and wet weather conditions for safe driving winter after winter. The new 3-D Active Sipes, which includes over 1,000 biting edges, optimized contact patch and MaxTouch Construction, combine to deliver long lasting reliable snow mobility. A state-of-the-art cold-weather rubber tread compound called W/Max delivers optimized starting tractive grip and exceptional braking on ice, while providing firmness for wet and dry performance."
https://imgur.com/a/gcJtZUD

 

The sidewall lugs are certainly functional when aired down, and in mud. But, definitely just for looks if you never leave the pavement.