Replace oems for light off road use?

Hello everyone,

New member and new to off road driving.

Use case is transportation/exploring within national forests (Wenatchee-Okanogen, near Chelan WA) sticking mainly to forest service roads (some of which are high clearance vehicle recommended). I'm not going to be doing recreational off roading or seeking out challenges intentionally, but I don't want to get stranded either. These forests are huge (4 million-ish acres) and prone to wildfires. The area gets considerable snow in the winter as well.

Should I immediately upgrade the OEM Dunlops or just see if they're working out before swapping out for something more capable? If the latter, what are the go-to for OEM sized tires for this kind of use? I like the look of the KO2s (the white lettering would look good against my dark blue truck lol) but that probably shouldn't be a primary consideration

Thanks!

 

I'd switch to an A/T tire regardless but thats just me.

 

The Dunlops on my '21 were horrible in my short experience with them.

 

Falken Wildpeak AT3 or MT version

 

Welcome, scrap the Dunlop's for sure. Find the most aggressive A/T M+S you can, some are all terrain/mud terrain hybrid actually. Stay away from mud terrain as a daily driver. Most importantly, forget KO2's they are cliche garbage

 

I love my KO2's, to each his own. Definitely you will benefit from a dedicated A/T tire, and stay with the stock size and there won't be any issues. A P-metric will give a better ride than and LT rated tire, but will be less durable. I'm not sure why Toyota continues to use the Dunlop's- they don't do anything well.

 

Drive those Dunlap's in the rain or snow, and you will wish you had different tires. Falken Wildepeak AT3's for the win. These are 275's.

 

agreed. The Dudlops are only good for dry weather

 

Have you owned KO2 competitors? You won't say you love KO2's after running legit competition

 

OP, at the risk of being shamed by the all terrain advocates, I’ll give you a different opinion and remember it’s probably only worth what you pay for it..

I have a 2021 OR with the OEM Dunlops and will be changing to all terrains in the next month or so as I get my rig ready for a summer trip to Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho.

I’ve been running the OEM Dunlops since my rig was new and have done several hundred miles on forest service roads in North Georgia and North Carolina and I’ve not had any issues with the tires. Note that the forest service roads I’ve been on were in reasonably good shape. Also, I attended a 2 day off road driving course in Uwharrie, North Carolina hosted by Overland Experts where I was exposed to a multitude of obstacles that the Dunlops handled just fine with highway air pressure. The obstacles included moderate creek crossings, a few muddy low lying trails, moguls, moderate rock gardens, a few off camber ditches and a few steep climbs.

I didn’t have any problems negotiating these obstacles with the Dunlops fully aired up. The object of the course was to teach driving skills in your vehicle as equipped. I was taught how to use what you have….

As I said, I’m upgrading to all terrains for some serious “out west” trail running this summer but would not hesitate to continue to use the Dunlops if I was only planning to drive some mild forest service roads occasionally. I don’t think they are as bad as some say for the weather we have in Georgia. If it snowed much here, I would likely have a different opinion.

that’s my $.02…. YMMV..

Cheers,
Bob

 

@BobbyB, I think it very much depends on the substrate where you live and drive.

Here in the Eastern Sierras and Nevada desert, there is no way in hell I would venture off-road in any serious way with the stock Dunlops.

Big, sharp rocks everywhere. They wouldn't last an hour.