For the last 12K miles, I have been running Toyo Open Country HT2 LT285/75R16 tires on my H3 (2007 Base, Manual) which I originally purchased to replace the (extremely worn out/dry rotting) BFG KO2 35" tires that came with the vehicle when I purchased it about a year ago.

I recently removed the Toyos (not on bad terms, they are simply going on another vehicle) and replaced them with a set of Rocky Mountain All Terrain LT285/75R16. I searched the internet high and dry for reviews/ratings on these tires, and other than a couple of forum posts, I couldn't find very much info on them. I figured I'd do my own write up in case anyone is interested in getting these for their H3.

I do not in any way shape or form work for Discount Tire or Rocky Mountain Tires.

Manufacturer/Location: Rocky Mountain Tires was founded in 1957, and have factories in Grand Junction Colorado, and Dayton, Tennessee. I was extremely happy to hear that these were made in the USA.

Price: For a set of 5x, out the door I paid $896, which I was more than happy with. This included a 5% discount; without it, you would be looking at roughly $940.

First Impressions/Road Noise/Ride Quality: After installation, inflating them to 42 psi, and getting out on the highway, the first thing I noticed is there is virtually.......zero road noise. I was expecting there to be much more since the tread is a lot more aggressive than the Toyo HT2's (it is an all terrain tire after all), but at 65 mph, I could barely notice a difference between the two. Regarding ride quality, I have nothing negative to say about these at the moment; about the same feel as the Toyo HT2's, and are certainly smoother riding than the KO2s that I originally replaced (to be fair to the KO2s, those tires were at the end of their service life, and were 35" vice 33", so it is not exactly an apples to apples comparison). Time will tell if the noise increases/ride quality decreases with time/age, but first impression-wise they definitely exceeded my expectations.

Adverse Weather/Off Road Traction: TBD, I have not yet taken them off road; expect an update to this thread once I have the chance to get them down and dirty.

Fuel Economy: On my trip up to Discount Tire (~2 hours from me), I averaged 19.3 miles/gal with the Toyo HT2's at 65 mph with the cruise control on (ironically this was the best fuel economy I've ever gotten on these tires). On my return trip with the Rocky Mountain's, I averaged 16.9 miles per gallon, also at 65 mph with the cruise control on. That is a pretty big split between the two, however there are a couple of considerations as to why I think this doesn't quite give the full story.

i. On the trip up with the Toyos, it was barely 60F, and I could get away without using the air conditioner at times (cycled it on/off about every 2-3 minutes, so it was on roughly 50% of the time). On the return trip, the temperature jumped to 70-75F, and the air conditioner was on the entire time; I didn't feel like becoming immersed in a pile of sweat while driving home.

ii. Since I was returning with the original Toyo HT2 tires (56 lbs a piece, 5x tires), I had an extra 280 lbs of weight in the car on the return leg.

iii. On the return leg home, there was a considerable increase in wind noise when compared to the first leg despite traveling at the same speed of 65 mph. On this leg, I was traveling relatively East-->West, and the winds in my area are generally out of the West (especially as the temperature increases throughout the day). With that in mind, it seemed that I had a slight headwind on the way home, which certainly doesn't do any favors in regards to fuel economy, especially on the H3.

Bottom Line: While there was a decrease in fuel economy when compared to the Toyo HT Tires, the Rocky Mountain tires still averaged a respectable 17mpg at 65mph.

Appearance: Certainly subjective, but here is where I think these tires really shine; I feel they certainly look the part on the H3. See the attached photos.

Installation/Service: Discount Tire (to my knowledge, one of the only places you can purchase these tires from) provided excellent customer service to me (Hoover AL location) and gave me several calls throughout my work week to help me set up/verify my appointment. The staff were very friendly. As far as installation goes, I was in and out in less than an hour.

Balancing: One thing I noticed that I thought was a little strange (and one of the only potential "others" with these tires) was the amount of weights that were on my wheels after installation. With the Toyo Tires, I only had 1-2 small weights on each wheel (don't recall the exact oz, but they were very small and maybe an inch in length). With the Rocky Mountain tires, I now have 1x much larger weight on one wheel, 2x large weights on the second wheel, and 3x large weights on the 3rd/4th wheels (haven't checked my spare tire yet). Discount Tire made no mention to me that these were hard to balance, or anything suggesting otherwise, but there is definitely more weight on my wheels than before. Whether this is necessarily a red flag or not I am not sure (never installed my own tires before), but as of now it does not seem to affect the ride quality.

Overall: So far, in the few trips I have done with them, these tires have treated me well with excellent ride quality, almost zero road noise, and respectable fuel economy. Off road/adverse weather traction is TBD at this point. At this moment, I would recommend them to anyone looking for a new set of 33" All Terrain tires, especially if you're on a budget.

If anyone has any experience with these tires, I'd love to hear it. Regardless, I hope all is well with everyone, and that everyone has a great weekend ahead.

 

It is amazing they are made in the US. I've never heard of that brand. Thanks for the info.

 

Cheap Discount Tire house brand made by Falcon for them. You can do your own research on where Falcon makes their tires and where their factories are located.

 

Not that aggressive of a tread pattern so they should not be very noisy. Also most tires, especially offroad tires tend to be much quieter the first few thousand miles and get louder as they wear more, at least in my experience. That is across multiple brands of tires. Main thing is that you are happy with your purchase.

 

Quick update after 12,500 miles. So far I have done two tire rotations (every 5K miles since new), and I have ran the spare as well, so every tire has seen some action so far.

Road Noise- These tires have a little bit more noise now than when I first purchased them, which really became apparent after about 10K miles. Certainly not anything mind blowing, but there is a very subtle (but noticeable) "hum" that occurs right around 40-45 mph. After you get to about 60-65 mph, the wind noise from the H3 more or less covers up the tire noise for the most part. For anyone who has worked on front or rear differentials, the noise is similar to a rear differential that howl's from a gear pattern being ever so slightly too deep. In my very limited experience with BFG KO2's, I'd say these (Rocky Mountain tires) are somewhat louder than the noise of a HT tread tire (effectively zero road noise) but a little quieter than a KO2 that is not brand new. All in all though, I would not consider the amount of noise enough to detract anyone from buying these if looking for a budget tire.

Ride Quality in my vehicle is still very acceptable for such an affordable tire; I typically run these around 38-40 psi, and the ride is certainly on the "softer" size of things; almost "cushiony" to a point.

Performance in Heavy Rain - zero issues whatsoever. That said, the H3 is very forgiving in virtually all weather conditions, so it's hard to determine how much of this is due to the tire being well designed to handle water, and how much is it simply the H3 being a tank of a vehicle at roughly 5000 lbs. I won't be so naive to say "oh this tire can handle everything, it never slips in the rain whatsoever, best ever, buy it!", but I will say for it's application in the H3, these tires do not detract the H3 from driving in the rain.

Performance Off Road - I have never taken these to Hells Revenge in MOAB or anything crazy like that, but I have taken them on the occasional "Blue" rated trails around Mississippi and Alabama and forged several 8-10" deep mud puddles with no issues. Similar to the heavy rain discussion, it's subjective to whether this is due to the H3's platform alone, or if the tires are the reason I've never gotten stuck. I would say these tires are a decent choice for light to moderate off-roading. I'm certain they could handle more than what I've thrown at them, but I've never tested them with my own vehicle.

Fuel Economy is another discussion; don't think you'll get anything even remotely close to an HT tire with these. My first tank of gas (brand new) was 16.9 mpg; since then, the absolute most I have ever gotten was about 17.2 mpg, and that was with about 8K miles on the tires with the tread already beginning to harden. For every day city driving I average about 15 mpg (I-5, manual transmission), and with a mix of highway and city driving I average about 15.5-16 mpg. 17 mpg can only be achieved with pure highway driving at roughly 60-65 mph.

For comparison, with something like the Toyo HT2 LT285/75R16, before I switched to the Rocky Mountains, I was consistently able to achieve 17-17.5 mpg on the highway from 65-70 mph with the AC on full blast, and generally about 16 mpg in city driving. Certain times I was able to get 18-19 with the HT2s, and even my wife's H3 Alpha with the Toyo HT2's was able to achieve 16.2 mpg on the highway at 65 mph. Bottom line, if you're concerned about fuel economy, I would certainly not buy these tires. 17 mpg is about all you can expect from these, and I would say with confidence these average a solid 1-2 mpg less than an HT tire of the same size.

Wear - So far, I've done 2x tire rotations (once at 5K, and once at 10K). There have been no adverse wear effects, and no significant wobbles/weird noises/etc. while driving. This is an extremely general blanket statement I know, but I have not measured the amount of wear with a tire wear gauge or a penny, etc. The wear appears to be consistent across the entire width of the tire, and not limited to the inner/outer side, etc.

Safety - There has been a post on reddit about this tire blowing out in a Toyota Tacoma, which was posted about 6x months ago. I cannot tell from the picture whether a) this is a P-rated or an LT-rated tire and b) what tire size it is. Most Tacoma's seem to run somewhere in the 265/70R16 or 265/65R17 range, so I'm guessing it was a similar size to the LT285/75R16 that I'm running on my vehicle. I have not been able to find any more posts online about these tires blowing out, but I will certainly not discredit the pictures on the reddit post.

All in all though I've had good results with my LT 285/75R16 tires.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ToyotaTacom...ng%20on%20them.

 

According to the Reddit poster, he was running 32psi. Sounds low to me, but I don't know what size or load range those tires were, so...

 

Where did you ride in Alabama?
Thanks for the review details!

 

Not a problem at all.

If you search on an App called onX Offroad, there is a blue rated trail/back road called USFS #724 just a little bit Southeast of Tuscaloosa. It’s not an off-road trail like something you’d see at an off-road park, but it’s dirty/rough enough with some (unexpected) steep parts as well. For me it was more of a “hmm, I wonder where this leads too….lets find out” type of thing. All in all it wasn’t a difficult trail.

I’ve attached some pictures.

Are you in Alabama, or the surrounding area? If so, got any good for trails? I’ve been wanting to try either Morris Mountain or Stony Lonesome at some

 

I'm in north AL. The only off-road park I've been to is Hawk Pride in NW AL.