New Yokohama A/T4 G018

Thank you. I think I'm going to give them a shot. I've been tempted by the KO3s, but man, they are heavy!
Hoping they work well for you in the snow! Sounds like you're happy with them in most other respects.

 

Are the loud on the highway? Have you used them in snow yet?

I can finally view them on Americas Tire in my size. It is both great and annoying they cost the same as the 265/75R16, it makes it harder to say no, but these will already be 10 lbs heavier than my old tires. Worrying about fuel economy on a 4runner is about as useful as patching the pool on the titanic, but I have to try.

 

Extremely quiet on the highway around 75mph. Still under 2k miles so I am still considering them new.

 

Update: Tires do very well in light snow. I am not experiencing any flat spots after being parked for several days. Also noticing that the tires are holding pressure. I am not having to add air all the time to maintain where I put them at.

 

Do these tires have full depth sipes (the little grooves in the tread blocks)? I read it has 3d sipes (when the width of the groove changes as the tire wears), but that doesn't mean full depth.

My old Goodyear Adventures have full depth which means wet traction doesn't drop off as much when the tire is nearing the end of its life.

Also any updates on performance? I'd be especially interested if you've gone in deeper snow since you last posted. And have you noticed any impact on MPG?

I'm getting tires very soon because I'm worried about tariffs.

 

I emailed Yokohama asking about the depth of the siping and got an unexpected reply:

"We cannot give full details on the tire construction, most of this type of information is proprietary to tire development.

We can say, the A/T4 has a variety of sipping depths. The sipping will wear out as tread wears, not all sipes have the same depth therefore some will wear out at different rates than others."
Lets dissect this statement, we can infer 2 things from it: 1. At least some siping isn't full depth 2. The performance will decrease significantly at some point when the siping ends. So to make a long story short, the answer is "no", it's not full depth unfortunately.

Notice what they didn't say, they didn't say when it wears out. So if one sipe pattern wears out within first 5% and the other first 10% of life, the statement they said above is technically correct. It does not guarantee that you'll have sipes for most of this tires life.

The cynical part of me believes they said this to avoid having to admit that it goes away quickly. It's not like rubber compound, if 75% of it disappears within 20% of life you better believe I'll notice, and you can bet I'd let everyone know about it. It could also disappear at 90% and 95% into the tire's life too but the fact it's vague makes me worry.

 

Unfortunately with any new product, the consumers willing to give those new products a try are treated like Guinea pigs. That being said, I just did my first 5000 mile and they still look brand new. I saw no signs of cupping or uneven wear. If amy negative issues arise, I will report them as soon as I notice them. I am not sponsored. I just wanted to try something different than the KO3s, AT4Ws, or AT3s that seems like everyone goes to even when they know the negatives that go with those tires but still get them like a cult following.

 

Just got these (while looking for go15s) to replace my old Toyo's ATs as well. Very, very smooth. As @Hilborn said, fantastic in the snow while driving around in this storm. Still sporting the E rated version so "relatively" loud, but not bad at all if you're used to that load rating with other brands. I only have maybe 300-400 on them so I cant speak to longevity, etc yet.

 

Deepest I've gone in these so far maybe 8 inches, but very good performance in snow and rain. Dry is smooth. Same impact of MPGs from my Toyos 285, they are heavy at 54 lbs and rolling resistance is fairly decent. So far, I'm sold on putting a set of these (255s) on my 96' vice the GO15s.

 

What made you choose these over the Toyo? Did the Toyo AT not perform well?

 

They performed great as well, got about 30k on them with 65% tread left. Wet handling became a somewhat noticeable even the wife noticed it slipping a bit, so decided to get something back for them when shopping around. Had great experience with the G015s on my old 4runner as well as our outback so that led me back to the brand honestly, so more personal preference.

 

This sounds pretty standard to me.

Is there a tire that has all of the siping full depth?

 

Only tire that comes to mind with full depth siping is the KO series

 

That's interesting because many seem to complain about wet traction reduction as KO's age.

I definitely feel it with my KO2's.

 

The KO2s came factory on my Wrangler. Dry roads and offroad they did very nice. Wet roads, snow and ice they became the weak link. Once they got about 20k on them, they started to cup and get loud regardless of the fact I rotated them every 5k religiously.

 

The Goodyear Adventure (which came out a long time ago) that I have has full depth sipes, the Toyo AT3 appears to have full depth sipes on SL tires (they change in shape however). All the firestone Destination and Bridgestone Dueler tires are full depth sipes, the Falken AT3 and AT4W have them, BFGoodrich T/A and KO3 have them, and that is just the AT category that I know about.

It was once normal for them not to be, though at this point it isn't new technology so I expect it on a tire I'm paying a lot of money for. The full depth sipes wont cancel out having less tread depth when the tire is old, it just lessens the effect.

 

So the sips do go all the way to the last 3/32 of the thread but they also will change shape and narrow once the start getting closer to the end of their thread life.

 

Just received my G018's in LT265/75R16. Tread depth is 18/32 and sipes are 16/32, so sipes go down all the way to 2/32 which is pretty much full depth in my opinion. Tire weight is 49.2 compared to claimed weight of 49.7. Currently $100 rebate on 4 or $125 on 5 when you sign up at https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/geolandar-a-t4

 

I decided to go with the Yokohamas. If Firestone offered the X/T or Bridgestone offered the Dueler Ascent in my size I would have taken them since they use full depth siping and meet all my criteria. But they don't. I decided that even if they aren't full depth they only end at the point where I should replace them anyway. It's good enough that I have other concerns, like the fact the Toyo AT3 is way old.

I pick them up tomorrow, but I wont install them until after I get an alignment after doing my LBJ and put my rebuilt CV axle in

 

Got mine today, they were made in Thailand. Using a sewing needle and a marker I probed the sipes and marked how far the needle went in comparison to the tread block. The center sipes felt less deep than the ones on the outer ones (which would be consistent with yokohama email.

What I do feel more confident in my redneck tire depth needle results was the sipe appeared to get less deep the closer to the edge of the block it got. Assuming my observation is accurate, the sipe will disappear from the outside of the tread block and work in before disappearing altogether.


The tires look nice, deep tread. I'll take a photo once their mounted. I plan to do the outlined lettering out.

 

Currently in Moab. Tires did great in loose sand and loose rock. Aired down to 20 psi. No serious offroading. Just light trails. They do like to pick up and throw rocks. They did very nice on the way here through the mountain passes during a light snow storm.

 

I installed them on my 4runner and I've driven them about 700 miles, highway with snow and rain. I don't think I asked anything that would separate a good tire from a bad tire.

These aren't the quietest tires, this is most noticeable at speeds 60 mph and above. There is a persistent low rumble, it's not intrusive like on a MT, but it's enough that you distinguish it over the engine noise with the radio off, on rougher surfaces it could be slightly worse. Even with how few miles I have under my belt, I feel confident with this verdict. This probably nets you a benefit elsewhere.

I did a lot of driving on highways covered in a half inch of snow, probably some ice, and some plowed roads. I never had it fish tail under acceleration, I was in 4wd and I was driving very cautiously. I did have these tires slide in the snow with some uneven skidding at 70% braking, important to note I don't have ABS.

I'll have to drive more before I can comment on other aspects. One thing I can safely say is these are much more off road oriented than the old G015 to the point they could coexist. The question is did Yokohama make these tradeoffs in a smart way so that you gain enough capability to make it worth the on road performance hit.

 

Final update:
I've done rain and gravel now. I tore around my town at night, doing the sort of stuff I wouldn't do with people around. I didn't have any fish tailing or slide outs. There is some flutter feeling going over some shallow standing water that collects in the grooves in the road cut by studded tires, but it's normally brief.

Gravel they did less good, the back wanted to wonder when I got up to 50, especially over washboard. Using 4wd or deflating tires could have helped, but dropping to 35-40 was enough to make them not sketchy over the bumpiest surfaces. The ride was harsh and jolty, but my suspension is worn because it's no different from OE tires. They toss gravel, but I expected worse, my old tires were much worse.

Fuel economy is so close to what I was getting before it's within the margin of other factors like mood, speed, weight, and weather. I track my fuel economy along with the type of driving, so I'm not going by feel or memory.

I haven't found any obvious flaws that would show themselves in normal driving. That is important because it's hard to tell from reviews if a tire is dangerously bad or just not as good as some other tire because they have to emphasize small differences to be useful. So what the first sentence of this paragraph means is I didn't find anything unacceptable in day to day driving that should overrule any personal preferences.