Toyo Open Country A/T III vs Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD tires

Light trucks, Jeeps, crossovers, and SUVs are all over the roads, and in most cases, all-season tires are a great choice for them, for all the same reasons that people who drive sedans and minivans love them. You can count on all-season tires for dependable traction year-round with long treadwear, capable handling, a quiet and comfortable ride, and composed road manners. But if your truck is equipped with 4WD and you need to get off the pavement in mud, snow, gravel, or loose dirt (or if you have to deal with severe winter conditions), you’re likely to find out right away that those all-season tires are going to be incapable of getting the job done for you.

Modern all-terrain tires are designed for the best of both worlds, durability and off-road mastery, along with sedate and predictable street behavior.

Tire manufacturers’ design teams develop these tires after taking into account the horsepower, torque, center of gravity, weight, handling, and braking properties of modern trucks and SUVs. They’re resilient with confident, durable traction off the highway, but can still deliver the kind of ride quality on a long road trip that won’t leave you reeling from a teeth-rattling, noisy, droning ride.

Today we’re going to look at the Toyo Open Country A/T III and the Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD. These are both premium all-terrain tires from prestige brands, with a lengthy heritage of quality and performance, and both are packed with top-quality materials, great features, and innovations. In the course of this head-to-head comparison, you’ll see us make reference to the SimpleScore numbers for each tire. At SimpleTire, we give you a quick at-a-glance idea of a tire’s performance and value by presenting 1-10 numerical values based on reviews, specs, and other data points that have been derived from handling, traction, and longevity. Additionally, we also provide an overall average SimpleScore for every tire. For the Toyo Open Country A/T III and Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD, the SimpleScore numbers are as follows:

Toyo Open Country A/T III

• Traction: 9.8
• Handling: 9.3
• Longevity: 8.9
• Overall average SimpleScore: 9.3

Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD

• Traction: 8.6
• Handling: 8.5
• Longevity: 8.7
• Overall average SimpleScore: 8.6

Like with any 1-10 rating system, any tire with a SimpleScore of 9 or better is obviously delivering some pretty good performance and value in that category. The Toyo and the Yokohama are both very capable tires, but remember, SimpleScore is designed as a 30,000-foot view that doesn’t go into the details of a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. While the Toyo and the Yokohama are both great tires, they have some key differences that we’ll take a closer look at in this head-to-head comparison.

Toyo Open Country A/T III tires

Any 4WD-equipped truck should be just as home off the pavement as on the highway, so here’s one of our best all-terrain tire choices. The Toyo Open Country A/T III is the tire you can rely on to get the job done for off-road excursions in sand, snow, mud, or rocks. That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to give anything away about the low noise, responsive handling, good road manners, and comfortable ride that you’d expect from some of the best all-season tires. That might all sound like a lot to expect and live up to, but the Toyo Open Country A/T III is just that kind of all-terrain tire. Toyo put durability as a top priority with the Open Country A/T III; it’s designed with a tough damage-resistant tread compound, polyester casing, two steel belts, and a spiral wrap polyamide cap layer. Toyo stands behind this tire with a limited manufacturer tread life warranty that goes up to 65,000 miles. The symmetric all-terrain tread features a high void ratio and stone ejectors to rid the tread of stones, mud, and debris easily, ensuring there’s always a clear section of the tread to dig in as the wheel turns. That extra-deep tread depth helps ensure traction along with extended wear. The Toyo Open Country A/T III has the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service. Cornering, braking, and steering response are also focused and quick without being overly touchy, thanks to the shoulder design, sipe pattern, and stable internal construction of the Open Country A/T III. The Toyo Open Country A/T III is a tire you can’t go wrong with in this tire size, with performance that’s equally capable on or off paved surfaces.

Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD tires

As an all-terrain tire for heavy-duty pickup trucks and SUVs, the Geolandar A/T XD is built to haul, tow, and perform on- and off-road. Yokohama designed the Geolandar A/T XD with a cut-and-chip-resistant tread formulation for outstanding durability in rough use and wraparound lugs at the shoulder onto the sidewall for enhanced lateral traction (good for clawing out of ruts). Yokohama’s GEO-SHIELD technology system reinforces casing and sidewall against impacts, cuts, and punctures for rugged durability, and its deep initial tread depth ensures long service and outstanding traction. A high-void all-terrain tread pattern with mud and stone ejectors to protect the casing and ensure there’s always a clear section of tread to dig in as the wheel turns, with hundreds of wavy sipes built into tread pattern to chew through snow and slush, cut through film of standing water. For durability, the Geolandar A/T XD has a dual-ply casing design with high turn-up at the sidewall and a stylized design that enhances appearance while protecting against damage. Its contact patch is optimized to distribute vehicle weight and forces of torque, cornering, and braking equally for long, even treadwear and excellent traction. The Geolandar A/T XD is Three Peak Mountain Snowflake certified for severe winter service.

Toyo Open Country A/T III vs Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD tires on traction

With a SimpleScore of 9.8 for the Toyo and 8.6 for the Yokohama in the traction department, this one’s not even close. Both tires have deep initial tread depth and both are 3PMSF certified for winter performance, but the sipe pattern, groove design, and self-cleaning aspect of the Toyo all work together for improved grip in dirt, sand, mud, or gravel. Reviews also point to the Toyo delivering better performance on pavement in wet or dry conditions, so our choice is:

ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country A/T III

Toyo Open Country A/T III vs Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD tires on handling

With a SimpleScore of 9.3 for the Toyo and 8.5 for the Yokohama, there’s not much comparison in the handling category. Tires need rigidity to resist the inertia and momentum of cornering while trying to change the vehicle’s direction. A tire that’s not rigid enough will experience “tread squirm” and deformation of the tread, sometimes with the inside of the tread leaving the pavement. The internal construction of the Toyo, with its high-tensile steel belts, a nylon cap layer, reinforced shoulder and sidewall, and extra-stiff tread blocks, helps with handling that’s predictable and precise and steering response that’s surprisingly nimble for an all-terrain tire. Our choice is:

ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country A/T III

Toyo Open Country A/T III vs Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD tires on longevity

In the longevity category, it’s just about always the limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty that tells the story. While the Toyo Open Country A/T III comes with tread life coverage that ranges from 50,000 miles to 65,000 miles, the Yokohama doesn’t have a tread life warranty at all. Both tires are durable and tough; we'd even say that the Yokohama is durable enough that it could be used for commercial service, but the SimpleScore numbers don’t lie. The scores stand at 8.9 for the Toyo and 8.7 for the Yokohama. Our choice is:

ADVANTAGE: Toyo Open Country A/T III

When to use each

When it’s time to buy tires, it is important to ask yourself what you need out of your 4WD-equipped truck or SUV. If you go off-road regularly, if you live in a rural area with gravel roads, ranch roads, oilfield lease roads, or logging trails, or if you live in an area where you have to handle rough winter weather and snow that lingers on for several days or weeks, a premium set of all-terrain tires are a good choice. The Yokohama and the Toyo are both 3PMSF-certified for difficult winter conditions and are both capable of getting you around in conditions where all-season tires are going to fall short. They’re also durable and dependable enough to prevail in rough off-road conditions but are refined enough to not drive you nuts with road noise, vibration, and twitchy handling on a long road trip. Both tires are capable and composed for everyday driving duties, so if that sounds like your situation with your truck, we’d recommend either of these tires.

Which one should you choose?

Here’s what it really comes down to. The Yokohama Geolandar line has been one of the most respected tire families in the business for decades, and the Geolandar A/T XD is a great example of why that’s the case. It’s designed to perform in some very difficult situations, with dependable traction and control in snow, loose dirt, thick or soupy mud, sand, or gravel. It’s very strong and can definitely deliver and meet expectations on all of the above, but the Toyo outranks it on all of the SimpleScore categories. Toyo’s engineers managed to do some things right with its design, including its heavy-duty tread compound, extra tread depth, redesigned footprint, reinforced shoulder, and more. As strong of a performer as the Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD is, it’s our opinion here at the SimpleTire team that the Toyo Open Country A/T III presents better value and bang for the buck.

Incidentally, Toyo Open Country A/T III is also the cheaper tire here, being available for roughly $163 per tire. In comparison, the Yokohama Geolandar A/T XD will be yours once you shell out roughly $171 per tire.

Still not sure which tire to buy? Fortunately, SimpleTire is here to help, and our helpful agents are more than happy to assist you in selecting the right tire for your ride and budget.