[picklez]

***FULL DISCLAIMER: FALKEN HAS NOT PAID ME A RED CENT FOR THIS BUT IF THEY WANT TO I'LL GLADLY SHILL FOR THEM***


I finally got to replace my old beat up KO's that came with the truck when I bought it. After much deliberation, I finally landed on the Falken Wildpeak AT3w in P265/75R16. This thread is intended as a "live review" of them, seeing as they are fairly new on the market.

I went with Wildpeak cuz it claims to be a hybrid between a traditional AT and MT tire, which is perfect for what I want. I daily my truck so a full on MT is unnecessary, but I do run into the occasional sticky stuff in my travels. The larger tread lugs claim to clear mud better than an AT, and looking at these tires I believe it. The sidewall is big, meaty and aggressive looking. It really fills the wheel wells nicely. Falken also claims the highest initial tread depth in it's category, which could be why it looks a little more stuffed than the same sized BFG's that came off.

I also picked these cuz they're very well reviewed as a winter tire, which is kinda important north of the 49. The '3w' stands for winter, wear and weather. Falken also claims a 55,000 mile tread life guarantee which is pretty decent for an AT tire, imo. There's also some interesting tech in the sidewalls. Might be hype, might be legit. You can check it out for yourself at WILDPEAK A/T3W TIRE | Falken Tire if you're interested.

Looks are important, but when the rubber meets the road (heh) tires are all about traction. It literally bucketed rain here today all day, so I got to test the wet part of the name on the drive home. A couple simulated panic stops, and one real one, on brand new, soaking wet blacktop convinced me they weren't lying. I had no concerns laying on brakes, they stopped the chunky Frontier without hesitation. Same kinda thing through corners. Even under heavy acceleration I couldn't get them to break loose. The BFG's would chirp quite easily, but they were pretty much cooked and I never owned them from new so its not a fair comparison. Not really comparing apples to apples again, cuz the BFG's were 10 ply whereas the Wildpeaks are just P-metric, but the Falken's definitely let my truck rev and accelerate quicker. I might even see a little increase in MPG.

I didn't really get a chance to abuse them too much, but I got 'er leanin into some pretty decent corners and they definitely handle better than the BFG's, but my guess is that's a symptom of 10 vs 6 ply again.

Road noise is pretty minimal for a fairly aggressive tire, but it's also fairly low on my list of concerns. I don't mind a little tire howl, and I usually have the music up loud for the times when the girlfriend's less tolerant ears are in the truck.


Overall, with like maybe 25km on them so far, I'm impressed. These feel like they're gonna be a fantastic tire for a fantastic price (shoutout to Kelowna Lexus for the screaming deal). If I can drag my *** outta bed at a reasonable time on Saturday I'm gonna head out innawoods and see how they do with a gross early season mix of slushy snow, half frozen mud, and wet rock. I'll update the thread periodically as I get em broken in more and throw some interesting terrain at them.

 

[Zedbra]

Those look good stuffed in there. These tires are popular down here around Whistler, a few of my neighbours have them and really like them for on and off road capabilities. Looking forward to reading your long term testing, tires show their colours once they wear and the rubber hardens a bit.

 

[drobs]

Had them put on my truck as well.
Looking forward to trying them out next month. Keeping my fingers crossed that I get some snow to play in.

 

[Wet Dog]

That's also the tire I chose to go with. My truck came with near bald KOs and I chose these as they seemed like a great value, especially given their looks and claims. I also went with p-metric for less weight, but I'm 285/70r17 size as I have a lift. They're relatively quiet, ride comfortable, and have performed well in the rain. Well see how they do this winter in the snow. I've had them on for about 1000 miles and have them at about 38 PSI I think.

 

[Sabretooth]

Oh yeah I like these Falken's I had my first set of AT3W's for almost 2yrs initially installing them in Jan 16' they had just been released in fact the first set were manufactured 4615 and I really just took a chance on them as the older Falken Wildpeaks at01's didn't have greatest standings for rain on road or in snow/ice in reviews no Severve weather 3peak rating either only a few A/T tires do even now. But at time I couldn't find any information on these AT3W's just at the price I couldn't come close with anything else so on they went never regretted it.

Well now I do have feedback here is the biggest compliment I could hand out to Falken I just paid $$$ to put my 2nd set of AT3W's on about a week ago because they do their job and do it well plus once again for TOTDP with the rebate which more than paid for M/B with road hazard(I couldn't buy it first time :sad I really just couldn't match it in an A/T unless I wanted something I felt was a lot lesser quality or go to a highway tire. And even though I didn't get the full 55k(40k) I believe I would've easily went past that on them before approaching bars and feel for the value longevity plus on/off road manners the AT3W's give you they are really hard to be beat. This time around I put LT's on yes they're a little stiffer but still really quiet on road and the first set of P's have proved their worthiness to me countless times in rain an on the mud back roads out here in NE Texas we really don't get snow.

I replaced the first set early because I figured with what I was saving it just made sense I needed 1 new tire due to a hole that I could stick my pinky in that's what road hazard's for lol it wasn't tires fault but also had another rim that needed new valve and another that had tpms just quit so with winter coming I put them on.

 

[AndysLog]

my buddy has at3 on his truck and i think i have at2 or at1 on my truck. while i do like them a lot.

i am 100% in love with the K02 tire on my raptor. and hopefully my next set of frontier tires will be the k02 "35s" aka like 34.3 or something.

 

[RobFrisco415]

Let us know how they do in dusty/dirt conditions and snow! out here in CA

 

[picklez]

I managed to get my butt outta bed at a reasonable time today, so I took her for a quick boot to the range, mostly cuz I needed to fiddle with one of my rifles, but I wanted to find some snow or mud too. The road was in way better condition than I'd hoped so I didn't really get to throw anything super tricky at the tires. The last half click past the gate was basically frozen mud with a thin layer of compact snow/ice. It wasn't really a real test per se, but there's a steep little rise that was pretty slick and I didn't have to kick it into 4x which was a pleasant surprise. No wheel spin, and the tiniest bit of slop in the rear end. On my old tires I definitely needed all four wheels to get up, even without the frozen crap.

I noticed a little bit of howl at highway speeds, since this was the first time I've been able to actually open 'er up and really put my foot down. It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but they're not as quiet as I'd initially thought. Still not enough to bother me though, just noticeable. Otherwise the road manners are still fantastic. Everything I mentioned in the original post still holds true.


Hopefully we get some winter weather sooner than later, cuz I wanna go play in the snow. If not, the province just designated a nearby reservoir for OHV use, so I'll head out that way and see what my tax dollars are paying for.

 

[Zedbra]

^ where's this OHV area? I'm up your way often

 

[picklez]

Grizzly Reservoir. It's out near Lumby, I'll try and find the link when I'm not on my phone. Its not an OHV park in the American sense with maintained trails and such, but the province just designated it a rec site so it's maintained to the parks BC standard. The impression I get from what I've seen is its similar to Stave Lake, where they know people are mudding there and they don't necessarily like it but at least now it can be contained to the specific designated area and monitored better.

 

[Zedbra]

Well now I know what to check out next time I bring my truck up there! Thanks

 

[picklez]

Hit me up when you're around, I'm sure we can find something stupid to do out innawoods.


Edit: here's the link to the story on Grizzly Reservoir and here's the Parks BC site

 

[Sabretooth]

IDK Zebra but I just woke up sittin here having my coffee reading my emails and I just read this and don't think that picklez's member name instills confidence with that statement ""I'm sure we can find something stupid to do out innawoods"" and just thought about this movie with that in mind j/k

 

[picklez]

On Saturday the girlfriend and I went out to find a Christmas tree, cuz I'd rather spend my money on truck parts than a tree. Also, we had a decent amount of snow in the hills overnight so I wanted to play. I'm allowed to have ulterior motives, right? We ended up finding some fresh powder, half frozen mud, and one sketchy section I had to Ken Block my way through.

I stayed at street pressure, cuz I wanted to see how the tires handled in similar conditions to what we get when the plows are behind, or haven't even been out yet. They handle the fresh powder very well. Those big tread blocks pack themselves full of snow and stick to the trail like it's their job. Which I guess it is. Maybe I'll come up with a better metaphor when I've had another cup of coffee. I don't know how well they'll do in the really deep stuff, but I can see the front bumper digging in before the tires get me into trouble. I'll have to go out with a buddy and test that theory though. You know, for science.

A couple of the trails we explored had some frozen-ish slushy ice mud, so naturally I picked the worst line and sent it. I was willing to deal with the upset girlfriend if I got stuck, cuz it's for science. Thankfully, Falken has got my back and we didn't have to cross that bridge. Zero wheel spin, the truck stayed in its line, and climbed out of the hole like it was dry pavement.

The area is actively logged right now, so the main road is somewhat maintained. Because the area is close to town, it's fairly well traveled and the main line was basically compact snow with some sand poking through here and there. Heading up, I managed to stay in 2WD longer than I would normally, but I didn't have any issues. If I'd stayed on the main road the whole time I probably could have stayed in 2WD and been completely comfortable. On the way back down the hill I guess we hit a really slick patch, in 4x, and I had to do my best impression of a WRC driver to keep it on the road. Honestly, I have no idea exactly how I lost it so badly, but hindsight being what it is, I'm pretty sure it was more operator error than a scathing indictment of the tires themselves. The section of road was downhill, obviously icy, off camber, and pretty washboarded on the uphill side. Not ideal by any means. If we're being honest I'd probably say I was too confident in the tires, which is a good thing, maybe? Once I got it straightened out enough to stand on the brakes, the tires hooked up no problem. I don't think the girlfriend believed me when I told her it was intentional, but hey it's all for science and nobody died. I'm just happy I wore my brown pants.


I'm still really impressed with these tires so far. With the exception of the minor footnote above, which again, is probably more my own stupidity than anything, I've yet to have a moment where I wished I had more tire. I daily my truck, so performance to street pressure is pretty important, and I'm very, very happy with what I'm getting so far. Now that I have a good baseline, I'm gonna take them out for a day of actual, aired down wheeling. I'm fairly certain stock height and bumpers will stop me before the tires, but there's only one way to find out. For science.

 

[drobs]

JIC - I have a set Thule Snow Tire Chains and a come a long with a couple straps and chain.
Couple things you might want to look into being in the Great White North.

 

[Sabretooth]

Sounds like you had fun out there I miss the snow just not the freakin cold. But where's a pic of the tree though? you know it's pics or it didn't happen.
Glad you like the Falken's I'm impressed with them also and found that I have to go find a worthy excuse to put it 4wh now they just seem to grab an go and think dollar 4 dollar you would've been hard pressed to have found a better value for your $
BTW nice save there picklez's with the pic of the gf and not that I have anything against to each their own was just looking out for a fellow member hope you can understand how one could come to that impression with a screen-name like that lol.

 

[picklez]

JIC - I have a set Thule Snow Tire Chains and a come a long with a couple straps and chain.
Couple things you might want to look into being in the Great White North.

Chains are on my list for sure, I'd rather have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.

Sounds like you had fun out there I miss the snow just not the freakin cold. But where's a pic of the tree though? you know it's pics or it didn't happen.
Glad you like the Falken's I'm impressed with them also and found that I have to go find a worthy excuse to put it 4wh now they just seem to grab an go and think dollar 4 dollar you would've been hard pressed to have found a better value for your $
BTW nice save there picklez's with the pic of the gf and not that I have anything against to each their own was just looking out for a fellow member hope you can understand how one could come to that impression with a screen-name like that lol.

Bang for your buck, these are wicked tires. Falken hit it out of the park on these. I'm quite comfortable in my sexuality, so feel free to make all the jokes you want. It takes a fair bit to melt this snowflake. :laugh:

Also; because you asked:

I didn't get one of it it's natural habitat, but there's a joke about seeing the forest for the trees somewhere in there.

 

[Sabretooth]

Bang for your buck, these are wicked tires. Falken hit it out of the park on these. I'm quite comfortable in my sexuality, so feel free to make all the jokes you want. It takes a fair bit to melt this snowflake. :laugh:

Also; because you asked:

I didn't get one of it it's natural habitat, but there's a joke about seeing the forest for the trees somewhere in there.

That was funny snowflake :rofl: IDK think a screen name change might be in order jk hey have you ever post in "what does your screen name mean" cause I'll go read it.
Truthfully though it is so serene looking but I was just expecting something more along the lines of a Chevy Chase moment like you were out there with a big a$s :chainsaw: steaming ullout: that your gf had to pick that one and after loading a 14' behemoth that's half in half out of the Frontier dragging on the ground behind you don't notice the Mounties show up in hot pursuit as your going back down the mountain with it you wound up with that but that's just me lol

 

[picklez]

There's no exciting story behind picklez. I started using it way when I played CS1.6 and it stuck around as various gamertags and screen names ever since. I actually picked out a behemoth monstrosity of a tree, just cuz I wanted to cut it down, but the boss lady kiboshed it. She supports my ******* shenanigans, but only up to a point.

 

[Zedbra]

^ I have been known to knock down a tall one just to get the top ten feet of it. Around here, it is totally legal and they encourage people to cut down trees under power lines, otherwise they need to pay big dollars to have crews come in and do it for them. So, I let the two stroke serenade the forest for a bit every December.