Lifecyle experiences and review - Falken Wildpeak M/T

Saturday my new tires were installed; There were not a whole lot of Wildpeak Mud Terrain reviews online so I'm making this thread to talk about the tire and give my impressions from cradle to grave. After each trip to the mud or dirt or rocks I'll put up some pics and thoughts of their performance.

My tires are 255/85/16 and I paid about $214 each from simpletire.com, and install was discounted if purchased at the time i got the tires. So I did. Because the state of Oklahoma feels it has ANY business whatsoever in a private transaction they impose a tax of about 10%. Those fockers. #libertarian

Other discounts applied- as shown.



For less than a grand I've outfitted the truck with seeming good tires to replace the Cooper ATs that came with the truck - two of which were down to the wear bars.

Pics taken saturday:




First impressions - they look much skinnier than the same size coopers i replaced. I think I do not like the look of these. When I replace my front bumper with something off-road it will help - as-is, the nose of the truck/thick OEM plastics kind of swallows the tires.

The technician said three of the tires were terrible to balance and with his best effort he could not get them to closer than .5 ounce of true balance. He did not have a road-force balance machine. The 4th tire/wheel needed 7.5ounces of weight but he got it to zero. During the first drive i felt shaking from 40-50mph - pronounced enough that i'd really be frustrated.

Sunday I took the tires to a local wheeling place - chock full of sticky, icky Oklahoma red mud. I'd driven this place before and even with my ATs i rarely "needed" four wheel drive. I have not aired down at this place. Thus the new tires made little difference in terms of what i could go through. The difference was this - where I relied on tire spin with the ATs and exact and specific picking of lines, with the mud tires I could really crawl through things under much more control and i loved it. I felt more confident - and that matters. I trusted-more the tires to pull the truck through places. I have a couple videos of being out there - but really they are boring as the truck just kind of did the things without much drama - and maybe that's the point of having mud tires. Nevertheless i'll add videos when I get to youtube to upload 'em.

I did one really cool test - I nosed down a short but super-steep hill. Half way down i stopped the truck and went to reverse and backed up the way i came. Not a hint of spin as the tires just pulled me up. I'll go back and get that one on video.

Side note: I really appreciate the long wheel base as I am able to nose-into obstacles and still have the truck's rear legs on terra firma if I instantly regret dipping my toes into the mud/water.

On the way home the afore-mentioned shaking was gone. And stayed gone after I washed the mud off. Something about wearing the tires down just a bit seemed to have fixed the steering wheel vibrations.

After the Mud:



21-23 May I'll be in the ozarks with about 15 other trucks - and as I can I'll take risks-of-getting-stuck just to test out the tires while I have recovery options (no winch yet). Also - there will be certainly other tacomas and other rigs with similar capability I'll be able to baseline against, or at least make subjective comparisons to.

more to follow.

 

Vids - but the wind was awful and I don't have vid editing software.

The truck was in 2 wheel drive for these.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sf3L-r-elw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBa-Yp0kiKM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ef8xrY-H8o

 

Hey man, any updates on how you have liked these after some longer term use?

I’m floating around the idea of these in the same size (255/85/16) for my next set.

 

no complaints at all. I do not use them a lot since moving to maryland, but they are wearing evenly and it all looks good.

 

That’s all good to know, thanks for the info!

 

Old thread I know. But will these fit on a stock 2nd gen without trimming?

 

Just putting it out there, these are absolute shit in the snow, actually scary. If you live somewhere with snow and ice, I would not recommend these.

 

I liked mine in the snow, actually. I mean, as much as I can like non-snow tires. I think if these were siped they'd be pretty darn good-ish.