Falken Wildpeak AT3W, a tale of two sets of tires

[stone150]

I know that Falken Wildpeak AT3W tires are generally highly regarded in the off-road community, so this is just my personal experience.
In December I purchased two sets of Falken Wildpeak AT3W tires. The first set was for my 2018 Sierra in a P275/60R20 size. The other set was for a 2016 Tahoe I recently purchased in a P275/65R18 Size. Right out of the gate I experienced balancing issues with both sets. I ended up getting 1 of the 20" tires and 2 of the 18" tires warrantied for high road force. After all that, 2 of the 18" tires still had a road force of 20+ lbs. I had the tires balanced 3-4 times at 3 different locations. The 20"s ultimately balanced fine, but the 18"s continued to have issues. At certain speeds the 18"s would go into resonance frequencies producing high frequency/high magnitude vibrations. Both sets produce High frequency/low magnitude vibrations, which I believe is due to the tread pattern, I've noticed similar vibrations on other all terrain tires.
The 20" tires now run smooth, although do have small vibrations at some speeds.
The 18" tires have been sent back and i'm now running a set of LT275/65R18 Firestone Destination XT tires.

The other thing I will say is even in a P-metric size, both sets ride much firmer than any other tire i've used.

Shout out to Robin @ Custom Wheel Outlet who helped me sort though all the issues.

 

[Hans Sommer]

interesting, I had Mud ATs that had cupping and tons of vibrations and i got so sick of it I swapped them out on my 2010 tacoma for the Falken wild peaks also Dec. 2018. I'm about 30-40% into them and they're quiet and supper smooth and I just came back from a 900+ trip from coastal CA over the Sierra's into the NV desert for a few days. I've had a great experience; solid handling on and off roard and would buy them again. Maybe it's the suspension that get's your vibration frequencies going? My truck has overload springs in the back and a 3" lift and I got new rims with the tires that have a zero displacement. Not sure if thats the right term, but they make a wider footprint so that may be helps prevent vibrations.

 

[stone150]

interesting, I had Mud ATs that had cupping and tons of vibrations and i got so sick of it I swapped them out on my 2010 tacoma for the Falken wild peaks also Dec. 2018. I'm about 30-40% into them and they're quiet and supper smooth and I just came back from a 900+ trip from coastal CA over the Sierra's into the NV desert for a few days. I've had a great experience; solid handling on and off roard and would buy them again. Maybe it's the suspension that get's your vibration frequencies going? My truck has overload springs in the back and a 3" lift and I got new rims with the tires that have a zero displacement. Not sure if thats the right term, but they make a wider footprint so that may be helps prevent vibrations.

I totally forgot to add this part. But I have a set of LT275/70R18 BFG KO2s that I run on the truck if I know we'll be going more adventurous places. So I mounted them up to the Tahoe and all the issues largely went away, they also rode better. The Tahoe had some 33x12.5x18 Nitto Mud Grapplers on it when I bought it so I had no reference to know if it was the suspension or something else on the Tahoe out of whack. But the BFGs confirmed it was the tires.
We are currently 1200 miles into a 5K+ mile road trip with the Tahoe and the Destination X/Ts have been good. I have them pumped up a bit since we are pretty loaded down, but otherwise they have not exhibited any of the Falken issues.
As I said I know the Falken are highly regarded and the ones that are on the truck are good now. I did notice the original 4 I got in the 18" size were made in Japan. The two replacements were made in Taiwan (i believe). The replacements looked different on the inside than the originals. Custom wheel Outlet thought it was very odd also as they had never seen so many issues with Falkens and I I feel I did to show it was the tires and not a truck issue.

 

[Viking1204]

I guess I'll post this here too. A couple months ago I swapped out my worn out Goodyear Duratracs for the Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx and I have to say I am very satisfied with them compared to my Duratracs. They ride smoother, handle wet roads better and are quieter than the Duratracs. I will most likely go with them again if they wear good and last for a good number of miles.

 

[DRAX]

Very strange that you've had issues with multiple Wildpeak tires across different sizes. I ordered a set of P275/55R20 Wildpeak A/T3w off of Amazon ("shipped and sold by Amazon" but really they came directly from Simple Tire), local tire shop had no problems or complaints about balance and they've been smooth as butter for the whole 6+ months and ~10k miles I've had them, including quite a bit off road in Colorado and with my truck loaded up and probably pushing GVWR.

Any brand is bound to have some defective tires now and then, that just seems excessive and if you haven't done it already it might be worth having another tire shop look things over. I say that because I had a tire shop where I used to live that provided great service, or seemed to, but I had a truck that would bounce in the rear on the freeway with tires that were basically brand new (I didn't buy them, they were on the truck when I bought it used). The shop said they got it balanced, I'd hop on the freeway...same problem. Bring it back, it would be out of balance, they'd say they got it balanced...rinse and repeat 1-2 more times and then one of their techs said one of the wheels was bent. Alright, had a mobile wheel repair shop come and repair the aluminum wheel but they said it wasn't really bad enough to cause a problem. Yup, problem remained. Took it back to the shop again and this time they figured out that the tire was out of round (and obviously so by just watching it on the balance machine). I know your shop is doing road force balancing/testing so the likelihood of it not being a tire problem is lower, but at some point I'd want a second opinion just in case something was overlooked.

I love my Wildpeaks enough that I don't think I'll run anything else. Great tires for the money, IMO. Obviously, YMMV. :)

 

[stone150]

Very strange that you've had issues with multiple Wildpeak tires across different sizes. I ordered a set of P275/55R20 Wildpeak A/T3w off of Amazon ("shipped and sold by Amazon" but really they came directly from Simple Tire), local tire shop had no problems or complaints about balance and they've been smooth as butter for the whole 6+ months and ~10k miles I've had them, including quite a bit off road in Colorado and with my truck loaded up and probably pushing GVWR.

Any brand is bound to have some defective tires now and then, that just seems excessive and if you haven't done it already it might be worth having another tire shop look things over. I say that because I had a tire shop where I used to live that provided great service, or seemed to, but I had a truck that would bounce in the rear on the freeway with tires that were basically brand new (I didn't buy them, they were on the truck when I bought it used). The shop said they got it balanced, I'd hop on the freeway...same problem. Bring it back, it would be out of balance, they'd say they got it balanced...rinse and repeat 1-2 more times and then one of their techs said one of the wheels was bent. Alright, had a mobile wheel repair shop come and repair the aluminum wheel but they said it wasn't really bad enough to cause a problem. Yup, problem remained. Took it back to the shop again and this time they figured out that the tire was out of round (and obviously so by just watching it on the balance machine). I know your shop is doing road force balancing/testing so the likelihood of it not being a tire problem is lower, but at some point I'd want a second opinion just in case something was overlooked.

I love my Wildpeaks enough that I don't think I'll run anything else. Great tires for the money, IMO. Obviously, YMMV. :)

That is where I want to make the distinction, I know that in general they are much loved tires and seems to be everyone likes them. I just had problems with one set and ultimately I was taken care of. My really only remaining complaint with them is how hard they ride for a P - metric tire, I went with the P - Metric size for a smoother ride and got exactly the opposite.
I've had terrible luck balancing tires over the years, so much so that I stopped going to discount tire by me as they damaged my rims and I could never leave with a tire in balance. But yes, I ended up taking it two 3 different shops trying to get them to balance and the would have weight in different locations and different read outs. They could have easily been out of round. Ultimately the ones in the 18" size were sent back.

 

[Cypress]

I have 4 sets of Wildpeaks on a Samurai, an XJ, a Silverado, and a Suburban. I haven't run into the problems you have, but I do all my own mounting and balancing. I wonder if your tire company doesn't need to calibrate their machine. I have to calibrate mine every 6 months or so.

As for ride quality, when I put the tires on my XJ I wasn't very happy with the ride. A couple of months later I installed a set of Fox 2.0 shocks. It made a world of difference. The only thing I can figure to explain it is the tires are heavy and it takes a good quality shock to control them.

 

[DRAX]

That is where I want to make the distinction, I know that in general they are much loved tires and seems to be everyone likes them. I just had problems with one set and ultimately I was taken care of. My really only remaining complaint with them is how hard they ride for a P - metric tire, I went with the P - Metric size for a smoother ride and got exactly the opposite.

What PSI are you running on the street? I went from a P255/55R20 all-season to my P275/55R20 Wildpeaks and run them between 30 and 35psi, they ride great. No worse than the all-seasons they replaced. So, could it be the tire? Sure. I don't know what tires they replaced or how your previous tires rode, but the first place I would start is the tire pressure. Don't run the sidewall pressure or you'll need new kidneys. Start with the factory pressure recommendation and adjust from there.