Tackling the Ribeye Road Trip with Toyo Tires
Andy Husek 10.16.24
Last month I embarked on an epic road trip traveling from Southeast Michigan to the beautiful rock-strewn mesas of Southeast Colorado. As if that wasn’t enough, we decided to dip down to San Angelo Texas to visit some old and new friends to kick off our fall hunting season and start to replenish our freezers heading into the cold Michigan winter. We affectionally dubbed this journey the “Ribeye Road Trip.” For us, the experience of the hunt and the potential trophies are great, but the real reward is in the full freezers of wild game that will feed our families for at least the next year. I always joke, that when other hunters see animals, they see antlers and horns and a trophy on the wall. I see a butcher chart that shows, steaks, roasts, burgers, and sausage! Hence how we came up with the Ribeye Road Trip.
Knowing that we were going to need a ton of gear to start with on these trips, plus, hopefully coming home with a BUNCH of packed coolers we quickly decided my Chevy Silverado 2500 HD would be the perfect pack mule for the job. Here is where I started to scratch my head. I drive my HD every day, I tow my camper with my HD, I drive my girls to softball practice in my HD, and I get groceries with my HD. Let me tell you, I had the original factory tires on there and they were at the end-of-life stage, and it WAS NOT in any way a pleasant ride, anywhere! I chalked it up to, “Well, it’s an HD with heavy suspension and that is just how they ride and handle…” WRONG…this is where Toyo Tires stepped in and introduced me to the Open Country R/T Trail tires. When they arrived at my house, I will say from a visual standpoint alone, they looked AWESOME and would certainly be a welcomed facelift from the original and boring pavement pounders that came standard from the factory.
Once I had the new Toyo Open Country R/T Trails mounted and drove the few blocks home from my local tire shop, I could already tell something was different. I thought to myself, “Can these new Toyo Tires really make that much of a difference?” YES, they can and DID! The Toyos alone completely transformed the ride in my truck making it much more of a joy and not a cringe to ride in, and that was just the ride alone! We’ll get into performance in a minute. To give you a little background, the Open Country R/T Trail is a rugged terrain tire that delivers better off-road grip than a traditional all-terrain tire, most evident in the sand, mud, and deep snow. With the off-road chops to perform in varying terrain, the Open Country R/T Trail is designed for truck and SUV owners who want more off-road capability than a traditional all-terrain, without the noise and harshness of a dedicated mud tire.
It was a perfect match from the get-go, I needed an everyday tire for my everyday driver, which just so happens to be a 2500 Silverado, that could get me around town comfortably while still being capable of taking me off-road in pursuit of my hunting passions during all seasons and all conditions. Some of the key benefits of the Open Country R/T Trail include the following:
- The extra-thick shoulder and sidewall lugs dig into deep and soft terrain. This thickness also provides impact and puncture resistance.
- Staggered scalloped shoulder blocks and extra-thick sidewall lugs that dig into soft terrain and uneven surfaces.
- Optimized tread design with large tread blocks and a three-variable pitch pattern delivers off-road durability, traction, and stability.
With the truck loaded to the gills and anticipation and excitement through the roof we set out on what would end up being one of the most epic 4,000-mile road trips I have ever been on, and I am not sure I could have accomplished it, or truthfully, tolerated it without the Open Country R/T Trails.
We encountered just about every type of terrain and weather you could imagine aside from snow, but don’t worry, that will show up soon enough here in Michigan around the time we are setting up our wall tent deer camp deep in the north woods. That will be the final check box for the tires. I have no doubt in my mind they will pass the test with flying colors.
The trip was incredible, we arrived safely in Colorado from Michigan and were able to harvest two beautiful bull elk on that hunt which was a strong start to re-packing our depleted freezers for the winter. The beauty of the high mesas of southern Colorado is a wonder to see and with the help of a capable vehicle and great tires, you can get to some far-off places that will help you escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Allowing even for just a couple days to check out and rejuvenate from the “grind.”
With coolers loaded, smiles on our faces, and already a sense of success we turned the truck south and headed down through New Mexico, a sliver of Oklahoma, and onto our next destination, San Angelo Texas. Here we hunted Axis deer for the next couple days, hung out with some new and old friends, and successfully topped off our coolers before the final leg of our trip. We again pointed the truck NE and started the long trek back to Michigan.
All in all, we touched twelve different states over the course of the trip! We had everything from smooth blacktop country highways that stretched for hundreds of miles through the flyover states to high mesa “roads” that would just have about bounced us out of the sunroof if I had one. Through all of it, the Toyo Open Country R/T Trails got shining stars and high remarks. I can honestly say they made the trip that much better with the ride they provided and the capabilities they showed. I am a HUGE fan and will be singing their praises long into their tread life!
With an easy 4,000 miles already under our belt this hunting season I am excited to show these bad boys off at Michigan deer camp, maybe share a few fresh elk burgers with the guys, and tell them all about the EPIC “Ribeye Road Trip” that started our 2024 season. I was truly amazed at how just adding these Open Country R/T Trails transformed my truck and made me even more confident in its capabilities to explore far-off places that I may have previously thought we unreachable, not anymore.
Thank you to Toyo for partnering with us on this endeavor and I am happy to say I give these tires two thumbs up and would recommend them to anyone looking to reel in an adventure and tackle something like the “Ribeye Road Trip.” For more information on the Open Country R/T Trail or any of Toyo’s other more than capable tire options for your vehicle head on over to the Toyo website and check them out. They have a super easy and very useful search tool that lets you put in your vehicle information and will quickly refine the results to the products that best suit your needs.
For now, time for me to unpack only to quickly repack for our fall hunting season here in Michigan which is about to go into full swing! Deer Camp can’t come soon enough!
