The Yokohama YK740 is an all-season grand touring tire primarily developed for sedans, minivans, coupes, and CUVs. It is designed to offer fuel efficiency, long tread life, and a year-round usage in all 4 seasons.
YK740 GTX Features
Tread Design
- Asymmetric tread design for improved handling and traction.
- Optimized tread profile to provide stable contact patches for better traction.
- Four Circumferential grooves that utilize asymmetric widths for more efficient water evacuation
- The Triple 3-D Sipes and the notched tread blocks are used to create a biting edge and grips in the snow.
- Tread noise is reduced through the use of pitch variations and adaptive shoulder blocks.
Yokohama’s Orange Oil Compound
Yokohama uses an orange oil resin – extracted from the peels of used oranges – as an alternative to petroleum-based oils in YK740 GTX tires. The engineers at Yokohama claim that the oil helps to establish a tighter bond between the natural and synthetic rubbers on the molecular level.
The orange oil compound tires also have the stiffer tread elements e.g. YK740 has a treadwear rating of 740 which is quite high and makes it a hard tire that can last long. In theory, orange oil basically helps to improve the flexibility of the tread surface at the micro level when interacting with road’s surface. This is why the tires last longer and perform better when made with orange oil.
Yokohama YK740 Road Test
Comfort and Tire Noise Review
A major priority for Grand Touring All-Season tires is being able to provide a great ride quality. This is a promise that YK740 deliver on. They provide a smooth ride at any speed in a straight line. Driving along a smooth highway feels like driving along the glass. They are also comfortable when going over small-to-medium speed bumps, but can let some of larger impacts through to the driver.
YK740 tires offer minimal noise, no matter what speed or road surface being dealt with. It does create some booming sounds when encountering a large impact though. Overall tire noise is minimal even on a highway at the high speed.
Dry Handling and Traction Review
YK740 tires are able to connect cleanly with the road and undertake tight maneuvers without any slipping. This is partly thanks to the shoulder tread block design that keeps the external blocks rigid. It also improves the cornering when extra pressure is placed on a single side of a tire. Braking performance is also decent in dry conditions. The tires have plenty of contact with a road, generating plenty of friction during braking. All in all, the performance was what would be expected from dry conditions.
There is one thing to note that these tires have a progressive grip. Meaning the traction on both dry and wet improves as the tire gets more heat into it. This is probably the effect of using orange oil compound in this tire.
YK740 has a sharp steering response where you can just turn the tires with the wrist movement. Some people like this kind of steering response and some don’t. Before you buy these tires, just make sure you like this kind of steering response.
Performance in Wet Conditions
Wet traction is a downside of the Yokohama YK740 tires. They don’t provide the grip and cornering stability the other tires provide in the same category. You have to be careful on these tires when driving on a wet road. There is no confidence in cornering at the high speed and if you try to accelerate they would slip and skit on road.
We are not saying these are horrible tires and provide no traction. Their performance is of no match to other grand touring all-season tires in wet conditions. You can still drive and brake well if you remain at the speed limit and just be more careful of the puddles where the tires can hydroplane.
Snow Capability Review
Surprisingly the tires are pretty decent in light snow conditions considering their poor performance on a wet surface. The lack of grip experienced during wet conditions wasn’t there for icy and snowy conditions. Cornering is good with snow and ice, getting a solid bite when turning in and fighting against potential understeer. While it might be easier to lose the rear end than most would like, the tires are able to recover pretty well at least.
The sipe of the tread bites deep and hard into the snow. They bite so well that even unplowed roads were simple to get through. Unless you’re dealing with more than two inches of ice, you shouldn’t have a problem with the YK740 tires.
Also Read:
Tread Life and Tire Warranty
The Yokohama YK740 doesn’t offer the longest life we’ve seen in a tire, and it is above average when it comes to treadwear. The tires come with a five-year/60,000 mile limited warranty from Yokohama themselves. Be sure to check the details just in case you do run into problems with tread life.
The main thing you can do to make your tires live longer is to get them balanced and rotate on a regular basis. You can expect to get between 50,000 and 65,000 from these tires, depending on the way you drive, where you drive, and how often you get them rotated and maintained.