Tire reviews.

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
...Discount Tire looked at it Monday and said it was a large hole but that it didn't look like a tear to them. The guy said he was impressed with my patch job. Not sure if that's because he knew it was off a Lexus or because I had a patch kit with me... They said they couldn't patch it and gave me a new one since I had the tire certs. Less than 8k miles on the set.

Because it was a Lexus owner :D
 

LT.

Well-Known Member
Time for another tire review. This was the Falken all terrain high country. Size 245/75r16. P rated mounted on an all stock 2005 Ford Escape 4wd. These tires had okay traction in snow, okay traction on highway, did pretty well in standing water on the road, okay/good in the mud. Never had them in the sand and gravel roads were good.

Tire life was horible. 30,000 miles on the set and when I traded the vehicle in I was deducted some money for the tires. I think they would be in spec for another 5,000 miles or so was all. And the noise from them was horrible. I had Toyo Open Country MT's that made less noise then the Falken AT's. The Falken tires also cost me some miles per gallon over the Toyo Open Country AT's they replaced.

Overall I was unimpressed with the Falken tires and I would not recommend them to anyone. Other than the initial purchase price of the tires there was nothing great about them. I believe I paid just under $100 a piece for them new. Not a bad price here. I have heard some folks say they like their Falken tires but, they also all complained about the loss of miles per gallon. Perhaps Falken builds heavier tires than other manufacturers?

On the plus side I never did get a flat or a puncture. But, the Escape was just an in town vehicle with limited time off the asphalt. I hope some may find this helpful.

LT.
 

SLC97SR5

IDIesel
Location
Davis County
2015 was a big year for tires.
I put a set of Toyo AT2's on my F350 OBS, BFG KO2's on the '97 4Runner and a set of Michelin's on my wife's Sienna.

I am becoming a huge fan of Toyo's offerings. I had nothing but good experiences with the Toyo HT's the Ford was shod with prior to the AT2's. The HT's were recalled and subsequently replaced with the AT2's.

I don't know if it is the weight of the Truck, the air pressure, the outside air temperature or the tires but the snow traction with the AT2's has been phenomenal. Earlier today I was able to pick up Rick's triple axle gooseneck with 6" of untouched snow on the ground and never spun the rear tires in 2wd. I was set to 40psi. Later when I dropped it off I had aired up to 70psi and spun the rears lightly when I had the trailer jacknifed...seriously impressive traction. They were rock solid at 70psi while hauling a 3500 Ram on the trailer.

Toyo definitely has my vote for a tow rig tire in any of their flavors. The AT2's hum above 50mph but the Ford has other noises to entertain me with besides the tires whirring away. :)

The BFG's were a fun tire to research as there was a lot of hype surrounding the release of the KO2's. It was difficult to read between the lines and find honest reviews.

So far I have been satisfied although my mileage is limited. The snow, dirt and rock traction has been better than my KO's but they are also new. I still don't have more than 5k miles on them. They are quieter than the Toyo's but noticeably heavier than the KO's.

4Chin put a set of 285 R16 KO2's on his F350 and they work extremely well under the heavy rig. Solid, predictable traction in snow, rain and loose dirt. He keeps them aired to 40psi on the street in the winter and they stick hard to the ice and snow. Over the summer we were troubleshooting a transmission issue on his truck and took it to the B to try to get the tranny to slip. We aired down to 20psi and started idling around in 4Lo. The KO2's really surprised me in how well they chewed through the loamy dirt and hooked up on the smaller rocks.
 

rholbrook

Well-Known Member
Location
Kaysville, Ut
I have run BFG AT KO and got 20k miles. I complained to BFG and they sent a guy to verify with the tire shop. They gave me 50% off of the Rugged Trails I have on now. I have 26k miles on them and they are worn out and have been so noisy. I am done with BFG. Anyone have any luck with the Hankook Geolander ATx or something like that. I always buy the 10 ply. It's out of those or the Michelin LTx in a 275-70 18. I know what I will get with Michelin mileage wise. They are more money but you get what you pay for
 
I've always preferred Michelin for on road, but often can't bring myself to pay the price for them on the SUV. I just bought a set of used wheels wrapped in lightly used Nitto Grapplers for the wife's suburban. They are way more aggressive than what I usually put on this rig, but I couldn't pass up the deal including pretty nice wheels. I've been extremely impressed with the performance on snow. Also been very impressed with mileage, ride, and noise. I was surprised that they are at least an inch taller than the same size I took off (265/70R17). Here's hoping they give me some good mileage.
 

rholbrook

Well-Known Member
Location
Kaysville, Ut
I just went and bought the Michelin LTx tires. Actually got a screaming deal on them, $750 installed. Anyone need stock size tires for anything, let me know and I will get you hooked up.
 

LT.

Well-Known Member
Thought I should do an update on my Toyo's. The fronts lasted 35,000 miles and were damaged due to a poor alignment I didn't catch it in time. The rears just finished another 2,000 mile trip on ice, limited snow, some standing water, and lots of highway miles. There is now 48,000 miles on the rears and 13,000 on the newer fronts. I am going to claim the Toyo Open Country AT2 extremes to be the perfect tow rig tire for a 4x4 tow rig. I think they will go the 50,000 miles Toyo claims they will. Won't take much more and they will be there.

The BFG all terrain KO2's on the Yukon XL are still going strong. I think there is 20,000 miles on them now and I caught the front end tires making a lot of noise. When I took a good look at what was happening the front end had come out of alignment and the tires were wearing on the inside edge where the tread blocks are staggered further apart. Thus the extra noise. I had the truck aligned via the GMC dealer, tires were then rotated and all seems to be well now. Time will tell if I caught it soon enough. I think they will go 40,000 miles.

I hope y'all find this helpful.

Rob
 

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
My KO2's on the JKU are over 25k miles and still going strong, I'd say 60% tread left. And they're offroad often, getting beatup and spun on the rocks. I think I'll see 50k miles out of them, which is incredibly impressive!
 

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
^ Me too. Got a little over a year on them now and they haven't let me down yet.

Finally got rid of the Duracraps on the Wiferunner. Micah hooked us up with a set of Mastercraft ATs (made by Cooper, apparently?), the price was right and they've been decent so far.
 
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mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Thought I should do an update on my Toyo's. The fronts lasted 35,000 miles and were damaged due to a poor alignment I didn't catch it in time. The rears just finished another 2,000 mile trip on ice, limited snow, some standing water, and lots of highway miles. There is now 48,000 miles on the rears and 13,000 on the newer fronts. I am going to claim the Toyo Open Country AT2 extremes to be the perfect tow rig tire for a 4x4 tow rig. I think they will go the 50,000 miles Toyo claims they will. Won't take much more and they will be there.

The BFG all terrain KO2's on the Yukon XL are still going strong. I think there is 20,000 miles on them now and I caught the front end tires making a lot of noise. When I took a good look at what was happening the front end had come out of alignment and the tires were wearing on the inside edge where the tread blocks are staggered further apart. Thus the extra noise. I had the truck aligned via the GMC dealer, tires were then rotated and all seems to be well now. Time will tell if I caught it soon enough. I think they will go 40,000 miles.

I hope y'all find this helpful.

Rob

I put those on the 2001 Powerstroke project I had. I REALLY like those tires. I probably only had 5000 miles on them but was impressed.
 

tv_larsen

Well-Known Member
Location
Logan, Utah
Here's my experience.

Towrig / Daily driver:
*BFG KO, 265/75/16 on a 1998 Cummins - excellent dry, wet, and ice traction - acceptable snow and mud traction. Quiet and smooth, lasted about 30-35k miles.​
*BFG KO, 285/75/16 on a 1998 Cummins - basically the same as the 265. Lasted about 30-35k miles.​
*BFG KO2, 285/75/16 on a 1998 Cummins - slightly better than the KO in every way. They had about 8000 miles when I sold the truck and the tires basically looked new.​
*Treadwright Warden (BFG AT look-a-like retread), 285/75/16 on a 1998 Cummins - acceptable traction. Smooth but a little noisy, lasted about 16-18k miles. Even at half the price of real BFG's these aren't worth the money.​
*Firestone Transforce AT, 275/70/18 (OEM) on a 2015 Ram 2500 Hemi -very smooth and quiet on the highway, average traction in the ice. I currently have about 12k miles on the tires and I suspect they will be worn out at around 20k miles - and I'll probably be buying KO2's.​

Daily driver:
*Hercules Terra Trac, 33x12.50x15 on a 1999 Ram 1500 - Noisy and fast wearing with poor traction. They sucked.​
*Goodyear MTR (old style), 33x12.50x15 on a 1999 Ram 1500 - A little noisy but they were surprisingly good on the snow and ice.​
*Super Swamper SSR, 35x12.50x16 on a 1975 W200 - Noisy and fast wearing. Chunked really bad offroad but had mediocre traction.​
*Procomp Xterrain, 305/70/16 on a 1975 W200 - Ok on wet and dry road, worst tire on the planet when it is icy.​

Offroad crawler:
*Procomp Xterrain, 35x12.50x15 on a 1977 Ramcharger - stable tire in the slick rock and worked quite well when it was dry, worst tire on the planet when there was snow and ice on the trail.​
*Super Swamper SX (bias ply with cut blocks), 38.5x14.50x15 on a 1977 Ramcharger - one of the best tires on the slick rock, obnoxious on the pavement.​
*Super Swamper IROK (bias ply), 39.5x13.50x16 on a 1977 Ramcharger - very unstable on a side hill, worked ok on the rocks, slightly better on pavement than the SX's.​
*Goodyear MTR (old style), 37x12.50x17 on a 2001 Dakota - Stable offroad, above average traction, and pleasant on the highway.​
 
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LT.

Well-Known Member
The BFG ko2's on my wife's yukon xl are making noise now. They are near 40k miles now actual mileage is 37k. Still good life left in them but, as they wear out they are making more noise.

Rob
 

frieed

Jeepless in Draper
Supporting Member
Location
Draper, UT
I put a set of E rated Michelin LTX MS2's (275/70r18) under my F-150 when it had 4k miles on it.
I now have 52k miles on these tires and fully expect to make another 10k.
These tires are dead silent on the highway. No noise at all, zip, nada.
Wet traction is quite good,
Ice traction is surprisingly good with the factory siping,
Anything that packs into the treads like snow or mud, not so great.
 

glockman

I hate Jeep trucks
Location
Pleasant Grove
I put a set of Cooper STT Max's on my F350 this spring. I am not sure I like them. The traction they provide is great and they are near silent on the road. My problem is this truck weighs 9K lbs and normally has 800 to 1K lbs in the bed or 12K lbs behind it. This is the squirmiest tire I have ever ran. When empty I can rock the wheel and it feels like I have a flat tire with 80 psi in them. I only have 5k miles on them and they show no wear. My BFG AT KO's were a much better handling tire but they were bald in 29K miles, like to the wear bars. Not sure I can handle 30k miles of the squirm with these Coopers.
 

Cody

Random Quote Generator
Supporting Member
Location
Gastown
I looked at the STT Maxx's and was convinced that would be my next tire, but the siping only goes down about 1/4 of the tread depth, so after about 10k miles I was worried they would be terrible in the snow. I ended up going with the BFG Ko2s to replace my Duratracs. Much quieter than the worn out duratracs, and they handle better on the freeway. My only complaint is that they pick up pebbles off road and sling them once I get back on pavement.
 

LT.

Well-Known Member
The Toyo Open Country AT2’s on my dually have now been replaced with the same tires. They lasted 55,000 miles almost exactly on the dot. Every time I replace tires I am always doing battle with myself. The AT’s are the best for the terrain the truck sees but, I always want to run the MT’s. So far logic has won but, it won’t always.

Rob
 
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