Yet another tire question... (1 Viewer)

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ga12r1

The "triple locked" troll himself...
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Nov 23, 2016
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Valdosta, Ga
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www.cruisersontherocks.com
So after weeks of searching, researching, and reading, I've finally narrowed it down to 3 tires.

I have a 2000 LX470 and will be running TRD Rock Warriors with 1.25" spidertrax spacers. I am currently running OME torsion bars, Iron man gas shocks, slee diff-drop, and SPC UCAs and 295/75/16 KO2s on SCS wheels. I will be adding front and rear bumpers, sliders, drawer sytem, and possibly a re-gear by next spring.

Although I enjoy the KO2s, i want to move to a more aggressive tire that is available in a size that's a bit taller and narrower. I've settled on 285/75/17. The 3 tires that interest me are the Toyo Open Country MT, the Nitto Ridge Grappler, and the Cooper ST Maxx.

The LX is currently my daily driver, but I plan to pick up a 200 series this coming winter, and the LX will then take over trail duties from my 80. So I will be driving the LX daily for at least the next 6 months. My commute is 60 miles every day straight to and from work on one hwy driving 60mph with no stops in between:). For any other trips that don't require the capabilities of the LX or 80 we take the wifes Highlander.

I am building the LX to take the place of the 80 because i want to do 100s in the hills next year, and maybe Big Bend or Moab/Canyonlands in January. So once i have the 200, the LX will be used maybe once or twice a month on weekends exploring the State Parks/National Forest of Ga, FLA, AL, and SC and then 2 separate weeks of the year exploring out west. I am not up to the task of driving the 80 cross country, but I have no problems doing it in the 100.

So all that being said I like the look of the Toyo MT, and Ive read a lot of good reviews regarding great on-road and off-road manners. Most people seem to say that the Toyo is a very advanced tire that handles the hwy great with little noise, but I have to wonder if most of these reviews are just by people trying to justify their purchase of an aggressive mud-tire over an AT even though they never get off the pavement. I rotate every 5k but I don't want a tire that will wear out overnight, nor do I want a tire that will drive me crazy on a 5k road trip.

Then I look at the Nitto Ridge Grappler and I like the aggressive look but i have to wonder if that's all it is. LOOK. I have read some reviews that made me feel it may be far better suited to the HWY then to off-road. I got into some wet clay trails in Oconee NF last week and my KO2s had me feeling like I was driving on ice, I wonder if the Ridge Grapplers would be more of the same. I also haven't been able to find much long term info on them.

The Cooper ST Maxx seems like a good compromise but I'm not sure about the look, and yes look is important to me:ninja:. I want to be happy with my vehicles look as well as its performance. I have never seen the ST Maxx outside of the internet, and perhaps they would look better in person to me.

So the question is would the Toyo be so much worse on the Hwy as to justify the Cooper? Would the Ridge Grappler be so much worse then the Cooper off-road to justify the ST Maxx? I would prefer to run the Toyo if its not too extreme for the HWY, and if it is, I like the look of the Ridge grappler, but I dont want to give up too much capability, and it would seem the ST Maxx has plenty of capability just not a look that I'm thrilled with.

Sorry about the long post but I wanted to give everyone as much info as possible. What do you guys think?
 
I can only offer an opinion on 2 of those tires through personal experience. I have a set of ST Maxx in 295/70r18 on my rig now so I'm obviously a little biased.

The ST Maxx has been a great tire for me so far. I've had them for about 15k miles. They are relatively quiet. I honestly forget how quiet they are until I ride in a friend's denali truck that has the Toyo M/T's. I would say the M/T's have about twice the amount of road noise that the cooper's do. Some of it might be the sound deadening of the LC but those Denalis are pretty quiet too. The M/T is a good tire for a dedicated off roader. I have wheeled a decent amount with the coopers and have been very impressed with their ability in mud and rocks. They seem to clean well and have a good amount of traction. Both are very solid tires.

My biggest advice I think I can give would be on the comfort/fatigue front. I have driven 800 miles straight with the ST Maxx and felt no more fatigue than with highway tires. No major drone to contend with like on the M/T's that I have experienced on other trucks. I think for your intended purposes, the ST Maxx would be the best option, especially since it seems like you're more in exploring/back country mode than hardcore rock crawler.

Also, I think they look pretty great. I get a little bit of a bro feel from the Ridge Grapplers. Also, I like look of the lugs and voids of the Maxx's
 
I can only offer an opinion on 2 of those tires through personal experience. I have a set of ST Maxx in 295/70r18 on my rig now so I'm obviously a little biased.

The ST Maxx has been a great tire for me so far. I've had them for about 15k miles. They are relatively quiet. I honestly forget how quiet they are until I ride in a friend's denali truck that has the Toyo M/T's. I would say the M/T's have about twice the amount of road noise that the cooper's do. Some of it might be the sound deadening of the LC but those Denalis are pretty quiet too. The M/T is a good tire for a dedicated off roader. I have wheeled a decent amount with the coopers and have been very impressed with their ability in mud and rocks. They seem to clean well and have a good amount of traction. Both are very solid tires.

My biggest advice I think I can give would be on the comfort/fatigue front. I have driven 800 miles straight with the ST Maxx and felt no more fatigue than with highway tires. No major drone to contend with like on the M/T's that I have experienced on other trucks. I think for your intended purposes, the ST Maxx would be the best option, especially since it seems like you're more in exploring/back country mode than hardcore rock crawler.

Also, I think they look pretty great. I get a little bit of a bro feel from the Ridge Grapplers. Also, I like look of the lugs and voids of the Maxx's
Yeah, I'm with you on the Ridge Grappler maybe looking a little Broish on one side, but I was thinking that the other side had a more traditional MT look to it. To me the Cooper seems to have a sort of busy look to the sidewall, kind of like the Wrangler Kevlar MT/rs I used to run on my 4runner. I never really liked the MT/r when I had them. The more I think about it the more I am leaning towards the Cooper though. You talk about driver fatigue, and when we road trip i usually drive 12-14 hours a day because its so far out west from GA, so that's important.

Thanks for the input. It really helps a lot.
 
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If you are looking for the aggressive tire appearance, you will be disappointed in the ST Maxx. When the STTs wore out on my Jeep after 50k miles, I decided to give the ST Maxx a try. I have had them for a year now and am blown away with the traction and ride they provide, especially for a 35" tire, but the side profile is bland to look at. The ST Maxx rides like an AT with small tread voids on the road, but it behaves more like an open tread MT on the trail. They handled a 14 hour drive to Colorado better than the STT (original) and much better than the MTR (non Kevlar) I previously had on the Jeep. The ST Maxx is a serious contender for the Cruiser whenever the AT3's I put on it wear out.
 
I have the Cooper ST Maxx in 275/70/18 and am happy with them. Relatively quiet on the road and they did well in the snow this past winter.

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Well I ended up pulling the trigger on the Cooper ST Maxx. They are supposed to be in Monday. Stay tuned...
 
So I got the ST Maxx on and have put around 700 HWY miles on them. Im really liking the tire so far. At first i was struck by how much louder they were then the KO2s, but the last few days I feel like they have quieted down. I don't know if they actually became quieter after a few hundred miles or I just got used t it, but at this point they don't seem any louder then the KO2s. I also felt like i could feel the extra weight of the tires at first, but that also seems to have gone away, i figure I've adjusted my driving style to compensate. The tires are also quiet a bit taller then the KO2s. I knew they would be taller but i was pleasantly surprised by just how much taller they actually are. I like the look too, much more aggressive in person then in photos. Overall I'm happy and can't wait to report back once i get them off-road.

If anyone is interested i have my old tires and wheels posted in the classifieds

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Hey, I'm sorry to revive an old thread, but seeing as your last post was 2 years ago, I hope you'd be willing to do an update on them? I'm thinking about getting these for my '06 470.

If you wouldn't mind could you run through some of things you liked, disliked, hows the wear, how were they offroad, any surprises you weren't expecting (positive & negative)? and just generally, how have you, or how are you enjoying them?

Thanks!
 
Hey, I'm sorry to revive an old thread, but seeing as your last post was 2 years ago, I hope you'd be willing to do an update on them? I'm thinking about getting these for my '06 470.

If you wouldn't mind could you run through some of things you liked, disliked, hows the wear, how were they offroad, any surprises you weren't expecting (positive & negative)? and just generally, how have you, or how are you enjoying them?

Thanks!
Well, I actually didn’t end up running them very long before moving to a 315/70/17 KO2 (that I didn’t run very long before going with the 295/70/18 Toyo MTs that I run now)
I sold the Coopers to @MongooseGA . I think he has had them off-road a ton. He would be the one to ask.
 
Well, I actually didn’t end up running them very long before moving to a 315/70/17 KO2 (that I didn’t run very long before going with the 295/70/18 Toyo MTs that I run now)
I sold the Coopers to @MongooseGA . I think he has had them off-road a ton. He would be the one to ask.
Thanks for the quick reply, maybe @MongooseGA will chime in with his experience. all 3 of us being in the SE (TN here) I'm interested to see similar terrain reviews.

Thanks again!
 
I can speak to the S/T Maxx as I had them on my FJ60.
Likes - just about everything. For me they were extremely quiet on the road (multiple buddies commented on this), hooked up great on just about everything; snow, dirt, mud, rain, dry pavement. Great all around tire regardless of what I was doing, but mind you my 60 never got above about 75mph so the wind noise and sound at that point in a flying brick is less than stellar and hard to discern tire noise vs. wind noise. SUPER durable with the Armor-Tek sidewalls. Only ever once got a puncture and that was because I had picked up a LAG BOLT in the tread near the sidewall at some point driving home and didn't notice until the next morning at which point it had done a decent amount of damage to the inside of the tire.

Dislike - No mileage warranty. I wish they had lasted longer but I only got about 30k out of the tires. That is lots of on and off road usage, mainly on road though. Not the best on ice but still just about as good as any other AT tire. I put this as a negative as I did slide a bit on ice, but nothing that was extremely bad.

Really they were quiet, for me, up until about the last 5k miles of usage. At that point they began to sound more and more like a traditional mud terrain tire. But really they extremely quiet until that point. So much so that my wife actually commented that her ATs were louder on her 11 4Runner at one point.

I would highly HIGHLY recommend them!
 
Well, I actually didn’t end up running them very long before moving to a 315/70/17 KO2 (that I didn’t run very long before going with the 295/70/18 Toyo MTs that I run now)
I sold the Coopers to @MongooseGA . I think he has had them off-road a ton. He would be the one to ask.
MTs for the win. That is what I am preparing to transition into. I am looking at the STT Pro, Xtreme MT2s or KM3s. I have Toyo ATII xtremes on now. They are good, but with the weight of the vehicle, they sometimes seem to struggle for bite.

Can you speak to how the tire noise on the highway changed when you went to a MT from a good AT? Seems like it will be noisy, but not unbearable.
 
I can speak to the S/T Maxx as I had them on my FJ60.
Likes - just about everything. For me they were extremely quiet on the road (multiple buddies commented on this), hooked up great on just about everything; snow, dirt, mud, rain, dry pavement. Great all around tire regardless of what I was doing, but mind you my 60 never got above about 75mph so the wind noise and sound at that point in a flying brick is less than stellar and hard to discern tire noise vs. wind noise. SUPER durable with the Armor-Tek sidewalls. Only ever once got a puncture and that was because I had picked up a LAG BOLT in the tread near the sidewall at some point driving home and didn't notice until the next morning at which point it had done a decent amount of damage to the inside of the tire.

Dislike - No mileage warranty. I wish they had lasted longer but I only got about 30k out of the tires. That is lots of on and off road usage, mainly on road though. Not the best on ice but still just about as good as any other AT tire. I put this as a negative as I did slide a bit on ice, but nothing that was extremely bad.

Really they were quiet, for me, up until about the last 5k miles of usage. At that point they began to sound more and more like a traditional mud terrain tire. But really they extremely quiet until that point. So much so that my wife actually commented that her ATs were louder on her 11 4Runner at one point.

I would highly HIGHLY recommend them!

Thank you for the review! I'm a little disappointed with the 30k tread life, I thought I would at least get 10k-15k more out of them than that, non the less, its good information to have. There's no way your 60 weighs more than our fat ass hundy's. Do you know what load range you got (or is that even an option for these tires?)

Thanks again!
 
MTs for the win. That is what I am preparing to transition into. I am looking at the STT Pro, Xtreme MT2s or KM3s. I have Toyo ATII xtremes on now. They are good, but with the weight of the vehicle, they sometimes seem to struggle for bite.

Can you speak to how the tire noise on the highway changed when you went to a MT from a good AT? Seems like it will be noisy, but not unbearable.

See, before really comparing all potential tires (about 8 different ones ) I was pretty dead set on the STT Pro's (good recs from expedition portal, good reviews from youtube, etc...) but this is only my 2nd 4wd vehicle and my first time buying brand new tires for it.

I love the idea of MT, but I'm not sure if I'd use them enough to justify the cost, and the disadvantages of them. My main points are reliability off road (puncture resistance, tear resistance, internal damage etc...) on road performance (mainly rain/wet conditions), tread life, and as quiet as possible on the road (This one is the one I'm least concerned about)
 
Thank you for the review! I'm a little disappointed with the 30k tread life, I thought I would at least get 10k-15k more out of them than that, non the less, its good information to have. There's no way your 60 weighs more than our fat ass hundy's. Do you know what load range you got (or is that even an option for these tires?)

Thanks again!
I am right at 30k miles on my LT255/85R16 ST Maxx. While they are starting to get noisy, they are far from worn out and needing replaced. I haven't measured the tread depth in awhile, but visually I believe these tires have at least 1 more year in them (15k or more miles for me). I do a 5 tire rotation, so that might give me a bit more life.
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Unless there is a remarkable tire released within the next year, I'll probably buy the ST Maxx again when these wear out.
 
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I am right at 30k miles on my LT255/85R16 ST Maxx. While they are starting to get noisy, they are far from worn out and needing replaced. I haven't measured the tread depth in awhile, but visually I believe these tires have at least 1 more year in them (15k or more miles for me). I do a 4 tire rotation, so that might give me a bit more life.
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Unless there is a remarkable tire released within the next year, I'll probably buy the ST Maxx again when these wear out.

This is awesome to hear and thank you for the real-world experience! Thats about where I expected these tires to land. I also plan on doing a 5 tire rotation (I'm used to it because of the jeep I had) I really love the way the ST Pro's look - but to me looks doesn't really matter to me, performance and reliability are, and I'm sure their performance is amazing, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to pull the trigger on MT's but these AT's are looking like a top contender. I can get a set of 5 for $1300 so while not the cheapest option I dont think going cheap is something I want to do with tires.

Thanks again for your input!
 
Believe they only come in load E or C range. For the stock 15s of the 60 they only come in E range, and I was running 31s in a pretty much stock configuration. When I replaced mine I was down to an avg. of about 3/16 so could I have gone for longer, probably, but we were coming up on Winter and I didn't want to try snow/ice in that. Of course, we then had a minimal winter this year. I replaced with the AT3 XLT and they were great for the few hundred miles I drove them before selling off my 60 to get a 100.
 
See, before really comparing all potential tires (about 8 different ones ) I was pretty dead set on the STT Pro's (good recs from expedition portal, good reviews from youtube, etc...) but this is only my 2nd 4wd vehicle and my first time buying brand new tires for it.

I love the idea of MT, but I'm not sure if I'd use them enough to justify the cost, and the disadvantages of them. My main points are reliability off road (puncture resistance, tear resistance, internal damage etc...) on road performance (mainly rain/wet conditions), tread life, and as quiet as possible on the road (This one is the one I'm least concerned about)
This is awesome to hear and thank you for the real-world experience! Thats about where I expected these tires to land. I also plan on doing a 5 tire rotation (I'm used to it because of the jeep I had) I really love the way the ST Pro's look - but to me looks doesn't really matter to me, performance and reliability are, and I'm sure their performance is amazing, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to pull the trigger on MT's but these AT's are looking like a top contender. I can get a set of 5 for $1300 so while not the cheapest option I dont think going cheap is something I want to do with tires.

Thanks again for your input!

I pretty much only use my vehicle either on trail or to get to a trail. From everything I have read, I would not want an MT if I used my 100 more frequently.

I have been very happy with the Toyo ATIIs I have now. I have put them through some really tough trails. Being new to off roading, I was very tough on the Toyos from not knowing how to effectively practice mechanical sympathy. They are really good on the trails. I would say 10/10 for an overland driving style They are great on the highway. They just lack some of the bite I know that I can get from an M/T on the tough stuff. I have also had some issues with minor chunking from hitting some tough trails last season. The chunking was mainly in Moab. Golden Spike last year seems like it would have been easier with the bite of a MT. Most people don't have trucks equipped to get into the tough stuff though and an AT makes much more sense. For reference, nothing I did in the San Juans made me think that I needed a MT style tyre. I have done the Wall on Poughkeepsie Gulch. Ha ha Moab redefined what tough meant. The Wall seems more like the oversized speed bump now.
 
Thanks for the quick reply, maybe @MongooseGA will chime in with his experience. all 3 of us being in the SE (TN here) I'm interested to see similar terrain reviews.

Thanks again!

I like them. Can't remember how many miles were on them from @ga12r1 , but I've probably got close to 25-30k on them. I do a 5-tire rotation every 5k miles.

Noise isn't terrible, There's a little bit of a hum noticable at low speed with no music on in the truck, but nothing I can pick up on at road speed/ highway speed, and definitely nothing with the radio on. I'd consider noise a non-issue.

Off road they are great on everything except slick mud. Just no getting away from an MT when you need it. Otherwise, they're great, and I've got buddies in triple locked trucks that I've kept up with pretty well.

On the road, they ride like s***. No sugar coating, it will ruin an otherwise comfortable vehicle. This isn't so much specific to this tire, though. It's E rated, has a crazy stiff sidewall and transmits EVERYTHING from the road, even the gum the car in front of you just spit out. Honestly, when I go to replace, I may just save up and buy 2 new sets for the truck- an MT and a highway tire with lighter load rating. As often as I use mine for road trips, it might be worth it.

If I were going to buy just one set of replacements, I would consider them again. I'd also see what else was comparable. If the same purchase deal was made to me as when I bought these, I'd do it in a heart beat.
 

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