Kumho road venture mt51 review

[half k cruiser]

For those interested I am starting a review on the newest MT from Kumho. I have ran the 71's on my 80 series for just over two years now and have been nothing but impressed. See here for that review Kuhmo Road Venture MT review . The newest offering from Kumho is leaps and bounds ahead of that tire as far as design goes. I decided to try them on the wifes GX ...

Initial observations are
1) sidewall is even more heavily armored than the 71's . The side biters on these are quite a bit more aggressive than their predecessor. In fact they are more aggressive than anything else I've compared them to.
2. tread depth is measured at 18/32 average on all four tires.
3. the tread itself while not initially appearing as aggressive as the 71 shows substantial design improvement. The treads themselves are blockier and have very sharp defined edges.
4. the blocks have full thickness siping
5. the entire sidewall, not including the side biters, is covered in some type of ribbing. I'm not sure what the thought is here. Its either extra armor or some type of air cooling feature.
6. the tire has ridges inside the grooves of the tread that are obviously designed to eject mud and rocks.

 

[half k cruiser]

Just took these tires on a trip to CO and a couple of easy/moderate trails. Nothing crazy to report, they performed just as expected. 75mph on the highway netted little to no noise from them. This is pretty standard though on a brand new MT. I will say the sidewalls on these are easily as stiff as the KL71. I aired them down to 20psi on one trail and was just barely able to get them to bulge. I was only able to get them to slip once on a fairly steep grade of loose soil, once the A-Trac started to do its thing the rig just climbed right up. They could definitely be taken down to much lower PSI than what I was testing them at.

I'm not always the lead test pilot. Sometimes I have my second in command take over so I can enjoy the sights.

 

[NateMob]

Thank you for the update, i know its early but keep us posted on the mileage with these like you did the 71s.

 

[yosemitesamiam]

Interested in these for my Discovery II. Any new updates on them now that I assume you have some miles on? Thanks!

 

[half k cruiser]

Interested in these for my Discovery II. Any new updates on them now that I assume you have some miles on? Thanks!

I Pm'd you, but here's the scoop for everyone else. My wife's GX had about 120k on it when we bought it, with original suspension. Apparently it was more worn out than I thought. Before our big trip last month I was doing all kinds of maintenance including a new suspension. While I had the tires off I noticed they were feathered pretty badly. They still have a ton of tread left but the ride has become a bit noisy and they vibrate some. Couple that with the fact they are E rated on a vehicle that should have a C rated tire and It's annoying enough for me ( I want it to ride like a Lexus) that I bought a full set of AT3W's to go on there and I will just sell these cheap to somebody who doesn't mind a bit of noise and vibration.

Like I said, I can't really fault the tire. I still think for an all-terrain there is nothing else that comes close to being this aggressive of a tread pattern. Also, I believe they only come in E-rated. If you could find a 6-ply version that would be the bees knees. Just make sure you do rotations every 3k and you should be good to go.

 

[Lexuswoobie]

I Pm'd you, but here's the scoop for everyone else. My wife's GX had about 120k on it when we bought it, with original suspension. Apparently it was more worn out than I thought. Before our big trip last month I was doing all kinds of maintenance including a new suspension. While I had the tires off I noticed they were feathered pretty badly. They still have a ton of tread left but the ride has become a bit noisy and they vibrate some. Couple that with the fact they are E rated on a vehicle that should have a C rated tire and It's annoying enough for me ( I want it to ride like a Lexus) that I bought a full set of AT3W's to go on there and I will just sell these cheap to somebody who doesn't mind a bit of noise and vibration.

Like I said, I can't really fault the tire. I still think for an all-terrain there is nothing else that comes close to being this aggressive of a tread pattern. Also, I believe they only come in E-rated. If you could find a 6-ply version that would be the bees knees. Just make sure you do rotations every 3k and you should be good to go.

Before our big trip last month I

I Pm'd you, but here's the scoop for everyone else. My wife's GX had about 120k on it when we bought it, with original suspension. Apparently it was more worn out than I thought. Before our big trip last month I was doing all kinds of maintenance including a new suspension. While I had the tires off I noticed they were feathered pretty badly. They still have a ton of tread left but the ride has become a bit noisy and they vibrate some. Couple that with the fact they are E rated on a vehicle that should have a C rated tire and It's annoying enough for me ( I want it to ride like a Lexus) that I bought a full set of AT3W's to go on there and I will just sell these cheap to somebody who doesn't mind a bit of noise and vibration.

Like I said, I can't really fault the tire. I still think for an all-terrain there is nothing else that comes close to being this aggressive of a tread pattern. Also, I believe they only come in E-rated. If you could find a 6-ply version that would be the bees knees. Just make sure you do rotations every 3k and you should be good to go.

We put the Kumho MTs on our GX along with a Toytec lift, alignment and what a difference! The GX had about 165k on the clock when we swapped all this in. New tires and suspension rides just like a luxury truck(they sing a bit on the highway. But not anything bad.) Here in Central Texas we have mostly graded back roads and water crossings which these Kumhos eat up, not aired down at all. We love the look and longing glances of the Jeepers in town.