Tires - especially good or bad ones to avoid for offroad use? (1 Viewer)

[tdskip]

Good morning, hope everyone had a good weekend. The 285/70/17 tires on my rig need to be replaced and I was hoping to get some thoughts on do/don't as far as brand or tire model for mainly offroad use before ordering. I live in SoCal so dry weather and mostly scrub and fireroads, some limited around town use and very limited highway. The rig has Toyo R/T on it now and they have be fine but not a ton of use on them (bought used last year to get the rig into use).

Thanks!

 

[77mustard40]

I've got BFG KM2's on my 40 and Cooper AT3 XLT's on my 80, been very happy with both although they are completely different tires. KM's are quieter and more comfortable that you'd think for a mud tire, and the Coopers are super quiet and great on-road but seem to do really well off-road as well.

 

[tdskip]

Thanks @77mustard40 , both holding up OK as far as wear goes?

 

[77mustard40]

Thanks @77mustard40 , both holding up OK as far as wear goes?

KM2’s have been on the 40 for several years, unknown mileage and have held up fine. The Coopers are fairly new but are rated for 50,000 miles. Neither have chunked off-road.

 

[Tancruiser]

Coopers

 

[centerlineseal]

I've been very happy with Toyo M-55s. 25K miles so far. Very good in slick (snow, mud, ice) conditions and have held up well at 40 - 45 psi. Pretty damn expensive tho!

 

[Pighead]

I have heard nothing but good about the Coopers.
They don't come in the size i want so I've been driving on Toyo open country M/Ts. I have been impressed with them, very sturdy tire with a really stiff sidewall.

 

[1911]

My recent experience with tires:

Toyo Open Country M/T: Like @Pighead says, very tough tire with very tough (and stiff) sidewalls, and they last forever. These are the tires I would want again, if I was running mostly on sharp rocks and/or big mesquite thorns and the like. Never ever had a flat with them! But they were rough riding, heavy, and you have to air them down to single-digit PSI to get any softening/flex in the sidewall at all. Noisy on the highway.

BFG KM2 M/T: Aggressive tread, these have much softer sidewalls than the Toyo's, so they air down nicely and give excellent traction on the trail. But the trade-off for the softer sidewalls is, the sidewalls got weak and cracked with age (after many years). They were also harder to balance (and keep balanced) than the Toyo's. Also noisy on the highway. Mine started handling "funny" when they got old; I didn't notice any cupping, but the steering felt wonky like it had a lot of play in it. Had resigned myself to rebuilding my steering components, when one of the (now old) KM2's de-laminated on the highway and I replace them with:

BFG KO2 A/T: Haven't had these tires very long, but the on-road steering manners and noise are way better than the KM2's they replaced. Off-road, they have done well so far, but I haven't done as hard-core of wheeling with them yet as I did with the Toyo's and KM2's so it's hard to judge. They also balanced up way easier, with fewer weights, than the KM2's. Time will tell, but I like these tires so far.