Help me select new tires - Which have you liked or disliked?

[_ExpeditionMan]

Hello Everyone,

About to make my first "truck" tire purchase and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the choices..

Here is my situation:

I drive my 4Runner once or twice a week for short distances. Since I live in the city I can take public transport so it is not my daily driver. However, I take frequent trips out of Houston to visit Austin/San Antonio and any trips to go off-roading or overlanding would be a minimum 4 hours away.

Because of this I need something that will not absolutely destroy my gas mileage or road manners (noise especially). I currently have some mild 31x10.50 Goodyear AT tires. The truck had them on it when I purchased it about 2 months ago. They worked fine on a recent trip to an OHV park, but are fairly worn and are starting to crack on the sidewalls due to age. Looking to purchase within the next month.

So to summarize:

-Will be used to drive long distances on highway
-Decent road manners (noise, driving in the wet)
-Still has to perform off road (otherwise what's the point!)

Anyone had a set of tires that they absolutely loved that I should consider? Any advice and pros/cons of your current setup are appreciated.

 

[Lecoq]

I'm in love with the BFGoodrich All Terrain KO2.

I have in the past run a few different set of tires.

GoodYear Silent Armor
GoodYear DuraTracs
Older version of the BFGoodrich All Terrain
Toyo Open Country MT
Hankook DynaPro AT
Bridgestone Dueler AT
General Grabber AT2

I've had my share of daily driving in rain, snow, mud, rocks and lots of highway miles. I can tell you from experience that the new BFGoodrich KO2 is definitely the best all around choice. Smooth and quiet on the highway, great on rock and in mud. It's done wonders so far in the snow and on slick roads this winter.

Hope this helps

 

[hurstjd]

Running the KO2 on our van and my LR3. Love them!

 

[marshal]

having had mud terrain, max traction and all terrain tires; i can say without a doubt i won't ever have anything but mud or max traction tires on my trucks. AT's are just flat out useless unless they're hybrids.

my tire recommendations are as follows

General Grabber Red label
Nitto Trail Grappler
Goodyear MT/R kevlar
Toyo Open County MT

 

[Airmapper]

I drive 70 miles daily on 33" Goodyear Duratrac's. I also had a 32" set before my current set that had about 50k miles on them when I took them off with life still left in them. I even did an all interstate trip on them, just under 1000 miles in under 48 hours, no problems.

Been very happy with them on everything from pavement, to deep snow (13"), packed snow, mud, dirt, rocks, and sand, and miles and miles of gravel roads. (They do grab and throw gravel some, but any aggressive tread will.) I've even done 70mph on the interstate in downpours and they felt stable.

Keep them rotated and they stay pretty quiet, and the humming doesn't really get noticeable until they get worn. However if you are wanting a tire that doesn't hum a little your wanting a street tire.

The Duratrac is sort of a hybrid between AT and MT. Since it's a jack of all trades it's not superbly outstanding at any one thing, but it's served me well no matter what I've gotten into, from off road parks to extreme weather.

 

[_ExpeditionMan]

I'm in love with the BFGoodrich All Terrain KO2.

I have in the past run a few different set of tires.

GoodYear Silent Armor
GoodYear DuraTracs
Older version of the BFGoodrich All Terrain
Toyo Open Country MT
Hankook DynaPro AT
Bridgestone Dueler AT
General Grabber AT2

I've had my share of daily driving in rain, snow, mud, rocks and lots of highway miles. I can tell you from experience that the new BFGoodrich KO2 is definitely the best all around choice. Smooth and quiet on the highway, great on rock and in mud. It's done wonders so far in the snow and on slick roads this winter.

Hope this helps

Thanks for all the information! It definitely helps. I was looking at the BFG KO2's but I had heard there were better cheaper options to the original BFG AT so I was assuming it was the same in this case. How have they worn as you seem like you've had them for quite a while?

Running the KO2 on our van and my LR3. Love them!

Another vote for the BFG KO2. Noted!

having had mud terrain, max traction and all terrain tires; i can say without a doubt i won't ever have anything but mud or max traction tires on my trucks. AT's are just flat out useless unless they're hybrids.

my tire recommendations are as follows

General Grabber Red label
Nitto Trail Grappler
Goodyear MT/R kevlar
Toyo Open County MT

What situations have you seen AT tires become useless? Is the performance gap between a solid AT and a MT off road so much so that it justifies the poor highway performance of the MT?

 

[98WhiteT4R]

Another vote for General Grabber AT2, I have about 30k miles on mine and they are great.

 

[paddlenbike]

I really liked my BFG AT KO's, but when they switched to load range E only, I went a different direction. You will notice a difference in ride quality between a load range C and an E on a 4Runner, the E tire of course having a harsher ride. The closest tire I could find to the BFG was a Cooper Discoverer ST in a load range C. They are slightly more aggressive but not quite as much as the Duratrax. I'm happy with the Coopers on my 3rd gen.

 

[Lecoq]

Thanks for all the information! It definitely helps. I was looking at the BFG KO2's but I had heard there were better cheaper options to the original BFG AT so I was assuming it was the same in this case. How have they worn as you seem like you've had them for quite a while?

I've put 10,000 miles on them so far. I believe they are supposed to last at least 50,000 miles. Mine show no signs of wear yet.

 

[Owyhee H]

I have had lots of tires but my favorites are the BFG ATKO and Michelin MS2's.

The top of my list are these:

I had the Michelin AT2 which were great other than the snow, they don't have siping.

The Goodyear All Terrain Adventure is a great tire, even though it got mediocre reviews from overland journal. It is a nice and light AT with decent traction. I found it to ride pretty well for and e rated tire and I would get it again as a compromise.

The BFG is a great all terrain on the agressive side. It is not a hybrid but offers good road manners, decent noise levels, and good off road traction. If I didn't spend soo much time on the freeway and care so much about MPG this would be my tire forever.

Michelin MS2's are the most boring best tire I have ever had. They will make you think you are an old man but their performance is amazing. They are no mud terrain but are a good "all terrain". Even with their very street oriented appearance they still have quite good traction due to the massive amount of siping. The MS2's are good in the snow, wear forever, good (except mud) off road, are almost silent, don't look cool in any way shape or form, are fairly $$, and are mandatory with your AARP card (I am several decades away from an AARP card). I have been amazed that these tires don't "chunk" out at all. I figured that with all the siping and small pieces of rubber they would fall apart in the sharp broken rocks but I have experienced quite the opposite. On several desert trips in ID, NV, and OR they have proven to be much tougher than all the MT's and "proper" AT's I was around.

As you can tell I am a fan of the MS2's. If all I did was play offroad I would run the BFG AT but life is a compromise and mine is with the MS2.

I can only think of maybe .0001% of my miles that I would have ever benefited from a MT tire and have never enjoyed their rough ride and noise, but to each their own.

 

[AaronK]

BFGs are good tires but way over priced in my opinion.
I've been happy with General Grabber AT2s (current tire) and Pro comp ATs (had on my last rig for about 60,000)

Sent from my OnePlus One using Tapatalk.

 

[plh]

I like this statement:

I'm in love with the BFGoodrich All Terrain KO2.

 

[xplrn42]

I just switched over from MTR's w/kevlar to KO2's and I'm extremely happy with the decision.
I had a 2" stick go through the sidewall of my kevlar lined MTR's, went on a snow run with the new KO2's and they surely outperformed others on MT's.
It all depends on what your doing to be able to say which tire is useless or not.

 

[summerprophet]

I was about to reply with my suggestions until I realized you are in Texas. Take all the suggestions and look at the regions they are from. Pacific Northwest guys are going to lean towards wet and snow conditions, southerners are going to lean towards bottomless mud.
If your off road is mostly sand/Rock with being too technical, you could get away with Michelin LTx which are a great highway tire and last forever. The new bfg at has been reviewed recently, with outstanding results in all conditions.

4runners don't like heavy boots. I would avoid Toyo mt's and others with heavy thick sidewall tread.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

I'm completely in love with the General Grabber AT2. They're lighter than the BFG AT, darn tough, quiet, and handle well in most situations. Plus the price is awesome. I'm on my third set.