Tire Experience

[Phil O]

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How’s it going with those tires?

 

[alex zopp]

Hello guys,

looking at tires and wanted to see if anyone here had any real experience with either of the following tires on their Gen2 in the same size as the stock KO2’s.

Cooper STT Pro
Nitto Ridge Grappler
BFG KM3

I did recently put on 17” Venomrex 602’s which are 10lbs lighter than the stock wheel. I want to know how your experience has been with any of the above tires in the 35 size, performance on road as well as MPG changes and how long the tires lasted.

thanks!

cooper stt pro are very noisy, I had those tires and for me aren't good tires, noisy, low grip in wet conditions, not precise in the fast drive offorad and on road.
I love bfg, and the km3 I think are the best tires for raptor if u want a more aggresive tire than the ko2.
the only problem of the km3 is in snow conditions.

 

[Phil O]

cooper stt pro are very noisy, I had those tires and for me aren't good tires, noisy, low grip in wet conditions, not precise in the fast drive offorad and on road.
I love bfg, and the km3 I think are the best tires for raptor if u want a more aggresive tire than the ko2.
the only problem of the km3 is in snow conditions.

How were they in snow for you? I’ve heard from others and even saw videos of them working in snow and they were all good.

 

[alex zopp]

How were they in snow for you? I’ve heard from others and even saw videos of them working in snow and they were all good.

if you drive in fresh snow the km3 are good tires because they dig like a crawler, but if you drive in compact snow are terrible when you brake,
ko2 have a ''lamellar'' system similar to winter tires, that system works very well...

I live in a cold place with snow 5/6 months for year and the roads are steep, only for this reason I don't use the km3, but the ko2.

 

[ljn21]

Any opinions on if KM3 or KO2 would be better for Arizona/desert offroading? No high speed sand/desert, more like overlanding trips and camping trips. Love the look of the KM3s but not sure on the road noise...few vids on YouTube make the KM3 seem so loud...

Edit, sorry OP, feel like I just thread jacked your topic

 

[Phil O]

Any opinions on if KM3 or KO2 would be better for Arizona/desert offroading? No high speed sand/desert, more like overlanding trips and camping trips. Love the look of the KM3s but not sure on the road noise...few vids on YouTube make the KM3 seem so loud...

I had the KM3’s on my 2019 Tacoma last year in 33” and I didn’t notice much noise from stock.

 

[ljn21]

This doesn't seem to bad:

This seems a little worse:

This seems pretty loud:

 

[Cristian]

Any opinions on if KM3 or KO2 would be better for Arizona/desert offroading? No high speed sand/desert, more like overlanding trips and camping trips. Love the look of the KM3s but not sure on the road noise...few vids on YouTube make the KM3 seem so loud...

Edit, sorry OP, feel like I just thread jacked your topic

I'm also in this same boat but between the km3 and mtr ,I plan to go on trips and overland the truck

 

[Flash1034]

It’s very hard to best MTRs off-road. I have 37’ MTRs on my Jeep and they are awesome. They are, however, pretty loud, rough, and suck on ice and hard pack snow.

 

[hedonist222]

How’s it going with those tires?

I enjoy them very much.

My initial impressions remain the same.

Whats changed now is that the ride is softer because the lugs have softened/edges dulled due to riding on the street.
Ride is better now. Not that it was harsh earlier but akin to installing knobbies - they take time to re-form to the road.

No difference in braking distance either.
I thought breaking distance would increase because of the larger spaces between each monolith lug - but Cooper advertise that they use a different rubber compound that makes the rubber stickier. To compensate for the inherent reduction in breaking distance.

https://www.coopertires.com.au/cooper-life/blog/2018/may/compound

I've taken it into deep sand a few times.
My suggestion is to treat it like a paddle, when starting to move, gently and consistently give it throttle otherwise you'll dig yourself in. This is because the lugs act like paddles.
And once you're in velocity, its amazing.

cooper stt pro are very noisy, I had those tires and for me aren't good tires, noisy, low grip in wet conditions, not precise in the fast drive offorad and on road.
I love bfg, and the km3 I think are the best tires for raptor if u want a more aggresive tire than the ko2.
the only problem of the km3 is in snow conditions.

I'm not sure about the conditions of you roads.
Using decibel meter, the loudness was the same.

What was different and this is maybe why you consider them noisy is the type of sound.
The STT PRO have a whirring sound at speed and a clicking sound when doing a bit slower. That sound is each monolith lug making contact with the road.
Stock tires had the same volume but it was continuous - like a generator running in the background.
The STT PRO has silence then noise, silence then noise. Hence the whirring and clicking.
But its not louder than stock - its just different.

One more thing, I learned that STT Pro redesigned their tires some time ago with the new compound I linked to above.
Perhaps you were on the older compound?

I pointed this out earlier and I think its worth saying again.

I may accept buyer's remorse if I bought the wrong coffee mug.

But I was prepared to take off the STT PRO and sell them immediately if I felt any discomfort such as ride handling,comfort, or affect to breaking distance. I won't compromise safety and lifes too short to spend 2 years/25K miles with the wrong tires.