Tire Experience

[hedonist222]

The Australian portal of cooper tires has better info :

https://www.coopertires.com.au/our-range/4x4-tyres/stt-pro

 

[CHMP]

Stupid question probably but is there any decent tire in between 35" and 37"? I did so e googling but only found swampers.

 

[Phil O]

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.



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.

I pulled the trigger on some tires finally. Ended up going with the Yokohama Geolandar G003 in 35x12.5r17. Love how aggressive the side wall is. So far it drives pretty well behaved. Didn’t feel any unstableness yet from the tire feeling too soft like the KM3’s felt in highway driving.

 

[Fshnrig]

Never been a huge Yokohama fan but those tires do look good.

 

[hedonist222]

That looks great, Phil.

For a second I thought you even put on 37s!

Looking forward to your thoughts after a few hundred miles.

 

[tom wansor]

I pulled the trigger on some tires finally. Ended up going with the Yokohama Geolandar G003 in 35x12.5r17. Love how aggressive the side wall is. So far it drives pretty well behaved. Didn’t feel any unstableness yet from the tire feeling too soft like the KM3’s felt in highway driving.

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Did you notice a big difference going to E rated tires? Do you run same pressures as stock?

 

[Phil O]

Did you notice a big difference going to E rated tires? Do you run same pressures as stock?

Honestly, with this pandemic and now teleworking the last month I haven’t done much driving. The little driving I have done (120 miles) they feel much more grippy. Like, they grip into the concrete a lot more. I haven’t really “gunned” it yet. And the MPG’s so far is negligible. With stock I was getting 17.2 mpg and at 17 right now.