BFG KO2 - A Great Tire

[WhiteBear]

Sorry I should have said I was veering slightly off the main topic - was just sharing something I thought was interesting about how sensitive tires are to poor maintenance and how you can see the impact in a real world scenario.

Well, not soooo sensitive. The spare wheel (and the rim) on my Defender are 26 years old and I used it 7 or 8 years ago for the first time. No problem, it also keeps the pressure for years.

 

[DCPU]

I'm a fan of over inflating, but even that has it's potential pitfalls, as does jack stands unless you put suspension back into a neutral position so as to not stress bushings, etc.

Only thing I've not got into are tyre cradles or tyre cushions. Theory sounds good though.

All told there's no magic bullet ~ just drive and replace regularly seems the best...

 

[jeremy_matrix]

<flame suit on>

After having driven many miles in Sprinter 4WD's with BFG K02 (3PMSF), and many clients having driven lots more miles, I no longer recommend K02's as the best tire choice. IMHO, there are numerous higher quality tires out on the market now, at a lower pricepoint. That being said, I'll probably order mine with K02's and sell them as they are a popular tire.

Biggest gripes with the K02's;
--they aren't made as round as they should be, so they're more of a PITA to balance and keep balanced
--many (no rhyme/reason, and susp and alignment is new) exhibit odd wave-like wear patterns
--they howl loudly once they wear down
--they, like most other A/T's and M/T's, are NOT a true winter tire, despite what many on the forums in the USA will tell you. If you're going to be driving in packed snow/ice, then Blizzaks or Hakkapeliittas are safest/best
--yet they're the most expensive

For A/T's, we've started using, and loving;
-Falken Wildpeak A/T3W
-General Grabber A/TX
-Cooper Discoverer AT3
-Toyo AT3
-Yokohama Geolandar X-AT (albeit a more aggressive hybrid)

As always, YMMV.

 

[Tazzieman]

As long as the tyre can handle the full GVM on bad tracks I don't mind what I use.
Now as for oils...

 

[grenadierboy]

<flame suit on>

After having driven many miles in Sprinter 4WD's with BFG K02 (3PMSF), and many clients having driven lots more miles, I no longer recommend K02's as the best tire choice. IMHO, there are numerous higher quality tires out on the market now, at a lower pricepoint. That being said, I'll probably order mine with K02's and sell them as they are a popular tire.

Biggest gripes with the K02's;
--they aren't made as round as they should be, so they're more of a PITA to balance and keep balanced
--many (no rhyme/reason, and susp and alignment is new) exhibit odd wave-like wear patterns
--they howl loudly once they wear down
--they, like most other A/T's and M/T's, are NOT a true winter tire, despite what many on the forums in the USA will tell you. If you're going to be driving in packed snow/ice, then Blizzaks or Hakkapeliittas are safest/best
--yet they're the most expensive

For A/T's, we've started using, and loving;
-Falken Wildpeak A/T3W
-General Grabber A/TX
-Cooper Discoverer AT3
-Toyo AT3
-Yokohama Geolandar X-AT (albeit a more aggressive hybrid)

As always, YMMV.

Jeremy,

Interestingly, you don't mention performance on wet tarmac, whereas numerous people I know have indicated this is a area were the KO2's are outperformed

 

[Tazzieman]

nterestingly, you don't mention performance on wet tarmac, whereas numerous people I know have indicated this is a area were the KO2's are outperformed

The people driving overloaded dual cabs too fast on roundabouts. It's called oversteer

 

[bigleonski]

I stopped using BFG’s about 20 years ago because I couldn’t get them balanced properly. Have always run 33’s.
Moved to a set of Coopers - chipped to buggery.
Tried Mickey T’s FC11 and they were ok but buggered 2 out bush and couldn’t replace them.
I’ve had Nitto Ridge Grapplers on for the last 60,000km and rate them. Great traction, fair wear, and less noise than the average non agressive AT. But again we are having supply issues with them in Oz.
I’ll give the 32” BFG’s a run as I’ll probably get 3-4 years out of them (assuming I only do one western desert trip) and then with luck I won’t need to have to park in CbD carparks and have to worry about height. And I’m hoping the superior articlation and ground clearance will get me by without running a 2” lift and 33”s for a while. Time will tell I suppose.

 

[Krabby]

I'm certainly going with 17s (but still debating wheels) and the BFGs. But, I am curious to see the performance of the bespoke Bridgestones that are an option. I know they're more road focused, yet I am still interested in their performance.

 

[jeremy_matrix]

Jeremy,

Interestingly, you don't mention performance on wet tarmac, whereas numerous people I know have indicated this is a area were the KO2's are outperformed

Happy to speak to that; wet tarmac performance is ok, but since the majority of our clients with K02's live east of the mountain range, it's quite dry over here so we don't get an inundating amount of rainfall.

 

[G-Man]

I'm considering running two sets of wheels: Keeping the stock All Terrain tyres (tires ) on stock steel rims as my 'fun weekend' set and then investing in a set of nice after-market alloys shod with more road-biased tyres for everyday use. As the vehicle is going to do many more miles on-road than offroad, it makes sense to me to have the more fuel efficient and better behaved road-biased tyres (in the wet at least!) on the bling alloy rims for use in public appearances/playing in traffic and then keep the lumpy set for playing rough. The reason I didn't spec the Ineos alloys with Bridgestones from the outset is because I didn't like either of their alloy wheel designs: The 17" alloys are OK but would have been much better in black instead of grey and the 18" faux beadlock alloys are a bit naff IMHO (no offense intended ). If one set of wheels ends up collecting too much dust then I figure I shouldn't have too much trouble passing the spares down the line........

At the risk of drawing some flack , has anyone got any recommendations for a good set of road-biased tyres that aren't going to look out of place on the Grenadier? Fell-running shoes as opposed to hiking boots and definitely not Oxford Brogues, if I can use that analogy

 

[Eric]

I'm considering running two sets of wheels: Keeping the stock All Terrain tyres (tires ) on stock steel rims as my 'fun weekend' set and then investing in a set of nice after-market alloys shod with more road-biased tyres for everyday use. As the vehicle is going to do many more miles on-road than offroad, it makes sense to me to have the more fuel efficient and better behaved road-biased tyres (in the wet at least!) on the bling alloy rims for use in public appearances/playing in traffic and then keep the lumpy set for playing rough. The reason I didn't spec the Ineos alloys with Bridgestones from the outset is because I didn't like either of their alloy wheel designs: The 17" alloys are OK but would have been much better in black instead of grey and the 18" faux beadlock alloys are a bit naff IMHO (no offense intended ). If one set of wheels ends up collecting too much dust then I figure I shouldn't have too much trouble passing the spares down the line........

At the risk of drawing some flack , has anyone got any recommendations for a good set of road-biased tyres that aren't going to look out of place on the Grenadier? Fell-running shoes as opposed to hiking boots and definitely not Oxford Brogues, if I can use that analogy

General grabber AT3s

 

[Shaky]

If you are going to be having the BFG’s for the real stuff then you probably wouldn’t go amiss considering some Michelin Cross Climate 2 XL tyres.

They would probably suit your needs very well. Decent performance at higher speeds, wet and snow & ice.

I have used them for some mild off road stuff and they were not too bad at all tbh. You certainly won’t put your new IG through a bus stop whilst navigating an island in the torrential rain.

 

[jeremy_matrix]

I'm considering running two sets of wheels: Keeping the stock All Terrain tyres (tires ) on stock steel rims as my 'fun weekend' set and then investing in a set of nice after-market alloys shod with more road-biased tyres for everyday use. As the vehicle is going to do many more miles on-road than offroad, it makes sense to me to have the more fuel efficient and better behaved road-biased tyres (in the wet at least!) on the bling alloy rims for use in public appearances/playing in traffic and then keep the lumpy set for playing rough. The reason I didn't spec the Ineos alloys with Bridgestones from the outset is because I didn't like either of their alloy wheel designs: The 17" alloys are OK but would have been much better in black instead of grey and the 18" faux beadlock alloys are a bit naff IMHO (no offense intended ). If one set of wheels ends up collecting too much dust then I figure I shouldn't have too much trouble passing the spares down the line........

At the risk of drawing some flack , has anyone got any recommendations for a good set of road-biased tyres that aren't going to look out of place on the Grenadier? Fell-running shoes as opposed to hiking boots and definitely not Oxford Brogues, if I can use that analogy

265/70R17 Tires

265/70R17 tire conversion. Convert 265/70R17 tire size to inches and compare prices on available tires from the top brands online.

tiresize.com

I'd recommend looking at;

Michelin Defender LTX M/S 265/70R17

tiresize.com

Michelin Agilis CrossClimate 265/70R17

tiresize.com

Continental TerrainContact H/T 265/70R17

tiresize.com

PS--If I do more dedicated winter driving in the IG, I too would get a 2nd set of wheels (17" steelies), and mount a set of studless Nokian Hakkapeliittas in order to be safest in winter conditions.

 

[DaveB]

265/70R17 Tires

265/70R17 tire conversion. Convert 265/70R17 tire size to inches and compare prices on available tires from the top brands online.

tiresize.com

I'd recommend looking at;

Michelin Defender LTX M/S 265/70R17

tiresize.com

Michelin Agilis CrossClimate 265/70R17

tiresize.com

Continental TerrainContact H/T 265/70R17

tiresize.com

PS--If I do more dedicated winter driving in the IG, I too would get a 2nd set of wheels (17" steelies), and mount a set of studless Nokian Hakkapeliittas in order to be safest in winter conditions.

After several references to Nokian Hakkapelittas tyres I just had to check them out

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBjk-hvO5bI&t=48s

 

[bemax]

After several references to Nokian Hakkapelittas tyres I just had to check them out

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBjk-hvO5bI&t=48s

For my Defender those are the standard tyres. They suit very good in the winter and ok in the summer. Also quite good in the wet. For me the winter performance is more important than the summer performance. In the winter the good tyres save dozens of meters when braking. In the summer the difference is not that bid. Especially as the Defender seldom is driven at high speed (140 km/h)

 

[G-Man]

General grabber AT3s

Yeah that was my first inclination in a 285/70 R17 size

 

[Eric]

Yeah that was my first inclination in a 285/70 R17 size

Been running on General Grabber AT3 for last 2 years mainly on road in all weathers including towing. Can't fault them and quiet even on and at motorway speeds.
A misaligned tyre IMHO

 

[Tazzieman]

Been running on General Grabber AT3 for last 2 years mainly on road in all weathers including towing. Can't fault them and quiet even on and at motorway speeds.
A misaligned tyre IMHO

Misaligned?

 

[jeremy_matrix]

After several references to Nokian Hakkapelittas tyres I just had to check them out

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBjk-hvO5bI&t=48s

I was thinking these for winter;

Nokian Tyres Hakkapeliitta LT3 - Premium winter tire for light trucks / Nokian Tires

The Nokian Tyres Hakkapeliitta LT3 winter tire offers exceptional winter grip and driving stability combined with strong structure and superb durability for demanding winter use.

www.nokiantires.com

 

[AnD3rew]

General grabber AT3s

General Grabber AT3s are actually a decent AT tyre with decent off-road performance. I had 2 sets on my D3. My only criticism is the sidewalls are fairly soft and get a lot of cuts although never had a failure