Bfg At's Or Mt Km2

[thecriscokid]

I am currently running a 285/75/16 BFG AT's on my Tundra. I bought the truck w/ the tires and they were on stock toyota wheels, now I have transferred them onto Wheelers steel wheels. The tires have definite uneven wear and I am hoping that the 8" wide rim may help them wear a bit more evenly. None the less I will be soon mounting some 285/75 Yokohama IT 72 snow tires for the winter and come April will be needing new summer tires. I notice that a lot of guys here are running Mud Terrains and I am curious about the actual off-road differences. My trips are usually leaving from muddy Colorado through Moab and ending up in Cali. All my big trips have always been in my '85 VW Vanagon with big Cooper AT's and for obvious reasons My leather appointed Tundra is getting built. Actual wheeling is now fun and not mandatory and scary. Insight from those who have run both of the BFG's would be great

 

[crawler#976]

I personally viscerally disliked the AT's. For the type of wheelin' I do, they always left me short on traction when I needed it the most. Snow on the highway was fine, deep snow was another story. I owned two sets over the years on two different trucks and had the same results.

I've not had the chance to test the new KM2, and look forward to hearing some results from the hard core wheelers. The old BFG MT/KO wasn't up to the hard trails in AZ - I destroyed 6 tires in 4000 miles of rock crawlin' vs 8 to 10 thousand mile per set of MT/R's. The MT/KO side walls cut very easily, and the tread chunked off in huge pieces.

That said, the penalties for driving on my preferred tire, the Goodyear MT/R, is about 1.5 to 2 MPG. I'm not sure I'm gonna buy another set once these are worn out. The same applied to the old MT/KO, don't know how the new ones are fairing on gas mileage. Again, I hope to hear about that too!

We're using a set of GoodYear Wrangler Silent Armour on the '05 Taco, and so far I've been pleased with them. That truck sees 80% pavement time with a few hard trail rides and probably close to 2000 miles of dirt forest service road annually. They don't do well in mud or deep snow, but I believe they have done as well or better than the AT's, especially on snow and ice packed roads.

Mark

 

[toy_tek]

Conversely, I'm a fan of the AT's and have run 5 sets on 3 different trucks, 2 Toys and 1 Jeep. Recently I've come to the conclusion when I'm "not going forward" it rarely is the fault of the tire. My experiences only, of course.

I'm interested in the KM2's as well but my concern is more noise related. Just this past weekend I rode in a truck that had them - although it isn't exactly an apple to apple comparsion, vehicle wise. It was a lifted 05 Excursion PSD. For having 35's, it wasn't as loud as I thought it would be. But nowhere near as quiet as AT's would have been. The noise level experienced was enough to dissuade me from changing my AT's to MTs

Regarding your uneven wear - I found for that size tire on stock Toyota rims that 30psi seems to work well on the street. Are you anywhere near that?

 

[jim65wagon]

Not to throw a monkey in your wrenching, but...when I went from the Rugged Trails to the BFG AT's I was really happy. Then the ATs wore out and I switched up to the 255/85 Cooper Discoverer ST's. Noisier than the BFG AT, nearly the same road manners, but I think they do a bit better off road, and a lot better in mud than the AT...

 

[thecriscokid]

I have my BFG At's @ 32lbs. I'm really hoping that after I get some miles on the new profile (8" wide rim) they will get better. My main thought is that if the AT's wear as poorly as the MT's I should go MT.

I have driven the Coopers and did like those but the SST's really wore out fast... That really soft compound in the SST's makes little bumps disappear. I like that the BFG's are everywhere.

Also when I mounted on the new wheels I put black out and they were white out, hoping that gives some chance of more even wear because I'm only at about 25% wear.

All the input is very helpful. This is such a great sight. I can't wait to get all my mechanical maintenance out of the way ( getting timing belt and all fluids changed as we speak) and start getting my luxury sleeping mods going

 

[jim65wagon]

Just to clarify, the ST's are an All Terrain style. Mine are wearing very well and have 38,000 miles on them so far.

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