Soon, like in the next month, I will be needing new tires for the J**p. I am currently running BF Goodrich KM2 Mud Terrain tires, but they are discontinued (the KM2), which is sad, because I really like them... Until I rotated them and holy hell, what a mistake that was. Talk about road noise from hell!!!!
I bought the J**p in January of 2018 and it had 32k miles on it, almost three years later, it now has 110k miles on it. Yep that's right, an average of 26k miles per year. Yep, I drive it. A LOT! :)
Since the KM2's are no longer available, I may take a departure from the mud terrain and consider an all terrain. I have not really had any real reason to have the mud terrains, other than that I really like the look of the tread. but, that's semantic and honestly, expensive. There is almost a $200 disparity between the mud terrain and the all terrain (KM3 vs KO2). and that disparity favors the KO2 all terrain.
So, the question here is, who runs an all terrain and what do you like or not like about them? I have been running the mud terrains for over 25 years, but I don't feel it's necessary to spend all that extra money just for the look of the tread.
Let's hear your feedback!
Dan
@Michael Figgins that is great feedback and I share the same sentiment. I usually drive a couple hundred miles to get to where I put in on an overland trip. So, dirt, snow and sandy terrain is more common to my truck than mus. Now one exception to that was this past trip to the Owyhees. Honestly, that mud did not discriminate. AT's, MT's, RT's, it didn't matter, everyone felt the same affects.
Besides the fact that the mud terrains don't fare too well after a few 10,000 miles if you are not religious about rotating them and checking balance and alignment periodically.
Thanks!
I run 34x11.50 Ko2s and have run a couple different ATs as well as MTs and the Ko2s are my favorite tire so far. Not a ton of road noise and perform fantastic in just about every condition save for deep mud. Which my final decision for going with the Ko2s over the KM3s was that i do a lot more highway with the JLu then i ever did with the YJ and at the end of the day i would rather be pulling cable in the mud then in the snow. I probably have done 1% of my driving in the mud overall because the mud is usually at the bottom of deep water holes and i don't want to sink my carpet. Hope that helps a little.
I guess I never really considered a hybrid, as I kind of figured the AT was the hybrid from a street tire to a terrain tire.
What size tires do you have?
Dan
I commented on FB, but glad you posted it on here too! For what you are describing, why not something in between? A/T M/T Hybrid? Something like the Toyo R/T or Nitton Ridge Grappler R/T. For the load you are carrying and how you are using it you get a quite tread design, aggressive shoulder for the looks, and a stout sidewall to prevent punctures?
Personally, I have had Goodyear MT/RK (which were pretty loud after 15k and never balanced right), BFG KM2's (nice but quite a bit smaller than the size it was marked) and now two sets of Toyo M/T. The M/T by far have been my favs. In fact, if you want to test drive some for a while I have five mounted on JK wheels behind my house with about 30k on them that you can try!