bf goodrich a/t ko2 tyres

sir-lamp-alot

Well-Known Member
right chaps i'm after a bit of advice in regaurds to all terain tyres, I need to replace the tyres on my grand vitara and due to the 17" wheels i'm rather stuck for choice as to whats avalible off road wise and am looking at bf goodrich a/t ko2. ive never bought off road tyres before always just gone along with road tyres before but always felt like the Vehicles could do better. I'm not going green laning I'm not going to try and drive through a peat bog or anything stupid just lamping and general stalking stuff driving across feilds ect and whilst I havnt yet been stuck in the grand vitara I have come bloody close where basicaly I'm just spinning on the greasey surface. so my question is will all terrain tyres help with this or just fill will mud and turn to slicks and does anyone have any experiencee of the goodrichs as there going to cost me £600 and I dont just want to waste that sort of money
 
I run AT's and MT's on working pick ups (towing and travelling on worse ground than you by the sound of it). My next set will be 17" BFG AT's. They've good manners on road, which is not the same with all off road tyres, some are chuffing lethal in the wet. They also get good mileage (30K out of the last set before a tracking issue did for them) and reasonable mpg. They will fill up, if its sticky ground, but they'll work way better than road tyres on the same ground. Strangely enough I've found them better than BFG MT's in the snow/ice. As for the price I recon you might be worth asking around/checking with Google, especially if your happy with a little less side wall ie 245/65 r17 instead off the more popular 245/75 r17.
 
I recently fitted new BFG AT tyres to my landcruiser after it having had Dueller road tyres since I got it.
I wanted the improved off road performance, but I was worried about handling in the wet and road noise with the AT tyres.
Road noise is very slightly increased, but nothing close to annoying me, and handling is good, although I found the limit a couple of nights ago when pushing along on a wet twisty road.
Overall, I'm very happy with them, and all the horror stories I was told about AT tyre performance on normal roads is definitely overblown -at least with the BFGs

Cheers

Bruce
 
I run the BFGs in the new KO2 version and have had them on for about 18 months now. They are on an L200 and I ran the Yokohama ATS tyres on my previous X-Trail.

I've found the BFGs to be fine on the road though I don't drive the L200 hard as that's completely pointless, they also seem quiet. It is also reassuring to be running tyres that are robust as I spend a fair amount of time on stone tracks and they can sometimes be very rough indeed with lots of sharp stones with large edges. There is no sign of damage to the BFGs.

What did surprise me was that the BFGs don't seem to offer any better performance on muddy tracks than the Yokos. I guess that although the Yokos look much less aggressive maybe tyre pattern technology has moved on? It is also possible that in more severe mud conditions the BFGs might show some improvement however in 2 - 3 inch deep mud over rock if I was being truthful I'd say the Yokos saw less sideways movement in the car and appeared to give more grip.

I haven't used the BFGs on snow, the Yokos were excellent on snow and as good as could be expected on ice. The BFGs are now snow rated with the little snowflake and mountain symbol but with the lack of all those tiny cuts (are they called stipes or something?) you see on real snow tyres I really can't see them working as well as the Yokos did, they did have all those little cuts. However the new KO2 BFGs are made of a softer rubber to help with cold weather grip (and probably on road as well) and I've seen people say that they get very reduced mileage out of them compared to the old BFGs. I have about 14,000 miles on mine with maybe 1500 of those off road and I don't see me getting much more than 20 - 25,000 miles out of them.

So, in summary I've no real complaints about them but I also don't think that they are the magic bullet some people maintain. In the past they were the go to standard AT tyre and I value the robustness but my feeling is that modern tyre technology and design might mean that rather less aggressive looking tyres might offer very similar performance. Given this I'd have no hesitation in buying them, but I'd also consider looking at the options with an open mind as I expected the BFGs to be a big off road/mud improvement over the Yokos and this didn't happen in the real world.
 
AT Grabbers on my 06 GV and I find them excellent. Remarkably civilised on the road (including the wet) and easily manage all my modest off-road shooting needs.
 
Definitely go for the BFG's. I ran a set on my Ranger up to 64,000 miles on the rear and 68,000 on the front. Replaced with General Grabber AT2's which are only a few ££ less and didn't get 25,000 out of the back pair. Fronts are still going at 35,000 but not much left in them.

You could go for cheaper but go much cheaper but then they can be very badly behaved in the wet!
 
I got BF AT 18” on my shogun swb , absolutely mega tyre . Done 36000 on them now but going to need to be changed soon .
 
Put some BFG KO2 on my landrover last week. Already noticed a big improvement (on-road and off-road) over the Continental ContiCrossContact ATs i had previously.
 
I've got 17" Cooper Discoverer AT3s on my Navara. Used for driving on road, on forest tracks, across wet fields and through mud of 4/5". Haven't been a stuck yet, quiet on road and mpg wasn't affected going from a road tyre. I'm 10k miles in and they are showing little sign of wear. They are also a massive amount cheaper than the BFG's. food for thought!
 
best tyre on the market hands down! Ive had 60k miles from BFG's I recently bought a set of cooper STT for my Defender because I got them cheap... I'll be going back to BFG in the new year!! they are expensive but in this case you get what you pay for
 
How do the BFGs compare with Grabbers on tarmac - nwet grip/noise/fuel consumption etc?

My Vitara came with a set of Grabbers already fitted so I've got nothing to compare them to. Very impressed with the way they perform but when it comes to replacement time I'd go for longer tyres life as long as I'm getting the same performance.
 
Very impressed with the way they perform but when it comes to replacement time I'd go for longer tyres life as long as I'm getting the same performance.

Be aware that, as I was saying, the new KO2 version of the BFG is getting a pretty bad reputation for life/wear. People on the older ones were getting much bigger miles, but the tyre was hard and so offered much less traction in some circumstances, but people with the KO2s seem to be reporting something around 20 - 25k miles and based upon current wear rates I'd guess that will be close to what I will get. This isn't a bad wear rate, it is just bad compared to what many people expected to get from them based on the old ones. As the new ones have only been around for a few years I guess many people running BFGs are still on the older model. I suspect that the BFGs are probably an "old technology" solution to the AT tyre problem and when they were the only show in town everyone raved about them however I'm given to wonder if the world hasn't moved on. Based on the views of others I expected them to be a big improvement over my pretty lightweight Yoko ATS tyres, the truth was that if I'm honest and despite spending £600 on a set I've not seen any huge advantages, if any at all in terms of off road traction, on road performance etc. However, they do have a reputation for being extremely robust with a strong sidewall and this is reassuring when you are 10 miles out a remote track on your own with no phone signal and no one for several hours driving that can recover you. I'd certainly have another set, but in my experience they are nothing close to the "magic bullet" of AT tyres that some people make them out to be.
 
Good tyres on and off road until you hit mud. Absolutely useless in mud.

I had the older KO's and now have the new KO2's. Haven't noticed any difference in performance yet.
 
My tyre man said old BFG mud and A/T were often still legal at 85k and newer quieter ones are only good for on third of that.
My old BFG muds on my 90 have done 40k and are still 75%.
 
I just put a set of BF Goodrich Rugged Terrain TA on my Suburban, which is mostly on the highway, but in heavy rains, snow, and down through pastures in wet grass and muddy roads. Very quiet and smooth, good in the rain, wet grass, dirt roads... not into the snow yet. But they are the best all-around tires ever on this vehicle. They are supposed to give 65,000+ miles.

addendum:
I saw a civil engineer today, who has to sometimes drive in rough, steep, wet clay roads and boggy fields. His Jeep Sahara was wearing big Goodyear Wrangler MT/R, which he said had worked very well for all that off-road work he does.
 
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