Replacing BFG's

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Duster

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I was kind of fortunate today. I ran into two buddies with the same trucks different colors. Both had pretty new tires also. One had the AT3W and the other KO2. Both were blackwall.

I have to say in all honesty with both tires being blackwall, to me and I know this is just opinion which is different for everyone. But to me the AT3W is a better looking tire. For tires with the sidewall stuff on them, the AT3W looks better to me. As far as the tires themselves, The AT3W is a much more square looking tire. I "think" they were both the same size. But the tread width looked wider on the AT3W where the KO2 has kind of a sloped shoulder and narrower tread.

Kind of wish now I had looked a little longer and confirmed both were the same size for 100% sure. But I think they were.
 

tommudd

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AT3Ws do have a more flatter/ squared tread for sure one of the reasons I like them so much
just an overall good looking and preforming tire
 

Duster

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Well, I spent some time talking to a guy who lives far out in the country like I used to, who spends more time off the pavement than I do because he lives on a gravel state road, and drives gravel roads around the farm that cross areas that must be graveled to make a solid road bed. He has always ran BFG All Terrains. The KO's and now he runs the KO2's. He was able to do a really good job of explaining to me the changes they made... why they were for the better for him, but probably not for me. He said really the only issue the KO ever had (for an AT tire) was that the rubber compound was hard and started to pit and chunk from running on a lot of gravel and rocks. He said they fixed that with the KO2 design and compound. But that was why people weren't getting the long mileage out of them running down the pavement.

I didn't really like the looks of the KO2 (I know I'm in the minority). I just didn't like the way they narrowed the tread and rolled the shoulders into that sidewall tread. And I really didn't want to get less mileage for the money either.

I ended up making a tire choice that I really did not expect to make at all. I ended up ordering Kelly Safari TSR's in 225/75R16 which was the stock size on my Jeep in the beginning anyways. These are an E rated tire, which I have always avoided trying. I may be sorry but I decided to give them a whirl because I liked the difference between the P rated and D rated KO's.

When it came down to me having to decide because I have to replace them before long, I decided I didn't want to go 235/70R16 really. I only had 3 choices off the shelf available in 245/70R16 which were BFG Rugged Terrain Kelly Edge AT or Dextero All Terrains which were all P rated. So I went to look at ordering instead while I still have time. All the choices that were not P rated were all 225/75R16 size. General Grabber ATX in XL, Falken Wildpeak AT3W in E rated, Goodyear Duratrac in E rated, Kelly Safari in E rated, or Kelly Edge AT in E rated.

I looked at the weight, tread depth and tread void of the BFG KO's coming off and compared the 5 choices to that. For what it is worth, the Kelly Edge AT I saw in person, and it looks better in person than in pictures. But was the tightest tread void. So I started there. For me, picking up pea gravel and other similar rocks is a complete nuisance. Stopping to pick them out solves the annoyance and related problems. But stopping costs me time and therefore costs me money. So I cut the General's and started comparing the remaining 4. On tread void I was pretty much at do I go with the Kelly Edge and maybe not have the issue, but will they just pack up with mud, snow? So I cut those (maybe unfairly). Next I cut the Duratracs which were very similar to the Kelly Safari but some of the center tread looked just perfect to collect these little ear drilling and tire drilling rocks.

So I ended up having to choose between the Falken Wildpeak AT3W's and the Kelly Safari's. I couldn't really judge rather the AT3W's would want to hold those little rocks or not. So I looked at the weights and tread depths and in the end I chose the more open tread void, deeper tread and lighter weight of the Kelly Safari's. So that is how I got here.

The tires arrived today. I had never seen Kelly Safari's in person. Now that I have seen them in person I am not sure I made the right decision. Don't get me wrong... they look absolutely awesome so on looks alone I don't know why I have never seen them. But in looking at them in person, dang they look more like a mud terrain in person. Way more aggressive tread than a BFG all terrain.

I am a little concerned about how these are going to sound and wear. I guess we will see. Size wise I believe these are going to mount and air up at exactly the same size as the KO's were new. Right at 30" tall. They are a little bit narrower than the old KO's though on contact patch but it's not way noticable to me. Won't really matter I don't think because I run the stock steels on my KJ which are not a wide wheel anyways. As far as weight these are a full 10 lbs each lighter than the KO's I am taking off.

Looking forward to getting them on and trying them out, but more so hoping I didn't make a bad choice. We shall see in time....
 

Doing10to20

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So I always use the bfg mud terrains love these my opinion on of the best to offroad in on road manners suck loud ,hard to balance, but offroad they are sweet ...but i got a free set of the nexen roadian a/t pro ra8 so said the hell with it and put them on,gotta say the on road manners are great, not loud over all smooth..offroad havent had an issue..been on long trail runs and even thick mud and so far cant complain..they dont look the baddest but they work and arent to expensive from what I've seen
 

tommudd

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I owned and also managed tire stores for years ( well over 10 years ) , and the tires we had most complaints about were BFGs.
And that was with selling everything from Goodyear, Dunlop, Cooper, Denman, Micky Thompson, Michelin, and others
People would complain and then go right back to them saying that's all they ran cause all of their friends did
Never could figure that out , but it was a sale so .............
I ran one set on my 79 F150 , first and last , got them for free as a promotional set for being best in sales , but I hated them as well ;)
Much better tires out there for less money

Now the set of L 60-15s I had on the rear of my 69 Cougar, loved them
but that was before many of the youngsters on here time :) :)
 

duderz7

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Recently got cooper at3 on my tacoma, louder than expected, almost mud tire loud. I'll be trying the Falken next tire purchase. The cooper's look and grip great, just loud.
 

turblediesel

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I had BFG all terrains on a 2wd Ford pickup for years and they were good with an annual rotation. Because of that I put them on my KJ, the Light Truck KO version. They understeer a little compared to the oem tires but they seem to have held up well. Jeep's been parked for years due to medical problems but I hope to add a new pair, or four, to my jeep when it goes back on the road. I hope the quality and longevity haven't gone bad. It'll be obvious if the old ones outlast the new ones. I got the LT version for the extra sidewall plys more than anything else. I've had tires die from slow sideways slides into chunks of ice along the road at minus 30°--40° temps and I don't like swapping tires at those temps. I've also had tires that got pummeled soft on our dirt and gravel roads. After they're soft any sharp rock can poke a hole in them. The tread's still great when I throw them away and rocks leave a ragged hole that can't be plugged and trusted.

Tire shops are pretty scammy and far away around here so I don't really care how it rides which hasn't been bad at 34 psi.. I did roll the bead off enough to lose some air dodging a moose once so the tires might like more pressure but 35 psi seemed to make every pebble noticeable.
 

Duster

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Yeah the basic I got was that if you live out in the sticks and run a lot of gravel or rock roads, or trail a lot in rocky areas the new KO2 will last longer because the lugs don't chunk off. I never had that issue with my old ones but saw some off his farm truck and was like dang! That's bad.

Me I run a lot of pavement going from one bad spot to the next so I just didn't feel like the KO2 was for me for the price to get less mileage out of them.

Time will tell how I like the Kelly Safari. Nobody to ask. And I probably thought I've never saw anyone with them because I would have assumed they were Duratrac's probably. So I have probably seen them but didn't realize.

Hopefully it all works out. I think if I had seen a set at the tire store or on some other vehicle I probably would have been afraid to try them and went with the Falken AT3W instead. Or maybe I would have still been thinking about it. I got a call yesterday and they told me the Toyo Open Country AT/3 is now available in 225/75R16 SL or E, and also 245/70R16 SL or E. So I thought I would share that with you guys in case some of you are like me and are looking for choices for AT tires for a non-lifted KJ.

If I don't like the Kelly Safari's I might go with Falken or Toyo next time around, provided this KJ keeps moving for me lol.
 
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