Giving Up on BFG KO3's

[ErnieB]

Could it be a bad wheel ? I only have 2k miles on mine went to Discount Tire right after I got it and bought the certificates with included balance and rotation and I have no issues so far plan to do it every 5k miles or so

I thought of that and had the wheels checked. I am running Method 703's and the current set is perfect (I had an issue with a wheel on my first set). I have ruled out the wheels as the cause. Thanks for asking!

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[superj]

i am big fan of the duratracs, also.

the last bfg tires i had were some 33s on an 85 isuzu trooper 2. they were awesome tires for mud, sand, and highway but i have no nearly recent experience to say yeah or nay about them.

 

[ShadowDragon24]

They may of been road matched, but were they forced matched? did they spin the tire on the rim so the heavy side of tire(the coloured dot on the new tire) and rim(valve stem) are 180° across from each other?

 

[ErnieB]

They may of been road matched, but were they forced matched? did they spin the tire on the rim so the heavy side of tire(the coloured dot on the new tire) and rim(valve stem) are 180° across from each other?

I guess I should look into that if you feel it makes a difference. I was told they were "road force balanced" by the shops I took them to. That being said, I have never had this much trouble getting tires balanced... ever.. even with bias ply Goodyear slicks on a Formula Mazda

 

[stemplar]

Fwiw Tyre Reviews on YouTube rated the nokian outpost nAT as overall the best AT tire in winter conditions. Not a surprise considering how good Nokian is at snow tires in general.

 

[ShadowDragon24]

I guess I should look into that if you feel it makes a difference. I was told they were "road force balanced" by the shops I took them to. That being said, I have never had this much trouble getting tires balanced... ever.. even with bias ply Goodyear slicks on a Formula Mazda

Use to mount and balance tires for living 16 years ago, for a small tire shop. and we force matched a lot of tires the big shops that the "tires just wouldnt balance" no matter what they did.

I was wrong with how to go about it, its been a long time since I touched a balancer. lol

 

[LDHunter]

15,000 miles on my KO3's with absolutely no issues on or off road. I wonder if a lot of the people that are having trouble are using the bead lock rims...

 

[Peter949]

15,000 miles on my KO3's with absolutely no issues on or off road. I wonder if a lot of the people that are having trouble are using the bead lock rims...

Using bead lock capable rims. Have a lead foot with tune. Take off roading hard. No problems. It's louder tho.

 

[RaptorME]

I changed out my BL wheels for Roush, K03's are fine for me.

 

[MJ12]

You're not driving down the highway in 4H are you...? Just making sure.... that would cause shaking. I've never experienced a tire not being able to be balanced.

 

[RaptrJr]

Great tires. I have about 12k miles on mine.

Any noticeable difference with the Mickey Thompsons being a heavier tire? That's my only concern with them. I want the lightest tire that still checks all the boxes.

On my KO3's had been decent until around 17,000 miles. They got loud but that's my only real complaint. No traction issues like a lot of people talk about, but that being said when I move up to 35's I will be switching to Toyo, Nitto or Mickey Thompsons. Hoping for a quieter better balancing tire.

 

[Lion77]

Just passed 20k on my KO3s and they have been great on and off road. Mind you, I dont expect to push them in corners onroad like the Pilot Sport 4S I had on my 2016 GT...but for a big meaty AT tire with large gaps and alternating squared off shoulders, they do just fine on road relative to other AT tires I've used like Flaken WildPeaks.

I also just had the factory KO3s swapped over from my factory beadlocks to Method 705s and they are actually smoother now than on the beadlocks the truck came with which are stupid heavy and had huge weight packs on them for balancing. The Methods required less weight on same tire, so the wheels do make some difference in balance.

TireRack also sent the wrong hub centric rings so the tech just threw them in a box and I have no issues with vibration at 60, 70 or any speed past that. There was a little bit of courseness in AWD on the factory beadlocks / KO3s thats still there but so diminished its hardly noticeable (wasnt bad before either, but even less now).

My KO3s are decently good in the snow and rain. Awesome on sand, mud, rock and dirt. Dry traction is fine in 2WD, I've always put it in 4A for rain....its a truck. Never driven a truck that had great 2wd traction in the wet regardless of ambient. Trucks have lightweight rear ends, low gearing and torque rick engines and the RR is a muscle truck, so that goes doubly so!

Now my only grip would be breakaway Characteristics at limits of traction onroad and in snow. Traction is there until its not, then its just GONE, but this characteristic is common with AT tires in general because the large widely gapped shoulder blocks which give good traction in dirt, mud and other loose surfaces limit performance onroad, especially at the limits. So dont go pushing them to the edge of traction onroad on purpose lol. Its not a Mustang 5.0 Track Pack, its an offroad rally muscle truck!

WildPeak AT4Ws are a good alternative to the KO3s, maybe a bit better onroad from my observations but not quite as good offroad (looking at user reviews, not personal experience). Might be a worthy tradeoff for some, but not for others. Me? I want to preserve the off road traction and the onroad performance is fine for touring, family trips, towing and HomeDepot runs etc., which is how I use the truck when not looking for trails, Baja in farm fields of my relatives or the dunes in MI.

The new Pirellie Scorpion XTM looks like a more direct KO3 contender and also quite promising (possibly edging out the KO3 overall) since it has the alternating should block design that really gives bite in those loose surfaces and it's now available in 285/70R17 on their site.

Pirellie Scorpion XTM AT

 

[JimJa]

I also own a '24 RR with KO3s, now with 25K miles. No balance issues after three rotations. Very smooth. I am beginning to get just a little tire noise however. Hope it doesn't get worse. A couple of things to think about:
- At one time I owned a 2000 Explorer V8. Had a vibration issue I couldn't get sorted. After numerous balance attempts without success, I found a truck tire shop that shaved truck tires and had all four tires shaved. None of the Explorer tires were too bad. The worst was about 1/4-3/8 inch out of round, the rest were less. I told them to "true" them all regardless. Fixed the problem.
- Rotation. Although conventional wisdom and as outlined in the owner's manual, is to "X" the tires when rotating. My recommendation is to not do that, only rotate front to rear on the same side. Why? Think about it. Every road has a "crown." After several heat cycles, tires take a "set." IOW the belts get comfortable with the crown whether on the left or right side of your vehicle. When tires are "X" rotated, not only are they rotating the opposite direction from their previous location, but - and this is the important thing - the "set" of their belts is on the opposite side of the tire. The new set becomes twice that of what it was previously. Remember, the crown has a greater effect on the right side tires than the left, being further away from the centerline which has the least crown being closer to the centerline.

 

[NASSTY]

Any noticeable difference with the Mickey Thompsons being a heavier tire? That's my only concern with them. I want the lightest tire that still checks all the boxes.

On my KO3's had been decent until around 17,000 miles. They got loud but that's my only real complaint. No traction issues like a lot of people talk about, but that being said when I move up to 35's I will be switching to Toyo, Nitto or Mickey Thompsons. Hoping for a quieter better balancing tire.

I don't really notice the weight. New vs new they were slightly louder than the KO3's (which I expected they are more aggressive than the KO3's) but they haven't gotten any louder yet at almost 13k miles so I'm happy with them.

 

[Cosmicjumperalex03]

My experience working at a dealership is that BFG KO2’s and KO3’s have lots of balance issues, some customers are less sensitive to the oscillations and some customers get lucky with a well balanced set. The reset of the customers are unhappy.

I have KO3’s on my ranger and after careful force matched balancing they are acceptable but not perfect, I just accept the reality and outside of the slight oscillation at freeway speed they are great tires in my opinion, I will be getting another set when these wear out.

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