Better street type tires if hardly ever going off road?

[HyperM3]

What tires did you end up? I am getting the Goodyear wrangler territory at s for my truck. The discount buy said they are a little sportier and ride better on the highway but still offer a little all terrain ability. I told him I wanted good rain ability, nice highway, and occasional dirt road for off road driving. I told the tires I liked and the sizes I wanted and he said these ones would all be fine for that.

And my youngest son working at the local discount tire sure makes tires prices better. He gets 30% off tires.

If you're asking me, as the original creator of this thread, I never changed from the K03. To be honest, I loved the K03's. For the 100% street driving I did with the truck, they handled fantastically. I did 17k miles before I sold the truck and still had more than 50% tread left. And I felt extremely confident with these tires on. There was only two times in wet conditions where I slid, and they were completely my fault coming into turns too fast. I really drove this truck like a sports car, and it delivered.

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[RaptorME]

I just noticed that after installing my Nitto Nomads mpg went up by 2 already. That's in addition to better acceleration and dry grip. I know a lot of folks don't want to replace tires that are still good but in my case I found the Nittos on sale so even installed I was out $850. I sold the KO3's for $700. That will pay for itself in gas and they ride so much better on the road.

 

[Lion77]

Review: The Pirelli Scorpion XTM AT Tire | RealTruck

Pirelli Launches Scorpion XTM All-Terrain Tire That's Also for EVs

Pirelli Scorpion XTM AT Tire Review: Passing the Desert Torture Test

BFGoodrich All Terrain KO3 Vs Pirelli Scorpion XTM AT - Tire Reviews And Ratings

New Pirelli XTM AT in the Desert! On & Off Road Test // Jeep Wrangler + Ford Bronco + Rivian R1S

The last one is a review by TheTopher who got to test them at a Pirelli tire expo on Bronco's and Jeeps. All the reviews for the XTM's thus far are consistent in the following:

1. Comparable outright trip to the KO3's off-road.

2. Sharper and more predictable behavior both on-road and off-road, allowing you to access more of the tires performance without going into unrecoverable slides.

3. Comparable durability to the KO3 against chipping and cutting on gravel / rocks = just as reliable.

4. Similar mileage warranty (comparable tread life, probably in the 40k to 50k range realistically).

5. Quieter on-road than KO3's.

6. Pirelli's also come in a EV version that gives up a bit of mud traction for fuel economy. You could use the EV version on a RR if you do mostly on-road to save a bit in gas, but still have excellent off-road capability.

6. Ride differences are significant, overall bumps feel a bit more defined, but "one and done" where with the KO3's, the bumps are a bit more muted but seem to oscillate (jitter). Both are said to be good comfort on-road.

We already hashed out how the load rating isn't what makes a tire good or bad on-road comfort. You can have the same tire, literally, with multiple load ratings because it might meet them all, like the KO3's, so I don't care that the Pirelli XTM is load E, I care about how it performs overall and if the real-world comfort is still comparable rather than getting hung up on "it's E load = automatically bad so I won't consider it".

KO3's biggest downsides are its brake away characteristics both on and off-road, once it slides, it's hard to recover. On road in the wet and snow, in turns, my experience is that brake away is non-recoverable. You can't steer back into traction off throttle; you just have to let the whole truck slide until momentum bleeds down which NOT a good characteristic. That also translates into poor handling for emergency maneuvers, in Tire Rack testing, the KO3's weren't controllable on-road in emergency maneuvers. That's their only big flaw in my opinion, otherwise great tire.

Off-road grip is great...until it's not and I do NOT like that attribute there either, so it limits how much of the available grip I'm willing to try to access for fear of a wreck. Coming from the performance car world, linear and predictable brake away is often one of the defining attributes that sets good track tires apart from bad ones, if you can't fully access the limits of grip and have a little hysteresis between traction and no traction, you can't really utilize the full tires potential without risking an accident.

So the Pirelli's XTM's offer a performance car like brakeaway characteristic both on and off-road compared to the KO3's, meaning you can access their full performance and know you at the limit so you can back away before loosing it. That is HUGE in high performance driving.

On straightaways (aka like Baja), rock crawling and trails, that's not an important characteristic simply because you not going fast into turns. KO3's were originally a Baja tire, which is more about long stretches of deeply rutted trails through the desert, so forward bite is more important than at the limits in cornering there. They do that quite well.

But the XTM's seem to deliver comparable forward bite to the KO3's while improving upon the other element, turns, which is something the Ranger Raptor chassis is quite adept at compared to all the other trucks on the market. That watts link pays dividends at higher speeds, so do the Fox live valves, throw in a really good set of performance oriented off-road tires and it's going to easily out handle everything else, making it truly like a giant SxS, which is what I want.

Even on Ford's own performance comparison where they had three performance car drivers test the Bronco Raptor, Ranger Raptor and F-150 Raptor against each other each on three timed courses, the overall fastest was a bone stock Ranger Raptor!

Yes, driver skill matters, but they were all professional drivers and you could tell the Ranger was just easier to drive overall. It wasn't the fastest on the big open desert course (F-150 Raptor R was with its 720 HP), it didn't have the most clearance on the rocky course (favored BR), it was the quickest on the short course (balance of handling and power), but overall, it averaged out faster with the lowest combined time (jack of all trades, master of none actually won the day).

Throw in a Pro Cal tune and lightweight wheels (they had full bead locks with locking rings on the Ranger, I suspect they sand-bagged it on purpose to make it a closer race knowing it over achieved), some improved tires and it's untouchable. Rally truck it is!

Sorry for the long post, but there's a lot to say on this subject. My goal is to improve the handling dynamics WITHOUT reducing the off-road grip or capabilities from stock. So if I can maintain the factory off-road grip, while improving on the handling dynamics etc, I'm all for it and I think the Pirelli XTM's offer significant on-road handling improvements without giving up outright grip and also improving off-road handling as well (translates to cornering and steering precision improvements on both on-road and off-road over KO3's).

My KO3's are at 25k miles, I'm not of the mind to waste them, so I'll use them up to at least 40k, but the XTM's are my go-to. 3lbs lighter than OE spec KO3's, nearly 1" wider tread (9.7" vs 8.8") so you get a bigger tire look while actually reducing weight and keeping factory size for powertrain reliability. For my uses, factory clearance of 10.7" is fine, I'm more interested in high speed uses than crawling over big obstacles. I get bored with crawling after 30 minutes lol. I never get bored of jumps, sliding around corners or touring on highways in twisty mountain roads. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Sparkherd]

I am now at almost 14k miles on my truck and can unequivocally say these tires have been awesome. I have not taken the truck off road at all, these miles are all street. And I drive this truck "spiritedly" to say the least. I feel very confident in the tires and the truck on the highway, backroad twisties, and even tight on/off ramps. They have been great in the rain and the snow as well(just have to understand limits). I would 100% put these tires on again if they ever wore out.

 

[ChasVSRaptor]

Can't call a man with nice wheels a Jerk!

Just did, so you’re wrong!

Being as you just joined 2 days ago, judging me on one post is superficial. Try looking up all my posts and youll see how much I contributed to this forum.

Actually, it was my 2019 Ranger with Michelin Defenders you commented on. I was a very active member from 2019 until last year when I got fed up with the SmartAss comments. I rejoined with my Raptor hoping jerks were gone, but sad to say you’re all still here. So, you be you and I’ll just ignore you.

 

[Pic-N-Stick]

Just did, so you’re wrong!


Actually, it was my 2019 Ranger with Michelin Defenders you commented on. I was a very active member from 2019 until last year when I got fed up with the SmartAss comments. I rejoined with my Raptor hoping jerks were gone, but sad to say you’re all still here. So, you be you and I’ll just ignore you.

Usually when someone has a problem with everyone else, it's not everyone else!

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