1 day to convince me on tires..

[Obi..]

OK. :D

I got my wheels and other stuff finally lined up and I want opinions here.

I love the BFG TA-KO's for everything but loose stuff..dirt or sand. I noticed a lot here are now using KM2's instead. The clincher is this..with the car wrecked the 4Runner is again my daily driver and I commute 70 miles round trip on the freeways of the S.F. Bay Area. Either way mileage will suffer a little, but how do the KM2's hold up for daily driving?

*No, I'm not going for the 12.5's yet, that would mean I have to also pop for flares as the CHP out here loves them fines.

I like keeping it relatively simple, so here goes..TA-KO's versus KM2's. Which one and why? *We'll throw on a set of 12.5's just for the sake of a look-see.

[4x4mike]

I have no experience with the KM2's but have owned 2 sets of the KO's. Each set lasted close to 50,000 miles and a lot of abuse. When I say abuse I mean peeling out with a heavy vehicle on snow, ice, rocks, dirt, sand, etc. Also sharp rocks and other trail obstacles. The sidewalls took a lot of damage and the tires survived. After about 35,000 miles both sets got a little louder than new but no too loud but this was on a pick up and I think my 4Runner is quieter all around. In the time owning them I never wish I had another tire. People grip about their performance in the mud but they aren't a mud tire and when I got suck in the mud I'm sure I'd still be stuck if I had a mud tire. The tires were mostly used for daily driving and I liked them. I hit stuff on the road and I think only once a nail sent me to the shop. I never had a problem with rain either, I guess people say they are a crappy rain tire. I ran 285/75/16's if it makes any difference.

[Seanz0rz]

i second what mike said. i love mine and will be buying a second set. they are great in the rain, the ice, not so much, and yeah mud holds them back, but it will any AT tire, and depending on the mud, even MTs are not going to cut it.

[Crinale]

NorCal - any particular reason you are looking exclusively at BFG? I personally have (and love) some GoodYears.

Looking at only the 2 BFGs, unless u plan to do heavy wheeling and crawling, there really isnt a good reason to go KM2's.. They are significantly better off-road, but if that is <10% of your use of the vehicle, the KOs will probably serve you better.

[Marc P]

I personally will never own a set of KO's again....they are a decent tire for the 1st half of the tread life, but then they harden up and traction sucks everywhere...even on the street.

I have also been looking for a good dirt/street tire and the Hankook dynapro atm rf10
has caught my eye.

[CJM]

I had a set of KO's, I disliked the wet and snow traction they had. They have very small voids and fill up way to easy in mud, snow and rain it seems.

My vote is the nitto terra grappler or the general grabber AT 2. I also heard the dick cepek fun countrys are awesome.

[paddlenbike]

After running five consecutive pairs of Bridgestone Dueler ATs I decided to try something different and went with the BFG ATs. All around they have performed very well, the only downside I have noticed so far is the increased noise over the Duelers. I really like the rim protector feature--my rims would be in much worse shape without them. The thick sidewalls give me a high level of confidence when I'm out in the middle of nowhere like Death Valley. I have 37,000 miles on them now and they appear to be about half worn, so it remains to be seen if they will harden up and show the attributes others have mentioned. So far, so good.

[NakSuKow]

Duratracs

[YotaFun]

I will never own BFG ATs again either.
I did not have as good experience with them as others on here have.
I could never find a good pressure to run them at.
I also went through two sets....

In rain I was scared, in snow it was something to be desired...
I live and wheel in Southeast PA, we have mud, and those tires do NOT like mud and just make it a joke to wheel if all your in is mud.

But if its going to be your DD tire and your not going to be changing pressures 24/7 then its alright.
But when I get to the time to get a DD tire I will be going with the General Grabber AT2s, they are just a heck of a lot better I think, and cheaper.
General Tires as a brand I think have come a long way.

I wouldn't get a MT as a DD, its just brutal on you and the truck.

I have also been hearing good things about the Duratrac's but can't really put my .02 in about them

[PRA4WX]

I have had really good results with MTR's. BUT, i just ordered the Treadwright Guard Dog with Kedge grip in 315/75-16!

[Marc P]

I have been thinking about the Treadwrights too.

[Obi..]

Thanks for the feedback. I wanted to decide to stick with what I know works for all the conditions I drive in and skip sacrificing anything for now. 33-12.50/15's went on since the shop had them sitting right there and were willing to let me throw them on to check fitment. So far it looks and street drives OK, but there is rub on the sway bar and idler-arm at full lock and the upper a-arm at cycling. I need to have like 1/2-3/4" of clearance between the tire and the upper arm outer with my 1" ball-joint spacers. I'm having them order me up a set of the KM-2's in the 10.5 width because for some unknown reason all the 33-10.5/15 TA-KO's are on "National backorder".

Here's a teaser shot, it really doesn't do it justice. My ground clearance is decent and it handles great. I am waiting to see how the rest of this week plays out and hoping to get the 10.5's by this Friday for a shakedown run.

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SeNnmL21kes/TWOPDpCn9QI/AAAAAAAAA3o/pcUUBlNrUoI/s720/IMG_0001.JPG

[Obi..]

*Maybe just pop for a front set of wheel spacers or find out if Toy Connection has a different set of wheels around to use instead.

Thoughts about front spacers only here guys?

[Crinale]

personally, the only wheel spacers i would ever run are hubcentric bolt on spacers (bolt to your existing lugs, and have their own lugs that you bolt the wheel to).. but those tend to run about $70 for each corner.

on the other hand, you can probably find a decent set of lower offset wheels fairly cheap if you look around on CL and such (remember that 6 lug chevys use the same bolt pattern). With my set of 15x8 +0 (4" backspacing) i was able to run my 33x12.5" Duratracs on my 2nd gen with just 1.5" bj spacers, and very little rubbing (only rubbed on the splash guards at full lock)

[Obi..]

Decided to pull the trigger and go ahead and try the 33/10.5-15 KM2's..they'll be in by Thursday and I'll try them and decide after a spin on them.

[slosurfer]

ditch the anti swaybar, you won't rub on it anymore....

[Obi..]

ditch the anti swaybar, you won't rub on it anymore....


I thought you were still using yours except offroad?

The alternative in my mind was (honestly) well, I could go SAS and say f-this stuff anyhow. :D
That would defeat the DD concept for now..we're banking money and paying everything down for something soon (maybe). Another vehicle, another kid, a new place, I dunno..So thought of that actually, but the fact they also hit the idler arm made the decision final. Besides with Winter driving up HWY4 from Copperopolis to Bear Valley, or HWY88 into Kirkwood I'd want that sway bar there.

[slosurfer]

Nah, the front's been off for a really long time and the rear one has been off for awhile too (ever since I put in the elocker rear).

Handles windy mountain roads just fine, both by itself and towing my trailer.

[Crinale]

iv got no sways either... but with my LT the truck leans a lot in corners :-P

[Seanz0rz]

with my raised COG from the spare tire, i lean alot with the front bar removed. im pretty used to it, but it scares the crap out of my passengers.

i am looking for new front endlinks, since i broke one a few years ago.

[Obi..]

*Pulling the sway bar still wouldn't resolve the tire hitting the idler arm. Why they say you can't fit factory wheels with 33/12.5's. We swapped on the 10.5 KM2's and it handled like crap. I've had the 12.5's put back on and have ordered up a set of 1-1/4" wheel spacers. It should work all well and I'll get a pic after they're installed and I can get out to some dirt. A little wider (2.5"-3" total) track width added isn't going to do anything buy help stability at speed. I'll decide if I want to run them both front and rear or not after a bit. :D

[slosurfer]

You won't get full stuff in the rear if you run those spacers with 12.5 wide tires.

Mine barely fit in there, any wider and they wouldn't fit, but they fit pretty good now :)
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm27/jonuksf/2010%204th%20PPHHR/DSC_0288.jpg

It will be interesting to see what spacing it out that far will do for you on the front. I think you will rub the rear of your fender more while turned and flexing. Also you will have to be careful if you jump it at all with them spaced out since they might be able to actually hit the fender if compressed hard.

I've got a video that I still need to upload that shows how close mine comes to hitting the top outside of the front fender but just barely fits inside it.

I was actually considering getting the 10.5's and run some spacers with those. Basically running a narrow (lighter tire) but still keep the stance I have now.

[Obi..]

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm27/jonuksf/2010%204th%20PPHHR/DSC_0284.jpg

Hollister??

What're your wheels sized and backspaced at, all I find is "painted steel wheels with..33x12.5x15 General Grabber MT's"?
15x7's or 15x8's? IIRC yours are 15x8's, so if I space the 15x7 alloy out it works like an 8, I just slightly "balloon" the tire, and not by much. Therefore they might fit. I should've popped for the American Alloy Classics set when I had them in front of me and none of this would even be an issue, it's what I get for being nostalgic about crap. Total newb mindset there..I'm not too worried, I'll get all this sorted soon enough, besides, I can always just sell the extra spacers if I don't use them locally.
http://images.zaazu.com/img/fingerscrossed-fingers-crossed-goodluck-smiley-emoticon-000674-large.gif

*Tried searching for the post about the specs but no luck so far. They might not stuff in back at articulation..only way to know for sure it to try really. IIRC your coils are FJ80's while mine are FJC's. Stiffer in my case so it might not even want to stuff much anyhow. I'll get it all mounted and go down and use our "Approved RTI-Indexing Tool". :angel:

[Obi..]

*O/T..all that chrome getting in the way? ;)

[slosurfer]

*O/T..all that chrome getting in the way? ;)


Nope, does it look like it's in the way? Fits like a glove! :flipoff: The stock mudflaps don't fit though, nor is there any room for any kind of bolt head :laugh:

Yeah mine are 15x8, and slightly less backspacing than yours, so we're looking at 1" difference overall per side, that's why I was wondering if 1.5" spacers might end up being too much, because at full stuff front and rear, I don't have a .5" inch to spare. :)

[Obi..]

Same thought here on the spacing man, why I went with the 1.25" ones instead. :D

Here you go, another crappy cell phone pic, sorry it's raining and I didn't want to waste time doing a poseur shot.
I'll add a good one in later on next week.