BFG KM3 vs KO2 ?

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landy-lee

landy-lee

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Good afternoon guys and hope you are all well.

So my question is has anyone gone form running the BF Goodrich All Terrain KO2 tyres and the gone over to using them Mud terrain KM3's?

I have the KM3's on my defender 110 and love them. They are quieter than expected and they handle on the road good enough for me. E.g. no back end letting loose.

My mate has the KO2's on his 90 and on a new Hilux and says they area bit slippy in the rain and also got stuck in a field when he went to view a horse box in the Hilux lol

I haven't been out with him so not sure how he drives.

I am tempted to buy a set of the KO2's but his experiences put me off. I know the KM3 is a huge improvement over the old KM2 because they are a softer compound.

Would love to hear your experiences

Cheers Landy Lee
 
landy-lee said:
Good afternoon guys and hope you are all well.

So my question is has anyone gone form running the BF Goodrich All Terrain KO2 tyres and the gone over to using them Mud terrain KM3's?

I have the KM3's on my defender 110 and love them. They are quieter than expected and they handle on the road good enough for me. E.g. no back end letting loose.

My mate has the KO2's on his 90 and on a new Hilux and says they area bit slippy in the rain and also got stuck in a field when he went to view a horse box in the Hilux lol

I haven't been out with him so not sure how he drives.

I am tempted to buy a set of the KO2's but his experiences put me off. I know the KM3 is a huge improvement over the old KM2 because they are a softer compound.

Would love to hear your experiences

Cheers Landy Lee
Click to expand...
If you like them, they will be fine.
I completely ignore what anyone says about tyres, because nobody drives the same, or uses a vehicle the same.
All modern tyres that are legal to be sold are up to the job.
 
landy-lee said:
Good afternoon guys and hope you are all well.

So my question is has anyone gone form running the BF Goodrich All Terrain KO2 tyres and the gone over to using them Mud terrain KM3's?

I have the KM3's on my defender 110 and love them. They are quieter than expected and they handle on the road good enough for me. E.g. no back end letting loose.

My mate has the KO2's on his 90 and on a new Hilux and says they area bit slippy in the rain and also got stuck in a field when he went to view a horse box in the Hilux lol

I haven't been out with him so not sure how he drives.

I am tempted to buy a set of the KO2's but his experiences put me off. I know the KM3 is a huge improvement over the old KM2 because they are a softer compound.

Would love to hear your experiences

Cheers Landy Lee
Click to expand...

Hard comparisons as the 90 is full time 4x4 and short wheelbase and the Hi-Lux is long wheelbase but part time 4x4, BFG=good tyres, it really all comes down to £££ IMHO, I love my Cooper STT tyres but know other folks running Disco's who didn't like them as they were too loud for them and went back to less aggressive tyres.
 
I can’t see a reason to have mud terrain tires on the road. Get tires that suit your main driving style, which for most of us is tarmac. Saying that BFG ATs are a well regarded happy medium.
 
I put K02's on my P38 as we get a lot of rain around here and I didn't think nobby mud tires were good in rain. Not enough Sipes. I have been happy with them both on and off road. Very quiet on tarmac. K03 will be somewhat better off road, especially in mud.
 
payydg said:
I can’t see a reason to have mud terrain tires on the road. Get tires that suit your main driving style, which for most of us is tarmac. Saying that BFG ATs are a well regarded happy medium.
Click to expand...
I agree but what if you want to travel overland in central Asia?

The KM3 where developed on the Baja so im guessing they are goon on sand and gravel but looking for someone who has experienced both KM£ and KO2.

Think the KM3 is such a new tyre theres not many reviews out there yet.
 
This won't help the question but I do like the look of the km3.

For me it's not as simple as if you drive on the road more get a more road biased tyre, because when i do go off road I want it to work, and work well.
The ideal is to have two sets of tyres, but that for some is prohibitively expensive and storage space can be an issue.
I've run the ko2 and found it surprisingly lacking offroad, so much so that I sold them off as part worns almost immediately. The general at2, although looking similar performed amazingly better! For me, the best tyre would be a quiet ish mud terrain that worked pretty well offroad, much like the sound of the km3.(they do look good too)
At the moment I'm driving on xzl's, which are great on laning trips, OK on dry tarmac, but the compound is so hard they are utterly useless on wet grass, and even when aired down crap in snow.

My next set of tyres I fancy will be a dedicated road tyre for the daily commute and when the xzl's run too low, I'll get some muds for the rough stuff! :)
 
Gottschalk said:
This won't help the question but I do like the look of the km3.

For me it's not as simple as if you drive on the road more get a more road biased tyre, because when i do go off road I want it to work, and work well.
The ideal is to have two sets of tyres, but that for some is prohibitively expensive and storage space can be an issue.
I've run the ko2 and found it surprisingly lacking offroad, so much so that I sold them off as part worns almost immediately. The general at2, although looking similar performed amazingly better! For me, the best tyre would be a quiet ish mud terrain that worked pretty well offroad, much like the sound of the km3.(they do look good too)
At the moment I'm driving on xzl's, which are great on laning trips, OK on dry tarmac, but the compound is so hard they are utterly useless on wet grass, and even when aired down crap in snow.

My next set of tyres I fancy will be a dedicated road tyre for the daily commute and when the xzl's run too low, I'll get some muds for the rough stuff! :)
Click to expand...

Cheers for the input.

My KM3's are surprisingly quite. I had General Grabber R/T's on before.
 
landy-lee said:
I agree but what if you want to travel overland in central Asia?

The KM3 where developed on the Baja so im guessing they are goon on sand and gravel but looking for someone who has experienced both KM£ and KO2.

Think the KM3 is such a new tyre theres not many reviews out there yet.
Click to expand...

Even then actually yeh. I’ve done that in my landy and I would suggest mud terrains are still the wrong choice of tire. My experience of theses things (mostly driving around India and Nepal) is that as you will still spend most of your time on tarmac or packed earth gravel roads. Sand as you mention is a different story and you need a specific set of driving techniques which make much more difference than the tires (believe it or not). Don’t forget the first overland boys did not have fancy tires in the way we do now and look what they managed.

I would go so far to say that the standard Land Rover tires would do you well for almost everything you’ll encounter. Difficult terrain is more about your driving techniques and how you use the vehicle as a whole. Saying that, when I did it I used BFG ATs. So read into that what you will.

Sounds like you’ve got a great trip planned.

On a different note if you haven’t got Tom Shepard’s book - vehicle dependent expedition guide. It is an absolute must read for any potential over lander.
 
landy-lee said:
I agree but what if you want to travel overland in central Asia?

The KM3 where developed on the Baja so im guessing they are goon on sand and gravel but looking for someone who has experienced both KM£ and KO2.

Think the KM3 is such a new tyre theres not many reviews out there yet.
Click to expand...
That is true. But tyres only make so much difference. What really makes a big difference is the ability of the driver.

Most people would be far better off spending the money on driver training instead of tyres. There are countless off road driving courses available, and the cost is quite reasonable.

So it comes down to what I said originally. If you think those tyres are good for the way you intend to use the vehicle, and you like them, just go ahead and get them. Nobody else knows your exact requirements of the vehicle, and what you intend to do in it.
 
payydg said:
Even then actually yeh. I’ve done that in my landy and I would suggest mud terrains are still the wrong choice of tire. My experience of theses things (mostly driving around India and Nepal) is that as you will still spend most of your time on tarmac or packed earth gravel roads. Sand as you mention is a different story and you need a specific set of driving techniques which make much more difference than the tires (believe it or not). Don’t forget the first overland boys did not have fancy tires in the way we do now and look what they managed.

I would go so far to say that the standard Land Rover tires would do you well for almost everything you’ll encounter. Difficult terrain is more about your driving techniques and how you use the vehicle as a whole. Saying that, when I did it I used BFG ATs. So read into that what you will.

Sounds like you’ve got a great trip planned.

On a different note if you haven’t got Tom Shepard’s book - vehicle dependent expedition guide. It is an absolute must read for any potential over lander.
Click to expand...
That opens up another good option.

When I had the farm, I had 3 sets of wheels and tyres for my Ninety. ATs for towing and road, slightly more aggressive for laning, and the full on Fedima Maxima for the heavy clay farm in winter.
 
Turboman said:
That opens up another good option.

When I had the farm, I had 3 sets of wheels and tyres for my Ninety. ATs for towing and road, slightly more aggressive for laning, and the full on Fedima Maxima for the heavy clay farm in winter.
Click to expand...

This would be my choice also.
 
I would also add BFG are made/designed in the US, for US terrain which is vastly different to our little narrow county greenlanes, that tend to have some sort of a stoney firm base, even if that is under a few inches of mud. That's why the xzl etc from michelin prove so good, also standard fitment, narrow and tall in the 7.50 flavour.

Having said that they are an old design and are used by the military as a tough tyre, new designs and compounds are vastly superior to what landrover fitted as standard years ago, in many cases
 
I recently bought a set of Yokohama Geolandar GO15, The LT(Light truck) 235/85-16. Was looking at the BFG as that was what I was replacing, but the Yokos came in at £105 fitted and balanced vs over £150 for the BFGs and the Yokos were fully winter M/S rated all terrain with a 50k l predicted life. Some of the users in the US were getting poor mileage from the latest BFGs which put me off risking £600..
 
payydg said:
Even then actually yeh. I’ve done that in my landy and I would suggest mud terrains are still the wrong choice of tire. My experience of theses things (mostly driving around India and Nepal) is that as you will still spend most of your time on tarmac or packed earth gravel roads. Sand as you mention is a different story and you need a specific set of driving techniques which make much more difference than the tires (believe it or not). Don’t forget the first overland boys did not have fancy tires in the way we do now and look what they managed.

I would go so far to say that the standard Land Rover tires would do you well for almost everything you’ll encounter. Difficult terrain is more about your driving techniques and how you use the vehicle as a whole. Saying that, when I did it I used BFG ATs. So read into that what you will.

Sounds like you’ve got a great trip planned.

On a different note if you haven’t got Tom Shepard’s book - vehicle dependent expedition guide. It is an absolute must read for any potential over lander.
Click to expand...

This is just the info im after! people that have don it!

Cheers for the tip on the book.
 
payydg said:
Even then actually yeh. I’ve done that in my landy and I would suggest mud terrains are still the wrong choice of tire. My experience of theses things (mostly driving around India and Nepal) is that as you will still spend most of your time on tarmac or packed earth gravel roads. Sand as you mention is a different story and you need a specific set of driving techniques which make much more difference than the tires (believe it or not). Don’t forget the first overland boys did not have fancy tires in the way we do now and look what they managed.

I would go so far to say that the standard Land Rover tires would do you well for almost everything you’ll encounter. Difficult terrain is more about your driving techniques and how you use the vehicle as a whole. Saying that, when I did it I used BFG ATs. So read into that what you will.

Sounds like you’ve got a great trip planned.

On a different note if you haven’t got Tom Shepard’s book - vehicle dependent expedition guide. It is an absolute must read for any potential over lander.
Click to expand...

Look what come today!
IMG_9047.JPG
 
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