After hearing so many effusively glowing reviews of Falken Tire's "Wildpeak MT" I pulled the trigger on a set of 5. After all, there are a lot of members out West who have been using them a while now, and not just on I-5 but in a variety of terrains and environmental conditions, but we haven't seen a lot of usage here on the East coast so you can imagine my reluctance.
Cooper Discoverer STT were providing mobility but they had long given up, displaying uneven tread lug wear and providing me a buck-board like ride. About 30k miles on those and they screamed "worn tread", with the windows up and stereo blaring Beastie Boys. It was time for a change. Fun meter was way low on driving the truck because of the ride quality and worn tread, and I found myself reaching for the Prius keys more and more frequently. That ain't right.
I looked at NITTO again and I successfully used and enjoyed their Trail Grappler MT a few years back and considered them, but I really wanted a tighter pattern and more siping due to the more favorable "all weather" aspects of the design. I lusted after their Ridge Grappler but alas, they only offer that in the bro 17-inch size and I'm running 16 inch sized rims. Sorry NITTO. Didn't look at TOYO but they're basically a more expensive, heavier NITTO.
BF Goodrich was a contender but having not been satisfied with the prior performance (chunking, uneven lug wear, noise) of KO, KM, and KM2 why follow the herd and invest in more rubber that was more than likely not going to deliver. True, I have many a colleague that swears by them but then again there is a suspicious "fan-boy" relationship I'm not going to buy into. Besides, out of curiosity I checked on similar sized AT and MT product line prices; both versions were back ordered and were $30 to $50 more a copy. That made for an easy decision - more expensive, less siping, not available, unremarkable experience with earlier models - buh-bye.
Firestone Destination MT2 was a possibility and tested superior during a recent I4WDTA testing on some challenging East coast terrain, in comparison to another leading tire manufacturer. Not many distributors around here offer them and I couldn't get the company on the phone or to respond to my emails, so that effectively ruled them out - nothing to see here.
I've only had these 315/75/16 E-rated Falken's for a couple days now and have only used them on the street and Interstate. The experience has been very positive so far - I can notice fuel consumption decreasing ever so slightly, a perceived less resistance to the road, smoother steering, and far less road noise. But I know too this is the "honeymoon phase" of new tire ownership.
The proof will be the impending winter storm with predicted 6-9 inches of snow this evening and my travels out West next week to Arizona for some off highway work, putting me on the road for about 4 weeks. I suspect over that length of time and my travels, which include Colorado to visit Kate and John and the St. Louis area to visit some friends and family, I will have experienced some of the foulest weather our continent has to offer in January and February. I'll be sure to report back my experiences with the new tires... some Falken's might be the next solution for your OHV.
Cooper Discoverer STT were providing mobility but they had long given up, displaying uneven tread lug wear and providing me a buck-board like ride. About 30k miles on those and they screamed "worn tread", with the windows up and stereo blaring Beastie Boys. It was time for a change. Fun meter was way low on driving the truck because of the ride quality and worn tread, and I found myself reaching for the Prius keys more and more frequently. That ain't right.
I looked at NITTO again and I successfully used and enjoyed their Trail Grappler MT a few years back and considered them, but I really wanted a tighter pattern and more siping due to the more favorable "all weather" aspects of the design. I lusted after their Ridge Grappler but alas, they only offer that in the bro 17-inch size and I'm running 16 inch sized rims. Sorry NITTO. Didn't look at TOYO but they're basically a more expensive, heavier NITTO.
BF Goodrich was a contender but having not been satisfied with the prior performance (chunking, uneven lug wear, noise) of KO, KM, and KM2 why follow the herd and invest in more rubber that was more than likely not going to deliver. True, I have many a colleague that swears by them but then again there is a suspicious "fan-boy" relationship I'm not going to buy into. Besides, out of curiosity I checked on similar sized AT and MT product line prices; both versions were back ordered and were $30 to $50 more a copy. That made for an easy decision - more expensive, less siping, not available, unremarkable experience with earlier models - buh-bye.
Firestone Destination MT2 was a possibility and tested superior during a recent I4WDTA testing on some challenging East coast terrain, in comparison to another leading tire manufacturer. Not many distributors around here offer them and I couldn't get the company on the phone or to respond to my emails, so that effectively ruled them out - nothing to see here.
I've only had these 315/75/16 E-rated Falken's for a couple days now and have only used them on the street and Interstate. The experience has been very positive so far - I can notice fuel consumption decreasing ever so slightly, a perceived less resistance to the road, smoother steering, and far less road noise. But I know too this is the "honeymoon phase" of new tire ownership.
The proof will be the impending winter storm with predicted 6-9 inches of snow this evening and my travels out West next week to Arizona for some off highway work, putting me on the road for about 4 weeks. I suspect over that length of time and my travels, which include Colorado to visit Kate and John and the St. Louis area to visit some friends and family, I will have experienced some of the foulest weather our continent has to offer in January and February. I'll be sure to report back my experiences with the new tires... some Falken's might be the next solution for your OHV.