Gary Lewis

From the Falken website: "Full-depth grooves and sipes help to maintain snow and wet traction throughout the life of the tire, resulting in long-lasting wear, proven snow traction, and strong wet weather performance (hence the 3W: Wear, Winter, Wet)." I didn't know that, so thanks for asking.

... for a long time. When I got my KO2s in 2016 I posted on FTE: Then 4 1/2 years later I posted: (not meaning to try to trump any one. I just thought about the fact that I did post on the tires when it was fresh in my mind and thought that might be useful. That is useful, Bob. Especially the part about "They developed a whine that was getting pretty annoying." That would certainly upset me. On the road groove issue, I'm sure you played with tire pressures. I ask because I remember so very well a 1980 Chevy Citation X11 we bought new. It had wide tires and on I-70 headed to Colorado I had to constantly fight it as it did NOT play nicely with the grooves. Turned out that raising the tire pressure a few pounds above the recommended level fixed that as it got the center of the tire carrying more of the load instead of the edges. But I'll bet you tried that and it didn't work. One thing that I read a lot about the K02s is that they are poor in the wet. In fact, apparently my son read the same thing as when I told him that I'm considering the K02s that was the first thing he said. Given that, if I were to buy today I think I'd go with the Falken WildPeak A/T3W's. They are a little bit better in the wet than the K02's are, as shown in the excerpt from the spreadsheet below. So I can tell him I listened. Manufacturer BF Goodrich Falken Tire BFG T/A KO2 WildPeak A/T3W Road Ride Ride Quality 6.86 6.63 Noise 7.05 6.75 Steering 7.07 6.63 Overall Road 6.99 6.67 Wet Test Track Braking 6.63 6.50 Steering 6.60 6.00 Cornering 6.24 6.50 Handling 6.32 6.00 Overall Rating 6.45 6.25 Stopping - Dry 100.30 99.70 Stopping - Wet 148.50 135.20 G-Force - Dry 0.69 0.79 G-Force - Wet 0.50 0.60

Dane - There are several Cooper Discoverer tires in my size of LT285/75R16: Discoverer AT3 XLT called an On-/Off-Road All-Terrain; Discoverer S/T MAXX called an On-/Off-Road Commercial Traction; & Discoverer STT PRO called an Off-Road Maximum Traction. And then there's the Evolution M/T that's also called an Off-Road Maximum Traction. You can see them here. As for a spare or two, I have a second spare tire on what is likely to be the original spare wheel. Although it is a narrow tire I think it is the same diameter as the ones I have on the truck so would make a reasonable 2nd spare. The tire itself seems ok as it was under the truck and didn't see much UV. I'll check to see if it is thin enough to sit on top of the existing spare in the bed and still have the cover close. If so it won't take up much room, although I doubt the HiLift jack would fit on top of the two under the cover, so I'd have to figure something out for it.

Yes, I think those comparisons are telling me - the Coopers are noisy. As for the spare, the Cooper is in good shape so I'm thinking about buying only 4 and rotating just them. Thoughts? Another approach would be to buy another wheel and tire so I have two spares. But I don't really think I need that if I have a good patch kit and the air compressor.

Matt - I missed your post as I was typing. But you are right, I don't think many of those posting are aware of or care about the other issues. That's why I was pleased to find that post about the guy replacing the Maxx tires with the K02's. Nothing changed, so that should have been a fair comparison - although the original tires may have flat-spotted due to problems previously, and that would make a difference in noise. (Which may well be the case with Big Blue.)

I found what appeared to be a very good conversation about the K02's and AT3W's at Expedition Portal. Then it all went south on the 2nd page. I don't want us to have those problems, Jim, so I'll stay away from discussing oil. As for the Coopers I'm running, I did find this thread on Expedition Portal about the Maxx vs K02's. There are interesting things said there: The Cooper ST-MAXXs are much more aggressive tires - a hybrid all terrain/mud terrain tire, while the BFG KO2s are just an all-terrain tire. A more direct competitor to the KO2 would be Cooper's Discoverer AT3 which solidly outperforms the BFG KOs. While I've had many sets of KOs, I do not have any experience with the KO2s; with that said, I find the ST-MAXX to be superior on-road (although more tire hum while cornering, due to the MAXX's mud-terrain-like shoulder lugs) and world's better off-road than the KOs ever were. Cooper really nailed it with their magical rubber compound that simply doesn't care how wet the asphalt is, and their engineers somehow managed to make this aggressive tire so quiet. The ST-MAXXs also provide much deeper tread which enhances off-road traction and of course gives a longer life. The KO2s are undoubtedly upgraded over the KOs, so I'm dying to see a comparison between them and the current benchmark, the AT3s. However, I wanted a more offroad-oriented tire so I chose the ST-MAXXs. CR, I have a ST Maxx on my Dodge 2500, my son has KO2s on his second gen 1500 and my wife has AT3 on her Grand Cherokee. The KO2 is way more aggressive than the AT3. They are not comparative tires. The ST Maxx clears a little better in sticky mud than the KO2. Both ST Maxx and KO2 are good in snow and slush. AT3 is good in snow, not real good in mud. So, based on your info on the application, your best choices will between the ST Maxx and KO2. We really like both tires and the performance is really close. My son and I wheel together, the trucks are essentially the same- open diffs factory gearing, 2 in leveling kit, exact same tire size 285s, and we go at the same time. There is no discernible performance difference. Both tires perform very well with surprisingly similar characteristics. There's been a number of threads about the Cooper ST Maxx and I've posted on a few of them how much I liked the tire over the BFG ATs and the BFG Mud Terrains based on how they wore (chunking) and performed while off-roading on my pig big. I run the 315 x 70x 17 and they had about 9K miles on them. That said, I went out to meet some friends in Parker, AZ to run a few trails and enjoy the weekend. I drove my usual 80 mph for about 350 miles from southern Cal, arrived and called it a night. The next morning I did a walk around the vehicle as I do each time before I go off-roading. I'm sure glad I didn't forget as I noticed in three of the four tires severe cracking of the rubber about a quarter inch from where the tire meets the rim. The cracking was pretty deep and I became alarmed after the long trip at high speed in a giant truck. Don't know how it happened but didn't notice before the drive. I bowed out of the morning run and ran up to Havasu to have the tires inspected. We un-mounted them and did the ole' pull up from the inside of the tire and lift. Sure enough, those cracks were very deep. Not sure what may have caused them but they didn't have any Coopers in stock and I wasn't going to lose the weekend to bad tires. I made a decision to buy a new set and the only ones they had four of were the new K02's. Put em on and drove back to Parker. My wife, who was with me, immediately noticed how much smoother and quitter these tires were and I tended to agree but of course they aren't as aggressive. They also handled better on pavement. I was a little worried about them because I chunked up the original BFG AT's that came with the truck and I knew I'd be wheeling in steep and very rocky terrain where I thought this may happen again. I'll tell you the new AT's did a great job with zero chunking. I even had to strap tow an early 70's FJ about 12 miles through loose and steep terrain with many sharp turns. Tires performed very well. Any way, thought I'd share a seat of the pants story that just happened as its an applicable comparison. I find the statement in the first bullet about the quietness of the Maxx tires odd since the Tire Rack info shows them to be much more noisy than the K02's or, for that matter, about anything else in that category. So I was pleased when later in the thread there was the 3rd statement that says the K02's were quieter than the Maxx tires on the same vehicle driven by the same people. My Coopers have massive balance weights on them, as has been discussed in many posts. And that seems to be fairly common with these tires. Very heavy and not well balanced. Fortunately both the K02's and A/T3W's are said to be easy to balance. So I plan to move away from the Maxx tires.

Its like the KO1s the previous version of the A/Ts, they were great they were an A/T tire but they discontinued it for the KO2 with its knobbier shoulders for improved off road traction and while they still look good, it caused an issue I never had before with my tires and that is at lock the shoulder rubs my suspension arm. Never did it with 31x10.50-15 KO1s, never did it with 31x10.50-15 Discount brand Pathfinders. But threw on the 31x10.50-15 KO2s and at lock they rub the suspension and the knobs at slow enough speed will lock the tire up so it greatly reduced my swb turning radius that I had with previous tires. If I could get the KO1s I would go with it, but when I go to replace the KO2s in a couple years when they hit 7 years old I dont know if I will go back with them even though I think they are great tires. I just dont like how I cant turn lock to lock on my truck because of those stupid shoulder knobs. Thanks, Rusty. And thanks, Matt. Good info about the K02's being noisy and the Falkens quiet. To get that info from one person is very helpful. Oddly enough that doesn't fit with some of what I am reading, but I know you and don't know them so believe you more than them. Jim - Glad you are following along. If you see me go off the reservation please let me know. I've done a bit more reading about the K02 vs the Falken AT3W. And it is CONFUSING!!!!! Man, people have their opinions and want to share them. Reading about these tires on other forums is like looking in your email spam folder. I'm sure glad you guys are civil and share your experiences in a humble way. I'm still taking input, so please keep it coming. But I found a couple of places that seem to have reasonable information: CompareTheTire: Overall this seems to favor the Falken, with the only downsides being that it doesn't have stone ejectors and, due to the higher void ratio will produce more sound. Blackcircles Canada: This was done in Feb of this year and it does have the AT3W. But it doesn't say a lot save for: "Both offer good traction on paved roads, but the Falken Wildpeak AT3W delivers a less comfortable ride. It is noisier and does not absorb road vibrations. The BF Goodrich KO2 offers better overall comfort on paved roads."

Bob - Good observations. There are differing situations in which the vehicles are used, and those situations should help determine which tire is best. (I emphasized "should" as I doubt that the vast majority of the people running A/T tires actually need them as their mall-crawlers never leave the pavement. Instead, they want the look of the aggressive tire.) In your case you don't really need an A/T tire, much less an aggressive one like the K02, so it isn't a good fit for you. In my case I think an aggressive A/T tire is exactly what I do need since I will drive on the highway to get where I am going offroading, but sure don't want to get stuck when I do leave the road. This discussion is helping me get my head around "tires", and I appreciate it. So let me try to state what I think I'm learning: As it turns out, within the A/T category itself there are large variations in design, as we've seen with the K02's vs the Yokohama A/T G015. The K02 is obviously a more aggressive tire than the G015, and that probably explains why in the "review" on TireWheelGuide the G015 is a little quieter than the K02 but the latter is much better offroad. (That site has links for many different "reviews", using the term lightly, of both of those tires vs other tires, so is a good place to start research.) But there are other micro-categories within the A/T tires, like On-/Off-Road Commercial Traction for my current Cooper S/T Maxx tires. And looking at the specs I see that my tires are 62 lbs each while the same sized K02's or the Falken A/T3W's are 59 lbs. So that extra 3 lbs may make a difference in both ride and MPG. And then there are the subjective owner's ratings on Tire Rack, which are questionable in my book since they are just opinions w/o quantitative testing. But the owners rate the Maxx at 7.1 on ride quality and 6.7 on noise while the K02 owners rate them at 8.5 and 8.2. And the Falken owners rate them at 8.9 and 8.3 respectively. Since it isn't likely that the same person owns both tires, much less all three, I wouldn't put much faith in minor differences. But the difference between a 6.7 and an 8.2 is significant, so I expect that a K02 or an A/T3W is noticeably quieter than the tires I have - especially since the tires I have are scalloped and have chunks missing. Oddly enough, the owners of the Yokohama Geolandar M/T G003's rate them as a 8.8 for ride quality and an 8.2 for noise. So using those numbers you'd expect that the G003's would ride better and create the same noise as the K02's. But I suspect that those people are comparing those tires to other M/T tires they've owned, so you probably shouldn't compare ratings between categories.

Good point, Bob, and one we'd forgotten. But, there's a big difference in gear ratios between the diesel and gas ZF5's. The diesels have a close-ratio gearset and the gas trannys have a wide-ratio gearset. ZF5 - Close 1st: 4.14 2nd:2.37 3rd: 1.42 4th: 1.00 5th: 0.77 ZF5 - Wide 1st: 5.72 2nd:2.94 3rd: 1.61 4th: 1.00 5th: 0.76 Depending on your intended usage that may make a big difference. For me the low 1st gear of the wide-ratio gearset is the only way to go. But I will admit that there's a wide jump between 3rd and 4th so going to 3rd at much of a speed is questionable. On the other hand, when we were running the carb on this engine and climbing the passes around Ouray we found that we could go a lot of places in 3rd if we kept the R's up. Now, with EFI, that won't be necessary and I'll bet 3rd is going to be "the gear" when in low range.

Rusty - I do get rocks stuck in the Coopers, so I'm glad to see the KO2's don't seem to do that. And I wasn't aware there are two different, but similar, KO2's. However I'll be going with the LT285/75R16's, which are 33", so that shouldn't be an issue. John - I've not ruled out the Falken, but now realize that the way I was searching didn't really include it. So I'll do some more searching to see what I find. Looking at Tire Rack's data in my spreadsheet the Falken didn't do quite as well as the K02 in most categories, but bested the K02 in both G-Force dry and wet. Also, I note that at Tire Rack it cost $32/tire more than the K02. As for MPG, only one of the several-tire tests that Tire Rack did includes MPG, and it didn't include the Falken. So I can't compare the K02 to the Falken. But here's what they said about the group that includes the K02:

I'm hoping that tapping the end of the pinion shaft will get it to come off/out easily enough. But it is kind of scary thinking it might not come out. I guess it is best to put them together at room temp just to see. Good luck!

I cut the hole in the side of the tunnel in my 1980 for the M5OD and the 1356. One, I didn't have the original case and controls, and two, I didn't mind zip-cutting the floor in this truck as it wasn't s how winner anyway lol! One downside to the location of that transfer case shifter being that far left...at least in the north, is that the screw holes filled up with salt from shoes/boots/floor and rusted to pieces...which made them extremely difficult to remove lol. Chad - I had no idea the 205 required that kind of work. Wow! I'm glad I stayed with the Bullnose t-cases. From my reading though I understand that the twin-stick approach allows you to use 2WD Low range. And it also allows you to have front wheel drive only. Those are intriguing. And I'd forgotten that I did have to cut the tunnel cover, but since I had the Bullnose cover it was easy to figure out where to cut it. Cory - I hadn't thought about the snow melt and salt. We don't have enough snow any more to make that an issue, but I can see how it could be if you did it day after day in the winter. Anyway, your installation looks (looked?) good.

Interesting that it got the tops and not the sides. I guess that as the sun gets up the tops are always getting hit and the sides aren't?

You had a productive night, in spite of the bouncing transfer case. I'm glad there was no real damage done, 'cause it could have been much much worse. As for the pinion shaft, I didn't realize there is a coating on it. Taking that off made a big difference. I think .0008" interference will be easy to overcome, and you could chill the shaft or heat the bearing to make it even easier. And even getting it off shouldn't be too bad. The patch looks good, and it shouldn't take much grinding to have it smooth enough. Progress!

Looks to be pretty solid. But what happened to the tops of the fenders? The paint went away lit it was hit with brake cleaner.

Chad - Tell us more about what t-case you used? Is that the NP205? I've not played with one of those, but what made it difficult to use the linkage with it?

I used the same BW1354 and controls that Big Blue came with behind the ZF5.

Jim - I forgot about the crossmember. Yes, it needs to go about 3/4" to the rear. When I put the ZF in Dad's truck I jacked the cab up and redrilled the frame to take the gussets that far back as well. But on Big Blue I redrilled the bottom of the frame to take the crossmember and used the original holes in the top of the frame for the top of the gussets. It did put the gussets in a bit of a twist, but not too bad and it seems to work fine.

Yes, poor choice of words on my part. It not only defers the work to later but gives you more work to boot. However, there is less to do right now to get ready for the trip?

I like this approach MUCH better! Not only does it put the burden back on those that caused the problem, it makes it easy to support at a later date. Plus, it cuts your workload down dramatically.

Welcome, Austin! Glad you joined. Your truck appears to be a twin of mine, save for the color - mine's blue. Or, maybe I should say yours is a twin of what mine was originally since mine has been transformed into something different. Anyway, we can help you with your planning and with your wrenching. And, by the way, there is surely going to be some electrical work along the way, so those skills of yours will be right at home. Speaking of home, where is that? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city/state or zip. Who knows, you may be next door to someone on here.

I think opening up the bearing may be the way to go in the short term. How much interference do you have?

Welcome! Glad you joined! But, you probably missed the email you were sent asking you to go to the New Members Start Here folder, read the guidelines, and then introduce yourself in that folder. We ask that because we hold everyone to those guidelines and want you to have had a good chance to see them. And since they are posted there... So, have you read them? And now on to the question at hand. My truck, Big Blue, started life as a 1985 Ford F-250 XLT Lariat Explorer 4x4 with the 7.5L engine and T-19 transmission. It is now running Ford's EEC-V EFI system and a ZF5-42 tranny. Yesterday it turned in 12.8 MPG on a 170 mile trip my wife and I took, so it is running well. The transfer case you have, which should be the BW1345, will bolt up. And I think the driveshafts you have work, but I'm not sure about that as I had to change out the front one because I changed the front axle to a D60. I think I used the original rear driveshaft though. Obviously you'll need a new clutch as the input shaft on the ZF is a lot bigger. And you'll need the taller transmission cover from later years as the ZF sits higher. I'm sure someone else will chime in on what I've forgotten, but you've come to the right place - we've done it.

So it went back to its warm ways when he slowed down. Bummer. Does that fancy DVM have a thermocouple prob? Can you put it close to the evaporator and see if it is getting cold? And drive it to see when it gets cold? And what about checking the pressures when you rev it up to whatever R's it was turning at 85? Hopefully someone that can spell A/C will come along to help 'cause I am not at all au fait with these things.

Bummer!!!! How are you going to chuck that thing in the lathe? You have to cut right up to the threads, so... Is there a centering divot on the gear end so you can chuck it up on the threads and use a live center on the rear?