Nothing Special's '71 Bronco

[Nothing Special]

this may be a great example of the simplest solution being the best. well done.

Thanks all!

This is an example of what a guy I work with calls an "allzagatta." Allzagatta do is tie the two sides together!

[Nothing Special]

Nothing Special said:

mat in tn said:

this may be a great example of the simplest solution being the best. well done.

Thanks all!

This is an example of what a guy I work with calls an "allzagatta." Allzagatta do is tie the two sides together!

About 4 years ago I put a set of ProComp Xtreme MT mud tires on Pluto. They've always been louder than I've wanted on the highway, but otherwise good tires. So I kept running them until I sliced two of the four in Moab this summer.

I've had four sets of the original BFG Mud-Terrains (before the "KM" designation) on trucks and my Jeep before. They weren't as quiet as highway tires, but they were very easy to live with. I was hoping that 40+ years of R&D had led BFG to still have a quiet mud tire. And number of people I asked said that the KM3 was the quietest mud tire on the market. So I decided to get a set of four.

I quickly realized that they are worse (in my opinion) than the ProComps for noise on my Bronco on the highway. They are probably a little quieter, but they have a two-tone noise that's really annoying (it's a tritone, "the devil's chord," for those of you who know music, or the pitches that a French police siren in a movie has).

I made a video trying to capture the relative noise of the four tires I currently have for comparison. I only have one of one of them, so the test was to put three of the likely quietest tires on, and put one test tire on the left front.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDQQtFXU6U

The first tire in the test was the BFG KM3.

Second was the ProComp Xtreme MTs I've been using for 'wheeling the last 4 years.

Third was the Kenda Klever RT that I've had as a full size spare to go with my 33" tires.

Last was that I put the fourth highway tire on. Those are Hankook Kinergy PT.

(edit to add:  I updated the video to include a single BFG AT KO2, and then all four KO2s)

I think the video confirms my thought that the ProComp tire is the loudest, but the BFG is only slightly quieter, and with a dissonance that makes it more objectionable. Those two tires are mud tires, so it's not surprising that they would be the two loudest in the test. It's not at all surprising that the Hankook, as a highway tire, is the quietest. So it's also expected that the Kenda, as a all-terrain / mud tire hybrid is between the mud and highway tires. But it was surprising to me that the Kenda was much quieter than the mud tires, almost as quiet as the highway tire.

I decided that I can't live with the BFG KM3s. I would have liked to switch to Kenda Klever RTs now, but that tire has been discontinued. I thought about going with a Kenda mud tire, hoping that they were only a little louder than the RTs. But I wasn't sure I wanted to take that risk, and BFG only wanted to give me (most of) my money back if I went with another set of BFGs. So today I got a set of BFG All-Terrain KO2s. I might have preferred the KO3, but that's not available in a 15" tire. I did have one set of KO2s before, on my pickup. I didn't love them there as they were loud for a highway tire and they "tracked" too much on pavement (pulling back and forth). But I think they'll be a good compromise for the off-road tires on my Bronco, and I think they'll be much easier to live with than the KM3s.

So far I haven't put the KO2s on Pluto yet, so I don't know anything more. We're heading out on vacation, so I won't get to try them (or be on this board much) for a while. But in early October we're taking Pluto down to Missouri again, so they'll get tested out pretty soon.

Edited Thursday at 02:12 AM by Nothing Special

[Gary Lewis]

About 4 years ago I put a set of ProComp Xtreme MT mud tires on Pluto. They've always been louder than I've wanted on the highway, but otherwise good tires. So I kept running them until I sliced two of the four in Moab this summer.

I've had four sets of the original BFG Mud-Terrains (before the "KM" designation) on trucks and my Jeep before. They weren't as quiet as highway tires, but they were very easy to live with. I was hoping that 40+ years of R&D had led BFG to still have a quiet mud tire. And number of people I asked said that the KM3 was the quietest mud tire on the market. So I decided to get a set of four.

I quickly realized that they are worse (in my opinion) than the ProComps for noise on my Bronco on the highway. They are probably a little quieter, but they have a two-tone noise that's really annoying (it's a tritone, "the devil's chord," for those of you who know music, or the pitches that a French police siren in a movie has).

I made a video trying to capture the relative noise of the four tires I currently have for comparison. I only have one of one of them, so the test was to put three of the likely quietest tires on, and put one test tire on the left front.

.

The first tire in the test was the BFG KM3.

Second was the ProComp Xtreme MTs I've been using for 'wheeling the last 4 years.

Third was the Kenda Klever RT that I've had as a full size spare to go with my 33" tires.

Last was that I put the fourth highway tire on. Those are Hankook Kinergy PT.

I think the video confirms my thought that the ProComp tire is the loudest, but the BFG is only slightly quieter, and with a dissonance that makes it more objectionable. Those two tires are mud tires, so it's not surprising that they would be the two loudest in the test. It's not at all surprising that the Hankook, as a highway tire, is the quietest. So it's also expected that the Kenda, as a all-terrain / mud tire hybrid is between the mud and highway tires. But it was surprising to me that the Kenda was much quieter than the mud tires, almost as quiet as the highway tire.

I decided that I can't live with the BFG KM3s. I would have liked to switch to Kenda Klever RTs now, but that tire has been discontinued. I thought about going with a Kenda mud tire, hoping that they were only a little louder than the RTs. But I wasn't sure I wanted to take that risk, and BFG only wanted to give me (most of) my money back if I went with another set of BFGs. So today I got a set of BFG All-Terrain KO2s. I might have preferred the KO3, but that's not available in a 15" tire. I did have one set of KO2s before, on my pickup. I didn't love them there as they were loud for a highway tire and they "tracked" too much on pavement (pulling back and forth). But I think they'll be a good compromise for the off-road tires on my Bronco, and I think they'll be much easier to live with than the KM3s.

So far I haven't put the KO2s on Pluto yet, so I don't know anything more. We're heading out on vacation, so I won't get to try them (or be on this board much) for a while. But in early October we're taking Pluto down to Missouri again, so they'll get tested out pretty soon.

I can hear the differences, Bob. And I agree about the tritone -

So, do you know yet if the K02's track? In my experience that can sometimes be a result of wheel width and tire pressures, so if it does initially on Pluto maybe you can find a pressure that doesn't? Usually I've had to go up a few pounds so the center of the tire was taking most of the load.

[Ifitaintbroke]

I can hear the differences, Bob. And I agree about the tritone -

So, do you know yet if the K02's track? In my experience that can sometimes be a result of wheel width and tire pressures, so if it does initially on Pluto maybe you can find a pressure that doesn't? Usually I've had to go up a few pounds so the center of the tire was taking most of the load.

Hey what's wrong with tritones? I've been known to use a little "controlled discord" sometimes.

[Nothing Special]

I can hear the differences, Bob. And I agree about the tritone - ....

And keep in mind this is with only one of the BFGs! It was a lot louder with all 4.

.... So, do you know yet if the K02's track? In my experience that can sometimes be a result of wheel width and tire pressures, so if it does initially on Pluto maybe you can find a pressure that doesn't? Usually I've had to go up a few pounds so the center of the tire was taking most of the load.

No. They mounted the tires on the rims yesterday afternoon, but we're getting ready to leave on a vacation (without Pluto) today. So the tires will sit in the garage until we get back. But Pluto isn't quite as "planted" and Oswald is (was?), so I expect a little wandering anyway.

Hey what's wrong with tritones? I've been known to use a little "controlled discord" sometimes.

"A little" dissonance is fine. It can definitely add to a musical composition. But eventually it needs to be resolved! And in this case the resolution was replacing the tires.

[Nothing Special]

I now have a few miles on the KOs, and added video of one of them (like I did in the earlier tests) and then all four.  here's a link to the tire test video with the ATs added.  

I can't identify any tire noise from the KO2s over the cacophony of a 53 year old truck with a soft top and no carpet, so they are a complete win there, at least so far.  I remember the KO2s I had on Oswald were quiet originally and got a little louder as they wore.  But I don't think there were ever loud enough that they'd have been objectionable on Pluto.  Time will tell, but I'm optimistic.

As I said earlier, the KO2s on Oswald always "tracked" with grooves in the pavement.  They weren't terrible, but they were the worst tires I've ever had on a pickup as far as that goes, and were a big reason I switched away from BFGs on my truck (that's all I'd ever bought for a truck in my entire life until then).  But Pluto needs a little herding even with my highway tires.  I don't think the KO2s made him any worse.  The mud tires I've run have also been fine here, so it's not like the KO2s are a big win here, but at least i didn't lose anything.

They do have a bit of vibration, but I did go against my tire shops advice and had them static-balanced with weights stuck in the inside of the wheel rather than dynamic balanced with weights on the rims.  But with the damage my rims get when I'm rock crawling I think it would be too common to lose a wheel weight, which would be worse than the static balance.  For what it's worth, my highway tires and the ProComp mud tires also are/were static-balanced and while it took a couple tries, the mud tires were smooth and the highway tires were smooth the first time.  The KM3s were dynamic balanced and were smooth the first time.  So overall I'd say that in this area they carry a slight penalty over my other tires, but likely not too significant.

Off-road performance is yet to be determined.  I did have a set of the original BFG ATs (33x9.50-15) and one of the KOs (33x10.50-15) on Pluto before the ProComp mud tires.  They were OK off road, but I think the mud tires were better.  Still, I think the all terrains will be a better compromise for me.  Time will tell!

Edited Thursday at 02:39 AM by Nothing Special

[Gary Lewis]

Sounds like a win all the way around, Bob.    (Pun intended, just in case you missed it.  )

[Nothing Special]

Did you hear about the punster that told ten puns to his sad friend, hoping at least one would cheer him up?  No pun in ten did.

Sorry, what I actually came to say was that it's time for some pictures!  The first two compare one of the new BFG KO2s on the right to one of my old ProComp XTreme MTs on the left.  In the first picture the KO2 looks taller, but if you look at the bottom it seems that it's just the camera angle.  They look about the same in the second picture.

And in this last picture there's a KO2 on the front and a XTreme MT on the rear.

So not a lot of difference in appearance other the tread.

[Gary Lewis]

46 minutes ago, Nothing Special said:

No pun in ten did.

Groan!  That's 2/3's of a pun - PU!

But you are right, the tires do look to be the same size.  But the K02's tread looks a bit less aggressive and, therefore, quieter.