Are anyone elses Cooper Discover STT's noisy??

Have a question regarding mud terrain tires and the normality of there wear. Back when i bought my truck the previous owner was running Cooper Discover STT tires and they were pretty worn out and needed to be replaced. They were very noisy and rumbled alot. Because i didn't need such an aggressive tire as what was on there before, i wanted to go with the BFG All-Terrains, but sears said they were on back order for 3 months and talked me into buying another set of Cooper Discover STT's . I asked them why the old ones were so noisy and they said that the previous owner didn't rotate them enough. I bought there word and purchased them. When driving home i was pretty impressed with how quite they were and figured the key to keeping them quite was rotation, rotation, rotation. I currently have 40k miles on them and as they wore they have become progressively noisier. I still have 1/4 inch of tread left on them and have rotated them around every 5000 miles. Well today i went to my local wheel and tire shop and purchased a new set of BFG All-Terrain T/A K/Os and traded my Cooper Discover Stt's in. They were very noisy tires and on my daily driver... i couldn't take it anymore. The tech that gave me a price for trade in said that all 4 tires were slightly cupped and that's where the noise was coming from. I said i rotate them regularly and he said that its normal for mud terrain tires to cup as they wear in.

Do mud terrain tires (Cooper STT's) tend to cup and become noisier as they wear?

 

All mud tires are noisy and get noisier as they wear. Unless you are driving on dirt on a regular basis, these might not be the tires for you. I am thinking about removing my 1/2 worn Cooper AT3 and going to the Michelin LTX M/S due to highway noise issues.

Howard

 

Ideally have 2 sets of tires, mud terrains for wheeling and a set of AT's for the street or even just some regular all seasons for the street if they meet your needs.

 

Thats what id like to do at some point. I still have the stock tacoma rims. The only problem, thats another set of tires lol. I asked them if they have any used 315/75R16s laying around and at the moment no. Ill keep looking around but thats a hell of alot of money just on tires. Id run the 315s in the winter and off road and the 35 BFG in the summer.

But is it just the pattern of the tread on a mud tire that causes cupping? Even on a perfectly alighned front suspension and regular rotations?

 

Watch your tire pressure. When you change tires from stock you'll need to determine the proper pressure. And it has nothing to do with what's on the door sticker, owners manual or side of tire. It deals with chalk and driving. Just Google it.

 

Iv often wondered about this. Iv brought this subject up before awhile back and it was told to me to follow the door jam recommended tire pressure regardless of tire size. With the new tires i will be doing the chalk method with the tries at the door jam pressure and tweek it from there. I read the method and to me its wayyyyyy complicated. Not sure why you cant just set tire pressure, chalk, adjust, drive, rechalk and so on till you get the desired pattern

 

The way you say you'd do it works. I never read the "method" you did. I've just used the chalk method for many years.

 

I had some 32/11.5 STT's on my old 02 Tacoma and after about 17k they got pretty loud. Real hummers especially on smooth pavement. I sold them and put on some Kelly TSR's and they are much quieter even after about 25k. Still use them on my current 2000. On a 99 Tacoma I used to have, I ran Interco Truxus in a 33/12.5 and those were even quieter than the STT's. Had a tougher time balancing them but rode much quitter for sure.

 

I have STT's, they are great tires and will buy them again when these are past their due date. These are the BEST tires for Ice and snow. I have 4WD and use my truck as a truck and need the ultra aggressive tread. Do they hum going down the road, yep they do, but it is very tolerable. I have a 05 GTO for the smooth ride "quite" ride.

 

How many miles do you have on your set of coopers?

 

I agree totally with them being great in snow and ice. I took mine on quite a few ski trips and they were awesome. One trip to Breck was especially hairy and STT's were sic.
My Interco Truxus also were great in the same conditions as well. Drove from Salida CO to Espanola NM ~200mi on roads completely covered in ice and snow and the Interco's were awesome.

 

The STT Maxx are nice. Hardly no noise.

 

I would say 15k miles. I expect them to get louder as time goes along. But I am OK with it.

 

15K... You ain't heard nothing yet lol

 

LOL. I am ok with it. This isn't my first set of aggressive tread tires on a truck. You should hear a set of Goodyear MT/R with Kevlar. They ROAR from day one. Maxxis Bighorns are not much better.

 

Ok so an update, yesterday i went a had my new BF Goodrich All Terrians mounted and balanced and what a difference it made!!!! I can actually hear myself think. The ride is smoother and my slight pull to the left is now gone! Its actually enjoyable to drive my truck on long distances now with out my hands tingleing and my ears ringing lol. Big improvment.

Anyway when i had them mounted, i asked them what psi they inflatted them and they said 35psi. I knew that was to much air so when i got home i looked at the tires and saw that the contact pattern wasent all they way accross the tire. I didnt have any chalk with me so i deflated them to 28 psi all the way around to see where that would put the tread. With a flashlight i could still see some daylight toward the outer most edge of the tire, but didnt want to deflat them anymore until i got some advice from you guys first. The door sticker says 26 psi up front and 29 psi in back, but these of course are not stock tire size. Any thoughts?

 

If you have a owners manual it has the pressures for 31x10.5s in it. That tire came stock on my Tacoma. It'll get you close.

 

Ok so iv been running my new tires for a little over a week now and i think i have the fronts at the right pressure (26PSI) with even tread pattern contact with the dust test. But im having difficulties with the rear tires. Right now i have the rear tires at 26psi, same as the front but its still not giving me full contact of the tire to the road. I know the rear is lighter then the front but how much farther can i drop the pressure and still be safe? Im thinking like 24-23 PSI to make the tread make full contact, but my gut tells me thats to low of a pressure to run safely. Any suggestions???

For the record my door sticker says to run 26psi in the front and 29psi in the back.