What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Its a 98 who needs functioning instruments?

 

True.....

I just watch traffic and make sure I'm going faster......

JK

 

never heard of cable making bouncy noise before?

 

It starts off as a silent problem. In cold weather, the speedo jumps around (on my truck it was about a 5mph wide movement) and as it gets worse, it starts making a pretty awful noise. Mine has gotten especially bad. I'll try and get a video of it at some point, maybe tomorrow morning. I know the two fixes are a new speedo cable or lubricating the current cable with graphite lubricant. I already have the new cable, just waiting on warmer weather to throw it in... And wondering if there's anything I can do to keep this one from developing the same problem.

 

It was done the night of Christmas, 2 miles south of the Spirit Mt. exit just outside of Duluth on Hwy 35. I was heading up to see the parents with my fam in the truck. Raining the whole way. Rounding a slow bend, we see a ford explorer off in the trees. Everyone reduces speed, approaching inclined slow right-hander. Barely roll throttle on at about 40mph, all four wheels start drifting wide. Shit. Going to hit, nudge the back in. Loud BANGS as i start hitting the uprights. Nose heads in, hits two or three then i regain traction and drive away.

I looked for the spot i hit on the way home a few days later, took out a dozen of them.

This is the style of barrier and set up i hit. Hate them so much. I mean, i get their purpose at stopping head-on arrant vehicles from crossing into oncoming traffic. But had i had a foot or three of grass beyond the frozen asphalt to find traction, i wouldn't be in this situation. Or accepting some blame, if I had slowed even further for flash-frozen conditions and not run KM2's... i guess.

 

Yep, fully agree. Never going back. MN is a sheet of ice 1/2 the winter. Contemplating 33 or 35 12.5x15 Falken Wildpeaks A/T3W's...

 

Judging by the falken at3/w tire thread those have even less average life than ko2s.

I've been pleased with my ko2s as well in the snow/ice. You've just got to realize that they aren't snow tires and drive prudently for the conditions. They really don't have that much siping, so if you're going to drive aggressive like a normal merican you may be disappointed in the packed snow/ice performance. That being said when driven prudently they are a great all around tire.

 

Plus ko2s give you the traditional weak BFG side wall for guaranteed flat tires while offroading!

 

In new virgin snow they are great. Packed icy snow like is common here in the Northeast isn't a problem per se, just have to realize they aren't by snow tires. I've never had any issues either, but in those conditions it can be easy to overdrive the tires. That's where the lack of siping becomes apparent.

 

took a long ass time but i hand siped my maxxis bighorns and made a noticeable difference in slippery conditions.

 

Really? Can you share a link for the lazy? I had heard from the DiscountTire guys that the KO2's were failing well short of their mileage warranties too. And were 'noticeably' worse life than the original KO's. But that's just one shop guys voice.

I do have a pal in Denver that just got a set of the falkens on his 3rd gen T4R and is in love with them. "I just plowed right through 6" of fresh snow on the roads, great grip, was able to drive like an inspired idiot."

 

I like the st maxxs. Great in snow.

 

Agreed, you can't have it all. Sure the originals lasted forever, but they were rock hard which is not good for wet/ winter conditions. I've got about 35k on mine now, just over a year, I'll probably replace this summer. Maybe get 45k miles out of them. That's not too bad IMO.

 

The KO2s are a pretty average tire. Decent life for acceptable traction. The only downside is chunking, they don't handle sharp obstacles in the tread block with much grace. But again that is due to then being squishy and soft. I have punctured one of mine twice but the other three have been fine. Just don't ride the hype train on them, they aren't magical, they are affordably average.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...n-wildpeak-a-t3w.419869/page-61#post-14019189

 

Got a few buddys running them and the originals held up better in our experience too.

 

True, I love mine but they chunk up something fierce. Some of my treads look like the eraser of a pencil that some nervous kid chews on. Granted I'm not exactly easy on them, but my next set of tires I'd like to find something that doesn't do that so easily.

 

Guess i wont be sipping my mtr's

 

That's my next tire, still contemplating size

 

It isn't the sidewall's fault that the nut holding the wheel runs into shit.