New KM3s on the truck

Yes

 

Duratracs currently, and 50000 km

 

They are ok in deep snow. My Jeep ran fine in about 2'-3' of snow. Ge them on snow pack though and they were like pontoons

 

I was thinking the same. I go to 15 with nitto trail grapplers and love ‘em

 

Well...got a potential big problem with the tires. I noticed on my drive home the TPMS was showing one tire was dropping pressure slowly, but it was raining like crazy and the truck was muddy so I just kept an eye on it. It was still pouring when I unpacked, so I didn’t check over the tire closely. I got home from work last night and saw the Tacoma looked like a low rider because the driver rear tire had dropped to about 4psi!

I took a quick look at the sidewall and saw this puncture. Very disappointing because the wheeling was pretty tame, and I ran this same trail system in far harder conditions with the RGs and didn’t even get bruising on the tires. I’ll be taking to Discount on Saturday to see what they think.

 

Wow that sucks, hard to fix a sidewall, that might be done. It looks like theres enough room to patch and plug but i dont know.

 

Thanks for the write up. I'm wary about this in the winter and while the performance in snow may not be the best, I'm assuming it will be even worse on ice or snow pack? Maybe someone will test ice & snow traction after some time with a hot knife...

 

I went to Discount this morning and they're ordering a new tire. I've purchased tires from a lot of places, and I have to say Discount has always been the best. Great customer service and prices.

Honestly if you're going to be driving on snow packed and icy roads, don't go with an MT or get a second set for the winter driving. I have blizzaks in the crawl space that come out for the winter, so I can run whatever tires the rest of the year. If you get MTs siped, they will chunk and tear much more easily off road, so IMO it's not worth the compromise. I had a set of Baja Claws siped, and while they were acceptable on the road in the winter, they chunked badly with any wheel spin in the rocks.

 

MT tires with large tread blocks do terrible in ice and compact snow. If you want a jack of all trades tire, look for an aggressive AT that is snow rated with the 3 peaks snowflake symbol. Both the K02 and Duratrac have this rating, though it is not as good as a true snow tire. Other option as mentioned above is to run an dedicated snow tire in the winter and MT tires the rest of the year which gives you the best of both worlds, with the setback of having 2 sets of tires.

 

If they're anything like KM2s, they'll suck in snow and on ice.

 

Competition stickies are routinely aired-down to single digits to get the sidewalls to flex.

 

They are also running true beadlock wheels.

 

Yeah I was considering these but realize they’re not as versatile as dedicated AT’s. However, I like my Ridge Grapplers and have used these with great success in the rainy, icy and snowing Pacific Northwest without issues.

 

I'm confused by this, bias ply tires are specifically designed to be aired down less than the radial version, often in single digits...

Perfect example is the trepador

EDIT: http://www.fourwheeler.com/product-reviews/1608-tire-test-maxxis-trepador-m8060-bias-ply/

 

Add rain to that list as well.
I would easily get 50k out of the ATs on my old pathfinder.

 

Update - tire held air perfectly after I topped it off on Monday night. Still took it into Discount and they checked it out and gave it a clean bill if health. I think there must have been a rock or crud stuck in the valve stem, but I’ll keep an eye on it. Don’t want to slander the tire unnecessarily, so hopefully it was just a fluke.

 

That happened to a friend of mine with his st maxx. We went wheeling, and later that night it was empty. Filled it up, and it’s been good since. We think there was crud in the bead when aired down, but it worked itself free when fully deflated.

 

Now that Nitto has begun to offer the Ride Grappler in 285/75/(16)

I am also interested in your experience with your Nitto Ridge Grapplers since they started to offer them in a 16" wheel option for 285's. I currently am running BFG KO2's, but have been considering a more aggressive option to include the new KM3's, Cooper ST Maxx, STT Pro, and now even the Nitto Ridge Grapplers. I also live in the PNW, in WA.

For the most part, the KO2's have done fine. Not 'great' in icy conditions. I have found them to do okay in snow when aired down, but they definitely have their limitations. Our last trail ride that involves quite a bit of snow got everybody stuck in some really deep snow. Most were probably using KO2's, and at least one with ST Maxx. It was close, but if I had to say one tire did better than another I would say that the Coopers probably clear the snow better than the BFG's understandably.

Both Cooper's earned high praise in my neck of the woods. However the online world seems to think they are somewhat inconsistent citing flat spots and pulling to the right issues. So your take on the Nitto tires Is something that I would like to hear. How are they off road overall? Someone mentioned that they pack up in mud pretty quickly.

 

Honestly, a few guys down here in PDX swear by the RG's. I have the RG's and also ran KO2's since RG's weren't available in 16" a year ago. On ice, I find them both comparable, however, in deeper stuff, the RG's are better. In deeper stuff, we all air down <10 psi and ultimately still use chains to go further.

My off-road experience is great and I've never had any traction issues with either. The RG's provide a little more side protection as it has a rounder sidewall vs the KO2 which provides minimal if zero wheel protection against rocks.

I'm glad to hear that they now make RG's in 16" so we can ditch KO2's altogether....j/k not bashing KO2's, but I personally prefer the RGs

 

Cool. Thanks for the info. I was going to look into picking up some new shoes during the next Discount Tire Direct sales in October. But dr ue to recent sfd supreme court decisions, looks like it will be a bit less sweet here in WA state with our 10% tax applied. Maybe I will have to coordinate a trip to go some ofmy favorite Portland restaurants. I would mind getting back to visit Pambiche, Kornblatt's, or
The Country Cat while I am down there.