Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S Review

Thanks for the awesome review and feedback you all have given. This helped me make up my mine to purchase a set of of these!

I mainly use my truck for daily short commutes, utility, camping and light OR. Going to take it to Tahoe next month and I'm thinking there might be some snow up there so we'll see how she does.

 

That's great to hear! Were you in 4wd as well? I've never driven in anything THAT treacherous with my Prerunner (southern California)

 

First snow was in October and I have been in 4wd since more or less and will be till probably April when it finally thaws.

 

Anyone install 265/75 16 on a 3rd Gen Pro? Wondering if I'll experience rubbing with these tires.

 

if your suspension is stock, that size will fit on any 3rd gen with any tire type.

 

Thank you. I appreciate it!

 

I just got a set as well. I did 300 miles earlier that day in terrible conditions with Blizzaks on my Subaru Legacy. I honestly can say these feel close enough to a true snow, to the point where I'm driving the truck in a similar way to the car. The only real differences are of course a little greater stopping distances and the truckst 4wd system isn't as great as the car's AWD system for getting power to all 4 wheels.

I'm a believer in these tires now and for me I'm with the others that say this is the best AT I've ever owned at handling wintery conditions and truly only a step below a dedicated winter tire.

FYI, I replaced a set of BFG KO(1) and this is a night and day difference. They weren't even heavily worn, they just had terrible abou characteristics with extremely hard rubber and hardly any siping.

 

What have you guys found to be a good pressure for these? I can't really tell because the weather here makes it impossible to check easily

 

Why do you say that? I come from Subarus too, but I think the full time 4x4 in these trucks is great. I don’t feel any difference from the Outbacks and Imprezas I used to own. I realize Subaru have different AWD systems in their cars, but this truck is great. There’s no delay in power coming from the transfer case.

 

Subaru's (at least newer ones) have a pretty good brake based torque vectoring system, similar to A-TRAC, except it's running all the time, but just in 4LO like on our trucks (which they obviously don't have).

Also on this particular Legacy they have a 65/35 rear/front torque split. It makes it behave in a way that I prefer while slipping mid corner, letting you "power out" where I get more understeer with the truck and it's 4wd system.

On top of all of that, power delivery is terribly uneven in 2nd gen Tacomas with our 5 speed auto. There are moments where it's in way too high of a gear and makes a heavy downshift, breaking traction easier than the more linear power delivery with the cvt in my car.

Weight balance also sucks on these trucks with their composite bed, giving them a relatively heavy front end compared to the rear. In a sedan it's a bit more balanced, although not much better in a Subaru with their heavy and very forward engine design.

Lastly, the suspension on the car makes it wallow less when transferring weight, making it more stable on super icy roads with heavy winds, and also in corners where the weight is transferring quickly. With the tacoma you can really easily lose a ton of weight in the inside rear tire causing it to spin that tire because of how the leaves in the rear unload in a sharp turn.

Like I said though, the tires are fearg, and if I ignore all the attributes of the truck that make it worse on ice or very snowy roads and evaluate the tires alone, I can't imagine dedicated snows would perform much better on the truck, sosin most of the characteristics that holh it back are simply because it's a truck. These tires have been fantastic so far.

 

Needed some new tires (and wheels) and with this review, I went with these tires. I think they look great

 

gotcha, I guess I was thinking more about the get-going kid of driving as opposed to at-speed driving. I agree with the better handling of the Subarus, as is to be expected. I also only ever drove MT Subarus, so it's probably a smaller discrepancy than between the ATs.

 

I just posted pictures of my truck with new wheels and these tires but just looked at the weather for this week and it’s a great test run!

Tomorrow= freezing rain with a little snow
Wednesday>Thursday=4-5 inches of snow.

Will update!

 

I've been much more concerned about stopping and handling characteristics while on the move. My previous tires were terrifying when towing the setup below. I can comfortably say these new ones are performing great.

 

that's great to hear......were your old tires KO2s?

 

KO(1)s that I took off a Jeep. They were 10 year old rubber, very hard, starting to crack and were about 1/2 worn. The cheap bastard in me said "you already own them, use them until they die" and in wintery conditions I was more likely to die before the tires were driven enough to be worn. I put maybe 10,000 miles on them, they already had an unknown, but moderate amount of miles from my Jeep.

I almost went back to KO2s, which I had before the KO(1) takeoffs, because they were fantastic, but were a solid 15lbs heavier per tire and were load-range E. I gave my KO2s to my dad actually so that he could have a good set of tires for winter use on his 2500 Chevy. These AT3 4S just seem to be the right balance for a tacoma. Lightweight, good siping for winter use and relatively cheap at $730 mounted and balanced at Discount Tire.

 

Top notch. They're definitely a contender for me

 

Picked up a set in 265/70/17 today for my Tacoma, coming from a set of wrangler AT/S.
Trying them out in some -26 weather today, will have a better sense of their performance after a few days but they do dig down and find traction on snow and ice.

 

Anybody put these on the factory 18's yet? (265/60/18)

If so, it would be great to share review, pictures, price paid.