New Cooper STT Pros Arrived Today-- Install Now or Wait?

Hi guys,

Just got my hands on some new pre-production STT Pros from Cooper (265/70/17) to put on my otherwise stock '14 TRD Sport DCSB. I wanted to keep the tire size roughly the same (stock is 265/65/17) as I don't really have a lift in the budget or plans anytime soon. The 32" spare should still fit under the bed with little or no modification, and I don't think going up 1" will crush my power or mpg too badly.

The (admittedly limited) reviews on this new tire have got me pretty excited to try them out. I do a lot of exploring on rough forest service roads in the Northern US Rockies (where I live), but no gnarly rock crawling or mud stuff, so I think these are about perfect for my needs.

So anyways, 5 of these bad boys showed up on my porch this morning. I have a 2000 mile roadtrip (all highway) coming up in a few weeks for my buddy's wedding. No trail trips planned where I'll absolutely need them in the next few weeks, but I'll probably have 5-6 days driving pretty rough mountain roads to get to some remote trailheads and such, so I'm anxious to get them on. I'm trying to decide if I should install these now or suck it up and wait, and put the highway miles on my minivan-esque stock tires. Any input from you fine people?


In other news, anyone want to buy 5 stock tires?? 13,6xx miles if I trade them out now, ~16k if I wait until after my trip. What sort of value would you put on the stock tires for a local Craigslist sale (or similar)?

Thanks guys!

 

Are fuel economy or road noise a big concern of yours? If not I vote to put them on! Will allow you to get a good feel for the tires during a 2,000 mile road trip... for highway use anyhow.

 

Put the new shoes on!

 

How the hell did you get those?! I called today trying to get a set and was told they wouldn't be widely available until October. I'm looking for 285/75/16s

 

You've got to listen to the little man inside your head. What does your little man say?

(my little man would say put those bitches on ASAP)

 

Thanks for the input guys, got them installed this morning! They sure look pretty badass, can't wait to test them in the mountains!!

 

I can't tell from the pictures. Are those siped?

 

They look great, how loud are those at 70mph?

 

They do have some siping, but not to the extent that a true winter tire would. Hoping they'll be a little better than most offroad tires in the snow next winter.

Just put them on this morning and headed straight to work. I've only had them up to about 55mph so far. Definitely louder than the stock highway tires, but not to a level that it really bothers me. We'll see after a couple hours on the highway at 75mph. I'll follow up in a few days re: road noise.

 

I had the non Pro version, and they were BEASTS in the snow. Hopefully you'll have the same experience.

 

it's not going to be smooth as silk or very quiet that's expected with aggressive tires, I felt my duratracs right away

 

How are the tires?

 

Just shopping around, the tires in the size I wanted are difficut to find. Plus I'm not sure I want an E rated tire on the truck.

 

I've been really happy with them. They are (obviously) louder than the stock tires, but not to an annoying extent. Certainly don't need to shout to be heard in the passenger seat or anything like that. I put about 2000 highway miles on them over a long-weekend trip a couple weeks after putting them on, and the noise didn't bother me a bit. Can't really speak too much to fuel economy (on that trip, I was just trying to get across the Dakotas as quickly as possible...no car excels in the mpg department at speeds of 80-85+ mph ha). Around town, I notice about a 1 mpg decrease on a typical tank.

Haven't had too much chance to test them on really rocky or muddy trails yet, but they have performed great on some steep forest service roads in the mountains. Part of my job also has me driving around a worksite at a recycling facility a few days per week, which as you might imagine, means there are bits of trash & scraps floating around everywhere. I don't worry a bit about puncturing a tire on any of the 100s of scraps of metal or other debris I might drive over on a given day, these things are tough.

They are proving to be a perfect tire for my needs and I'm definitely glad I put them on.

 

Thanks for taking the time to come back and post.

 

As for noise, you'll notice they'll get a lot louder as you wear them down FYI. My MTZ's are much louder now then when I first got them. (To the point where it drowns out my Borla at highway speeds.)

Fantastic looking tire though. I'd want a C-D load for 285's though. E is like a Rock Truck. Had them with my BFG AT's. Very rough ride. No need for that amount of load capacity on a 1/4 ton truck.