Cooper Discoverer A/T3 megathread?

Option D, 5100’s set at 3rd notch with stock coils and AAL in rear or sumo springs for sag...probably cheapest route and easiest

 

Seemed 32-33 cold was about right for me. Heated up, at 35-36

 

Wife was not thrilled with how these 4S performed in slushy snow the other day. I hope they fare better in drier snow. If not ill never hear the end of it for ordering her tires without getting the same ones she had last time

 

I’ll find out for myself in about 2-3 hours.

 

Hmm, I'm running a new set of 4S's in 245-75-16 on my 2016. From the 4S specific thread:

It's winter in interior Alaska finally! We've gotten our first real winter storm which dropped 12-15" of snow over the last 48 hours and last night the temps finally dropped below 0F. I've got lots of winter driving experience, on winter tires and on all-seasons, in a variety of cars. Mostly FWD, a couple RWD's (a Miata, a Mustang, and an old '77 Ram D200 I wish I still had), and a couple Subaru's but the Tacoma is my first daily driver 4WD vehicle (I had a 7.3 F250 extended cab 4x4 for a couple years but I didn't drive it as much as I would have liked as it didn't like starting at -40F, plus car seats didn't fit well). I've used every generation of blizzak since the WS-30's, Hankook I-Pike's with studs, General Arctic Altimax's with studs, Cooper M+S's, and Mastercraft Coursers Winter which are currently on my wife's CRV. Last winter I had a Subaru Outback 2.5I with a 6spd manual and like-new Blizzak WS-70's. I live on a dirt road halfway up a hill, and the road rarely gets plowed until days or weeks after a big storm like this one.

The Subaru was by far the best winter driving vehicle I've ever owned. It was unstoppable with blizzaks, and was actually fun to drive in the winter (but god-awful and soul sucking the rest of the year). The traction and road holding was incredible. The General's were the best winter tire I've ever used, I had them on my 2013 Mustang and they made that car extremely winter capable.

SO with the background out of the way, here's how I rank the Cooper AT3 4S's: Better than most all-seasons, and probably good enough for most drivers in most of the winters in the US, but they still aren't as good as a true winter tire.

Making fresh tracks out of my neighborhood yesterday in 12-15" of fresh fluffy snow was no problem, I had better than expected steering and braking but still had the traction control activate a couple times. My road is hilly, curvy, and bumpy fwiw. Once on the secondary roads that had seem some traffic, the 4S's resisted being dragged in to the snow ruts and more or less let me drive where and how I needed without getting sucked in to the drifts or stuck in the ruts. Part of this is because of being in a truck with 4WD no doubt, but it did well. On ice, the all-season-ness of these tires really start to show especially under braking. If a studded tire is 75-100% better than all-seasons on glare ice, and studless snows are 50-75% better, these are 10-25% better. On packed snow, these performed similarly to the winter tires I've had in the past.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the winter performance in admittedly best case scenario (new tires on a new truck), YMMV. I will probably get through this winter no problem, maybe next depending on how the tread holds up this summer, but will probably go back to a dedicated winter tire after that while I live in Alaska. If I lived anywhere in the lower 48, except maybe the high Rockies which gets weather similar to us here in AK, I'd have no problem running them year round.


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Good report on these. Probably still one of the better all-around tires for most folks who don't live in the extreme winters, and I wouldn't expect them to perform as well as a purely dedicated winter tire and certainly not studded but sounds like these remain a good choice for an all-season, all terrain.

This coming from a guy who lives in Tennessee - we see snow a handful of times a year, and generally head east to higher elevations to FIND snow to wheel and snowshoe. ha

 

Ok. Snow is falling, and I haven’t seen a plow truck out at this point. By my unscientific measurement method, we have around 4-5” or more on the roads. I shut the work computer off, started the truck, and cleaned her off for my adventure with the new 4S’s. Skoal mint can is 2.5” tall.



The roads in my development haven’t been touched. There are curves, stop signs, hills, etc. I went out and did a few laps, hit the hills and curves, in 2 and 4WD, and drove as I normally would in snow, which means no intentional quick starts or stops. In 2WD, these tires did an above average job in all aspects. I couldn’t make it up the steepest of hills from a full stop, and made it half way from a roll in 2WD. I didn’t expect to make it the whole way. In 4WD, I had no issues whatsoever, with any aspect. I did slide briefly on a few stops from higher than average speed in 2WD, but they rapidly caught traction again after the abs and traction control kicked in. Total activation time for each was probably a second or two before traction came back.

I didn’t venture out of the development, as several major roads are shut down, and people are stuck all over the place. It took my wife over an hour to get home, from 8 miles away, in her forester. She had no trouble, but idiots abound out there right now.

These are not a dedicated winter tire, so I don’t expect them to act like one, or act like a studded tire. For my driving needs, these are perfect.

Side notes: these are brand new tires with less than 100 miles on them.

The roads in my development are the absolute worst that I have seen since living here for 8 years. They haven’t been plowed, and no pretreatment was put down. There is a slight layer of ice under the snow from the earliest snow melting.

TLDR: these tires performed very well for normal driving in snowy conditions.

 

These aren't a dedicated snow tire, but did earn the mountain peak/snowflake symbol. Can anyone comment on if they are a step forward or step back from the old ATWs?

 

Never ran those, but I assume a true winter tire would out perform these on snow.

 

have you run any other all terrains? My only experience driving in new england snow has been on all seasons or BF Goodrich all terrain KOs. Never had trouble with the BFGs. It is snowing here now but I have my all seasons on the vehicle at the moment, and they SUCK! ABS kicking in non stop while slowing down. Will be curious to see how it does with the 4s's.

 

Are you getting the 4S’s? They did well for me today.

 

I have them! I took them off to put on my hubcentric spacers and was running the stockers until they showed up. Bad timing!

 

Just tested out my new AT3 LT (265/75/16 LR C). Had 6" of fresh sticky snow and I made it out before they had plowed. Tires performed great in both 2WD (taking it easy) and 4WD (getting after it). They plowed as I was out and about and they also did great on hard packed snow left over from the plow trucks.

Bring on Winter!!

 

those AT3 LT's you tried... were they C or E range? just curious. i run the E's and they are very firm and i've been wondering how well they do in those conditions.

 

Just tested out my new AT3 LT (265/75/16 LR C)

C - running them at 32psi.

Started at 34psi, but the ride/handling seemed a bit firm. Chalk test was good at both, but ride is better at 32psi.

 

4S- now set to 33 cold, warm up to 35. Tread wear looks even, and the ride is good. A little firm, but I like it.

 

Forgot to add....I had new front shocks (5100's at .85 setting) installed at same time as tires, so I think I was feeling an overall tighter/firmer front end. That's when I dropped to 32 and it felt good.

 

.85 on your stock springs?

 

Yes.

 

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Running 32 cold, 35-36 once they’ve warmed up.