Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S Review

Tires are on. I'll update when I've driven some, will get a good test in the rain for now. Lots of rain here in the Fraser Valley currently. Was beginning to hydroplane a bit on my Michelin LTX's which had 25% left, if it was summer I'd have left them on longer (was a good tire set, wanted a better snow rating though).

 

OK, I had them installed Nov 1. (265/70R16 AT3 4S) then made the 100 km drive home on major highways in heavy rain (and traffic) speeds from stop-n-go to 120+km/h and all was good. No panic stops required, a couple of standing water issues with no hydroplaning, no noticeable increase in road noise over the stock Goodyear Kevlar Wranglers with 49000 km (5/32" tread left). I then put 300km on driving to our cottage in Northern Ontario in intermittent rain and dry conditions at speeds up to 100 km/h and they ride nice (noise and comfort wise).
I've only had the truck since April (34000 km) so I did not go through a winter with the stock tires. I expect it will be a breeze with the Tacoma on these tires and after with my 90% on / 10% off road use.
The look is just what I wanted, more aggressive tread and sidewall than stock.

 

I had to keep my Cooper AT3 rotated every 3k. They started cupping due to their tread. My tire shop said they see it alot not just with Cooper's but VT has alot of Cooper's on the road. Mine got wicked noisy at about 25k. Never ran em in Winter due to towing a lot on snowy mountain roads. Just ordrer a set of Falkens as their replacements.

 

I rotate mine myself every 2-3k anyhow so not worried about that part. Will be interesting to see if I notice any cupping though - so far they still look practically brand new 10k in though and are very quiet. Will continue to monitor though and update OP if anything changes. Loving these tires in all conditions for the time being!

 

Got mine installed today, 245/75-16’s.





It’s been relatively warm, only in the teens, so a true winter test will be slowly coming but so far I’m happy. They are quieter than the hankooks and have noticeably better ice traction from what I’ve seen so far. They also look great on the truck. No snow to speak of yet here in Fairbanks, but some ice on the road home:








This is the clearest my road and driveway will be till May!

 

Looks good! First winter-ish report we’ve seen on these so far so keep us updated as you get more snow up there!

Funny enough when we get as much as you have in your driveway now in the south the entire city shuts down - ha!

We drive TO the snow...

 

Yep, it becomes a zoo down here. My hats off to you living up there, its going to get to 30 tonight for the first time this season and I am already looking forward to spring. I just don't understand how you guys do it up there.

 

Finally, after hours and hours of online Research and debating which tires to get, I just ordered a set of these, in 265/70/16. Will be shipped within 2-3 days. Can't wait to see them mounted, will post some pics then!

To the OP, thanks a lot for you taking the time to write such a comprehensive review (and keeping it updated every now and then). That really helped making my decision.

Cheers from Berlin, Germany

Stefan

 

Winter’s here.

 

Looks good, did you consider going up a tire size or 2? Would think it would be better in the snow

 

I did think about going up to 265/75-16, but decided against it mainly for financial reasons. The larger size was $35 more per tire, and I would have wanted/needed a 5th tire to replace the spare. I drive a lot where there is no cell service or any services, so I wanted to be able to swap the spare on if I needed too without having the height difference. Also a wider tire is supposed to be worse on snow and ice.

Depending how the winter goes, I’ll probably size up next time.

 

I was looking for reviews on these tires. I don’t do any heavy off-road so I didn’t need anything real aggressive. I wanted something that I would feel comfortable with my wife driving in adverse conditions. I just ordered a set of these today. Thanks for the review. It’s what I’ve been looking for.

 

Got to run these in a real good hard rain today at highway speeds with standing water, these tires are miles better than the previous hankooks I had and Bridgestone duelers. Very glad I was able to get them.

 

Great tire just put some on last week from Dicount Tire same size as your only problem lost about 1 1/2 Mpg other than that their the nuts love the look 2018 SR5 4X4 NICE POST

 

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.

​

 

Thanks for this snow review, great work! Well, if those Coopers 4s are better than most all-seasons and even sufficient for you up there in the far north of the planet, they will certainly be more than enough for me ;-)

Greets

Stefan

 

Had our first snow of the season here in Philly. Got 40k on the GY Kevlars and they're starting to show some slipping now. This thread is giving me an itch to get me Coopers.

 

Just got the AT34S put on this morning. Quite and comfortable so far. We haven had any bad weather to try them out yet. I like them so far.

 

How does the AT3 4S differ from the non-4S version of the tire?

 

More sipping for better rain, snow, and ice performance. They also only come in passenger sizes and carry a longer tread life warranty.