Spinning wheels on a wet pavement with BFG KO2

I noticed that KO2 have a little less traction on a wet pavement than my old Micheline M/S. At first it felt very strange. I have 2.7 engine with MT so it is not a monster, but when the pavement is wet I can easy spin wheels on the second gear. It surprises me every time. Sometimes I have some slow driver in front of me doing 30mph, I see the opening so I can pass: downshift from 3rd to 2nd and step on it. Now I feel the truck starts fishtailing - I had to easy off gas or shift to third to make her stop doing it. All this is before even turning the wheel - spinning wheels on the straight line.

I already learned to take turns gently when pavement is wet - the truck can easy slide there. And yes, the bed is very light loaded plus camper shell.

I was very tempted to switch back to Michelin M/S for commuting, but I like the toughness of KO2. Hopefully my commuting will end soon, at least before I crash into something.

There is no problem on the dry pavement at all - truck sticks to the road and the only way to spin wheels on dry pavement is when I try to start (1st gear) with front wheels turned (like fast merging into main road at T-junction from a full stop). But this is no drama, just a little noise from tires.

 

Ko2's are known not to be great in the rain.

 

I noticed the same thing. I went from Ko2s to the Michelins on my Nissan and the traction difference in the rain is night and day.

Only thing I can think of to improve it would be going to a skinnier tire.

 

Ko2s are poo in the rain

 

Most AT tires don't have adequate siping for wet pavement use.

The race tires I used on my SCCA ride were pretty sketchy in the wet for the same reason.

 

sketchy doesnt do those justice, my buddy had cheaters on his Camaro at one point and we made the mistake of taking it for a coffee run in a torrential down pour, boy was that interesting.

 

I'm familiar with that kind of 'interesting' too, from days of yore with GTOs. But on the SCCA ride they weren't cheaters like we used on drag cars.

They were actually DOT legal (required for my class) and only a 200 treadwear rating. Nice and grippy dry. A great 12-15k tire.

I normally swapped tires pre & post events, but sometimes it was just too fun to have that extra grip on the street. In dry weather.

They had enough groove to reduce deep water hydroplaning, but no siping to allay wet pavement 'skating'. But it was swell giving the wife some amusement park grade rides.

 

What tires work in the wet, in either 15, 16, or 17 inch sizes? Holy crap, my stock 2004 2wd single cab can spin the tires in the first 3 gears without turning the steering wheel on wet roads. I bet my engine has never exceeded 5k rpm, unless it was one of those traction losses. I never knew the 2.4 was so powerful!

I'm looking for new tires, and wheels too. Stock is P205/75R15. I replaced them with P215/70R15 back in the fall of 2011 because of a lack of good options in the 75 series tire (and poor rain traction.) Now I will go with either P215/70R15, P215/65R16, or P215/60R17. They are all the same height, +/- 0.2". I just don't want to do so much counter-steering in the rain!

 

Mine are fine. Second pair. My last pair I noticed towards the end of their life that they spun em up a little bit new to fairly new ones grip pretty good in the rain.

 

I don`t recall any Pick Up over the years that one did not need to pay attention in the rain.

It was a fact of life Even with the best rain tires they would break loose .

Granted the amount of traffic on the road played in a drip of oil from many vehicles in the few days it did not rain instant oil slick .

 

I’ve had good experiences with my Yokohama geolanders. I think it’s because they’re more of a “road tire” but with some off-road capability built into them.

pic of the tire:

 

I'm surprised you have an issue with a 4 banger, what's your tread depth? Sounds like your driving on bald tires.
I've never had an issue in the rain - and we get rain here in BC, until I was down to the end of the tires life.
On my 3rd set of KO2s- just put on 285s, great all round tire. Happy for the last 146K miles with them.

 

Mine are now 9 years old, have about 33k miles on them, and between 5/32 and 3/16 of tread depending on where you measure. They sucked when new, I found out on their first rain day. In the Seattle area wet road traction is important. They will be replaced this fall, I'm just not that into drifting. The Yokohama Geolanders look interesting. They come in sizes I can use on a base 2wd Tacoma. I really don't need that kind of mileage warranty as I rack up less than 4k per year.

 

I've fishtailed in turns on brand new KO2s multiple times, especially when it's misty conditions. I actually thought the traction got better as the tire wore down a bit.

 

Believe me, manual transmission on 2.7 makes a huge difference . My KO2 are 4 years old and have less than 20k mikes on them - plenty thread. It is not the issue with standing water on the road but pavement being wet. I think the rubber is a bit harder (stronger too) comparing to street tires (like Michelin defender is).

 

poo in rain

 

It's winter, but not freezing nor snowing. Just wet cold roads. Two days ago almost every roundabout exit was with fishtailing- second gear spins these tires so easy. Kind of fun at low speed, but quite scary at 30-40mph. I started to thing that maybe there is something wrong with my suspension or alignment, so the next day I switched to 4Runner when driving exactly the same route (also with KO2). No fishtailing but even being gentle on the gas all these roundabouts kicked A-track on. Quite possible that the pavement is oil-soaked on these intersections (quite heavy traffic over there). I will just drive like an old lady over there, but for sure will not dump KO2 for that little inconvenience. These tires are great on snow and mud around my new house. That little pavement drifting is just minor annoyance, not a deal breaker.

By the way these tires are 4 years old with about 17k miles on them. Plenty of thread left.

 

KO2s are weak in wet traction conditions. Have you considered adding a couple sand bags to the bed of the truck to help keep things planted?

 

Mine spins easy too, especially with no weight in the bed.

 

Truth, with added weight getting back home tonight (hauling some trash from the construction site) Tacoma stays better on the road, but I am not attracted to the idea of hauling a dead weight all the time . I just prefer to drive more carefully when I see the wet pavement.

Contrary to the common opinion that people in Poland drive like crazy it is quite opposite. With most small diesels here they can't do that. There are just handful of eager BMW drivers but natural selection takes care of that problem .