Ok, many of you know I have been running BFG ATKO's for a while now, in
the 325/60r15 size.
http://barryoliver.home.insightbb.com/trukpix/idiotS.jpg
I have had these tires for several years, and just rolled 65,000 miles
on them. They had 6-8 32'nds of tread left but were old and hard and
beginning to crack, so it was time for new tires....
Last week, while getting the tires rotated on my rollerskate, I was
jawing with the drone behind the counter and the subject of pro-comp and
their free tire deals.
Pro-comp, you see, runs "buy three get one free" deals generally twice a
year, in the spring and fall.
http://www.4wheelonline.com/Categories.aspx?CategoryId=1517
Their current promotion runs March 1 through 31. For this deal, I
ordered 5 of their 31x12.50r15's. The next day, my baby got new shoes.
[pictures forthcomming] I was right at $700 out the door, for all 5
tires, so I cannot complain about the price, considering the BFG mud's
that I was looking at would have broken $1k, and I would have had to
wait for them to find 5 of them [there was only three in their
warehouse]....
Anyway, I picked up my truck and I thought I had made a mistake, since
these tires are visibly smaller than my previous skins. I whipped out
the steel tape and, sure enough, my brand new 31x12.50's are not even 11
inches wide when mounted on my stock rims. WTF!!! I was PISSED. By
this time, I was committed, mostly because I explicitly specified these
exact tires. They do, however look good, with aggressive shouler lugs
and good looking white lettering. The seem to "fit" the looks of my
truck well enough. They would be suitable for most anyone and entirely
normal looking [if that was the look I was going for.]
As a practical matter, they are almost identical in mounted dimensions
to the stock 31x10.5's that came on the truck, so I knew they would work
ok, but just not look as tough. I lost some of my mojo last Friday,
even though I stepped up to muds from AT's....
Looking at their website reveals that this is by design.
SIZE 31/12.50R15
TREAD WIDTH (In.) 9.7
TREAD DEPTH 20/32
http://www.procomptires.com/mudterrain.html
In retrospect, I could have easily fit 33x12.50's on my 100% stock
suspension with no torsion crank or anything. I only had minimal
rubbing with the BFG's, and I suspect the 33's would be similar.
Now, understand, I am really good friends with my tireshop and they seem
to go out of their way to give good service, and they probably would
have took them back off if I would have made a big deal, but that still
would have left me needing tires, so I decided that these tires would
have to do for now.
So I promptly took them on a 250 mile road trip to break them in. The
first thing I noticed is that they were quieter than I expected, about
on par with my BFG AT's. On the highway, they hummed a bit, but it is
seriously less than I would have expected, considering the tread.
This surprised me.
They also are noticibly lighter, so I "got back" alot of my "big tire
horsepower loss". They do not, however spin very easily. Even on wet,
sloppy roads, they are surprisingly grippy. They also seam to soak up
bumps alot more than the BFG's, not so much that you think you are
riding in a car, but very good indeed. The siping on the center lugs
seems to really help alot in this department.
I did notice that they do wander a bit, but I am still experementing
with air pressure, so that may have been partialy my fault. One area
that the BFG's were matcheless in is handling. They rode like they were
on rails, with tight handling and confident turn-in normally associated
with much sportier tires. These are obviously and noticibly softer
tires. As such, they drive "mushier" than the BFG's. I also noticed
they seem to want to follow road groves and pavement imperfections more
readily than the BFG's did.
My gas mileage numbers have not changed noticibly, in the first 500
miles. Apparently the increase in rolling resistance is offset by the
decrease in tire weight. Marketing hype aside, I am uncertain how these
tires will stand up to abuse, their side lugs look very beefy, but the
carcass of the tire seems thinner than comparable mud tires. This seems
like more of a street tire with mud tread than a hardcore offroad tire,
if the construction is any clue. I hope they surprise me with their
durability. They seem to be positioned as a "midrange tire" between the
AT and the X-terrain.
I plan to take some pic's this weekend and will post them as soon as I do.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Apr 01 2007 - 03:13:51 EDT
