RIP BFG KO2

KO2's are adios.

BFGoodrich Just Replaced Its Most Iconic Off-Road Tire (msn.com)

 

Nope. Not discontinued

 

Love KO2

 

Looking forward to seeing the ko3 as more sizes come out. Supposed to be an improvement on the proven ko2.

 

I need new tires soon and I'm going with either KO3s or Baja Boss A/T. Can't decide. I'm actually shopping right now....

 

I'm running KO2's on both my 21 Venture and my FJ40 Land Cruiser. Couldn't be happier with a tire for those two vehicles. The Venture does its share of Highway miles. No complaints at all. I'd guess that the KO3's will just take everything the KO2's do and improve it. Fingers crossed anyway. Low miles are both sets. Won't be replacing them on either truck anytime soon tho...

 

Can you hear them playing taps?

 

Get the Baja Boss's, you won't be disappointed.

 

I was thinking of waiting for the KO3 but decided to go with the Toyo Open Country RT Trail instead. Hopefully they wear well and last a long time.

 

BFG A/T's could be so good if they just put a couple of directional rain grooves in them.

 

looks like stock size 17s in load C will be available in August. My K02s have plenty of tread left but their age is starting to show in the compound. I may replace them before next winter.

 

How old are they

 

coming up on 7 years, have been exposed to fairly intense UV. Spent their life at high elevation. No dry rot but they have hardened.

I kind of got burned ordering from Tire Rack online shipped to their warehouse for pickup rather than have the install shop order them. The date code was already over a year old.

 

I think I read somewhere that eight years is kind of the limit. The original Bridgestones that came with my 4Runner were at least a couple of years old when I received the truck. When I installed the aftermarket wheels with Nitto Ridge Grapplers, I had the shop put the ORP wheels with almost new tires (based on tread depth) on my 2015 Tacoma, which needed tires anyway.
Last fall, I was looking at the tires on the Tacoma (from the 4Runner) I saw lots of checking on the sidewalls. So I got rid of those - not based on tread wear - but based on condition.

 

KO2's are trash, maybe the KO3 will catch up to Falken and Toyo but I doubt it.

 

My father in law ran multiple sets of them and have issues every time. They also suck in the rain. I'd buy LingLong's before I would buy a set of K02's.

 

No rain in Baja so the Baja Champion tires don't have them...

 

Disagree. Have had great experiences with KO2's & original KO's for over 30 years. Yes, I am a boomer.

 

The original ko's were absolute trash after the tire was only half worn(20k miles)

 

It's beautiful man!

 

That tire design advanced very little over those 30 years... 4Runners from 1994 weighed nothing and struggled to maintain 60 mph; they weren't demanding on tires.

 

I’m still rolling on a set of 16.5” KOs

 

The KO3s don’t look as aggressive as the KO2s, from what I’ve seen in person. Time will tell.

 

Lol!

I was going to say "sub'd for 'KO2's are garbage' or other typical comments, but I wasn't fast enough.

Yeah, they're garbage. That's why the vast majority of the people who have ever used them have liked them.

I wouldn't put Falken in the same category as Toyo, personally.

 

My '94 cruised fine at 70+. And, it weighed around 4000#, IIRC.

Edit: passing was another story, though.

 

This is how product life cycles work. The KO was replaced by the KO2, so obviously the KO3 would too. My parents bought some KO2 when it was still a new tire in 2015, still on the Jeep today but they're worn and will get replaced this summer. Also old 4runners can go fast. I got my 4 cylinder up to 104, so yeah they aren't maxxing at 60

I'm not a huge fan of the new KO3 because the spacing of the tread appears to have decreased. These were my thoughts on the tire 7 months ago and I haven't changed my opinion:
"I feel like the designers of the tire consciously knew that people actually wanted better performance on road over the old KO2, but understood that those buyers were attracted to the very characteristics that made it worse on road. So they made big changes to the side wall to distract people from the marginal decrease in space between the inner tread blocks.

They gambled on people remembering the thousands of times it performed better than their old KO2 on road over the few times it did worse than KO2 off road. A logical choice, but the reason the KO series became popular was that it wasn't designed for the road, so making it closer to road tires people were escaping from seems foolish."

 

I almost went with K03 when I bought my last set. They had just come out, but I decided better when I saw the spacing. Got another set of “trashy” K02s instead. They still have another 40 or 50k left on them, then I’m probably switching to the Mickey Thompson ATs.

 

Yeah, I tried to hold out for the release of these tires, but this whole release schedule of BF Goodrich's which goes like "we'll be releasing some.new sizes sometime in May, a few more sometime in August and a bunch more in October" didn't work for me. I ordered Toyo OC A/T3's instead which seem to be a somewhat universally loved tire...at least for my needs of mostly highway.

I've owned the original KO on an '89 Wrangler, and the KO2's on a Jeep XJ and my '01 Expedition (again...mostly highway use) and thought they were pretty darn good for my needs. I assume the KO3's will be even better, but needed tires now....not in "whenever they decide to release them". So, Toyos it is!

TimG

 

This! KO2s are great for So Cal / Baja use. They aren't a rain tire and were never intended to be one. If I lived in the Pacific NW I wouldn't be considering them.