Hi,

I know tires were and will be reconsidered and repeated over and over on this and many other forums, simply because there's no one-fit-all tire. I've had some tires before on my Pathfinder, and all have some flaws:

GoodYear Duratracs were the best for light to medium off-road, excellent on gravel, aggressive look, very good on dry pavement...
...BUT not so good on wet and ice, during time degrade quickly on these two categories, and most of all, they are prone to sidewal rapture and all kinds of punctures. I've punctured or cut every Duratracs tire I had on my vehicle at least once, most of them twice and some beyond repair.

BFG T/A KO2's were noticeably worse on mud and slick grass, becasue they do not dig in, but rather slide on surface. Othervise, very nice aggressive look, and ultra, ultra reliable on all kind of obstacles. I've driven over sharp rocks, knives, axes and every kind of construction steel bars, vertical 3-inch steel anchors, and simply have not had a single puncture in many years of use and abuse of those tires.
...BUT they also get worse and worse on wet, ice and snow, first snow flakes made vehicle an unstoppable moving object, very scary during winter.

Now I've got Falken Wildpeak AT3WA, but was dissapointed as soon as they arrived - thread profile for US market is totally different as for EU market. Actually, that's different tire.
I expected this thread, with more rectangle cross section, more aggressive look, like for US market:


...but I've got EU version with same name AT3W, which looks like radial balloon once mounted, has shallower side sips, less aggressive pattern and has very average look. Absoulte rubbish on wet grass and deep snow, and I do not have any confidence in those soft sidewalls - they look so tender like a baby's ass. But on the road those are superior to BFG and Duratracs on dry and wet pavement, when cornering and braking, which is 90% of my daily commute.


So, what am I asking here is:
Is there any tire on the market, roboust and reliable, puncture-resistant just like BFG T/A KO2, but with at least one degree better snow and wet performance?

I had the US Spec Wildpeaks and they were TERRIBLE! They were completely worn down by 30k miles. My local tire shop upgraded me to the BFG KO2 for the difference in cost.

Much Happier!

Maybe the AT3Ws you bought are passenger rated as oppose to LT rated hence why it handles on the road so much better than your previous two sets of tires.

I had a set of Wildpeaks A/T on my Frontier and I actually liked them and handled well on and off road.

I never minded replacing sets of tires often. Gives me a chance to try every flavor out there.

Tires are so important I actually prefer replacing them before they seem to need it.
The Yokohama Geolandar GO15 are only months old so they are staying on
topic20927.html

My Xterra has Hankook Dynapro ATM and they are exactly 3 years old,
Tread still looks quite good.
About 28,000 miles on them.
They worked quite well for me on Hiway, snow and light offorad.
Absolutely no complaints.
Here is a thread where those are discussed in some detail:
topic17450.html

Not replacing them just yet but certainly probably will within a year as I like the idea of always driving on a set of relatively fresh tires.
Will likely replace them with Michelin AT4 even though I really have no complaints about the Dynapros at all just looking for a bit more aggressive treadpatterns without going to an MT tire and like the idea of a premium tire..
Or I might replace them with the same set but there is still time as they still work well.

Well, I've spent hours and days reading reviews, listening and looking at videos about different tires and found some weak points at most of them:

1. I want rugged look, at least like BFG T/A KO2 or Duratracs, so most od light AT tires fail on this category.
2. I want them to be good on-road, as well off-road. My vehicle has Continental TerrainContact A/T on right now and my first drive on slightly muddy and lightly sloped road almost ended up in the ditch. These street-oriented AT's simply do not have grip in mud, which is 50% of off-road I will see.
3. Duratracs are prone to sidewall rapture, had them and puntured tham ALL many times, so they do not give you confidence riding over sharp rock or trash material leftovers, which our farmers often lay down on forest roads, just to get rid of excess material. BFG TA KO2's, on the other side, were ultra reliable over any obstacle, even driving over construction steel bars, but they rapidly degrade perfoermance on wet and snowy roads, also they suck at wet grass, voids fill with mud and they become slicks.
4. Been through Pirelly Scorpion AllTerrain Plus (not good on wet, snow and grass), Toyo OpenCountry AT 3 (beign sidewalls, higher price), Yokohama Geolandar X-AT (very simmilar to BFG TA KO2, but later are a bit better), BFGoodrich T/A KM3 (they are off-road main purpos tire) and many others, but found something I dislike.

So here's my #1 decision candidate for new buy:
Kenda Klever R/T
The only drawback: R-speed rating of only 106 mph / 170 km/h. Not that I drive so fast, I regulary drive up to 95 mph / 150 km/h, but...is it safe? I mean, I daily drive at 90% of top allowed speed rating. Thoughts?

They look like a good tire but daily driving at 90% of allowable speed rating just like you said in your post is likely suboptimal.

The speed rating is for a new, or as new, tire, that is perfectly inflated and optimally loaded.
I am unsure if the machine that measures this, uses any camber.

So I would not take a tire near its speed rating at least not routinely unless is near-new and by exception.

palmerwmd wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 14, 2021 6:42 am

...So I would not take a tire near its speed rating at least not routinely unless is near-new and by exception.

That's exactly what bothers me most. Finally I found a tire which meets all my expectations... EXCEPT speed rating. So there's some thinking ahead - will I comply with speed limits, ease down a bit and not exceed 130-140 km/h (170 is R-rating limit) on daily commute to work... OR should I rather go another tire. Yeah, there's no perfect thing.

While they are no KO2s, my Yokohama Geolandar AT G015 (on the '08 R51) are "R" rated and they appear more rugged than my Hankook Dynapro ATM on my XTerra (which itself is more "offroady" then the Dynapro AT2).

Both are 3PMS.

Here is the good+bad on these Yokos:
topic20927.html

I’m on my second set of Yokohama, geolandars on my pathfinder. They are an excellent tire both on road and in snow. I just recently but K02’s on my titan, so I do not have any experience with them in the snow yet. The look of the k02’s is phenomenal though. I do t think you could go wrong with either.

Well, after taking a lot into consideration, I decided to go with
Kenda Klever R/T KR601
Size: LT265/65R18

Load Range: E
Index: 122/119
Speed Rating: R
Overall Diameter: 31.77
Section Width: 10.79
Max Load: 3305/3000
PSI: 80
Tread Depth (32nds): 17
Rim Width (In.): 8
Rim Width (Min): 7.5
Rim Width (Max): 9.5

But hey... now my 18'' rims are only 7 inch wide - could that be a huge problem?
I've had same dimension BFG T/A KO2's and GY Duratracs with same requirement of 7.5'' rims minimum for 6 years and no problems whatsoever. What do you think?

I just hope that 31.77 inch sized new Kendas won't rub after I add 1.5'' OME lift kit. Fingers crossed

The Jeep guys call it a poor man's beadlock.

I myself have a set of 37" tires waiting to go on my 8" wide wheels and minimum requirement is 8.5" width as well.

An interesting tire choice!
Never heard of them, but it's a new world. I need to catch up.

I think speed rating goes hand in hand with road stability and design capabilities of the vehicle itself.

Unsure about all, but many tire shops and dealers in my area will not sell a tire with a speed rating lower than the manufacturer's specification for the vehicle. They will warn you not to do so, as well for insurance reasons, in the case of...blah blah blah.

Years ago I have a '97 SAAB 900 2.3l non-turbo, 150 hp.
Base model had V rated tires spec'd on 15" rims. I literally couldn't believe it. A 195/60/15 V rated tire on what amounts to a simple family sedan.

Done!
Thank you all for your inputs, I've gone through a lot of investigation, found a dozen of owners with these and that tires, talked to them, compared results and at the end it cut down to what's awailable on the marked and what in my pocket.

Cooper Discoverer A/T3 Sport 2
That's the rubber I put on my Pathy, with a slight increase in size to 31,5'', which needed slight melting mod on my "before 2010 facelift" Pathfinder R51, but on this one I guess I could go even one size bigger without any modification needed! Weird but nice:


So I went from this:


...to this - I know, I need to level it out, front springs are obviously good, but rears are disaster.

Just the wheel change made a big difference in appearance. Looks great!

Love your new tire and wheel package!
Well done!