Which tire?

Chuck FB · May 2

So what prompted you to purchase tires right away vs getting some of the life out of the factory tires. In asking that, I am not really a fan of Goodyear tires and also not sure if the tire failures I have seen shown online of the HD factory 20" Goodyears is a batch thing or more wide spread but makes a person wonder. The tread is shallow for an LT tire and certainly no mud inspired tire but seems quiet on the highway. I ran dedicated winter tires this last winter on a different set of wheels so just kept these factory ones on for now for spring through fall use.

On my list of possible replacement tire models when I do need new tires as an all terrain makes the most sense to me for my use, the Falken ATW4 is on that list as well as the Toyo AT3 or anything else that may strike my fancy between now and when I need tires although I wouldn't be planning on running them during the winter either. I'll be curious to hear what you think of these Bridgestones as time goes on as they are certainly a lighter tire than the Falkens ( and that can be good for fuel mileage and ride etc but also bad if its not tough enough ).

GAMark · May 2

Wet handling and boat ramp slipping. The factory Goodyear was horrible. Just pulled the boat out for the day, and the Bridgestone was night and day better in every way. I had the AT3W on the Tundra, and they were even worse in the rain while towing. We also have a vacation home that will be our retirement home in the mountains, with a 1/2-mile dirt driveway that can be anything from dirt to mud to snow and ice.

Edited May 2 by GAMark

Chuck FB · May 2

There must be something quite different about the rubber compound then if at slow speed you can notice quite a difference in wet traction from the Goodyear to the Bridgestone. I've read in the last few years about the comparison between the ATW3 ( I do own a set on another pickup but have not had enough varying conditions to make claims other than they seem fine driving down the highway so far ) and the BFG KO2 comparison, that the KO2 was not good in the wet for traction and has hydroplaning issues due to its tread block design that did not evacuate water well. That does surprise me that the ATW3 was not working out so well as for what its worth I certainly saw a lot of positive comments about that tire and my multi brand tire dealer highly suggested the Falken for my use due to some gravel use over the KO2 for sure but also the Toyo AT3.

What did you do with the factory Goodyear tires, hang onto them or let them go cheap at the tire dealer.

GAMark · May 3

23 hours ago, No F-bdy Bs said:

I wish more tires were offered with raised, white lettering on one side.

Same

asilverblazer · May 4

On 5/2/2026 at 5:29 PM, Chuck FB said:

the KO2 was not good in the wet for traction and has hydroplaning issues due to its tread block design that did not evacuate water well.

I never had that issue with any of the sets that I ran - even at highway speeds in heavy rain.

Chuck FB · May 4

52 minutes ago, asilverblazer said:

I never had that issue with any of the sets that I ran - even at highway speeds in heavy rain.

I only ran one set of the original KO tires long ago and never had any issues with them either in that regard but then again I don't force the situation the odd time when I did encounter heavier rain and never do with any tires as its asking for trouble, certainly when a tire is on the worn side the risks go up. So who knows if there is more to that story about the KO2, its a popular tire that guys were putting on as oversized and wider tires on light vehicles, that's like a light kid skiing on adult sized water skis as it doesn't take much speed to keep the kid up on the lakes surface. At some point physics take over with tires, like driving too fast on slick ice roads and ending up on ones lid or worse !. Never the less BFG themselves pointed out one of the redesign features of the KO3 with that longer angled groove across the tread pattern as that was meant to help evacuate water for a reduced chance of hydroplaning is their claim.

I was in Costco today and I knew they handled the Bridgestone Ascent so I took a look to see if they had any and while they did, it was the non LT version so the tread is not quite as deep. I spoke a bit to the manager and she said they look the same, one version vs the other in the same size tire. Physically seeing them answered my question as per the spacing of the shoulder blocks, I prefer a tire that has more shoulder block spacing for traction but that can have its negatives with weird shoulder wear over a small groove spacing like this Ascent has. I am not a fan of tires that have a solid shoulder, longer lasting yet most likely but not meant for dirt traction. There is no one tire that can do everything the best.

Edited May 4 by Chuck FB

MORSNO · May 5

14 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

There is no one tire that can do everything the best.

That is a fact! Different vehicles, different climates, heck even different types of dirt, asphalt, and concrete roadways.

Chuck FB · May 5

13 minutes ago, MORSNO said:

That is a fact! Different vehicles, different climates, heck even different types of dirt, asphalt, and concrete roadways.

Yes, and also I had the thought as you mention different climates and lets say it doesn't rain that often but the highway in question gets a buildup of fine tire rubber and oil and coolant leaks creating a situation where when it does rain it can turn the surface into an oil slick until the rain and vehicle activity on the surface wash the contaminants away. Or its a different or lack of road slope that holds water or the surface is smoother from being recently paved without having rolled in the small pebbles to help with rainy road traction, and blame the tires one currently is running on rather than the possible change in the road surface. So many variables and muddies the water if its the tire or the surface variable.

What makes me roll my eyes at tire reviews on tire selling sites is so many reviews have lets say 1000 miles on their tires of whatever brand they just went with and give their tire a five star rating simply because they chose that particular tire, rather than the reviewer who has gone through the useful life of one or more sets of the same tire and has something to base their review on.

asilverblazer · May 5

2 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

reviews have lets say 1000 miles on their tires of whatever brand they just went with and give their tire a five star rating simply because they chose that particular tire, rather than the reviewer who has gone through the useful life of one or more sets of the same tire and has something to base their review on.

Some people feel validated when other people make the same choices they do. Plus, it's a bitter pill to swallow if you spend several hundred (if not thousand) dollars and have to admit you made a poor choice.

I continue to regret every tire I've ever bought for my trucks that wasn't the BFG All-Terrain... including my most recent set. I bought the HD Terrain, for a few reasons, more aggressive tread pattern, 'designed/intended/marketed for HD truck applications', wasn't convinced about the less aggressive KO3 compared to the out of production KO2.

In hindsight, the HD Terrains are LOUD, and are so aggressive they actually vibrate the truck at low speeds. The tread wear, which was always amazing on the KO2's, is not nearly as good on the HD Terrain. I could overlook many of those negatives for a commiserate increase in off-road traction, but that isn't there either.

I'll also say that if I DIDN'T get the HD Terrain, I would be second guessing how much better they might have performed and end up wishing I had got them. Now I know.

One plus side, no leaks or punctures so far.

Regarding climate, it's warm here, snow maybe once or twice a year. The soil at my house is very loose and sandy and why I went with a more aggressive tread pattern.

Chuck FB · May 5

24 minutes ago, asilverblazer said:

Some people feel validated when other people make the same choices they do. Plus, it's a bitter pill to swallow if you spend several hundred (if not thousand) dollars and have to admit you made a poor choice.

I continue to regret every tire I've ever bought for my trucks that wasn't the BFG All-Terrain... including my most recent set. I bought the HD Terrain, for a few reasons, more aggressive tread pattern, 'designed/intended/marketed for HD truck applications', wasn't convinced about the less aggressive KO3 compared to the out of production KO2.

In hindsight, the HD Terrains are LOUD, and are so aggressive they actually vibrate the truck at low speeds. The tread wear, which was always amazing on the KO2's, is not nearly as good on the HD Terrain. I could overlook many of those negatives for a commiserate increase in off-road traction, but that isn't there either.

I'll also say that if I DIDN'T get the HD Terrain, I would be second guessing how much better they might have performed and end up wishing I had got them. Now I know.

One plus side, no leaks or punctures so far.

Regarding climate, it's warm here, snow maybe once or twice a year. The soil at my house is very loose and sandy and why I went with a more aggressive tread pattern.

When a new tire comes out and if it gets the right "traction", that is slang for over hyped marketing !, that can really sway the buying customer and most tire shops will probably be only too happy to sell whatever that is rather than caution a person on it as its too new a tire to have shown itself for what it can do or have had a chance to fall on its face yet and so buyers get on the new tire flavor of the month. This hybrid tire theme of an between a all terrain and a mud tire does make sense I suspect for those that are looking for a tire that has better mud performance than an all terrain but better on road manors and in theory longer lasting than an all out mud tire. Obviously like anything there will be those tires that may hit the mark on that target better than others.

The Goodyear Duratrac was one of those such tires I would say that was edging into that segment as a so called aggressive all terrain, some raved about it and was their go to tire but some not so much due to tire issues and there was a reason why Goodyear phased them out for a slightly different version called the Duratrac RT that has closer spaced lugs. My brother had a set of the original Duratracs on a Jeep TJ and right off the bat he was not happy with the tire noise but it just got worse and worse and it sure never helped matters that he had waited too long to rotate them and by then they were beyond help, a wavy deep/shallow tread all the way around each tire which I gather could be a theme with that tire. Ended up taking them off way before they should have been worn out and threw them in a corner and instead went with a set of Toyo AT3 and so far they have worn perfectly and way quieter. But again who knows these things unless someone speaks the truth about weird quirks about a tire.

My set of KO tires, early on I had gone on some off road trails in Colorado and while I was fairly slow and not doing anything aggressive, it took very little time before I started noticing chunks of rubber missing due to the sharp rock some of those trails have. It was then I started learning that the KO tires were not all that when it came to gravel as the tread was known to chip bad, however most of the miles those tires had on them at the end were a high percentage of highway and they lasted well although they did have weird shoulder lug wear but won't claim the truck wasn't partly at fault, they were a bit on the noisy side. The tire shop I had bought them from was shocked that I ended up getting that many miles out of them and I could have gone a bit more had I wanted to push them past where I like to put new tires on, I had 55000 miles on those tires. Where I live there are a LOT of gravel grid roads and roads that go for long distances that the oil patch and forestry use a lot for access and of course farmers like myself living in a rural area and travel gravel grid roads to reach the fields. So its a great testing grounds for tires to see what punishment they can take if put on trucks that are ripping up and down gravel roads out to oil leases and so on and the original KO tires were a total flop in that type of use for a variety of reasons, tread chipping off like it had gone through a meat grinder was the visual one. The KO2 comes out and that turned out to be a flop as well in that type of use, stone drilling like crazy and the carcass failing way before the tire was worn down is what I was being told by tire shops. I haven't had any discussions with tire shops over the KO3 so I have no insight there but having said this about the past A/T BFG, the tires that shops around here that are honest about it have a very short list of tires that can take that sort of beating and don't have the tire fail. By the way the KM tire line and I've had the KM, KM2 and KM3, they can't handle the gravel either as they chip and they end up blowing up the carcass with major tire failures. Loose crushed gravel is one horrid environment for a tire to come out the other side of relatively unscathed.

By the way BFG does have a 60 day satisfaction guarantee they claim on the HD Terrain and so they claim the buyer can return the tires and swap out for a different BFG tire I assume, has your 60 days long past by now ?

asilverblazer · May 6

23 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

My set of KO tires, early on I had gone on some off road trails in Colorado and while I was fairly slow and not doing anything aggressive, it took very little time before I started noticing chunks of rubber missing due to the sharp rock some of those trails have. It was then I started learning that the KO tires were not all that when it came to gravel as the tread was known to chip bad... although they did have weird shoulder lug wear... they were a bit on the noisy side...

I had 55000 miles on those tires...

...a LOT of gravel grid roads... the original KO tires were a total flop in that type of use for a variety of reasons, tread chipping off like it had gone through a meat grinder was the visual one. The KO2 comes out and that turned out to be a flop as well in that type of use, stone drilling like crazy and the carcass failing way before the tire was worn down...

...has your 60 days long past by now ?

Interesting, because I too live on a gravel road, and had a set on some Colorado trails and never experienced the tread getting torn up by the gravel or rocks.

I also got WAY over 55,000 miles on all my sets. Right now, a truck I sold my dad has well over that many miles with PLENTY of tread and no other concerning issues, like all my others they typically will get replaced due to age more than anything else. I could probably get 100K out of them if I wanted to run 10 year old tires (I might have once).

Chuck FB · May 6

32 minutes ago, asilverblazer said:

Interesting, because I too live on a gravel road, and had a set on some Colorado trails and never experienced the tread getting torn up by the gravel or rocks.

I also got WAY over 55,000 miles on all my sets. Right now, a truck I sold my dad has well over that many miles with PLENTY of tread and no other concerning issues, like all my others they typically will get replaced due to age more than anything else. I could probably get 100K out of them if I wanted to run 10 year old tires (I might have once).

I checked my maintenance book and I had swapped over to dedicated winter tires a year after getting into my KO tires as using a tire year around up here makes them last longer because of traveling on cold ice/snow covered roads so running a tire from spring through fall puts more wear on in comparison. I typically took tires off when they are getting down to 4/32 if not just before that and so they certainly could have gone somewhat further. The gist of it is that in spite of the damage that took place to those tires on the Colorado trails and would blame turning sharp corners in four wheel drive and steep climbs on talus rock for a lot of the chipping damage as its like driving on razor blades, a high percentage of miles was on pavement for those tires as at home I was only driving the shorter distance to and from the highway on gravel. I realize the way it may have come across I was disappointed in those tires but in the big picture I felt they did excellent over all for lasting due to the fact the amount of actual gravel miles was very few in percent. If I would have run that same tire around here on our crushed gravel for a high percentage of their life, then no they would not have done well and a lot of tires die a very early death on our type of gravel roads. The KM series of tires I mentioned that I was running on the drive axle of two wheel drive farm pickups that saw a very high percentage of gravel locally, I was lucky to get 8000 miles if that on a set as they live on the drive axle and just get eaten. The best tires for gravel I ran on a farm truck were the Toyo M55 and I believe they are still considered one of the top tires for that type of punishment but I wanted a more mud aggressive tire then they were for a two wheel drive pickup. But back to the pickup that I had the KO tires on, I had replaced them with Cooper AT3 tires and they were a more quiet tire through their life but otherwise I never found them impressive. They saw no more gravel locally than the KO's did and never were on the talus rock/four wheel drive trails and I had them worn right down to hardly legal on some spots on the tread and I still fell well short of the distance the KO tires ran. Of the all terrain tires I did have over the years on that truck and granted it was only the one winter I ran the KO tires, I felt they had the best ice traction new out of the box that any of the A/T tires I had tried and those Cooper tires, they were the worse of the bunch on the bit of ice I tried them on and certainly a joke when it came to any sort of mud.

My brother has a newer Jeep that came with the 35" KO2 ( just before the KO3 would have come out ) and he's never run the Jeep during the winter but those are some of the worst tires I've happened to see for picking up and retaining rocks in certain portions of the tread that won't come out even at highway speed. Otherwise they seem fine driving down the highway but those shoulder blocks with the odd wedge slots just hold onto rocks like crazy and the tires also pick and fling rocks very bad when on the gravel. Its hard to tell those quirks of a tire until one has a set and uses them, then one finds out the good and the bad.

GAMark · May 12

After putting 2500 miles on these tires, not loaded and towing. I can say they are awesome. Heavy rain, NP 85mph quiet, boat ramps NP towing the race car through wet grass NP. Highly recommend.

GAMark · May 19

On 5/2/2026 at 6:29 PM, Chuck FB said:

There must be something quite different about the rubber compound then if at slow speed you can notice quite a difference in wet traction from the Goodyear to the Bridgestone. I've read in the last few years about the comparison between the ATW3 ( I do own a set on another pickup but have not had enough varying conditions to make claims other than they seem fine driving down the highway so far ) and the BFG KO2 comparison, that the KO2 was not good in the wet for traction and has hydroplaning issues due to its tread block design that did not evacuate water well. That does surprise me that the ATW3 was not working out so well as for what its worth I certainly saw a lot of positive comments about that tire and my multi brand tire dealer highly suggested the Falken for my use due to some gravel use over the KO2 for sure but also the Toyo AT3.

What did you do with the factory Goodyear tires, hang onto them or let them go cheap at the tire dealer.

Sold them.