Product Reviews Bf Goodrich Ta KO all Terrain Tiress
At one time there was an ad for Michelin featuring a baby playing in a stack of tires. The infant burbled and cooed at the camera while a voiceover intoned, "A lot is riding on your tires." No kidding: kids or no kids, when it comes time to put new shoes on your truck or SUV, you want the best. What's "right" mean? It means tires designed for your vehicle, road conditions, and type of driving; tires that provide a safe, comfortable ride.Tires come in several classes, usually grouped around the showroom. To choose tires for a 4WD compact pickup like my ‘99 Toyota Tacoma, zero in on the group marked "SUV/Light Pickup." Once in the right department, you're limited by the manufacturer's specifications for both vehicle and tire: some models don't come in a size to fit your wheels.The ‘Yota is on its third set of tires (about 120K miles) and thus is "just getting broken in." Unlike many pickups and SUVs, RT (Red Truck) does wade through snow, mud, or water occasionally; and is called on to scramble across sand or loose rock every once in a while. That means that merely rugged-looking passenger tires don't fill the bill; instead they need to BE rugged: what manufacturers label all-terrain tires. "All terrain" doesn't mean the tire can be used for rock crawling or mudding and still stick to the pavement like a racing slick, it means that (like a utility infielder in baseball) it can handle all those surfaces acceptably, while there are "stars" for each specialty.The unusual size (31-1050 R 15) the Tacoma requires limits replacement choice to one or two per brand. After comparing prices, deals, and reviews, the BF Goodrich T/A KO took the brass ring. It's the "middle" of three models Goodrich offers in that size. The Rugged Trail T/A is more of a soccer-mom tire: rugged looks, but drives like a passenger tire. The Mud Terrain T/A KM2 is more macho; too much so for my needs.The T/A KO is an "aggressive" tire designed to provide above-average traction for occasional off-road driving. It's rated a "severe service" tire, exceeding the mud and snow traction of tires rated M+S. The T/A KO has a deep-lugged interlocking tread for better traction, and additional bite in mud and snow is created by wrapping the tread around the shoulder to the sidewall. Tread grooves at the sidewall are significantly wider than at the center of the tread, to increase "edge bite." The interlocking design of the lugs improves forward traction during speed changes, while producing a quieter ride than tires with tread blocks oriented perpendicular to the tire's axis. The tread has a broad footprint to increase traction.Construction: the T/A KO has five plies: three reinforced with polyester cord and two full-width steel belts. This construction gives the tire good "bruise" resistance for climbing over rough terrain. The sidewall is three plies thick, with polyester cord reinforcement; this stiffens the sidewall and improves handling and maneuverability.These replaced a set ofGoodyear WranglerAT/S tires, which are designed for the same use and served quite well for about 65K miles. After several thousand miles of driving, the T/A KOs have proven to have equally good wet and dry traction and good maneuverability. Handling is clearly improved over the previous tires. They are also noticeably quieter than the Wranglers, a definite positive. A ‘99 Tacoma suffers from worse than average road noise, but these help (some). The ride on the T/A KOs is also better and smoother than the previous tires. One downside to the design is high rolling resistance, which tends to decrease fuel economy (on a scale of 1-10, the T/A KO rates a 6 for fuel efficiency).Rating: All-Terrain tires are not rated under the "Uniform Tire Quality Grading" (UTQG) system, so there is no information on treadwear, traction, and operating temperature. The TA/KO is load-rated as Range C; in this size (31-1050 R 15) they're load-rated 109, for a maximum load of 2250 pounds. The speed rating is S, for a maximum speed of 112 MPH.Warranty: The tires have a "standard limited warranty" against defects in manufacture for the life of the tread or six years, whichever comes first.Recommendations: The BF Goodrich T/A KO is a good, long-lasting tire for those who need the additional traction of an all-terrain design more than a few times a year. If you rarely get off the pavement in your SUV, you should probably look at less aggressive, less noisy alternatives. For those who spend most of their time off-road, this is not enough of a bruiser to take that kind of punishment - look at "maximum traction" alternatives, instead. For the rest of us, a darned fine tire.
