RS-America

Petza914

I bought Goodrich tires once about 25 years ago for a sports sedan and vowed not to ever again - slipped belts, cupping, noise, weight. Have never had their SUV tires and nothing from the current offerings.

bigbevo

First off, huge Otis fan here. Love what you've done and thanks for all the posts. I've run half a dozen sets of the All Terrain KOs on my trucks and suvs over the years. Cannot recommend them enough. Never had any issues. I could deflate and crawl over rocks then air up and go 90 mph down the interstate all day long. The road noise is negligible.

Zakowsky

Nice work on Otis as well - I run my 2004 CTT from the logging roads of the foothills into the mountains of the Alberta Rockies. I actually took my 22's off just yesterday and put on my KO2's, and I am currently in a motel in Golden and heading deep into the mountains up #$%& roads for a hike tomorrow. Its spring time here and rivers are full, so getting there should be half the adventure!

I actually wrote up a long review of the KO2's on the Cayenne (by KO's I assume you mean the KO2's; much better performance than the originals), but never posted it because it was rather long and boring. My comparisons were to ice tires and Duratrac's, under mainly different winter conditions. I should dig it up and post it someday. But basically the take home message is winter performance wise they are as good as anything else, with a bizarre strength being on ice…much better than I thought they would be. And really good in very deep snow.

For summer performance, they are great so far. I had to have them re-balanced after a few months (about 15K kms) but now they are quiet and smooth on the slab way over the speed limit. But yes, the increased weigh is the big question. In the city (and therefore on trails) the added weight sucks up gas. A lot, which can obviously be a problem if off the grid. But once up to speed the opposite happens, the big diameter gives awesome highway mileage. And I mean 20l/100kms city vs 11l/100kms highway. So for like Alaska they could be economical. But the weight is no problem for the suspension etc., my 285/35R22's push the front end into making bad noises more than these at 265/65R18.

But I'd say the real reason to get these for hard work is the strength of the tire, especially with a tank like a 955 when fully loaded. I deal with sharp rocks, and tree trunks with short branch shards, and the sidewalls and tread seem like you could take a power axe to them. For me that's hands down worth the weight. What should say it all is that tomorrow I am heading into real backcountry with no cell phone service…and no spare (due to circumstance). And I am not new to this….but if I never post again you'll know it was a bad idea!

bigbevo

No so fast, I would read it. Probably twice! Good luck on the trails..hope we get some pics!

nodoors

I have been running BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO's and KO2's for many years. It is my favorite all terrain tire. I have not put them on the CTT yet because I run larger size rims, but can attest that these things are built very well and are fantastic performers from highway, to sand, to mud, to snow. I think the extra 7 pounds per corner will be worth the extra durability and traction they will provide. Although many think of the Cayenne as a heavy vehicle, it is fairly light duty compared to some of the bigger trucks that put these through their paces. If you search around the web you will find that these are crowd pleasers in many offroading circles.

RS-America

Agree with 'bigbevo' would like to read your KO2 review. Thanks for the KO2 comments too!
We did an off-road rally - snow & ice on gravel from Merritt to Vernon, BC this winter. At night in the forest hit ~2 inch razor sharp rock, tire lost the air so fast I could not get a jack under to change, lucky we have air suspension! Ran the same Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8s we used for a 5,500 mile winter off-road rally north of the Arctic Circle.
In addition to off-road rally we travel solo off-road to collect research data for scientists to study going beyond forest service roads. We are set up to live in our Cayenne for two weeks off-grid. As we can not let folks know where/when we travel, our gear selection is critical - InReach is our friend. Constantly watching our weight budget for gear, modifications, etc. - looks like that added 7lbs per corner might be worth the added peace of mind. While we have not had to break out the winch, there have been a few times when a more aggressive tread pattern would have helped.
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nodoors

That's really cool. What kind of data are you collecting?

I have only seen a sidewall puncture once in a KO2. It was when cutting a hard turn too tight and fast around a 3 foot diameter jagged rock. The 35 inch KO2 on the rear of a long full size pickup just took an unlucky hit. It probably would have ruined all but the gnarliest tires, but surprisingly it was able to run another 1/4 mile to a better spot for tire changing before losing pressure. I will be shocked if you do not like these. Are other people in your overlanding rallies running them?

Zakowsky

Well the trip started out disappointing - this happens often in Western Canada it seems, for no published reason you will find what is supposed to be an open public road gated closed. When I am out here on my KTM 950 Adventure it is easier to deal with but not today. Was in a pretty bad mood but did take one picture where we had to turn around. Hadn't even started the climb.



So we had to choose an alternative, which turned out to be nice after all; hiked up a pretty steep canyon ridge.


This is a shot looking down to the river at the bottom, you can kind of see where the razor sharp rocks come from, it's just the way this rock breaks up here.


Anyway I will get the winter review cleaned up and post. And that rally in BC sounds cool, I'd like to get involved.

RS-America

We have been collecting environmental data.
For rally depends on if it is sponsored and what time of year it is run. Nitto provided tires for one, we ran Hakkapeliitta 8s instead. For the off-road - Overland trips most are using vehicles that are more traditional to do that. With this crowd KO2s are probably more popular with Grabbers second. You will see everything from Hankooks to Nokian Rockproofs - all say theirs is the best. The Rockproofs are the toughest tire I have found but they are not available in our 255-55-18 size.
For us we generally travel solo with a lot of gear for long periods of time vs taking short trips. Our gear reflects this for example, we carry 18 gallons of water plus a filtration system. The 'Meet Otis' link has more info on our build, we try to not abuse the forum by posting too much. We do respond there to questions folks ask both directly or PM for everyone to see.
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tadink

Couple of questions for you re: KO2's - just picked up a used set today and they howl like a banshee on the freeway. They look awesome, but the noise is going to drive me batty! What tire inflation do you run on the KO2's? And what might you suggest for the 2005 CTT?
thanks
tom
Napa

pirahna

K02's are terrible. Check out Falken AT3w's, much better tire.

Pillow