BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO3 Is Ready For Rocks, Mud, and Snow
BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires have seen just about every kind of road, mud, dirt, and sand you could imagine and have earned a solid reputation among those who have tested them to their limits and beyond. The tire’s latest iteration is launching with a new tread pattern and compound that promises improved grip and wear performance on varied surfaces including gravel, mud, and snow. Its long-wearing tread compound also remains flexible in the cold, helping it earn the Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake severe-snow rating.
We’ve seen BFG All-Terrains on rock-crawling Jeeps and desert-running trucks, and many of their buyers swear by their tough sidewalls and grip-everything tread. Changing them in such a significant manner was no small undertaking. The current All-Terrain T/A KO2 was unveiled in 2015 and represented an evolution in the much-loved tread design while improving the tread compound. The KO3 is a further evolution, and while it keeps a similar interlocking tread, it promises better durability on gravel, improved snow traction, and better wear performance, all with a 50,000-mile warranty. According to BFGoodrich, the KO3’s 3D locking sipes help add extra bite while “mud-phobic” bars shed sticky mud to grab on the next go-round.
We’d love to put these new tires to the test and it looks like we won’t have to wait long. Buyers have 13 sizes to choose from now, with popular sizes in the 33-35-inch range fitting 16-, 17-, 18-, and 20-inch wheels. More than 100 sizes will be offered over the next 24 months, with 22 additional sizes due by the end of this year.
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Last year, `put these “all-weather” BFG A/T KO- 3 sneakers on my daily driver ’96 Blazer as the best available choice for all weather driving, including in New England snow (altho last winter turned out to be mercifully lighter than usual, so global warming may be solving my problem) – i’m getting too old to change big tires twice a year just because the seasons change. And FYI “All-weather” tires are said to be better for this type of use, than “all-season” tires.
These seem to be pretty good tires overall, the minor noice + rumbly feel from the coarse tread are to be expected, and are not an issue, even sorta cool. But you can definitely break them loose, especially with hard acceloration and breaking, so they’re not perfect. On dry tar, they probly don’t grip as good as well-treaded passenger car tires, but they are better than studded snows on a clear road. On snow, they are definitely better than all-season passenger tires, but not as good as studded snow tires. They’re a good compromise for me. Given their high co$t, I haven’t intentionally tested their control in a skid. With a well-maintained but older Blazer and sorta soft suspension, I don’t want to push my luck too much, especially on a curve or poorly banked road, like on our notorious local Avon Mt. And i don’t drive off-rode on purpose, so you can try that out for yourself. Inevitable tread wear will undoubtedly cut their traction and therefore their usefulness, especially on snow, so i’ll probly replace them earier than other previous tire types. But at least i didn’t have to rotate my tires when this spring and classic car season came around. And they look good. So give ’em a try. / sn