BF Goodrich KM3

[HotRodPC]

You might be looking for a unicorn though. I'm no tire expert, but I'm thinking you might find a tire that has good attributes for Mud and Snow all in one, but to get both good Mud/Snow and Rock Crawling might be a stretch. For Rock Crawling I'd think you want a purpose built tire. You did mention you're not doing much rock crawling but I see where it comes up occasionally but for a rock crawler IMO, everything needs to be right including powertrain, lockers, tires and all.

You don't have adequate equipment in the snow or mud you just get stuck. You don't have adequate equipment rock crawling you can be dead or at least severe injury to your truck. I wouldn't want to be half way up a steep rock or hill side, lose grip or break an axle, driveshaft or transfer case and then what happens? It's not a pretty sight sometimes.

 

[77 K20]

I've spent the last 12 years or so trying to upgrade everything. It is a long expensive process. I still have a list of things to do, but have a pretty good truck so far. I try to take it easy on it and find a different line thru obsticles instead of the old just put your foot in it "technique".

The thing I made sure I had before I started playing in the rocks was front and rear differential protection and transmission protection. I still want to replace my front factory tie rod with some heavy duty .25" thick DOM tubing.

 

[77 K20]

I'm bored at work... so I'm still researching tires (and everything else I can think of for that matter!)

I did find something quite interesting about the KM3 tire: They are releasing it in a 7.5R16 size tire. So that size tire is the exact OEM size of a lot of K20/K25 trucks. Not sure about K30s...

(31.8" tall, rim width 5.5"-7", 8.7" wide on a 6" rim, 2,755lbs@80psi)

 

[HotRodPC]

I'm bored at work... so I'm still researching tires (and everything else I can think of for that matter!)

I did find something quite interesting about the KM3 tire: They are releasing it in a 7.5R16 size tire. So that size tire is the exact OEM size of a lot of K20/K25 trucks. Not sure about K30s...

(31.8" tall, rim width 5.5"-7", 8.7" wide on a 6" rim, 2,755lbs@80psi)

That should be a skinny tall tire. I wonder if they have a skinny 34 or 35in? Naww, doesn't matter. Those would be to expensive for me anyway. I'm going with a Chinese tire when I get ready.

 

[77 K20]

Stopped by Discount Tire today and asked them about the KM3s. They haven't seen a set yet in store. But there is $100 off per set and then $30 off with my Discount Tire card so I ordered a set of 315s. Their price per tire was better than anywhere else online and that didn't even include the additional $130 off.

They had no idea when they will be in. Which is fine- I need to finish up the suspension on my truck first anyway.

 

[77 K20]

Got the suspension work done and went to get my tires put on today:

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They took very little weight to balance. Haven't had much of a chance to drive on them yet, but it looks to be an impressive well made tire so far.

 

[bucket]

Looks like the new design should do better in mud than the previous design. The center tread voids have opened up a decent amount.

 

[77 K20]

It does look like it will do better in mud or soft dirt. They say the sidewall is a lot tougher and thats a good thing with how far I take the truck into the wilderness.
Mainly the tread goes up the sidewall like their KO2 tire.

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[trukman1]

Here's a sample video of that cheap Activon camera. It has all the same mount fittings as Go Pro, and all Go Pro attachments fit it too.

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Tell me that wasn't you on that bike. (I know it was just a review of the camera but...) Crap like that is why cage drivers have a bad impression of motorcyclists and why they call them "murdercycles" in the ER! Sooner or later that crap will catch up to bikers who drive like that then there will be a big deal about people not watching out for bikes. Sorry for the rant. I'm done now.

 

[77 K20]

Figured I'd throw an update on here for people who might be searching old threads.

I really do like these tires. Yesterday I went with some Jeep guys and drove to the top of some local mountains. The snow conditions were horrible- 3-4" of hard icy crust with over 3' of sugar snow below it. I started out airing down to 10 psi and that was good for quite a ways. Then as the steepness of the road increased and it was slow going. Dropped to 7 psi front, 6 psi rear. I don't have beadlocks, and probably should invest in a set... but since these are wide tires on 8" rims you can get away with it as long as you aren't going fast or steering sharply.

The tires would chew through the snow and traction was always there. They flexed and had a great footprint.

However at lower elevation there was ice. These tires don't like pure ice.

 

[77 K20]

Another update after I did another trail ride with the off road club yesterday. Snow was wet and heavy. Temp was 32-36 degrees and snow was deep. Differentials were dragging the thole day. Was driving down in the valley along gulleys that follow the Flathead River. Another guy had a Toyota Land Cruiser from Japan. Right hand drive, lockers, and a diesel. He had the same size tire but in a Cooper Discover SST PRO (in the same size as what I am running).

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I spent some time looking at this tire before I ended buying the KM3 so I was very interested watching this guy. I thought he would do better since there are some sipes in the tread of the SST.... nope.

I'm guessing the weight of his rig was about the same as my truck. He had ARB bumpers front and rear and a warn winch with steel cable. He aired down to 9 psi. I aired down to 8 psi. Comparing both of our tires in the aired down state the BFGs had way more sidewall and even tread flex.

He didn't have much in the way of side grip. Any side hill or bump and it slid sideways. While going thru a snowdrift around a curve where the drift was higher on the passenger side it slid to the driver's side and ended up almost sideways on the trail. Stuck. I went thru the same area without any issue.

There were 6 of us on that ride. 2 guys had bigger tires (39", 37?") the rest of us had 35s. The Land Cruiser got stuck twice and a 4 door Jeep on 35's got stuck twice. I didn't have any problems.

The two guys with the bigger tires did the best though. The 37" tires were boggers with some extra cuts to help on ice. They were 14" wide? 16" wide? Don't remember... other than they were WIDE. He could chew and claw his way thru anything. The 39s were Iroks and were aired down to 3.5 psi.

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