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BFG's Or Goodyear MT/R's?

C

Chevy_Nut

GUEST
Need a little help here. ?I am going to purchase a new set of rims and tires for the Avalanche. ?I will be going with seni-stock sizes. ?I am pretty sure that I will buy the Chrome American Racing Python rims. ?That was the easy pic. ?Now the tires. ?These are my narrowed down choices:

BF Goodrich AT KO (265/70R - 17)
Goodyear Wrangler AT/S (265/70R - 17) (Same as Stock)
Goodyear Wranger MT/R (265/70R - 17)

With the Goodyear's I am able to go with a 275/70R - 17 and not have to do any mods. ?That to is a possibility. ?I want the biggest, better looking tires with out shaving, cutting or jacking. ?Does anyone know how large I can go? ?What have you heard about the above tires? ?We are 90% highway driving so smoothness is important but looks are too.

I really like how smooth my Av rides with the stock tires and rims but I want to dress things up a bit. ?I was the first in town but others have caught on and I am looking for my own identity. ?I will run the stock set in the salty winter. ?Thanks for your help!

Chevy Nut
 
I'm a big BFG fan and will replace my Goodyears with them when they wear out. If you do a lot of highway driving the best thing you can look for is the tread wear rating and go with the highest you can find
 
I like B.F.G.s.., they do ride just a touch firmer.., because of the 3 ply sidewall.., but they Handle, and Wear much better than the Goodyears.., there both a Good tire though... Butch.
 
I've been looking into this for sometime now and what I think I'm going to do is go with the 275/70/17 AT/s....and throw some wheels on those probably from the wheelsforless site. They have really nice wheels and affordable....

The Goodyear mt/r look bad-ass but look like they would be noisy for highway driving on a regular basis...

 
I like the idea of the 275/70/17. This tire is 33.1 inches in diameter. Will just cranking the torsion bars let this tire clear? Doesn't some plastic need trimmed? Has anyone looked at Ultrawheel.com at a chrome wheel called 160ROCA. It comes in the AV bolt pattern. I am still debating the 16 vs 17 inch wheel. I know the 16 wheel with the 285/75/16 will work with little adjustment. Has anyone out there bought the 275/70/17?
 
Well I was just at the same cross-roads, I had picked up a Blue Av from my bother in law who owns a Chevy dealership, at the time he could only get a non-Z71 4x4 in blue and I could not wait, so i got it - had to get those stock 16 in wheels and tires off of there quick though. Got the 17" Z71 rims from ebay, now for the rubber - and it was between the BFG KO's (the old All Terrain TAs, which I had used and loved for three sets of rubber on my old Pathfinder) and the BFG KM's (the Mud-Terrain TA's) and the Goodyear MT/Rs. If you are considering the MT/Rs, the true BFG comparison is the KMs, not the KOs.

I too wanted to jump up a size, but wanted to avoid clearence problems. The MT/Rs come in both 265/70R17 (stock Z71 size) and 275/70R17 (bigger!). The KO's only come in 265/70R17 in the 17" size (stock Av size), and the KM's only in 285/70R17 in 17" (might be too big- not sure). I asked all around, in many 4x4 chat rooms, etc. (hey I was thinking of leaving my beloved AT TA's behind) and I went with MT/Rs. I love them.

Quiet (I am told they are quieter than the KM's), REALLY chunky and I put them to the test in sill-deep mud and also some snow this winter - no worries. And the size (as I said, 275/70R17, bigger than stock) is not a problem, no rubbing even at full turn or suspension compression. I have had many questions on them from other owners.

If you have someone to mount them, best price is from TireRack.com, trust me I did the footwork ($177 per tire).
 
Jackalanche,

That's great to hear...I always thought because of the tread pattern that the Mt/a's would be noisy on the highway......

Also good to hear that we can upgrade to 275/70/17 without even a crank of the torsion bar.....makes for a very easy upgrade.....

I'm a big fan of tirerack....I bought 4 brand new dunlops for my other car from them and their customer service was outstanding.....kudos for the tirerack folks... :cool:
 
Note on the ever-present clearence issue - As I said the 275/70R17 MT/R's fit and have no clearence probs. But know that all 275/70R17s do not share the exact same OD or sectin width size. For instance, this tire shows up on Goodyear's site as having an outside diameter of 32.4" and a section width of 10.9". These are the numbers to watch, and I guess you can use my experience with this tire as a guide for a no prob size. You should also know that the Wrangler AT/S (the stock Z71 tire, weenier that the MT/R) also comes in this larger size, and shows the same dimensions.

By way of comparison, the "smallest" 17' tire in the BFG Mud-Terrain line is a 285/70R17, which BFG shows as having an OD of 33" and a section width of 11.5" (on an 8.5" rim, so ours would be a little smaller). I would hope that this would clear as well, but I have no experience to report.

Another tire I looked at: Yokohama's Geolander A/T+II, which comes in a 275/65R17 and is smaller that the MT/R 275/70R17, dimension-wise.
 
I have made my choice! I am going to go with the BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO's in the 265/70R-17 size. As much as I like to think my Avalanche is the Off Road king, I don't venture off the beaten path all that much. In fact, this is my wife's daily commuter. I love the look of thr Goodyear MT/R but I was not sold on the quiteness and reliability when the roads get wet. That was a main concern since we travel about 2,250 miles per month on the highway. If I messed around off road more often, the MT/R's would have been a slam dunk. I went with the more conservative direction. From what I am told, the BFG KO's will last longer which is nice since all of the tires are around $180 each! Looking forward to installing the new wheels and rims on the Av. I will post pics for everyone to see. Thanks for all the suggestions! :cool:
 
I checked the Goodyear site and compared it to TireRack for diameters. The numbers are different on the OD. I would go by Goodyear's site. For the 275 MT/r : Goodyear 32.4...TireRack 33.1 inches. I guess it pays to double check your source :eek:
 
BJack, I too noticed the same discrepency re the size specs listed on sites like Tirerack vs. the manufacturer's own sites. The OD number should not change under any circumstance (unless seriously overinflated) so I could not figure out why, but I did notice that the section width numbers are often quoted with the "@ [rim width]" advice, since different mounted rim widths might impact on that one a bit. I guess the best way to know if a certain tire and a certain [larger than stock] size will fit without lift is to hear it from one who went with it.

By the way, TireRack was where I got the 275/70R17 MT/R tires, and to their credit, they personally called me to check and see if I was aware that the tires were oversize and they could not guarantee fit - now maybe they were just doing a little cya but it was nice of them to double-check before blindly shipping me the order, in the event I was unaware (I had taken measurements already - and be sure that "Chevy tech" was totally useless, if it ain't stock they wont even speak about it)
 
Other Jack..thanx for your input. I think this is the size I am going with too. Still trying to decide what rim to buy. ?:rolleyes: I have another month of road salt to contemplate.
 
bjack-

damn, I was hoping someone would go with the 285/70R17 KM's (the BFG Mud-Terrian TA) so I could find out where the size barrier was! I have half a mind to try them when the MT/Rs go out (but they are holding up well btw) just for even bigger sized tires - have to fill those gaping wheel wells!
 
ok, I admit I am kinda new to this board, but not being able to use the stronger version of darn (as I typed in my above post) is about as straight-laced as I have ever seen - wassup wid that? sh*t, this is car talk, you know, wrenches, cars, engines, oil, grease, maybe the odd reference to how many hotties your new Avy helped you meet. the usual stuff, and maybe a d a m n might actually be approriate here and there!

sorry for the rough talk . . . ;)
 
This is great, someone who actually upgraded and reported results.....takes the guess work out of some sizing issues...

I have to admit...I liked the 285/60/18 tires but to be honest I don't feel like having to buy new tires and rims.....this way If I know I can fit 275's all I have to do is go out and buy new wheels......

My stock At's will last me awhile longer so I can throw the wheels on those and then when the tires go, look into the Mtr's or Nitto makes a street tire I believe it's a 275/65/17 great for those spring and summer months.....

Doing the seasonal swap between my stock's and my street tires..
 
To improve our understanding of the limit of wheel size upgrade without modification, note that Nick R (performance mod topic, max tire size w/out lift subject) had a front inner fender rub with 285/75/16's on his 1500 Av, which he fixed with a twist of the torsion bars.
 
I've been studying the tire websites and Bridgestone makes a 235/85/16 mud tire that is 32.2 inches. Anyone have any thoughts on the big sidewall. I know theoretically that they won't handle as well as a 75 or 70. But they might look good :rolleyes:
 
Since your looking at 16" tires I assume that you have the 2500 - or std 1500. You might want to consider 255/85/16 BFG's - I suggest that you use Tire Rack for research.

If you have the 2500 you will have a tight fit in the front.
 
I purchased a set of BFG A/T KOs for my new AV 2500.

The local discount tire gave me some trade in value for the 245/75-16 Firestones ($45 each). They only had about 100 miles on them, but just too small.

I went with the 265/75-16 size. I stayed with the stock 2500 rims - 16". I like the way they look and they seem like nice heavy duty rims.

I am very impressed with the ride and looks. They really fill the wheel well (esp the front). I doubt that you could get much taller tires with out hitting the front the 2500's front wheel well.

According to the Tire Rack this tire has a 32.4" diameter. It might have been possible to go with 275/70-16s.

The white letters and tread pattern really dress up my black AV.

A little more road noise, but not much.

Speedometer indicates about 1 mph low at 50 mph (GPS measured). I think with the stock tires it was indicating about 1 mph high at 50 mph.

Cheers, Jim
 
I've been thinking about the 85 sidewall and I think they might ruin the ride comfort. That tire runs 85lbs of air compared to 45 for 75 series. I've nixed this idea. Thinking about Dunlop Radial Rover RV. The 285/75/16 is 32.7" dia. This will throw the speedo off less than 2mph at 70mph. FYI TireRack has a nice section on how tire diameter effects gearing,speedo,center of gravity. Look under Light Truck Fitment Formulas. ;D :cautious:
 
I just went with Cooper Discoverer AT on my 2500, with 16X8 ARE Rims. 265 75 16, D Rated tires. They are shearly, awesome. Great looks, and incredible handling.
 
For what it's worth to anyone who's still trying to decide. Here's TireRack's side-by-side comparison with the GoodYear MT/R, BFG TA KM (mud), and BFG TA KO (all terrain). The layout doesn't look all that good on this page so I'll try to put a link below too. These are ranked on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being the best.

TireRack Comparison

Judging by these reviews, the TA KM falls a little short in just about all the categories, so I'll just put comments about the MTR vs the TA KO.

TIRES MTR / TA KM / TA KO
PRICE $178 / $190 / $191 (MTR is cheaper)
PERFORMANCE CATEGORY Off Road Max. Traction / Off Road Max. Traction / Off Road All-Terrain
SPEED RATING R / QR / QR (MTR has slightly higher speed rating, somehow)
TREADLIFE WARRANTY None / None / None
WARRANTY RATING 3.5 / 3.5 / 3.5
HANDLING RATING 7.90 / 7.40 / 8.00 (TA KO handles slightly better)
DRY TRACTION 8.9 / 8.6 / 8.5 (MTR better)
WET TRACTION 8 / 7.5 / 7.8 (MTR slightly better)
SNOW TRACTION 9.3 / 8 / 8.2 (MTR much better)
RIDE COMFORT 8 / 7.2 / 8 (Same ride comfort)
NOISE COMFORT 7.2 / 6.7 / 7.7 (TA KO better)
WEAR 7.9 / 7.2 / 7.9 (Same Wear, that's a surprise)

So seems the MTR is somewhat louder (though not as loud as the TA KM) but is cheaper, has the same ride comfort and tread wear, and has better traction reviews in all conditions.

 
Tho I have never had MT/R's, I have had 2 sets of Goodyears. They both wore unevenly, and quickly, despite proper balance, alignment, and pressure. Have also seen similar situations hundreds of times in nearly 10 years in car business.

Have had 3 different sets of BFG's, and they have all been excellent (they are made by Michelin!) ;)
Very long tread life, very even wear... in fact, I no longer rotate as often as I should... they "spoiled" me.

The MT/R might be a totally different story-
at least a few guys in CAFCNA have them and are very happy with them, but for my money, I'll stick with the BFG's - at least until the MT/R's have been around long enough to "prove" themselves over time.

Seven :cool:
 
well I was a BFG All Terrain TA guy on my Pathfinder (which saw a bunch of medium duty off-road operation as well as street) and I went through those tires at 40,000 mile intervals (had two sets after the stock Genrals began to wear). So I am not a believer in the long tread life of the BFGs. But I liked the tires, otehr than their poor performance when the streets were wet.

As for my MT/R's now on my Av, I did not have BFG's on the truck before so I cannot offer true side by side comparo judgments, but the wet traction seems better (sure I can break the tail loose in 2wd if I punch it while turning from a stop, but we do have a lighter tail than most SUVs and if I couldn't I would be bitchin' about how weak my engine was). And the mud / snow traction is superb. As for tread life, 10,000 miles on the MT/Rs now and they seem to be holding up well.

PS, the direct comparison for the MT/Rs in the BFG line are the BFG KMs (their Mud Terrian T/A) not the KOs (their former All Terrain T/A). I never had the Mud Terrian T/As on my earlier rigs, but have heard fine things about them, but again a lower grade for wet traction.
 
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