Introduction
I was able to get my hands on the brand new BFGoodrich All Terrain KO3. Now technically this tire isn’t out yet, so it wasn’t cheap. So this is an unsponsored review. I’m going to tell you about the changes they’ve made to this tire, how it affects performance, what makes it better, and what it can potentially make worse. . Now I just need a KO2 to compare it to. I’ll have to go get one of those from outside. Well, we have a KO2 on a soldier, so I can just grab it. Well, I don’t think I’m going to bring it in just yet. It is much bigger than a pit. Ok, next plan. If you are new to the channel, welcome to Outdoor Auto.
Background and Credentials
My name is Mohammad Qasim. We’ve already tested and reviewed a wide variety of top AT tires, including all of these on this list and more. Our AT tire comparisons are highly rated for being honest and unbiased. So definitely check them out if you haven’t seen them yet. In the meantime, there’s my spare KO2. It’s brand new. Let the fun begin. let’s go. There we go. It was not that difficult. At first glance, these tires look quite similar, but if you look closely, you’ll start to recognize a lot of changes. The KO2 is nine years old, and BFG’s tire designers have certainly decided to update the KO3 with nearly a decade of new innovations.
Historical Overview of BFGoodrich
Now, a quick flashback to BFGoodrich. Remember, this company knows a little about tire innovation. BFGoodrich has been making tires for 153 years, taking them to places no one thought possible. He produced the first running car in the United States in 1903. He sent his tires across the Atlantic Ocean on the Spirit of St. Louis on the first transatlantic flight. And they even sent their tires into space on the Space Shuttle Columbia. A more appropriate definition for our subject today is Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, yes, that’s the guy’s real name, Benjamin Franklin Goodrich. Its tires account for more than half of the Baja 1000 winners and 13 different Paris to Dakar rallies on top of the podium. These tires have been tested. So it’s no surprise that they revolutionized the tire market in 1976 with the first radial all-terrain. This is a great resume.
Detailed Tire Comparison
Okay, let’s jump into the tires.
Tread Design Changes
Okay, let’s talk. There have been many changes and some of them are very important. Well, right off the bat, we have KO2 on this side, we have KO3 on this side. One of the biggest changes you’ll see in the center of the tire are the little center lugs that, I don’t know, look like caterpillars or something, now replaced by S-shaped lugs. has taken Now, these S-shaped lugs are currently seen on all types of AT tires. They’re on the General Grabber ATX, they’re on the Falcon Wildpack, they’re on this, what else? Oh, the Toyo AT3 made it popular. I’m kind of curious if they’re the ones who did it first. maybe not. However, they are appearing everywhere. The reason the SK design is so popular is because it gives you cutting edges that face each different direction and offer great grip.
Gap and Rubber Distribution
Now, the other thing you’re going to notice is that there’s a huge gap on the old KO2. In fact, in some places, the gaps were so big, they gave us these giant triangular rock ejectors along with the normal striated rock ejectors. On a new tire, you’ll notice there aren’t any gaps in the pattern that are big enough to fit even one of those big triangular stones, so they just have normal ones. This means that the center of this tire is less hollow, so it has smaller gaps. What this means is, a couple of things. This means more rubber is on the road at all times. This helps you determine how fast the tire wears down.
Mud Performance
Okay, so another question that comes up, with a stiffer pattern at the core of the KO3, how will it affect clay performance? KO2 wasn’t really known for being a great slime performer. Now, a lot of people give it a bad rap for this, and that’s a bit unfair because it’s an all-terrain tire, and almost no all-terrain tires are really good in mud. They are not really designed to be good on mud. However, this particular one, the way the pattern was so tightly interlocked, didn’t really allow the mud to come out at all. When the tire spins sideways really, really fast, you want the mud to fly. But the problem with that is that the mud will get stuck and really, for the most part, won’t come out at all.
So the weird thing is, while it has a little bigger, you know, spots, it’s less interconnected. So the idea behind running on it is that it seems they want its less interlocking ability to clear the mud a little better. We have to test it a lot. Mud is hard to test because as you guys know, mud can be very different from place to place if it has a lot of sand and a lot of clay in it. So when someone just makes a blanket statement and says there’s something scary about all the slime, it’s really hard to test. You really need to test in many things.
I’ll take them out in the spring and run them in the mud at Wahies with almost no good tires. So this is a great extreme test to see how they do. But yeah, so the idea behind it, small grooves, but not interconnected like that. So it’s still likely to work in mud. This is one area where I’d say there’s a bit of a question mark as to whether it’s actually going to improve substantially, stay the same, or possibly get a little worse.
Outer Lugs and Cornering
Also, if we go to the outside, the outermost lug, you’ll see that it’s an alternating pattern, right? We have this short drag that’s still a little bit similar. It has a better sip, we’ll get to that in a minute. But if you look at the look, the new one is very different. First, it extends as far as the middle of the tire. And one of the things that helps when you’re driving and you turn to the corner of your tire, and then you come right back to the center of your tire, is your transition from one tire to the other. will help Other. So A, again, it’s going to help tire wear, but it’s also going to help cornering. So they have decided to change the outer lugs of the tire.
Siping and Durability
Another complaint you’ve seen on the KO2 is that people say some of the lugs were prone to sticking or cracking. Well, one of those lugs is here. You will see that every other one is like this. Now, the problem with this look here is that they sipped. When you take a deep sip, notice how thin it is from here, from the sip to the edges. It is such a piece that if this piece falls on a rock, it is not very strong. If you look at the new replacement lugs for the same weakness where you have this thin point, everything is much thicker. So they have strengthened the lugs by changing the sipes and making this outer lug stronger.
Water Pathing and Hydroplaning
Well, finally, probably one of the most important things, the water route. When you have a tire with as large a contact patch as the KO2, it usually means it’s great on dry surfaces and rock, but it also means that many times It is not so good in water. And in this case, it wasn’t. It does not have a very good water course. There are all kinds of little gaps where water can get trapped very easily when you’re driving through a deep puddle, and it can’t get out easily. And water doesn’t really compress. So if it’s not going to compress, it’s going to take away your traction. You are going to hydroplane. If you look at the excuses they had for the water channel, where these things start here and go out, they only cover, I don’t know, not even a quarter of the tire.
Water Pathing Improvements
So on the new ones with waterpathing, they have water channels that start about two-thirds of the way down the tire and go all the way out. And then they have something that goes downhill. So you have the way, the water has better water channels, instead of the water getting stuck here, it’s going to go out to the sides. So the waterway has improved a lot. The biggest complaint about the ko2 was its performance on very wet roads. So I think the water path has improved a lot. We’re also going to talk about sipping in a second, and sipping has gotten a lot better as well.
Siping Enhancements
Well, if you’re a tire nerd, sipping is something you get very excited about. So siphons are small lines on tires. It was actually invented in the 1920s by a guy named John Sipe, and it didn’t work for tires at all. He actually worked in a butcher’s house. And was slipping a lot on the floor. So he poked or cut into the bottom of his shoes to see if it would give him better traction and it worked. Sipes has come a long way. We used to have standard sips that were cut about half way and dragged. These are not full depth. Once a tire gets old and you use up half of it and want to use the other half, you get terrible traction. So if the sipes aren’t in full depth, they’re kind of a joke in my opinion. Who wants to drive around with only half of a tire’s life?
You’d be surprised how many tires still don’t have full depth sipes. So it’s worth a look if you’re looking for a tire. Secondly, they have come out with 3D sipes. Now the KO2, the original KO2 had 3D sipe, but remember this tire is nine years old. So even 3D sipes have come a ways since then. Immediately you’ll recognize that this tire has more bite than the KO2. Secondly, they have 3D types. That means underneath, if you get a little magnifying glass and you look down into that crack, there are interlocking edges. They almost look like little bubbles, like a BB shape that bounces on this side and sticks on that side.
They connect to each other. What happens is when the lug is compressed and weight is placed on it, they lock into each other, strengthening the lug so that it functions as a single unit. Well, they just got better and better. So the way they are connected to each other is better and better. You notice how a lot of them were mostly straight and you have these little angles? Well, they have a slightly more severe angle. This helps to push it in and close it together to keep it strong. Also, so do these little zigzag ones. So it helps you maintain the integrity of the big lug. Aiming for extra grip on snow and water
Most of these lagers have about 25% more sips. Some of them have 30% more suction. When a tire has about 30% more suction, and wasn’t known for being great in water, you’d be amazed at the difference. If you start comparing it to the Falcon Wildpeak, which in many ways can be measured as almost the standard among ATs for wet and snowy road conditions, it actually slurps more than the AT3W. appears. So I’m very excited about the water and snow traction that this tire is going to offer with all that new siping and new rims.
KO2 vs. KO3 Strength
They better win. That’s all I have to say. Not too many surprises here. The BF Goodrich KO2, even at nine years old, is still widely considered the strongest AT tire on the market. Its inner layer is basically second to none. There are a few tires out there that have copied it, but no one is really making a stronger all-terrain tire than the KO2. Now, we’re not talking about walking and all that stuff. We’re talking about the inner layer, like three plies… what’s inside that, two layers of steel, all that kind of stuff. Oh my god, they finally scored. Guess which team is my team in the comments? They mirrored, as far as we can tell, they mirrored the internal construction with the KO3.
They’re bringing the same power they had on KO2 to KO3. To put that in perspective, folks, this is a Load C range tire, and it has three ply sidewalls. A lot of the competition out there, even the General Grabber ATX on my truck, which is a load range E, only has a two-ply sidewall. So they are simply providing stronger tires than most brands. The other thing that’s worth noting, the KO2, because of how strong it is, it’s not the most comfortable tire to drive. Some people will run it and compare it to, for example, the General Grabber ATX, and they’ll go, hey, the ATX looks great.
Comfort Comparison
And when you’re talking about that feeling, what you’re usually talking about is that you’re talking about how the tires are moving through your steering system. How much feedback does the road bump give you? Well, the KO2 is squarely in the middle of the pack in this category. It’s not the best, it’s not the worst. Considering it’s the strongest tire and what has to be done with these things to make them so strong, I’m still impressed that it measures up somewhere in the middle of the pack for comfort. But yes, it is not the most comfortable tire to drive. And KO3 I think will be the same. The KO3 might be a little more comfortable though, and that would have to do with the compound it’s originally made from, and that the new compound should be able to absorb vibrations a little better.
Compound and Freeze Test
So we will discuss compounds next. So something interesting happens when you freeze a tire. Both of these tires, I live in Idaho, we just had a huge snow storm, it’s freezing here. We left them outside and we wanted to test how the rubber performed when it was cold. And one thing we noticed right away is that the new tread on the new KO3 was still a bit better as far as being more flexible when the tire was cold. Now this has a lot to do with the performance of the tire on snow and ice. If you have all these little ridges and all these things on your tire to perform and grip the road, yet when you freeze the tire, it completely hardens and it’s basically ice on ice. is like
It doesn’t perform very well. A new tire remains more flexible after freezing. This means that it probably has a high silica content. This is where everyone is going right now. All the new tires that have come on the market are increasing the silica content in the tire. And that’s because silica is like this magic ingredient that basically allows your tire to be more flexible when it’s cold, but it doesn’t wear off really quickly. It used to be that we tried to soften the rubber to make it a softer rubber, but then your tire doesn’t last very long. So they have a 50,000 mile warranty. If they wanted to make them softer to perform in the snow, but then all of a sudden they only got a 40,000 you know mail warranty, maybe anyone would buy them.
Advancements in Tire Compounds
So everyone turned to silica as the answer. Sure, there are lots of other compounds that are being used and changing and all kinds of crazy things in polymer and tire science, but silica is one of the big things that changes. Falcon AT3 has a very high silica content. This makes it softer, but it’s still running pretty strong. There are many other rumored changes to the compound, but for tire companies, compounds are like their secret sauce. It’s like the KFC you know, the chicken recipe. They don’t share them. There are many things that are rumored to be replaced with resin on it. There is also something called butadiene rubber. I don’t even know if I’m saying this right, but basically it’s a way they’re modifying the tires to try to help with heat distribution and better temperature management.
Improvements in Manufacturing
A few things I hope for about this tire. A, when they change the compound, what I’m hoping for is that the manufacturing process of these tires might be a little more reliable now. In the past with the KO2, we’ve had a lot of trouble balancing tires where there was some discrepancy in the original manufacturing process. So I’m excited to see if they’ve eradicated these bugs with the new compound and changes.
White Lettering Option
I’m also excited to see if they’ll bring back the white letters. You always had white lettering on one side of the tire and black lettering on the other. I know a lot of people who like them all black. I personally love the retro look of the white lettering. And I have a lot of old cars like old Land Cruisers and things like that that I work on that I think look great. So I’m hoping, crossing my fingers, that they bring back the black characters because they don’t, I mean the white characters come back because they don’t have them at the moment.
Expansion of Tire Sizes
Another thing is that I hope they increase the amount of sizes they support. I’d like to see all-terrain tires up to the 40s. One thing is not that many people make AT tires that big because once you get into those big sizes, everyone just gets in the mud. But more and more people who are racing and things like that who value different types of traction are starting to realize that they like to drive some of these stronger all-terrains in these conditions. So I’d like to see some great tire options for us, especially for winter snow wheels. I would love to put about 13 and a half inch wide 40s on the Land Cruiser and air it really, really low and try to drive in some deep snow.
Personal Experiences and Future Reviews
I definitely needed bigger tires. So this is part of the wish list. Defense held. Okay, YouTubeverse, what tire would you like me to review next? I have had many requests for the Nitto lineup of tires. I’ve also had a lot of requests for the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac, which isn’t out yet. So I’ll see if I can get my hands on any of them. In the meantime, let me know in the comments what you’d like to see. I love helping people with these reviews. And if you don’t mind hitting the like button, that would help me because unfortunately I have to affect this algorithm.
