KO2 Drama

Long story short, I picked up some 295/70R18's for my new Gen3 4 + spare. 4 of the 5 failed with excessive road force from ~36-60lbs, when I got the replacements yesterday one of those failed with 60lbs of force as well so I'm getting my 10th K02 shipped out today from Tire Rack. Am I just really unlucky or has Conti dropped the quality massively on these? I've never had this big of an issue with Conti tires on any of my other cars.

 

they failed? as in they tore or blew up on the balancing machine?? I've never heard of that with any tire...

 

Failed as in >25lbs of road force, the whole truck was shaking.

 

oh I guess I'm not as familiar with road force balancing, but I have never heard of tires failing like that, especially not 4 in the same order.

 

truthfully... imo BFG All-terrain's are not the same tire they were 15 years ago yet still carry the popularity.
They used to be extremely common in mid-west Canada as a true 4 season tire is required. Whatever compound or change they made has diminished they wet traction and decimated the snow traction. Now they're considerably less popular and the difference between them and the Toyo AT3's i'm currently running isn't even comparable.

 

yea i ended up with the Falkens, just because the Toyos were significantly more expensive. But I was kind of tryin to avoid the BFGs because I've heard more negative things about them recently.

 

I was giving these a shot since they have a cult following out here in CO, guess I should have looked else ware.

 

KOs are the only tires I have had issues balancing, and I've owned a lot of ATs. Also horrible on ice with some direct comparison testing with old Generals and Falkens. They have a hard compound that makes them last forever and are great offroad. So still a great tire in areas without lots of icy weather.

I have Falkens on all my rigs now, although they used to be a hidden gem value. The prices have gone up a lot on them. Downside is they are heavy.

 

I have KO2's on my 2013 and the balance and everything else worked perfectly, 2 sets actually.
I have KO2's on my Honda Pilot and when this one tire shakes like shit, and I need to keep it on the back. If I move in the front it shakes above 80/mph
So I don;t know man

 

The only a/t tire I've ever had issues with is the ko2. Toyo is the way to go for a/t tires and Nokian for winter.

 

BFG is owned by Michelin. Continental has General.

Many people complain about balance issues with KO2. I only had 1 set, they had a slight shimmy but were great otherwise. So many other brands and options out there to try though.

 

A buddy of mine just swapped his out today. His BFG’s were dry rotting after a couple of years which led to a blowout a little hole back. Still good tread on them. He is taking off for the weekend with his camp trailer and didn’t trust them. It’s disappointing to see a great tire having issues like the BFG seems to have the last couple of years. All four tire shops I’ve talked with for my last two sets of tires have recommended against them, unfortunately, mostly due to balance issues and noise/poor treadwear/traction issues around half tread.

 

I had stock KOs and then bought KO2s.
Never had any balancing issues, at least not until I bought aftermarket wheels.
They balanced fine on OEM TSS wheels, but I could never eliminate the steering wheel shimmy on the Anthem wheels.
That was 4 spin balances and 4 road force balances.
With all my documentation Anthem took the wheels back for a full refund.
Back to my TSS wheels and no issues.

Although I didn't buy then again, they get too loud as they wear and have crappy wet road traction..
I opted for Goodyear Wrangler UltraTerrain AT | Discount Tire on my last purchase.
Very happy with them..