Skinny KO2s and tread warranty

== Background ==

A while ago, for reasons that made sense at the time but which I can't remember, a friend talked me into getting BFG KO2s in a 235/85R16 size. They are weirdly tall and skinny, but again, reasons made sense. (Cheaper tires, better gas mileage, comfort...?)

I do a fair amount of off-road driving (and air down as appropriate for a fatter footprint) and as far as I know the skinny tires have been fine. But they are my first A/T tires on my first truck, so I don't have anything to compare to. And as it is my daily driver, mostly pavement driving.

The tread is getting low, so I'm starting to look into what's next.

Two years ago I got my KO2s at Discount Tire. At the time I talked to the sales person, he agreed my reasons made sense, and obviously they sold me the tires.

I was at Costco today, and figured I'd check their pricing. The guy there said that this weird size isn't safe for this model truck, doesn't meet the minimum requirements, and he wouldn't sell them to me.

(On the Discount Tire site's tire selection wizard my size does still come up as an option when I put in my truck details.)

My truck: 2003 Access Cab SR5 4x4

== QUESTIONS ==

Safety: Is the Costco guy right? (And is Discount selling me an unsafe tire?) I care about safety, cost, and performance, probably in that order. I do not need beefy badass massive expensive tires.

Tread wear: At purchase the DT sales rep said "off-road tires don't have a mileage warranty". When I look on their site now the KO2s do mention a 50,000 mile warranty.

I've only had these tires less than 2 years and only 25,000 miles. Is that normal?? I've done regular rotations and balancing, keep them properly inflated, etc.

 

That's the same size my 1989 Ford F350 non-dually diesel crew cab 4x4 had, load range E. Depending on the tire rating, appears reasonable to me. The kids today don't have the needed training to advise people today.

 

Good to know, thanks. The guy at Costco sounded reasonable, and was older than me (and I'm not particularly young...)

I guess it caught me off guard that it might be possible to put tires on a vehicle that weren't safe for the vehicle. I guess I assumed due to wheel size it wouldn't be possible, or due to liability lawsuits no reputable dealer would sell or install something if it wasn't safe.

 

Box store training tells them they don’t put tires on that we’re not originally specced for the vehicle. I wouldn’t worry about anything the Costco rep is telling you. he’s just regurgitating what his training video told him to tell customers who want a different tire size that conflicts with his computer screen.

 

Exactly this... Costco is generally awesome, but anything other than OEM sizes is against policy for "safety" reasons. They won't budge on this policy unless you bring unmounted rims (at least that worked once in the past for me).

 

in my experience Costco/Sams, etc would not sell me tires other than in stock sizes that were available on the truck. Happened whenever I tried to get larger tires than stock. I finally would not even ask, just show up with my wheels and purchase the tires I wanted then install the wheels/tires when I got back home.

At this point I stopped using them, been a discount tire customer for years and they always do what I need and hook me up.

 

I look at it like this - is it unsafe…probably not, people do stupider every day and live.

But the Costco guy is likely playing the “what if” game - what if I sell these - knowing the computer says OE is a wider size and the tire fails..what if this guy loses control and hits someone…am I gonna be sued for selling him what he ask for ?

There’s no “upside” to him selling you what you ask for (he will make his hourly rate regardless) and maybe things go wrong and he feels responsible for not telling you - or worse. With no upside - easier to say no here.

Exactly as last poster said - walk in with 4 rims and they wouldn’t ask what they are being mounted to - or buy and carry out..they don’t care. But mounted to a vehicle - store policy takes precedence here and it’s likely against the store policy to sell anything but OE size.

Im guessing Costco/Sams-WalMart and all the big boxes cover the topic of store policy very in depth during their 4 hour training session - because it never felt like they spent over 5 minutes teaching some of these guys how to properly reinstall a drain plug, tighten a lug or to remember to check that someone actually put oil in the customers car before handing back the keys. I swear my old job - I saw 1 a week of no oil plug, wheel flying off or no oil in the car from one of these places (granted it was 50/50 either really their fault or customer doing something stupid and then trying to blame them making up a story that sounded plausible).

 

Most all-terrain tires do come with a warranty but mud-terrain tires do not