Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives 255 85 16 tires

I have been using BF Goodrich KM2's 255 85 16's on my 2012 Toyota Tacoma.
They now have 49,700 miles on them and a few hundred more miles to them.
Not bad at all for a MT tire and they performed excellent in all scenarios mud, ice, rain, sharp rocks, ect.

I never expected them to last this long, 50k, but rotation every 5k helped in that.

That said, I am looking to replace them soon and am looking for more of quieter tire. Not that the KM2's were that bad,
I still may go back to them. It would take a very good reason to replace them with another brand.

I'm looking at Toyot MT's or Coopers ST's, Or?

Any here have experience with any other 255 85 16s?

I have the same exact tires on my 2009 Tacoma and they are excellent. If you are going to replace them with the same set, you may want to buy them quickly. BF Goodrich has discontinued this size and they are starting to become hard to find.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Toyo MT. I would've bought them myself if they weren't so expensive. I had a set of KM2s on my Grand Cherokee and got good mileage out of them as well but they weren't all that great in the winter.

I've been well pleased with Cooper AT/3's. I put a set of 265/75/16's on my 07 Tacoma about 1 1/2 years ago. They are about 1" taller and about the same width as the 265/70/16's that came from the factory. I put them on about a week before "Snow Jam 2014 hit north GA. They did better than any tire I've ever owned in snow and ice. They have done very well in mud. They are not a mud tire, but work as well as any AT in mud. I liked them well enough to put a set on my Wrangler last Fall.

They are rated as a 55,000 mile tire. I have 21,000 on them now and they still look new. Very quiet with good road manners.

Cooper was running an $80 rebate when I bought mine. After the rebate they were about 1/2 the cost of the BF Goodrich AT's

Photo of one on the Wrangler.

Ran a set of Toyo M55s in this size on my 3/4ton Ford. Favorite set of tires I've ever owned. Aggressive enough to work well in mud, snow, and rock but good manners on the pavement and pretty quiet. Couldn't find another set when I wore them out last winter, they may have discontinued them. I was certainly impressed by their performance and would run another set in a heartbeat if I could find them.

I was looking at the M55 too. Looks like a good tire.

I'm leaning toward the Cooper SST Maxxi also.

Thank you for the responses here.

Hercules AT2 is almost identical to the Cooper AT3 and has a great warranty and lower $. Many are not aware that Hercules is a Cooper line.

Toyo M55s are still available. I have the Cooper ST Maxx on my truck, the wife has the Toyo MT on hers. The ST Maxx behaves a bit better in the snow and ice. mtmuley

I liked the M55 for puncture resistance and long wear. A bud of mine who used to run a tire shop in logging country turned me onto them. He was always touting their ability to stand up to rock jabs and debris on skid roads, said he rarely saw one with a puncture. He claimed that the M55 had the toughest casing of any tire available today and that they were the only one Toyo would recap because of that. Said he'd seen more than one set sent in to be recapped 4 or 5 times before Toyo would refuse them. He said "they ride like steel and wear like iron", I didn't find either of those to be untrue.

My Taco is older and has 15" tires, my work truck is a HD 3/4ton Dodge. My AO is very hard on tires, but I run Toyo MTs year-round and have nothing but praise for their strength. They're not the best icy road tires, but do OK if used correctly. For every other terrain they rock. They're over built and heavy, and from what the Schwabs guys have told me, are even tougher than the M55 which is a legendarily tough tire.

You're ride quality and mileage might slip a little from what you're used to with the BFGs but if your first priority is a bomber tire with great traction, you won't regret the Toyo MT.............other than the bill. Or you could just buy another set of KM2s since you know what to expect.

I'll soon be getting a set of Cooper S/T MAXX 255/80/17s on my Tacoma. I usually run bridgestone revos but have read so many great reviews of the cooper MAXX that I'm going to give them a try.

Here is a pretty good review of them on tacomas: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/show-off-your-cooper-st-maxx.346956/

I read that the km2s are now discontinued in that size, so if you want another set, grab them. I just bought some for my jeep, but only have a few hundred miles on them.

I'd like to see a few hundred receipts faxed to BFG from customers who bought a different brand of tire just to keep using that size.

Bob, what did you get?

I run that size in BFG mudders in the winter- 10 ply but won't replace them when gone. The Toyos were over $300 each. If Cooper makes a tire in that size I would use it.

I just put new Hercules on my F350 and they seem to be really good.

Any modifications needed to run 255/85/16's on a current generation stock Tacoma? Was thinking perhaps it would be too wide and rub?

Here is more info on that than you would ever want:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/255-85-r16-owners-experience.155849/

I still haven't bought yet, the BFG's are still on at 58,000 miles. AND still looking good! I could probably get 65k from them.




I have Bilstein 5100s and add a leaf on the rear.

They run clean on this with the shocks set at their highest.

Real happy so far with everything.

Another vote for the Cooper AT3. We have had great luck and will finally need some new ones this year after 50k miles

I'm liking the AT3 on my Tacoma so far, but have only had them a few months. The cheapo GT Radial Adventuro mudders I had on it were the fastest-wearing and loudest mud tire I've ever used. About 11-12,000 miles wore them down by 40-45%. They might make it to 20K but probably won't offer much grip at that point. An E-rated tire shouldn't wear like that on a Tacoma. I put them on another set of wheels to use from Nov-Jan. You get what you pay for on tires sometimes. Changing over to the P-rated AT3 in the same size (265/75/R16) gained me about 2mpg also.

I went with the Toyo Open Country this time. I bought them a couple of months ago and have been waiting for my BFG's to wear down before I put them on.



My BFG KM2's had right at 30k miles and were wore down to about .26" tread depth. The mileage on them wasn't great, but that's to be expected on any M/T of this style. I probably would have bought another set had they not been discontinued. This size in a BFG A/T would be fantastic.

Put a set of 255 Cooper St maxx on last week after throwing chains 3 times in one day on my worn out old 255 regular ST,s so far I'm impressed, I haven't even put in 4 since the new rubber

ST Maxx are incredible tires. My last 2 sets were ST Maxx and I never had to change a flat even though they picked up nails and screws. Damn tough

There are a lot of excellent options, and some sneaky pigs around. There are many versions of the Goodyear Wrangler for example, some good, some really suck.
Anyway I think a big part of the decision is sidewall strength. Where I hunt is possible to run into some moderately sharp loose rocks. Naturally these can cut a weaker sidewall pretty easily, and can also slash a robust sidewall if that is part of your destiny. Heavier LT E ply tires generally get less mileage, cost more, and have a firmer ride. Shock not absorbed by the tires is transferred to stress on the truck suspension. So there is a price to pay for less flats.
I am going to get tires today and I had a few coffees researching tires the last few days. Hopefully the local Sams club has the Michelin LTX A/T2 in stock. These are reported to get incredible mileage, some saying 100,000 miles. That seems like BS to me, but the norm say snow tread depth left at 60,000 miles. Cost is moderate at less than 200 bucks mounted/warrantied/rotated. Walmart/Sams seem to have the best price out the door and free rotation is very cool. The Tirerack and other online vendors were consistently more expensive with shipping/mounting on most tires.
Here is a good average ranking of common tires. I think any of the top 5 or so would be excellent. I personally hate road noise, so I looked at that factor as a tie breaker.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=ORAT&sortValue=0&filter=y&width=265%2F&ratio=70&diameter=16&rearWidth=255%2F&rearRatio=40&rearDiameter=17

Turns out that tax and a 10/tire warranty kicked the price up to 811 OTD. They did well in the semi-maintained gravel roads in the state forest. Looks like a good balance of wear, low noise, durability, and traction.

St Maxx in 255/85R16 It what I want next for my snow plow truck.

I have Toyo MTs on my 3/4 ton pick-up. They are bad in packed snow and ice conditions. When taking off from gravel (Summer driving) I have to put the pick-up in 4 wheel drive to get going if there is a slight rise to get over. I only use them in the summer then put on a better snow tire for winter.

They do make a rig look good and they ride real well. Steering response is excellent. Hauling or towing with them feels more stable then the BFG KO ATs I had on.

I am thinking of a different tire when these need replaced in about 7 years.

The Toyo MT's are arguably the best off road tire made today for a street legal vehicle. They are simply fantastic in about every way for a 4X4 truck.

However...... They will use far more fuel to operate as a part time off road vehicle and full time daily vehicle.

I have a log book that is used to record my mileage and service which is up to date from Dec 2004 on my Cummins powered 4x4 Dodge 2500 since the day I drove it off the lot brand new. The stock tires were replaced the same week I bought the truck. I put on an aggressive 35x12.50 off road tire. Similar to the ToyoMT. My speedometer and odometer settings were corrected for size and the first several dozen MPG calculations were done with the actual mileage not the displayed MPG. I was in the 18 plus MPG highway range, ( rarely better then 20) and when hauling my camper or a trailer in the 15plus MPG range.

at 35,000 miles I switched to the more mild tread of the 37" BFG AT tires because I have 410:1 ratio's thinking I might get an even better final drive ratio. The MPG for the next 50,000 miles was consistent in the 17 plus MPG range and the loaded MPG settled into the 15+ range. Just a bit less MPG.

At about 85,000 miles I needed tires again so I switched to the E rated Toyo 37X13.50 MT's. This because the D rated BFG's were a bit soft for the weight of the truck camper. Within a month of use I realized that these were gonna be expensive! I was now getting 14MPG empty and 10-11MPG with the camper or trailer. It's been consistent since then. Rarely peaking at 12 and more often in the 10.5 mpg range

I would not be taking this into consideration if it were for a couple tanks of fuel and using the on board MPG display. However my mileage was hand calculated for many tanks of fuel to verify accuracy of the display, My speedometer was reset each time for the size of the tires and verified accurate with my garmin GPS.

This fuel mileage is very representative of the difference in fuel consumption for the different tires used.

I now need a new set of tires at 110,000 miles. So I will be switching back to an AT tread pattern in the 35X12.50 size at an E rating. This is a positively clear MPG improvement over the D rated 37 BFG and a huge improvement over the giant TOYO 37X13.50's at 95 pounds each! I would not likely have believed that there could be a 5-6MPG difference based on the tire size and tread pattern. However this is not arguable to me. I've now seen it with three sets of tires over 110,000 miles of resolution.

The height seems to have the least effect, the width, weight, and the more aggressive tread is clearly the biggest effect over all.

I also have new Front hubs on my truck with Warn Free wheeling dials. Back to old school locking hubs for me! They claim 1.2-3 MPG improvement. The only fella I know that has also done this conversion claims a solid 2MPG but only on long road trips. I can live with that! Hoping to be back into the 18-20mpg range with these changes.

I had Toyo M55 on a full size diesel and couldn't stand the noise. If your on gravel though, they are one of the best choices out there for wear and sidewall toughness. The down side is at highway speeds the launch all the 3/4" minus stones they picked up at the inner fenders.