At the risk of beating tire questions to death....I've narrowed it down to BFG A/T KO2's or Michelin LTX M/S2. Costco has them for the same price. The BFG's have more of a traction tread but no warranty at all. I don't do much off road with my pickup. I have a Razor for that. But still, sometimes mud and snow can happen when the Razor isn't in the back of the truck. I'd like to have the warranty but I'm a little concerned about the highway tread. How is the traction with the Michelins?

You do mean LTX M/S2's ? Of those two I'd go with the BFG's. It's not really a fair comparison since the BFG is an all-terrain tire and the LTX2 is a highway all-season tire. My Cherokee XJ came with the original LTX's. They didn't work out for me at all. Also this from the Tire Rack site:
The LTX M/S2 Highway All-Season tire is NOT a dedicated winter / snow tire. It does NOT meet the severe snow traction requirements and is NOT branded with the three-peak mountain/snowflake symbol (3PMSF).

Oops. I let off the 2. Fixed it.
Thanks for the info. I hadn't read about the 3pmsf thing.

I'm not sure if it's the LTX2 or not. Their site shows a Defender LTX M/S.

https://tires.costco.com/SearchBySi...hID=0cae51b6-1bb4-4eb4-8602-c88dafbb5d08

they show the LTX M/S2. I think Defender is the name for the general line.

They're two totally different tires for two totally different purposes. I had BFG KO2s and liked them on my Frontier. They wore really well, were great in the snow, and were relatively quiet on the highway (they did get louder as they wore)....BUT if I had a more dedicated ORV as you're describing I'd go with the Michelins. They will probably wear just as well, they'll be quieter and they will probably be just as good in the snow and rain.

Maybe others will reply but my vote is for the BFG. I would have thought Costco would have had a better selection of all-terrain tires. IMHO for an SUV or truck I can't see going with an all-season tire.

I see that Costco also carries Bridgestone but our store doesn't stock them. They have to order them from their warehouse. For that matter, they don't stock my size either so I need to order them. It takes about 3 or 4 days.
Do you know anything about the Bridgestone-Dueler A/T REVO 2? Tire Rack's reviews aren't as good as the BFG's KO2's.

Best damn tire I ever put on my Jeep and Ram.
No other AT tire works as well in the wet. They work great on any road surface with low noise (great on the Jeep with the top down).

Tire Rack rates the Revo considerably lower than the BFG KO2. They have the BFG as #1 out of 17 and the Revo as #12. Their customer reviews also have the KO2 much higher.

Thing about all-terrain tires is that some are more aggressive than others. Seems they should divide that category in to two. There are trade offs when you go more aggressive.

Indeed. There are AT's out there that are basically mud tires with smaller void spacing. They are compromise tires that work well for many.

I'd rather have a smooth-riding and long-lasting AT, then put on a dedicated mud tire on some take-off wheels for hunting season. Then again, I use my Tacoma much like an ATV from October through January.

For hunting, I seldom need aggressive tires. Where we hunt, we park low near good roads and hike. You can't take any wheeled vehicle where the elk are.

I have had plenty of BFG tires. Loud and do not stop on wet pavement. After I got in a accident because my Jeep would not stop on a wet road I put the Revo's on and never looked back. They work much better on ice too.

I drive mainly highway and my truck weights 8000 pounds. I just put on my second set of Michelin LTX M/S2's. While Michelin has updated this tire to the Michelin LTX M/S Defender, I was able to find the older model at Walmart. Reason I didn't want the newer model is because I went 105,000 miles on my last set of LTX M/S2 tires and didn't feel like experimenting. They have never once lost traction in the rain, important to me considering the weight of my truck. They're the smoothest, quietest tires I've ever used and they're not all that bad in the snow, especially if you have 4 wheel drive. A dedicated off road tire they're not, but for me they're the best overall compromise for a vehicle that runs mostly on the highway.

I wouldn't have a set of bfgs after a KO2 on my dad's superduty mysteriously lost the cap and wrecked his front fender and nearly wrecked the whole rig. Tire had less than 20k on it and was less than 3 years old, caused $4400 worth of damage. Bfg did nothing to help not even a pro rated replacement. He pitched the other three and sprung for a new set of Cooper AT3s that have been great.

watch these guys.........

no tax/free shipping.........Labor Day soon means big promo discounts......

BFG AT KO2's.........!!

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/tires/bfgoodrich/home.do

So what you got Rock Chuck? Three choices?

Here's another good place to deal with. Haven't mounted them yet.

https://www.tires-easy.com/brands/falken-tires/wildpeak-a-t3w?code=28034108

Costco has the best prices around here for similar quality. I want to get them locally for service reason.

That would be my choice too. I've had BFG's, Good Years, Michelins, and Firestones. The Good Years had great off road traction, horrible on road traction and only lasted only 15K miles. The Michelin lasted forever but traction sucked. The Firestone sucked all around. BFG's were somewhere in the middle. Coopers had great off road traction, decent on road traction, and lasted 20-30miles on a 2500 diesel truck regularly towing 8000lbs.

Here are reviews of the tires your deciding on. Still not sure which Michelins so I included both.
http://tirereviewsandmore.com/bridgestone-dueler-a-t-revo-2-reviews/

http://tirereviewsandmore.com/michelin-defender-ltx-m-s-reviews/

http://tirereviewsandmore.com/michelin-ltx-m-s-2-reviews/

http://tirereviewsandmore.com/bfgoodrich-all-terrain-ta-ko2-reviews/

If I had to pick one? I'd go with the Bridgestone. It's in the middle of the three as far as "aggressiveness" goes. Tread pattern is similar to the Yokohama Geolander A/T G015's we have on our Blazer.

If you want an E rated AT with a warranty, take a look at Cooper AT3 or ATP (ATP is discount tire only). I have the LT275/65R20 ATP's and they have done very well on road (quiet), off road (traction), and held up to towing and hauling. They are on a diesel and the wear has been good so far. I believe even the E rated Cooper's have a 50,000 mile tread wear warranty, for what it's worth. Unless the last half of the tire goes bad or turns really loud, I'll put the same thing back on when they wear out.

This afternoon I looked at the Cooper A/T3's. They're more expensive than either the KO2 or Michelin LTX but they come with a $100 Cabelas gift certificate that gets the price very comparable. I'd rather have the cash than the gift cert, though. The Coopers do have a 55k warranty while the KO2's have none.
They also carry Bridgestones. He warned me about a problem with the Revos. They come out of the mold with the shoulders tapering off. He said that if you don't rotate them religiously every 4 to 5k, they'll continue to wear on the shoulders.

I ran a couple sets of BFG Revo's on a diesel 4x4. They were decent snow tires, but pitiful on icy roads. IIRC they were done by 50K miles.
Next set of tires on my current F150 will be the michelins, their longer warranty/expected service life is a nice bonus.. I think Brad has a set on his Tacoma and reports they are good on snow/icy roads.

Have you purchased tires at Costco before? Just making sure you're aware of how long a rotation takes.

I've had revos on a 1/2 ton and a Tahoe and was less than impressed.

BFG Revos? You mean Bridgestone I assume?

I got the most expensive Michelin that Sam's club had. I forget the name, but they were highly rated on Tirerack.com. Owners say they last 100,000 miles, and I really don't believe that, but mine are like new with 25,000. Gas mileage seems good, they are quiet, and snow/rain performance is very good. I would buy them again because the overall quality is 9/10 in many factors, and no big trade off in any one area, except maybe initial cost.
I had Revo's and I did not like the performance or wear.

I run cooper discovers on my 2015 Dodge Ram 2500. Made a run from Colorado to Alaska in November and those tires did very well on the snow covered roads on the alcan hwy.

Sorry, they were bridgestones.

The tire size I need is 245x75R17. The ONLY one of the above tires we've talked about that's available here without a special order is the Cooper A/T3. All the rest take 3 to 5 days to get. They say it's a popular size but if that's the case, why don't they stock them?

The stock size on my Dodge 2500 is 265x70R17. The 245x75 is the same diameter and has the same weight rating but is about 1 inch narrower. They handle better and allow more room for front chains.

Got a set of these on my Cherokee XJ now. Would be going into my 5th winter this year. Still siping on all. To date the best A/T I've run.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...Model=Grabber+AT+2&sidewall=Outlined White Letters&partnum=475R7GRAT2OWL&tab=Sizes

While we're on the subject of tires, a quick sidetrack.... Do any of you guys run balance beads in them instead of wheel weights? thoughts?

I have been running Toyo Open Country M/T's on my Landcruiser and my Duramax. They work well and have great traction, but don't last that long (30k miles or so). I intend to try a set of Hankook M/T's the next go around on the Duramax. I prefer a mud terrain for my location and what I do with the vehicles. I had the tires on the Landcruiser siped when new and it performs great in the snow and ice. Much better then the Open Country A/T's I had previously (those weren't siped, however).

I used to run Dyna ceramic balance beads in Tokyo M55s. They worked. The only issue is you should really use nitrogen in the tires. In the winter, when using regular air, the moisture settles in the bottom of the tire with the beads. The mixture freezes and causes lumpy tire until it heats up.

Got a new set of wheels and tires I haven't put together yet. Been thinking on beads but don't know a thing about them.

http://www.innovativebalancing.com

For installation through the valve stem, they offer a little bottle with a gear oil type squirt nozzle and a piece of clear vinyl tubing. After removing the valve core, the bottle is connected to the valve stem with the vinyl tubing. Getting the beads to meter through the tube is slowed as they'll pack themselves into the nozzle and tube. I used an vibrating engraving tool to agitate the beads. Holding the side of the engraver bit on the vinyl tube/valve stem connection created a constant swirling flow of beads into the wheel assembly. It was lickedy-split! My advice would be to install the beads yourself after having the tires mounted and balanced. Every once in a while you'll get a bad tire. Initial road force dynamic balancing will establish a baseline and confirm that the new tires are within spec. Driving on the new tires for a bit will further confirm the tires. I had a bad tire in one set, belts shifted in the first thousand miles. Beads are relatively expensive and your tire guy isn't likely to salvage them for you when mounting the replacement. In this case, beads were strewn all over the floor in a 20' radius around the mounting machine. They were like tiny marbles. In my opinion, for pickup trucks and similar 4x4s, beads are best used with agressive tires that will be used frequently on unpaved and/or poorly maintained surfaces. Large tires with agressive treads typically require more weight to balance. Poor road conditions lead to thrown weights. Mud can build up and dry caked on the backside of the rims. Balance beads are a great alternative to traditional wheel weights in these conditions. In my experience, I ended up using quantities at the maximum end of their recommended range. The first time, II used their more modest estimate and had to order and install more.

If you have TPM's, you have to break the bead to get them in.

Many years ago, J.C, Whitney, ( remember them) sold balancing discs that went on between the brake drum or rotor and the wheel that had some kind of pellets in a thin oil that were supposed to dynamically balance your wheels. Haven't seen them advertised for decades.

Very good point!

Show your Cosco card at discount tire and they will match Cosco prices...

We have had a couple of sets of Cooper AT3 and have been very happy with them. Seem to be pretty decent on the road and decent enough in snow/mud.

Thanks for the input guys. For the record, I ended up with the Cooper A/T3's. They look like great tires but not a small part of my choice was that of all the ones recommended here, that was the ONLY one that I could buy without a special order for my size.
I liked the looks of the BFG KO2's but they don't have any warranty at all while the A/T3's have a 55k warranty.

I'm running LT245 75R17's. The stock size on my pickup is 265 70R17. I prefer the narrower ones. They have the same diameter and weight rating but the narrower tread gives more room for chains plus they handle better. I had 2 shops tell me that this is a very popular size yet they don't stock them.

Haven't heard or read anything but good reports on the A/T3 since they came out.

I hope you like them. I have the ATP's, which are a close cousin and they have held up well so far to summer heat, towing, and some dirt road and trail wheeling on a 3/4 ton diesel. They have also stayed relatively quiet, which is a big plus for me.

Big fan of Michelin light truck tires. Have run them on 3 different trucks now, with the current one being a 2016 Sierra 2500HD Duramax. This past long weekend, I spent 4 days climbing up and down rocky trails of sharp volcanic rocks, and driving through mudholes on trails. The performance of these factory-installed tires is great.