All-terrain tires

[doyoulikeithere]

I will not buy BFG AT's again. I lost sidewalls way too easy.
I have a set of 235-75 goodyear wranglers too, but also waiting to put any miles on till the project is done.

[Meterpig]

I was kind of thinking about the sidewall thing. Can you elaborate what sort of terrain you were in when losing the sidewalls?

I get free hazard repair with costco...so I can lose sidewalls every week and they will replace it for free....was that your experience?

[doyoulikeithere]

I lost 2 BFG-AT to sharp rocks gashing thru the sidewall out in the bush, and I lost a BFG-TA that mysteriously just blew out a big jagged hole in the sidewall on a paved road in town .

[MountainManJoe]

I get free hazard repair with costco

«I had this too and its prorated based on usable remaining treadlife. I got $20 back.

[Meterpig]

Well, I am assuming if you got 20 bucks back, the tire was close to end of life.

Given the other posters experience, I wonder if this is an anomaly or this is general experience. Also, the tire is super popular and everywhere...so I wonder if there are "a lot" of complaints because there are a "a lot" of tires out there.

[loopie]

I think you have the right idea MP.

[doyoulikeithere]

in all fairness, the TA with the mystery blowout was one that I got second hand with some nice rims.
I drove it quite a while before the blowout. It still looked to have lots of tread left.

The AT-KO sidewalls, one looked like a pinch. It was a kinda triangle shape like those old can openers used to make.
The other looked like a clean cut about 3 inches long, straight up n down .
The pinch was a bit rough but I thought it coulda survived.
as for the slash, I didnt see what cut it. Sharp Rock is my guess.
I was going up a rocky hill.

[MountainManJoe]

Ok, so I have a new experience to add with my new tires, not even 15 mins ago.

I was driving home, which is on top of a hill. Conditions quickly changes to sub-zero (freezing for ya yanks), and I took a corner... Bad news: the road was glazed and the tires let go and I jumped a curb. Good news: The tire withstood the impact! ... bad news: the rim bent a little bit. ](*,)

From my experience, I am convinced a BFG A/T would not have survived that. I'm so glad I don't have to replace a new tire. Whew!

[doyoulikeithere]

Wow, thats a great story!
I'm glad for you too.
Good Tires SHOULD be able to jump a curb, or climb a rock without puncturing.

Here's to BFG AT's

[MountainManJoe]

On the other hand, the BFGs may not have slipped in the first place.

[Meterpig]

Hmm, something to think about.

Our vans run 2 and 2 plies right? I wonder if those running the LT's do better than the P/TA variety.

[Meterpig]

So I went down to Costco again and got a quote for stock size - 215's. 650 bucks out the door. This is where it is interesting. Costco claims that the tires are LT rated (7 plies he said). Tirerack.com doesn't specify either and the load rating is 100s-nothing to write home about.

Checking BFgoodrich's site-indeed they are LT's but really light ones. They could be 7 plies, but that would be odd.

So, bottom lines-anyone own this tire?

[loopie]

^Own what tire MP? The BFG AT? Yup...I've owned several sets. But all were from new. ZERO issues except for sticky mud or really deep snow...and I offroaded a lot...plus "real" winter conditions.

[MountainManJoe]

The tire plies are stamped right on the sidewall above the words "all-terrain". You can sort of see it in the picture on page 1. I think it says 3 polyester layers, 2 nylon and 2 steel belts. Tires used to rated in be plies, but with modern construction techniques, I don't think that has significance anymore, and it's just kinda used for marketing.

It's practically impossible to find information that matters, like how thick the layers are, or how they've been bonded or permeated, the type of rubber compound etc. Even then I think the information would just give false impressions.

The UTQG rating system is baloney because there is no real standard.

There are only two standards that manufacturers are required to meet and report to you, and those are load and speed. LT all-terrain tires in your size are all 104 Q, R or S. That works out to 900kg and 160, 170 and 180 km/h respectively. This is so you can easily tell how much you can load at the max pressure and how fast you can go with it before they fail from stress and overheating.

There are loose standards for meeting the severe snow requirement, and they are easily fudged. Mud+snow rated probably means some guy takes a look at the tire and goes, "Hmm... you can probably drive in mud and snow with these".

What concerns ME, is does the tire meets my needs (that includes budget), and the only way to know that is through real world testing. Either 1st hand, or objective testimony from someone else, and even then it's hard to do that in controlled conditions. I drive very differently from the next guy.

BFG AT's are a decent tire. They're quiet and excellent in the snow. I mainly just didn't like how easily they wear. Plus if you get them from Costco, the road hazard guarantee is nice.

[T.Low]

I've had them on a few different 4x4's that I've owned in the past, but for my van i wanted to emphasis rain performance along with light offroading, so I went with the Kelly Pathfinder and was pleasantly suprised at it's offroad prowess.