1 of 4
Bryan Irons photos
BFGoodrich KO2 - Review
On-road noise has been well sorted out by BFG.
2 of 4
Bryan Irons photos
BFGoodrich KO2 - Review
Alternating corner blocks keep the sidewalls biting with every other tread block.
3 of 4
Bryan Irons photos
BFGoodrich KO2 - Review
Healthy tread block siping means the KO2 works well in the white stuff.
4 of 4
Bryan Irons photos
BFGoodrich KO2 - Review
As these are meant for casual wheelers, you won’t melt these down on tarmac.
Review & photos by Bryan Irons
The Real Deal - Can the BFGoodrich KO2 be the best of both worlds?
Subtle changes split the hairs between a kindergarten finger painting and a Kandinsky abstract art piece. But to be honest, yours truly can’t tell the difference between a “fridger” and art gallery gold. Tire carcasses get our saliva glands going over canvases any day and it would seem the minute changes in BFGoodrich’s KO tire line were blatantly obvious to us… but not all.
Editor Mack got the first stab at the new KO2 All Terrain back when it was first released. Under BFG’s controlled conditions in a resort getaway, he liked the new All Terrain. We’re not here to judge, but the groomed “off-road” trails and 55-series tires on a dead stock Chevy weren’t making us want to pound back the last drop of kool-aid from the Sippy-cup. We got a set of LT285/70R17’s (33-in) shipped up and threw them on our 99 Dodge Dakota with the help of www.wheelspacers.ca for wheel adapters and scored a set of stock Jeep JK Rubicon wheels.
With the addition of 33-in rubber and a modern 17-in wheel, the truck had “the look”, but it would appear that wheel well openings in the 90’s are not as voluptuous as many of the new generation. The rubbing was marginal during street and logging road testing, but no matter how much plastic we hacked from the fenders, they kept eating away at the truck. Our solution was to swap them around to a few different rigs so as a result, this particular set of KO2’s has been on more trucks than a fair ground outhouse has seen butts. This ultimately gave us the opportunity to try the KO2’s on a few different rigs with various objectives.
We had the tires mounted to a set of winter beater 17’s and threw them under “Stinky Jeep” for a little beating. 33’s on a rig that wears 37’s normally made for some FAST intersection takeoffs and fun in the hills for the few days we had them on. Traction in the dirt and loose gravel roads was slightly improved over the blocky, hardcore slippers the Jeep normally wears. Light mud wasn’t an issue and did better then the previous generation BFG AT likely due to the stepped side lugs now present, allowing each alternating tread block to take a larger bite out of the goo. We did get to play in a little sand during our journey (the Okanagan is a desert after all) and needed to drop the tire pressure a little to keep on top.
The latest user in our trifecta of rigs is my own daily driver half-ton Ram. Typically, a set of tires that that often get confused with the BFG AT are run for the winter months. This made for an easy comparison to the look-a-like. This set of AT KO2’s are snowflake rated and drove that point home supplying more hard pack snow and ice bite then the previous generation AT KO and the copycat. We won’t go as far as to exclaim that they are a winter tire replacement, but with the excellent 3D siping, they will get you around during the cold season(s).
Street touring is where we spend the vast majority of our driving time, despite our lofty dreams of never having to touch asphalt again, so we paid particular attention to the changes made to the new BFG offering. Our gripe with the old KO series was the noisy sidewall tread while cornering and feeling them walk under pressure. That feeling is gone and as is the tires sirens song, with the addition of a very stable and square tread. Overall, tire volume is on par with the last design from BFG. The ride is very smooth for an All-Terrain but make no mistake; it’s not a high performance pavement gripper… and never was. No cold morning flat spot issues arose, as with a few tires we have tested in the past.
For those hauling heavy loads, the tough sidewall with BFG’s “CoreGard” and 1,450 kg rating, give the KO2 a claimed 20% stronger sidewall. We do know that hauling a portly Jeep on the back of our truck loaded with camping gear was effortless for these BFG’s, which was not true for the “fakers” and the factory passenger car tires the truck came with.
After a year of swapping between different rigs for different terrains, we found that *sigh* editor Mack was right after all… this new generation of AT KO2 shows that BFGoodrich came through with an improvement on an already well done and respected tire. This tire is not “hardcore”, and was never meant to be, as BGF offers other rubber for that, but if you are in the market for a strong tire with great road manners, to get you to you favourite fishing hole, this is it. Which reminds us, we have some more driving to do if we’re ever going to wear these tires out!
- BFGoodrich – www.bfgoodrichtires.ca
- Wheel Spacers – www.wheelspacers.ca