 | Home > Wheels & Tyres > M/Ts on the road? |
 
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20545  
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I use MT’s on the road 95% of the time, just go easy with sudden braking in the wet.
Other than that, I wouldn’t go back. For your use ATR would be a toss up, but I use MTR all the time. KEEP CALM AND Drill ON 🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴🇮🇪🇺🇸⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪 |
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19th Jan 2025 9:14pm |
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| Grouse Member Since: 16 Apr 2012 Location: on the hill Posts: 522 |
Speaking from experience Cooper STT muds in 265/75/16 are noisy.
Toyo 255/85/16 Muds are very quiet in comparison |
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19th Jan 2025 9:15pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20545
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255/85 KM2 for me currently, would go for KM3 in future.
 KEEP CALM AND Drill ON
🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴🇮🇪🇺🇸⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪 |
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19th Jan 2025 9:22pm |
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| Joe22 Member Since: 28 Apr 2023 Location: North West England Posts: 28  
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Thanks, both.
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19th Jan 2025 9:34pm |
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| Ianh Member Since: 17 Sep 2018 Location: Essex Posts: 2092
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I’m running 255/85r16 BFG KM3 MT’s mounted on genuine sawtooth alloys on my 2.2 110. Had them for circa 12 months now. All has been very good so far.
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19th Jan 2025 9:40pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20545
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Ian - Did you have KM2 before those or were they new to you? KEEP CALM AND Drill ON
🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴🇮🇪🇺🇸⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪 |
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19th Jan 2025 9:53pm |
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| MarkBrown Member Since: 03 Oct 2022 Location: Mid Wales Posts: 492  
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I've used M/T's for the last twenty years, all but a set of Insa Dakar's
( deafening and didn't last long ) were great. Usually 25 - 30k, by which time they are properly useless. I've had several sets of new unbranded ones, BFG's, Coopers, Kumho's and currently Toyo's. They're all much the same, but given the choice my favourites would be the Toyo Open Country ( currently fitted ) and the BFG Track Edge ( decade's ago ). My feeling is that when a M/T is worn down it will still work pretty well in the mud, but an A/T when worn is pretty hopeless. Overall the road manners of them all have been excellent, but they don't like wet roundabouts if taken too briskly. Also the patterns of M/T I've had have all been like a heavy A/T rather than a full on M/T, this probably makes quite a difference on the road. 1983 110 automatic OM606 |
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19th Jan 2025 10:09pm |
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| Ianh Member Since: 17 Sep 2018 Location: Essex Posts: 2092
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Prior to the KM3’s I had 256/75 r16 Goodyear wrangler Durartrac AT’s, they were quite an aggressive tread pattern. They were on from new but after 10 plus years were noisy and deteriorating, even though that had a lot of tread left. The KM3s have been reassuringly good in all weathers , including the rain, but then I dont try to drive it like a boy racer. |
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19th Jan 2025 11:09pm |
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| Chicken Drumstick Member Since: 17 Aug 2020 Location: Near MK Posts: 765
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This is a bit of an open question.... What MT's are you looking at? They aren't all equal. Also your AT's are very much a road biased AT. It will also depend how quiet and refined your vehicle is. If its a Tdi, then you may not notice an MT as much as you will in a Td5 or Puma. Also how you drive will make a difference, if you like to push hard in the corners, you'll feel it (the vehicle) moving about on the MT lugs more so than an AT in the dry. And most likely less grip in the wet. Now I'm a complete MT fan..... and have owned/own and run many different ones, including some rather aggressive ones. And I agree, they do generally look better. Trade offs will likely be noise, grip and feel and maybe ride. Modern MTs can be very good and ones with sipes in should work well in many conditions. In fact in places like the USA some vehicles come factory fitted with MT tyres. However..... If you don't heavily off road, a good All Terrain is probably the better bet. I fitted AT's to my Jimny 4 1/2 years ago as it was my daily driver and until covid hit, I was doing a lot of miles. But I've been super impressed with the ATs, even in the mud and off road. So much so I fitted the same tread to a Ninety I use for running about in and laning and then renewed the set on the Jimny last month. The tyres are Maxxis Wormdrive AT980. They are an aggressive AT, but I really can't fault them. Rain, shine, snow or a wet & muddy Salisbury Plain. 
If you want a half way house, take a look at some of the RT tyres, they are just getting a little more popular in the UK. They often look way more aggressive than they really are. Click image to enlarge |
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19th Jan 2025 11:58pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20545
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Ian - That’s good to hear.
Maxxis do some nice tyres too, but the two things that I’d consider is tyre life, compared to BFG, and also the Maxxis does have a lower speed rating than BFG. KEEP CALM AND Drill ON 🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴🇮🇪🇺🇸⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪 |
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20th Jan 2025 10:44am |
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| Chris86 Member Since: 15 Jul 2014 Location: South Yorks Posts: 793 
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Hello,
As I think a couple of people have alluded to, the performance does vary significantly brand to brand- Im very lucky I both run off road driver training and also assist with testing tyres, so I get to drive lots of varieties of tyres on different vehicles. On the road the most significant difference you will see will be in wet braking and cornering- if you like a "sporty" drive then an AT would likely be a better bet for you. We currently run Toyo MT on our Defender, I'd happily recommend them, they are amongst the best mannered MT I have driven on the road, we ran a set on our L200 too which lasted close to 40k miles, if I was being super critical, they did get quite noisy toward the last 10k miles but that is as much down to the vehicle as the tyre- the L200 has a tendency to wear tyres on the front in a slightly unusual way (as do quite a few of the pickups). We are now on Yokohama MT on the L200, which are the easiest MT I have ever seen to balance ( they took very little weight), the RFV measurement was better than a set of 19 inch premium UHP tyres that we fitted immediately afterwards! They drive really well, but it is very noticeable in this recent cold snap that the performance does suffer on road- more so than the Toyos on the 110... My advice would be to try and jump in a few folks vehicles on different tyres and see how you get on. Chris |
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20th Jan 2025 11:42am |
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| Chicken Drumstick Member Since: 17 Aug 2020 Location: Near MK Posts: 765
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The Wormdrives areQ rated which is 99mph, the BFG looks to be S, although the KO2 is (or was) available in different grades and ply ratings. I assume with a different speed rating too. S is 112mph. I'd suggest for your average Defender, or even highly modded one. Either speed rating would be suitable and unlikely to be a decision point on such a tyre. Price wise is harder to gauge. Looking at the tyres on a single site, the BFG KO2 is 37% more expensive, which is fairly significant. Especially if you are buying 5 tyres. As for how they last, my brother has KO2's on his Ninety. They have lasted very well, but then the Maxxis have lasted pretty good too. I'd say the BFG does look like it will last longer, but if it will last 37% more miles I'm not so sure. So maybe this comes down to how many miles you are doing. If you are in the 20,000 - 25,000 miles a year + camp. The BFG may make better sense on a miles to £ ratio. If you are more in the sub 10,000 miles a year camp. You may not see the advantage, as by the time the BFGs start to wear, they will likely be very quite old and past their best just due to time and exposure to UV. |
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20th Jan 2025 1:05pm |
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| Chicken Drumstick Member Since: 17 Aug 2020 Location: Near MK Posts: 765
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I think they are well mannered, because for an MT they are very mild. They do look MT style, but they perform much closer to an AT off road in the mud. So despite their naming and branding, I'd personally group them more as an RT type tyre and more akin to the KO2 or Wormdrive in off road ability. Something like a KM3 is vastly better in the mud and there are even better MT tyres than the KM3 out there if you are doing more serious off roading* * UK type off road terrain; mud, grass, clay, sand, gravel. |
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20th Jan 2025 1:08pm |
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| Chris86 Member Since: 15 Jul 2014 Location: South Yorks Posts: 793
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We have been here before.
And I'm afraid I'm going to disagree with you again, its slightly beside the point as the OP is asking about performance on the road. I would say that in really thick clay/mud they are probably outperformed by the likes of the Bridgestone Dueller and probably this latest set of Yokohamas we are running on the pickup. However, we have been consistently impressed by them on sand, gravel and wet grass- also by their damage and chip resistance- and we DO get to compare performance week in, week out back to back with other vehicles on training courses and difficult access work. In the more scientific side of it I am involved with testing tyres independently for tyre production companies (none of whom are Toyo..........) As an MT and an allrounder they are pretty hard to beat. I possibly recounted the story before, but in a back to back mud terrain tyre test where we had 7 sets of tyres from different manufacturers PLUS the partworn Toyos fitted for the course setting out: - Brand new tyres (all 7 sets) - Same Car - Same Driver (s) (test repeated twice to ensure no bias) - Same ballasting of the car - Same test route and obstacles - Same tyre pressures - Same gear choice and entry speed into obstacles There were only 2 sets of tyres that completed the entire route which included, sand, sandstone, clay, wet grass, lighter loam type mud........One was the Toyos, which were not even part of the test as they were not new......... Had I been able to get another set of Toyos when it came to to replace the first set, thats what would have gone back on. Anyway, as I said, not the OP's original question, and Ill cease replying at this point, but I think its important that a balanced view is given. Chris |
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20th Jan 2025 2:50pm |
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