New owner 2022 ORP --> BFG K02 tire pressure advice

Hello everyone. I pulled the trigger after seeing a large tire store had a BFG 4TH Of July promotion. I paid $1150 for 4 tires and they gave me or I traded my other 5 Dunlop tires for a matching spare.
I've had these tires on my Chevy trucks for years and have had great luck with them.
I decided to go with the 6 ply rated tire because we will not be doing any hard core off-roading with the new Runner and would love some advice on what tire pressure everyone is running when driving on the street. The one guy who worked there said he was running 35PSI and when I left the store they had put 44PSI in them and the test drive and ride home felt pretty good but, lowered it down to 38 PSI for now until everyone can chime in.
Happy 4TH everyone!

 

I don't have KO2's, I have General ATX which is similar. I typically run 38. I could get a softer ride if I went down, however, I do a lot of highway driving so the extra PSI is helpful for handling and mileage. I noticed a difference at 32 PSI, which is what the dealer I purchased them set them at. If I mostly drove around town, I probably would keep them at 32 because it IS a nice ride.

 

I have stock size KO2s on my 4R. I don't claim to know the best scientific answer to this, but I keep mine cold at 37-38 psi. In the summer (hot here) they will get up to 42-44 psi after running awhile. I've tried running higher cold but don't like the rough ride on some of the not so smooth paved roads around here. Off road I'm too lazy to air down any except in very deep sand.

 

I ran 42 cold in my C load bfg on my last 4Runner. I had 40k on them when I traded it. Very even wear and no noise. I also rotated every 5k.

 

He is running same as my taste too. I too like to run 34ish PSI for both time BFG Ko2 265 and 285/70R17 load C. When I chat with BFG customer care they ask me to run 50psi for 285/70R17 load C for a 4runner. No way I will run at max psi. 34ish is my sweet spot.

 

I run 38 psi in my KO2s. Go down to 34 psi in winter months.

 

Welcome to the forum. We all make the mistake of posting about some topic that's been covered when new. I did it...twice

At any rate, most are willing to help out. And the link he posted is quite helpful.

Enjoy your 4runner (it looks awesome in the pics). Happy 4th to you!

 

The corporate calculator that Snickel Fritz said to look at is saying to run 44 PSI . I think I would rather hear from some member who actually drives the same vehicle and has the same tires as I do because 44 PSI is just a little to much for my taste. Maybe that calculator was made up from some tire company and they just want me to burn up the center of my tire real fast so I can spend another $1150 dollars.

 

The calculator says I should run 40 psi. I am happy at 38 for daily driving.

 

I have KO2's as well. 38 psi and 20 for offroad.

 

I actually called BFG when I purchased my KO2’s years ago. They get your vehicle info and give you their recommendations. I was told 40 psi for the 4Runner, so that is what I run.

I have just over 40,000 on them now and I hate them. They are getting noisy and they are horrible in the monsoon’s out here in AZ. They are wearing evenly though, they just suck in the rain.

 

I’ve used the tire chalk method several years now & had great wear results with several different tire manufacturers.

 

OP, honestly, I would just decide for yourself. Everybody's preferences for ride and handling versus fuel economy are different, as well as people's driving styles, driving conditions, and off-roading conditions. What works for you may not work for somebody else, and vice versa. Now that you've gotten suggestions ranging anywhere from 32 to 44, seems like you're now in the same boat as when you startex off, Lol.

I honestly would just play with it. Somebody suggested the chalk test, go with that, or just go with your butt. Start at say 32 and slowly go up every couple days.

Or just read the sticker on the door jamb and do what Toyota recommends.

I run 38 in my tires, which I mostly arbitrarily chose. I thought 32 rode nice, but after the first week of having them at that I was only getting 17 MPG, down from like 22 before the tire change. So bumping up to 38 gave me most of my fuel economy back, and didn't make the ride miserable.

I drive about 350 mi a week, mostly highway, so highway ride, handling, and MPG are more important to me than a soft ride around town.

If you just mostly drive around town and don't too many miles a week, you may be quite happy at 32 because it does ride nice and cushy.

It's all about what works for you.

 

Tire pressure is always a balance. The more psi the better the fuel mileage and the stiffer the ride. The recommended psi by the manufacturer is based off the load rating of a P Vs C tire and the trucks weight. C normally needs more psi to have same weight rating.

 

I don’t have the exact same tires as you, but I do have 275-E KO2’s. The link recommended 42PSI to me, which I thought was crazy, until I realized that the link wouldn’t have been recommended by so many people here who use it religiously if it were garbage. I drove it for a few days at 35psi, but it just felt imbalanced and sluggish. Finally bit the bullet and tried 42, and haven’t gone back. But, that’s just one man’s experience.

 

I love my K02’s (c rated, 265’s, I run them 38 psi cold).

But for the love of all that's holy, slow down for standing water!!! Hydroplane central! Cripes do these thing skip right over the top of puddles at 45 and above.

 

Really? I have them and it rains a ton here in the PNW and I think they do great in the rain

 

I have had them on heavy trucks and felt they worked good in the rain for me but haven't had to drive the 4Runner in the rain yet so I am open to all opinions.

 

They are ok in rain, I have no problems with wet traction.

But they dont seem to clear water all that well. I hit standing water on an interchange once, going about 50 max. Thank goodness I was going straight, and not fast. For the second that I was over the puddle, I was in “air-hockey puck” mode. Surprised me because they were brand new at the time (I guess that means the puddle was deeper than the lugs.

 

Here is an update. I got the tires and Dis-count-tire set them to 44 PSI. The store was near the interstate so I did a 70 MPH run and everything felt pretty good. I did lower down the pressure to 36 PSI and the next morning I had a wobble in the steering wheel around 45 MPH so I went up to 38 PSI. Over the next few day the steering wobble would vary from slight to pretty bad so I went to 42 PSI. Then my wife takes the Runner this weekend birthday shopping with my daughter and comes back and says it was really shaking on the interstate (she already wasn't happy that I spent the extra money on new tires) I then put it back to 44 PSI and the wobble really was strange. It would be at 45 MPH then at 60 MPH. Today I took it back to dis-count-tire to ask them to rebalance and they found the right front tire was visually jumping when on the machine. Dis-count-tire replaced the tire and it felt good on the way home. They asked me what PSI I wanted to run and they set it to 38 PSI. Hopefully this will be the last comment I have to make on this thread about something being wrong.

 

I use discount tire exclusively & anytime I have tires balanced, I get the road force numbers from the technician BEFORE they mount them. Anything over 15 lbs & I’ll have them order another tire before mounting the bad one. I’ve done this twice in the past & never had a problem.
Discount uses the Hunter machines which are top shelf…

 

Anything over 40 is too high despite what some say, load E is a different story. I run 37/38 cold which puts me at around 41/42 hot depending on how long I am on the road. Shakes though... these fellas sure do like to shake around 60.

 

C load tire stock size pressure should never go under 35 psi (cold) on highway. You can refer to pressure table for example here: LT-Metric Tire Load Inflation Chart - TirePressure.org . I normally run my C load tires on 36-38psi and it worked fine for the past 10 years. On higher pressures like 44 psi tires have less traction - only central part of the tread touches the road.

 

Your first mistake was buying K02's. Utilize that tire calculator though it's a great tool.

 

I'm surprised it made it almost an entire page before somebody came out talking trash.

I have used KO2's, as have a lot of people I know without any issues.

What problem did you have with yours?

 

Exactly. BFG's have made this tire and the older KO before that for many many decades so yeah that whole trash talk is just that.

 

If my claims were unfounded I guess you could categorize that as trash talk. K02's are garbage, wore terrible, bad in the slick stuff and become drag slicks 1/2 way through their life. They were the king 15 years ago before they compromised their quality.

 

Boooooo!!!

 

KO2 may be pretty bad tire to some but to me they are better all-rounder than Falken Wildpeak AT3W & Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac.

But I don't deny the fact Falken Wildpeak AT3W have a softer ride and Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac are better on snow and ice on pavement. But for do it all A/T tire I like KO2 better, especially the grip offroad on rocky CO trails.

 

Your experience is the exception. They wore like iron for me, and that seems to be the norm for them.

What size and load range were yours?

What do you have now?

For every great tire, there will always be some people who have a bad experience. That doesn't make them garbage.

Edit: I'm not trying to say that you didn't have a bad experience. I don't know why they are so bad for some. It could be environmental factors, or just a bad batch.

You're obviously not the first to dislike them.