Cooper Rugged Trek Mountain or Knife

Finally dumping the Bridgestones that came on my SR5. They look ugly and they flat spot bad if I am parked for a couple days. The dealer and Bridgestone refuse to make it right. So I decided to go full mall crawler and ordered some Cooper Rugged Treks. Discount is giving me 45 per tire for the Bridgestones so I get something out of them. Now I have to decide what sidewall to show. The mountain sidewall or knife sidewall. I am thinking the mountains out. What have other picked.

 

You should explain that the tire comes with two different sidewalls. I’ll post a picture for you.

If I had to pick one I’d pick the mountain side. But I know I’m in the minority when I say I wish there were AT tires available for grown-ups that didn’t have the stupid sidewall sculpting.

 

Mountain.

 

Flip a coin: Heads it's mountain, tails it's not knife.

 

"The Mountain" tread pattern has more edges, might grab onto rocks slightly more easily, so it should face out.

 

Congratulations! I had same issues with my Dueler HT's. Dumped them after 34,000 miles. The worst tires I ever had on a new vehicle.
I got Yokohama Geolander AT Go15's in stock size. They are snow rated and ride like a dream. Again...Congratulations!

 

I think mountains look better and as someone else pointed out, may have more edges. I forgot to specify when I had my lift put on and switched to these tires so I unfortunately got knives out.

Such is life. I ignored it at first but, now that I have a hitch mounted spare tire carrier, those damn mountains are staring at me in the rearview mirror everything I look

 

How is your wet road traction and noise with them? I decided not to get KO2s and get the Coopers because of the complaints I keep reading about their wet traction.

 

So when I had them installed, they were inflated to 38 psi cold. That would have been correct for E load but I have SL/P loads so they were overinflated (285/70r17). I could tell from the dirt on the treads that the edges weren't touching (kinda like a chalk test) and they rode hard. While overinflated I was able to break traction in the wet while trying - making a 90 degree onto another road, going uphill, from a complete stop. Traction control quickly kicked in and stopped wheel spin.

I have since dropped to 28 psi cold and it rides SO much better. I drove through one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever been through, with flooded roads, and I didn't feel any hydroplaning but we had slowed down quite a lot. I haven't had a chance to "try" breaking wet traction since dropping psi because we haven't had a lot of rain this summer but I bet it'd be much harder or impossible now.

I've been very happy with traction and noise. They are quieter than I expected, although I typically have the radio up pretty loud. Even with radio off they sound like any other AT I've driven, if not a bit quieter. I think they're great considering they lean more towards an AT/MT hybrid and are very aggressive.

 

Thanks for the info. Your results are what I am finding from others that have them. I guess if they were just really bad for me I could swap them out using Discounts satisfaction policy.

I am getting the stock size of 265/70r17 XL load rated same as P I guess. Do you have a lift on yours to allow you to get the 285s on?

 

I wish the 285s came in XL or C but they were only P or E. E is a bit overkill for my uses and are much heavier so I thought I'd try P and if I get too many flats then I can go to something heavier.

I do have a lift, Dobinson IMS (around 2.5/1.5). Also have Dobinson UCAs. I still had to do the fender liner tuck and trim but I asked for 3.5+ degrees of castor to try and prevent mud flat/body mount rub so I expected rubbing in the front.