Stone Drilling

Ok curious to hear if others have had this issue. I have been running BFG KO2's in load range C for the last year or so. I've run my tires on off-road probably 20-25 times over the last 18 months. I typically air down to 17-20 PSI and I get tons of smaller stones lodged in the tread of the KO2s. I've already had two stone drilling issues where I get a slow leak and had to change my tire on trail.

The tires now have about 26K on them and Ive gotten so fed up Im trading out the KO2s for Toyo RT trail in load range E. I know flats are part of off-roading and CO has it share of tougher trails and passes but this seems pretty excessive for lower mileage tires. Super interested to hear other peoples thoughts.

 

Maybe air down less or your area just needed a different load range than C.

 

Surprised not to see any responses or thoughts on this. Maybe I should have made a poll to see how many people are running load C and doing lots of off-loading in rocky places. I think BFG KO2s remain one of the most popular 4Runner tires - so Im kinda feeling like maybe my experience has been an anomaly.

 

I have 15K miles on 33x10.5x15, load range C, KO2’s. About 80% of the miles are off road in rocky conditions and I have had zero issues. I run 15 psi off road and 32psi on the pavement. I ran 31’s for about 20k miles, also with no issues, except for cactus spines in the side wall.

 

C load, E's are fine but heavy and not the proper tire. IMO

You also may not need to air down so much if you are mostly encountering these stones that get caught.

My Duratracs in C load have been perfect on/off road, but they do have bigger tread spaces and self-cleaning blocks.

 

My reasoning for getting E1s is mostly because of the job sites I visit, but general off road toughness is definitely a plus. I got two or three flats in five or six months with my Nitto Terra Grapplers factory Cs. So far so good with the Es.

 

Thanks all - I really didn't want to go load E because of the weight and mileage hit but Im hate not feeling confident in my tires when I off-road. I will say the BFG KO2s have had great traction under lots of conditions but drilling in areas with sharp rocks seem to be their kryptonite. At the end of the day the tire and size combo I wanted (Toyo Open Country RT trail in 285 75/R17) only came in a load E so it was a moot point. I'll report back on how the RT trails do in the rocks.

 

I agree on the C load.

E Load should do better handling those rocks any way. Could have done KO2's in E load too.