Need to upgrade tires: AT P vs. C load?

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Bar01

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I'm finding trying to decide on an upgrade to the stock Bridgestone Dueller HT tire is worse than the actual vehicle buying decision. I want to stay with the 265/70/17 size. I was at Discount tire and they strongly recommend the Goodyear Wrangler UltraTerrain AT in P rating based on my needs. I am 95% pavement with the hopes of doing 5% off road. I have a trip planned to Estes Park in the near future and the most difficult trail I would do would be something like this: YouTube
With that said... in your experience, would you go with a P rated AT or a more substantial C rated AT (thinking a 6 ply KO2). Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Bar01 said:
P or C load?
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For what you described and I saw in that video, the AT3W In P would be perfect. They have a 2ply sidewall but it’s folded over on itself so the majority of he sidewall is fairly thick. I did the totally scientific finger pinch before they were mounted and compared to some other popular ATs and found they were thicker than most. The only 2-ply thin areas were between the arrow shaped shoulder lugs.

I’ve done a few trails much more rigorous than that video with my P-rated 265/70/17 AT3Ws and aired down to 21 psi and they performed outstanding. I won’t go much lower than that unless the terrain is totally sand.

Just my .02. They make a 265 and 285 in P, as well as a 275 in C (newer release but it’s about as heavy as the 285).
 
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I went with the new Cooper AT3 LT in C load 265/70/17 size. Slightly more aggressive than the prior version. Great in snow and rain.

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Bar01 said:
P or C load?
Click to expand...

Diablo6 said:
I’ve done a few trails much more rigorous than that video with my P-rated 265/70/17 AT3Ws and aired down to 21 psi and they performed outstanding. I won’t go much lower than that unless the terrain is totally sand.

Just my .02. They make a 265 and 285 in P, as well as a 275 in C (newer release but it’s about as heavy as the 285).
Click to expand...

% means nothing for tires. You can have a crawler that only does 0.2 mile long trails to 2.0 mile long trails. It will need the strongest tires. You may only do easy trails but if they are covered by small sharp rocks, they will be anything but easy for the tires.

C-load Wildpeak gives nothing over P for offroad per Falken themselves. It is nearly 10 pounds heavier per tire. I would not touch a D or E load that does not also have a 3rd ply in the sidewall.

P-metric has been good for me in the harsh Southwest terrain but not perfect on the 4R. Airing them down is a mistake.

There is no need to air down P metric tires for traction or comfort. You are exposing the sidewalls at 21 psi a great deal. One rock in the right spot at the right time and you are done. I have thousands of miles on P metric tires offroad and keeping them at street/near street pressures is the ticket.

The Ultraterrain is a lot more expensive than the Wildpeak with nothing to show for the price differential.

The Discount TIre certificates help.
 
I have C-range KO2s, the C range feel just as comfortable on road as P tires. They're heavier, I have about .5mpg drop, but I havent experienced the harsh ride you get with E range tires.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
I had the Cooper AT3s in 265 C-rated and found they were ridiculously stiff on the 4 runner (they actually felt better on my Touareg).
I now have the Wildpeaks in 285 P and feel they'll be fine for me.
 
First of all, an E rated tire doesn't necessarily have 10 plies and neither does a C rated tire mean it has 6 plies. It depends on the manufacturer and how thick and strong each ply is.

My opinion is to go with a C rated tire that is lightweight. For some reason the Falken C rated tire is almost as heavy as the E rated tire. I would recommend the C rated K02. The 265/70R17 tire is 45.5 lbs. Not bad for an all terrain tire. It is only 2 ply but they are thicker than the E rated plies which has 3.

The Jeeps at a rental place in Ouray, CO have Rubicon's with KO2 C-rated and they have them on the trails 99% of the time and no problems.

You may get by with a P-rated tire off road, but in my case I blew out 2 P-rated tires at once on my old Ford Escape on a very mild "4x4" road. Granted, they were Continental Contratracs which suck but I did read one post on here with someone with a Duratrac blowing out on a Jeep trail.

I have the 285/70R17 KO2s C-rated tires on my rig and love them. 51.5 lbs
 
MAST4R said:
% means nothing for tires. You can have a crawler that only does 0.2 mile long trails to 2.0 mile long trails. It will need the strongest tires. You may only do easy trails but if they are covered by small sharp rocks, they will be anything but easy for the tires.

C-load Wildpeak gives nothing over P for offroad per Falken themselves. It is nearly 10 pounds heavier per tire. I would not touch a D or E load that does not also have a 3rd ply in the sidewall.

P-metric has been good for me in the harsh Southwest terrain but not perfect on the 4R. Airing them down is a mistake.

There is no need to air down P metric tires for traction or comfort. You are exposing the sidewalls at 21 psi a great deal. One rock in the right spot at the right time and you are done. I have thousands of miles on P metric tires offroad and keeping them at street/near street pressures is the ticket.

The Ultraterrain is a lot more expensive than the Wildpeak with nothing to show for the price differential.

The Discount TIre certificates help.
Click to expand...

Sorry to dig up this thread, but here I am. I went with P265/70R17 Wildpeaks on my 2023 ORP. Just did California/Engineer/Cinnamon passes in Colorado, and they did fine. Super love how they drive on-road as well. I aired them down to like 30psi offroad (or maybe it ended up being 28psi, can't quite remember) in the hopes of a little more comfort. I figured being a P-metric, I shouldn't air them down all too much. Even 25psi sounds like it might be working a P-metric's sidewalls too hard. It's tricky to research "offroading with P metrics", because there's at most 1/10th the information/opinion from experience that there are compared to offroading with LT's. There's still a lot of guys who think you'll pop all 4 P-metrics the second you get on a maintained dirt road.
 
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I have AT3W Wildpeaks 285/70-17 P rated tires and really like the performance on and off road. I’m like you, daily driver, 95% on road, 5% off per year. Smooth ride. I had E rated KO2’s in a 275 prior and they were a little rough. A C in the tire of your choice would be the highest load rated tire I would get for your needs.
Remember to check tire weight also.
 
I don’t think you can go wrong with the AT3W Wildpeaks, Cooper AT3s or BFG KO2. With the Wildpeaks and Cooper you get more bang and tread for the money but with the KO2s you get a little bit more of a quieter ride.

As for P or C tires, P tires may be more of a bargain price wise and you may get better gas mileage than C but off road they can be a little more risky than C tires. If you’re going to travel primarily on dirt roads or short distance on a trail a P may be fine as long as you carry a spare but if you want to travel further off trail or want more of a piece of mind traveling off road go for the C tires.

I spend about 85-90% on the road, off-road most on dirt roads when going camping but a few times I suddenly found myself in rough rocky terrain. My BFG KO2s got me through with no problems. My point here is when driving off road even on a maintained dirt road you never know what you might run into.
 
thatoneguy said:
Sorry to dig up this thread, but here I am. I went with P265/70R17 Wildpeaks on my 2023 ORP. Just did California/Engineer/Cinnamon passes in Colorado, and they did fine. Super love how they drive on-road as well. I aired them down to like 30psi offroad (or maybe it ended up being 28psi, can't quite remember) in the hopes of a little more comfort. I figured being a P-metric, I shouldn't air them down all too much. Even 25psi sounds like it might be working a P-metric's sidewalls too hard. It's tricky to research "offroading with P metrics", because there's at most 1/10th the information/opinion from experience that there are compared to offroading with LT's. There's still a lot of guys who think you'll pop all 4 P-metrics the second you get on a maintained dirt road.
Click to expand...

Yup but surely not me. I have done Fins and Things, Elephant Hill, Kamikaze, among others, and the Maze on P-metric Wildpeaks. I have done 1,200 dirt miles in Montana including dozens of miles over sticks and tree branches, no issues. All the Sedona trails. No issues.

But there are 2 massive problems I had with my total 7 Wildpeak tires:
1/ Their good thread only lasted 10,000 miles at most
2/ They pop like popcorn in the SW parts of Arizona.

In fact, longevity was so bad, I had broken it down here before:

Up to 5,000 miles "best tire ever"
5 to 10,000 miles: "great tire"

10-15,000 miles "oh, really?"
15,000 miles+: searching for replacement.

So I had it with Wildpeaks when the experience repeated.
 
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like2lean said:
I'm leaning toward the Mickey Baja Boss in 265, can anyone compare them to the KO2?
Click to expand...

I am finishing my Baja ATZ P3 now at 34,000 miles and still usable on and offroad. They will make it to spring next year and 40k, as per warranty. Never had an AT before that lasted so well, since 2010.

I am looking at the Baja Boss AT as the obvious replacement though looks like the tread may be a bit different.

I have had LTD Ko2 and LTE ATZ P3 but on different vehicles. What I can tell is that the Mickey Thompson Baja were far better than Ko2 in rain and that I never had issues with them offroad. The Ko2 is not at all for any mud and generally it really does well in the desert around here and not much else. And even in the desert, the big flat tread blocks of the ATZ P3 are an advantage as it does not sink as much.

I hope the Baja Boss did not reduce the size of treadblocks much but either way, I don't really have an alternative that I like unless Cooper comes up with a Maxx update in 255 80 17. The Maxx is the sibling of the ATZ P3 but was not updated when the latter was replaced by the Baja Boss.

All that said, the KO2 do have qualities over most other AT tires worth pointing out. While I have defended the Falken over KO2 in the past, you get much more even quality with KO2, and you get puncture resistance that is only really matched by the Baja Boss/Cooper Maxx. In addition, the KO2 can last forever (which is also a downside because it is harder so less traction),
 
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