BFG KO2 balance

[K9trainer]

Quick question,
I had BFG KO2 size 275-70-17 mounted on stock 2015 Trail wheels today. The tech told me they had a hard time balancing one of the tires and it took 6 oz and was still not 100% balanced.
Is 6 oz an excessive amount of weight to balance these tires? They said if they have had another one in stock the would have switched it out and are willing to order me another tire.
Any thoughts?

 

[fkheath]

I would have them get a new tire. There must be something wrong with the tire if you can't get it balanced. BFG is a good company and would stand by their tires, but rather than you having to hassle with BFG, let the tire store do it.

 

[K9trainer]

I would have them get a new tire. There must be something wrong with the tire if you can't get it balanced. BFG is a good company and would stand by their tires, but rather than you having to hassle with BFG, let the tire store do it.

It’s Costco, and right now this size is out of stock.

Does that seem like a lot of weight?

 

[JLofa]

Friend used to work at America tires and said they were usually hard to balance which is one of the reasons I went with the falkens. Can't speak from personal experience on either since this is my first time owning a 4r and getting nicer tires but that's just my 2 cents. Always happy and willing to get leanrt tho

 

[redneckj]

A good friend of mine is the manager of a tire store that does not normally deal with BFG tires. He has a customer that runs BFGs on all his cars and trucks. When my friend special orders the customers tires, he always orders 6 instead of 4. He said he can usually get 4 out of the 6 tires to be round and balance out ok. Not bashing BFG, its a true story.

 

[Staticrider]

I didn't have a problem with mine. Something wrong with that tire. Keep going up the chain of command at Costco until they replace it.

 

[00Sebby]

I've had at least 10-12 sets of KOs and KO2s on various vehicles. A couple of years ago, I bought a set of 5 KO2s for the '10 TE at Discount and one was out of round and could not be balanced. They had another one and replaced it. It does happen. All tire manufacturers will have one escape the factory every now and then though I do hear BFG more often than most. If you get a good set of BFGs, and most of the time you will, in my experience they seem to stay balanced and wear better (less cupping and such) than most other tires.

 

[Nick B]

Do any tire stores True tires like they did back in the 70’s ?

 

[K9trainer]

I didn't have a problem with mine. Something wrong with that tire. Keep going up the chain of command at Costco until they replace it.

Costco was great about this, they tried to order another tire but they were out of stock. Last night they became available again so I ordered 2 more just in case one of the two were also bad.

 

[02SE]

Friend used to work at America tires and said they were usually hard to balance which is one of the reasons I went with the falkens. Can't speak from personal experience on either since this is my first time owning a 4r and getting nicer tires but that's just my 2 cents. Always happy and willing to get leanrt tho

Lots of complaints about the inability to get Falken's balanced too. Which is why I ruled them out for me.

 

[bamma]

Lots of complaints about the inability to get Falken's balanced too. Which is why I ruled them out for me.

I have Falkens on my 2020 4Runner, 200 series Land Cruiser, 60 series Land Cruiser, 82 FJ40 and 84 Toyota pickup. Had them on my 2012 4Runner as well All sets balanced fine. And great ice traction for an AT.

I tried KO2s on two vehicles. Neither set balanced. First set I got THREE replacements to make it right, and still a lot of weight to balance. On the other set I just returned them.

The ice traction was so poor on the KO2s I am glad I found the Falkens.

 

[Gstick]

I just had 4 new BFG T/A KO2's (OEM size) Road Force balanced out very good. The RF numbers were 3, 5, 7, & 8. The shop that does them is owned & run by an 84 year old man who takes pride in his work. Unfortuneatly he is retiring next month. I just hope that the new owners take the time to use a Road Force balancer correctly. There are plenty of shops in sw PA that have tire mounters who could care less if the tires are balanced.

 

[02SE]

I have Falkens on my 2020 4Runner, 200 series Land Cruiser, 60 series Land Cruiser, 82 FJ40 and 84 Toyota pickup. Had them on my 2012 4Runner as well All sets balanced fine. And great ice traction for an AT.

I tried KO2s on two vehicles. Neither set balanced. First set I got THREE replacements to make it right, and still a lot of weight to balance. On the other set I just returned them.

The ice traction was so poor on the KO2s I am glad I found the Falkens.

I'm happy for you. I've had lots of different tires over the years on numerous vehicles too. Lots of A/T tires too. I also ruled out the KO2's, as I've owned them, and as you said ice and hardpacked snow traction is poor, so is wet traction in comparison to better performing A/T tires.

That doesn't change the fact that there are lots complaints out there (not just this board) about the inability to get the Falken's balanced.

I mentioned in a previous thread that a friend of mine who is the GM of a national tire chain has had so many comebacks, that they are considering dropping the AT3W from their line.

I was really considering them until my research led me to decide I didn't want to play the lottery of finding a round set.

Anyway, it's just my opinion based on my experience and research. I hope you have good luck with them.

 

[tundradan]

Friend used to work at America tires and said they were usually hard to balance which is one of the reasons I went with the falkens. Can't speak from personal experience on either since this is my first time owning a 4r and getting nicer tires but that's just my 2 cents. Always happy and willing to get leanrt tho

America's Tire guy told me the same thing. Hard tire to balance...

 

[bamma]

I'm happy for you. I've had lots of different tires over the years on numerous vehicles too. Lots of A/T tires too. I also ruled out the KO2's, as I've owned them, and as you said ice and hardpacked snow traction is poor, so is wet traction in comparison to better performing A/T tires.

That doesn't change the fact that there are lots complaints out there (not just this board) about the inability to get the Falken's balanced.

I mentioned in a previous thread that a friend of mine who is the GM of a national tire chain has had so many comebacks, that they are considering dropping the AT3W from their line.

I was really considering them until my research led me to decide I didn't want to play the lottery of finding a round set.

Anyway, it's just my opinion based on my experience and research. I hope you have good luck with them.

ATs across the board can be hard to balance. Toyo released a service bulletin after they had issues to help techs balance correctly. Search for any tire and balancing issues and you'll find lots of posts. I have had good luck with Michelin, Goodyear and Falkens, and multiple sets of Falkens from 31" to 33". All my BFGs had problems.

I also have all of my tires balanced at shops using a Hunter 9700, which helps with Toyota's hubcentric wheels. Based on prior issues, I now have shops I trust. I find many balancing issues are due to poor techs. Back in the day, had a tech put 13 oz in a wheel because he had no idea what he was doing. Took it to a different shop and they balanced it w 2 oz. I would guess 75% of install problems are due to poor installation.

Even using a good shop, I have had multiple BFG issues. Again, a small sample size, but 100% success with 25 Falkens (I use 5 tire rotations) and had 100% failure on BFGs (each install had multiple bad tires). The shop I use turned me onto the Falkens after battling BFG issues.

I will continue to promote the Falkens. Good price, long lasting, good traction and no install issues for me.

 

[mteolus]

I got 39,500 miles out of my KO2's, C-Load 285's. I had some balancing issues with them as well. One tire got a nail in the side and it could not be fixed. The other 3 were worn down. When the nail tire finally went flat, I replaced all of them with Hankook Dynapro AT2 RF11's with a 60k warranty last Thursday. Got them put on and no balance issues and they drive great with no noise. Cheaper than KO2s by a lot. $187 per tire.

 

[K9trainer]

I got 39,500 miles out of my KO2's, C-Load 285's. I had some balancing issues with them as well. One tire got a nail in the side and it could not be fixed. The other 3 were worn down. When the nail tire finally went flat, I replaced all of them with Hankook Dynapro AT2 RF11's with a 60k warranty last Thursday. Got them put on and no balance issues and they drive great with no noise. Cheaper than KO2s by a lot. $187 per tire.

BFG’s have a 50000 mile warranty

 

[eriktp]

Try and find a shop with a laser balancing machine. My new KO2's drive and ride better than my stock tires

 

[DAW89446]

My rig is an ‘18 SR5. I replaced the OEM tires a year ago with stock size BFG KO2s in 10 ply load range E. No issues with balance, the tires have been rotated twice.

I’ve owned BFG All Terrains since about 1997 on two other trucks, a 1996 Chevrolet S-10 4x4 pickup and a 2002 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road 4x4 pickup, which I had until I got my 4Runner.

I ran load range E’s on the Tacoma. Not for towing or hauling heavy loads, I just hate flat tires and often ran Class 3-5 trails in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Death Valley country until 2008 when I moved to north central Nevada. With the 4Runner, I just continued with the E’s as there are zillions of miles of dirt and gravel roads criss crossing the entire state and I put a lot of dirt road miles, but few technical trails nowadays.

I’ve heard others having balance issues with KO2s, but so far I haven’t. Even with interstate speeds of a legal 80mph.

 

[Jivewalker]

You need a new tire for sure and I would then get them road force balanced.

I'm approaching 70k on my KO2's. Only issue I had was some cupping that developed either from me not rotating them every 5k or running the wrong PSI. I ran about 15k at 34psi and it started. Did some research and found out they should have been at 44psi since they are LT tires, not passenger tires. Now I have been running 42 and they are great. At around 70k and just now thinking of replacing soon.