BF Goodrich Trail-Terrain T/A or Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S

[sunrisew]

I have a 2005 Liberty with stock suspension and am about to replace the tires. I'd like to get something with decent on-road performance and at least modestly good off-road capability for the 3-4 times a year I manage to get out to the desert in the southwest. I'm replacing some Goodyear Assurance All-Seasons (on the Jeep when I bought it a few years ago) that have been fine on the pavement but are less than great in the sand, even after dropping them down to 20PSI.

The On-/Off-Road All-Terrain tires seem like a decent category for me. My reading has me leaning toward BF Goodrich Trail-Terrain T/A or Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S in the stock 235/65R17. Does anyone on here have experience with either tires (I know the BFGs are relatively new)? And yes, I know I won't be getting anything like the performance of a raised suspension and devoted off-road tire, but that's not something I can do right now, as I need to keep this as a daily driver.

 

[tommudd]

That is all that you are choosing from ?
Plus another thing, if you springs are not already stacked then possibly could run 245-65-17, I did on my 05 even before I lifted it, just have to measure first ( your height , middle of left front wheel to bottom of the flare )

and just for clarification for anyone else , you can DD a lifted Liberty
have done it for the last 16 years in a 4.5 inch lift on my 04 and also my 03 with 2.5 inch ( which currently does over 95 miles per day )
Many of us do it , again just so someone else reading thinks " OH NO I need to actually drive mine so I can't lift it " and yes I have been asked that LOL

 

[sunrisew]

That is all that you are choosing from ?

Those seemed to have the best balance of ratings/performance/reviews from what I read online, but most of that does not include the real world experience people have here, so I'm not opposed to other ideas that don't require modifications or a radically different budget.

 

[tommudd]

posted more above for your review

 

[duderz7]

Can't speak for the bfg's but I do have the coopers 31x10.5x15s on my 95.5 Tacoma and they're great. They make a little road noise but not bad, my truck does need an alignment so they might be quieter if that were done. I feel that that the tread is deeper and more aggressive than most other all-terrain tires leaning slightly towards a mud tire. I'm quite pleased with them on and off road. Keep in mind though, due to different tire sizes the same model tire can have have different tread depths and spacing.

 

[tommudd]

I have ran the Goodyear Duratracs, Falken Wildpeaks AT2s , and now General Grabber AT over the past 10 years
Goodyears in 265-75-16s ( on the 04 ) I got over 90,000 miles out of them and they were great overall in whatever you threw at them
Falkens in 265-70-16s ( on the 03 ) were a good tire as well , not as much mileage out of them but also much different roads
Generals in 265-70-16s ( 03 again ) and so far unstoppable in snow whatever I have put them through
Each time I buy tires I look at tread depth, construction of the tires, overall size/width,
customer reviews I take with a grain of salt due to if you look many are written in the first month or so of buying
I used to sell ( manage tire stores for Goodyear where we sold many different brands )
BFGs to me are fanboy tires , we had as many come backs / disappointed customers in them more than other tires
Of course you will hear they are the best thing since sliced toast
For me , the 05 needs new tires in the spring, and generals will go on it as well now

Also all Coopers run smaller than a lot of other brands for example , a 265-70-16 Cooper runs at 30 -30.1 inches where as the 265-70-16 General runs 30.6 and has deeper tread
But if none of that matters then have fun and buy what you like

 

[Perspective]

I have a 2005 Liberty with stock suspension and am about to replace the tires. I'd like to get something with decent on-road performance and at least modestly good off-road capability for the 3-4 times a year I manage to get out to the desert in the southwest. I'm replacing some Goodyear Assurance All-Seasons (on the Jeep when I bought it a few years ago) that have been fine on the pavement but are less than great in the sand, even after dropping them down to 20PSI.

The On-/Off-Road All-Terrain tires seem like a decent category for me. My reading has me leaning toward BF Goodrich Trail-Terrain T/A or Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S in the stock 235/65R17. Does anyone on here have experience with either tires (I know the BFGs are relatively new)? And yes, I know I won't be getting anything like the performance of a raised suspension and devoted off-road tire, but that's not something I can do right now, as I need to keep this as a daily driver.

I have a 2006 Jeep Liberty with stock suspension with the Discoverer at/3 in size 235/75R16. I didn’t really need off-road tires but wanted a little less grocery-getter look. I got the tires in 2018 and currently have 31,000 miles on them. I’m guessing around 40k I’ll need to replace. They are noisy but I also had some cupping early on and replaced the front suspension. The Jeep does great in the rare occurrence that it snows. The more aggressive look was worth the additional noise to me.

 

[Johnny O]

I have a 2006 Jeep Liberty with stock suspension with the Discoverer at/3 in size 235/75R16. I didn’t really need off-road tires but wanted a little less grocery-getter look. I got the tires in 2018 and currently have 31,000 miles on them. I’m guessing around 40k I’ll need to replace. They are noisy but I also had some cupping early on and replaced the front suspension. The Jeep does great in the rare occurrence that it snows. The more aggressive look was worth the additional noise to me.

Check out the Toyo open country AT3s. I swear by them. Personally tested them out in a bit of everything.

 

[Blue Gen]

I have a 2005 Liberty with stock suspension and am about to replace the tires. I'd like to get something with decent on-road performance and at least modestly good off-road capability for the 3-4 times a year I manage to get out to the desert in the southwest. I'm replacing some Goodyear Assurance All-Seasons (on the Jeep when I bought it a few years ago) that have been fine on the pavement but are less than great in the sand, even after dropping them down to 20PSI.

The On-/Off-Road All-Terrain tires seem like a decent category for me. My reading has me leaning toward BF Goodrich Trail-Terrain T/A or Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S in the stock 235/65R17. Does anyone on here have experience with either tires (I know the BFGs are relatively new)? And yes, I know I won't be getting anything like the performance of a raised suspension and devoted off-road tire, but that's not something I can do right now, as I need to keep this as a daily driver.

I have an 02 Liberty also with stock suspension- no lift or spacers. I wanted an aggressive tread pattern but still be able to run safely at high speed on highway. (drive from east coast to Utah for off road excursions). Found Firestone Destination A/T2 a reasonable selection. In fact I'm into my second set and very pleased with performance. If I lived in Colorado, Utah or Arizona I would probably do the lift kit, spacers and
elevate suspension since my off road destinations would be relatively close-by. Since I'm on the highway at 85 mph I'm reluctant to raise center of gravity and use extremely coarse treads. Hope this helps.

 

[tommudd]

I have an 02 Liberty also with stock suspension- no lift or spacers. I wanted an aggressive tread pattern but still be able to run safely at high speed on highway. (drive from east coast to Utah for off road excursions). Found Firestone Destination A/T2 a reasonable selection. In fact I'm into my second set and very pleased with performance. If I lived in Colorado, Utah or Arizona I would probably do the lift kit, spacers and
elevate suspension since my off road destinations would be relatively close-by. Since I'm on the highway at 85 mph I'm reluctant to raise center of gravity and use extremely coarse treads. Hope this helps.

Been running lifted KJs for years ( well 16 or so anyways ) all over the eastern US and no issues with center of gravity on the roads or trials . If you use a quality lift, ( no spacer lifts etc ) you have no issues . People tend to think about the old lifts or heard from old timer's and then spread bad info. 32 inch Duratracs on 4.5 inches of lift on the 04 , my only vehicle for years , so DD and no issues . When it was new on stock suspension is was terrible due to too weak coils, after installing first OME lift was way more stable on the road, could take curvy roads faster due to stronger coils, better shocks . I have driven a lot of KJs even with 40-50,000 miles before we lifted them here that hit bumpstops on small bumps etc So never say you are reluctant to lift due to center of gravity, never an excuse unless you are going 10 inch with stock tires LOL

 

[Blue Gen]

Been running lifted KJs for years ( well 16 or so anyways ) all over the eastern US and no issues with center of gravity on the roads or trials . If you use a quality lift, ( no spacer lifts etc ) you have no issues . People tend to think about the old lifts or heard from old timer's and then spread bad info. 32 inch Duratracs on 4.5 inches of lift on the 04 , my only vehicle for years , so DD and no issues . When it was new on stock suspension is was terrible due to too weak coils, after installing first OME lift was way more stable on the road, could take curvy roads faster due to stronger coils, better shocks . I have driven a lot of KJs even with 40-50,000 miles before we lifted them here that hit bumpstops on small bumps etc So never say you are reluctant to lift due to center of gravity, never an excuse unless you are going 10 inch with stock tires LOL

Thanks, helps a great deal to hear such advice. Much appreciated.

 

[Johnny O]

Been running lifted KJs for years ( well 16 or so anyways ) all over the eastern US and no issues with center of gravity on the roads or trials . If you use a quality lift, ( no spacer lifts etc ) you have no issues . People tend to think about the old lifts or heard from old timer's and then spread bad info. 32 inch Duratracs on 4.5 inches of lift on the 04 , my only vehicle for years , so DD and no issues . When it was new on stock suspension is was terrible due to too weak coils, after installing first OME lift was way more stable on the road, could take curvy roads faster due to stronger coils, better shocks . I have driven a lot of KJs even with 40-50,000 miles before we lifted them here that hit bumpstops on small bumps etc So never say you are reluctant to lift due to center of gravity, never an excuse unless you are going 10 inch with stock tires LOL

I would guess the only exception would be the current fad of rooftop tents…

 

[tommudd]

I would guess the only exception would be the current fad of rooftop tents…

Well, then that comes under the heading of :
COMMON SENSE IN TODAYS SOCIETY
And since common sense seems that it is not bred into folks, or smacked into them in the last 10-15 years ,
that is a good point to bring up

 

[Johnny O]

Well, then that comes under the heading of :
COMMON SENSE IN TODAYS SOCIETY
And since common sense seems that it is not bred into folks, or smacked into them in the last 10-15 years ,
that is a good point to bring up

I dunno. I saw it on social media that this one guy has had a roof top tent for five years and never had a problem so it must be true and one of the people that commented said that the roof weight was 1500lbs because this one time he tied a tree branch up there and drove it four blocks with no issues so it must be true so that means the owners manual and factory service manual are just wrong plus I know this guy that talked to a dude in Toledo that said it was okay because the earth is flat and gravity is just an angel that holds you in down so if you pray a lot not only will you got to heaven but your jeep will never fall over and he has two spare tires on the roof of his humvee. I think that is all a lie though because I glued crystals to my dashboard and have never had any problems...

 

[tommudd]

and,.............nothing more to say

 

[mercdudecbr600]

I have a 2005 Liberty with stock suspension and am about to replace the tires. I'd like to get something with decent on-road performance and at least modestly good off-road capability for the 3-4 times a year I manage to get out to the desert in the southwest. I'm replacing some Goodyear Assurance All-Seasons (on the Jeep when I bought it a few years ago) that have been fine on the pavement but are less than great in the sand, even after dropping them down to 20PSI.

The On-/Off-Road All-Terrain tires seem like a decent category for me. My reading has me leaning toward BF Goodrich Trail-Terrain T/A or Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S in the stock 235/65R17. Does anyone on here have experience with either tires (I know the BFGs are relatively new)? And yes, I know I won't be getting anything like the performance of a raised suspension and devoted off-road tire, but that's not something I can do right now, as I need to keep this as a daily driver.

I’ve been running cooper ats4s for a few years. Great all round tire. Outside of ice and mud it grips everything really well and also cruises nicely. What I don’t like is that they took a fair amount of weight to balance which normally not an indication of quality qa/qv. Some hwy noise but minimal. Good wear. They do run a little shorter than other tired

 

[DadOSix]

I’ve been running cooper ats4s for a few years. Great all round tire. Outside of ice and mud it grips everything really well and also cruises nicely. What I don’t like is that they took a fair amount of weight to balance which normally not an indication of quality qa/qv. Some hwy noise but minimal. Good wear. They do run a little shorter than other tired

I like the Coopers as well.

i run them on 4 vehicles. 2 kj's, 3500 chevy van, 2500 chevy p/u

I did have a 'square one' once, but the dealer took care of it after we fiddled with balance and rotation, etc a few times.

 

[mercdudecbr600]

I retract my endorsement of the Coopers. I started losing snow traction pretty hard after about 3-4k miles and then I noticed that the siping only goes 2/32" into the tread and of course I'm about 1/2 of that at this point. They still were quiet and rode nice, but didn't have faith in them after too many fishtails and nose-ploughs. Long and short of it, if you expect to travel in snow, stick with tires that have FULL DEPTH SIPING. Their ability will last the entire length of the tread wear. From what I saw in the P rated 245/75/16 only BFG Trail Terrain, Firestone AT2s, and Yokohamas have full depth siping. If you go to C/E rated, then there are more options with full depth siping. But for p rated, the Yokos had kinda full depth siping, but more like reduced sized tread block spacing. Even the BFG and Firestones only had true full depth siping in the middle 3 blocks, the outer 2 blocks had shallow-ish siping. The BFG trail terrain though has weird serrated outer blocks which look atrocious for offroading, but could be wrong there.

 

[Johnny O]

Mine came with coopers, replaced them two weeks after the first drive in the rain.(With random mismatched cheapos used from Craiglist tilm i sprang for toyos) had same issues with them on a previous vehicle.

 

[Btownpreacher]

The BFG Trail Terrain is an on-road all terrain, focused more on road traction than other at's. I personally own a set on my old 4wd Ford escape. They run better than the all seasons that they replaced. I bought them because I had a blowout and my spare was 15 years old. The price was good and they were new so I decided to try them. I've used them in all kinds of weather and I am very confident with them; they were quieter, smoother, and they turned just the same mpg's. I took them mudding a few times and they were flawless, considering I was in a Ford Escape, and you shouldn't be off-roading in one Unfortunately they aren't quite as off-road focused as what I want for my KJ; I may end up running them, but they're not the most aggressive at for sure. Perfect for the daily drive, winter weather, and some trail time, I just want something more aggressive that's all