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New Km3's

C

cmahaff

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Colorado/Denver
Hello

I knew I was getting a more narrow tire than standard. But I am a bit surprised by this.

I just got a set of new km3 33x10.50 and if I measure knob to knob....it's like 7¾".

My 31x10.50 Duratracs were 8¾".

I have zero mud train experience and did not know these knobs would be so "Inset".

Now I'm worried these might be a little too skinny for me....
I take this on intermediate trails nothing super wild. Will I be ok?
 
Forgot to post these
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Narrow contact patch will put more pressure on what tread meets the ground, that's greats for mud and snow if I'm not mistaken. Dont forget that when wheeling and aired down that sidewall tread begins to make contact with terrain. I think you'll be happy with the road manners of that tire/size and I doubt they'll disappoint you. I'm stepping down from 35s and 33x1050 was what I was going to. I still am, but metric and an AT tire. With that said everything I had researched on the ko3 suggests it's one hell of a tire.

How's does the whole jeep look with those meats ?
 
I think they look really nice. I just became a little thrown off by how much skinnier they seem. But I'm sure it will be fine. And you are right, these do seem like a nice tire. It will be nice to air them down and try a few trails.
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I was able to get up and test them out today and I was very happy. Got into some snow that was 8" deep at times and they did well. I was hoping for more dry rocky testing, but there was too much snow.

Ran them at 25 psi and I probably should have gone lower. I think these tires are going to be great
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i would take slightly narrower m/t tread of a wider AT tread all day. looks good. you'll be fine.

I bet they squat down better than a wider tire
 
Glad you like them in the snow, most mud tires totally suck in snow due to lack of siping. They look great though.
 
XJI6191 said:
Also they're classified as summer tyres, so not really suitable for use when it's cold enough for snow. I thought KM3's were too, but not checked.
Click to expand...
They are classified as summer tires? I've never heard of that. I know MTs aren't really good on packed snow and ice, but didn't know they are labeled as "summer tires"
 
cmahaff said:
They are classified as summer tires? I've never heard of that. I know MTs aren't really good on packed snow and ice, but didn't know they are labeled as "summer tires"
Click to expand...

KM3's seem to be something of an exception because, ironically, MT's don't usually carry a M&S sidewall marking. This seasonal designation might well be a Euro thing but look at any on-line tyre shop here & all will have a symbol indicating Summer, Winter or All-season - & in a lot of countries, particularly Alpine & Scandinavian ones, it's not even legal to use non-Winter tyres (i.e. those without the 3peaks symbol) between October & (I think) April.
 
I just put on some KM3s and have been really impressed with how they grip on road in the snow. I'm in Denver and this is what I drive to work when it snows. Everyone has always said BFG mud terrains are terrible in snow but that's just not true with the new KM3s. BFG must have really improved the latest iteration over KM and KM2s. I've run KO/KO2s on many rigs and they are my go to tire for the snow. Decided to go a little more off road focused on this XJ. Took off 33X12.5 KO2s (3-5/32 left) and swapped out with 35x12.5 KM3s, and the KM3s are hands down better in snow than the worn KO2s. Now if you compare brand new KO2s and KM3s I'm sure the KO2s would be better in snow. But just saying don't be scared of KM3s in snow. Its not as bad as they say.
 
I have new ko2 on my tj and they are the worst tire I've ever used in the snow. I'm in North Idaho. I used to have the original maxxis bighorn that did awesome before they changed the tread design and narrowed the lugs. Used those bighorns on my xj to push axle deep snow for hours on end around the backside of mt.st Helen's one year. I then went to duraracs which are better than the ko2 in snow but still not comparable to the maxxis bighorns, wish they still made those. Very soft tire though that cut easy on shale and sharp rocks
 
Been doing some on-line window shopping for a pair of winter tyres &, much to my my surprise, KM3's have the much vaunted 3peaks designation. Ironic that, because I run Winter tyres now because my MT's were terrible in the wet (Grabbers, but fairly typical). However it seems BFG have started something now, because their's are not the only Winter MT's now.

Taken Bighorns off my shortlist - thanks for the heads up

Surprised about KO2's in the snow though, I understood they were the best there were in deep now.
 
I think the KO2s are pretty good on road in snow. Still have high tread KO2s on my Ram 2500 and they do great in shallow or packed snow. In deeper snow is where they struggle and MTs will perform better
 
I suppose "deep snow" is also highly subjective and might be different in Southern England or Colorado or Idaho. Deep snow for me is more than 18" when snow wheeling in the mountains. The plows here never let more than 2-3" build up on the roads. And for that KO2s have been great to me
 
I suppose "deep snow" is also highly subjective and might be different in Southern England or Colorado or Idaho. Deep snow for me is more than 18" when snow wheeling in the mountains. The plows here generally don't let more than 2-3" build up on the roads. And for that KO2s have been great to me
 
My ko2 suck in ANY snow. From a dusting to 6". I will not take the tj anywhere in snow until I burn through these tires and replace them. Like I said, my duratracs do 10x better in everything but the tire noise department, and the bighorns better than those except noisier when they got low tread and they were soft so I only got 30k out of them
 
cherokeefan_1 said:
My ko2 suck in ANY snow. From a dusting to 6". I will not take the tj anywhere in snow until I burn through these tires and replace them. Like I said, my duratracs do 10x better in everything but the tire noise department, and the bighorns better than those except noisier when they got low tread and they were soft so I only got 30k out of them
Click to expand...

As a former Bighorn owner, we had an entirely different experience. I got 40k miles out of 2 sets and sold them as used for $40 each. Rotated and rebalanced every 4k miles.

I've had my BFG 295/75/16 KO2's on for about 6 yrs/24k miles and they now are at 9/32 tread, still getting job done during Northern UT winters. Not better than a MT type tire in deep snow, but I can't really complain, when they do such a great job on the majority of terrain that I run them on year around.

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Back to the KM3 topic, you might want to find a tire shop that will sipe the center blocks of the tread. I did this on my 2nd set of Maxxis Bighorns and they worked better on slick roads and icy/snow trails.
 
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