This is part of a posting I made in the Trip Journal forum, but I wanted to share the information along with some other details that concern a tire switch on the Jeep Rubicon in the 4 Wheeler site. It’s useful information for anyone considering a tire switch down the road.
One major thing happened while we were at Columbia Riverfront RV in Woodland WA. On the road enroute to the park was a Les Schawb Tire store. I have been threatening to get new tires on the Jeep, and it was about time. I have burned through my second set of BF Goodrich MT's in four years. Although the Jeep only has about 41K on the clock, it has been pulled another 60K or so behind the MH.
The OE Mud Terrains are great off road tires, but towing the Jeep as much as I do really eats up the aggressive tread blocks on them. For quite a while now, where ever I drove the Jeep, it sounded and felt like I was driving on a cobble stone street. The faster I went the louder it got, and the steering wheel had a constant "shimmy". It just wasn't fun to drive at all. I even rotated them every 3K like clockwork, but to no avail. It slowed the rate of wear and these did last longer than the first set, but in the end, they still came down to the same fate. And they still had about 30% tread on them.
So I went researching for a better tire, one not so aggressive. There are literally dozens of choices out there, and I must have looked at them all. Finally while researching on Consumer Reports.com I found a tire that looked like it fit the bill. It's a Cooper Discoverer, ATR (all terrain radial) in a LT275/70/17. The Goodrich's were a LT255/75/17. Consumer Reports recommended the Cooper Discoverer as the best AT tire in its class.
I had also found a really useful Tire Size Calculator on Discount Tire’s Web Site;
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTireMath.do I was able to plug in the size of the existing tires, and the size of the tires I was considering. It calculates the differences in the two and tells you how much difference there would be between the two. I checked the Coopers against the BF Goodrich Mud Terrains and found that there was only 1/10 of an inch difference in diameter between the two, with the Coopers being slightly taller. That worked out perfect for me as the speedometer in the Jeep has been reading about 2 mph fast at 60 mph since it was new. And since I still have the lifetime power train warranty on the Jeep, the last thing I want to do is mess with the geometry of things.
So I bit the bullet and ordered a set. Two days later I was at Les Schawb's getting them put on. All I can say is OMG! It feels like I have a new Jeep. The tires feel like I am driving on glass, and I hear nothing but the wind noise now. The steering shimmy is gone, and the DW has a big smile on her face! The price was decent, about $1100 out the door, and Cooper has a great warranty. I will still keep up the rotations, and keep the pressure in check, but I am a happy camper.
Here are a few pics of the new Cooper’s. A nice looking tire!
