But wait! There's more! Another item on the to-do list for the New Year was new tires.
I had originally intended on running the same 37" BFG KO2's that Todd is running on his Jeep. However, perusal of the reviews on this tire revealed a disturbing trend; it seems they wear rapidly when they are on a heavy vehicle. I had already noticed the weight on the front end of my truck has not been kind to the 35" KO's I was running, and I most certainly did not want to pay $1500 for tires that would only last 20,000 miles. :whaa:
A buddy of mine with a Cummins-swapped old-school Suburban had the same issues with KO's and ended up switching to Toyo M55's. The M55's are designed for heavy trucks that routinely run down unpaved roads, so they are tough and designed to wear well. My buddy has been running them for over three years and has nothing but praise, so I was sold. Sadly, the biggest size available is 33" and I want 37's
So, I did some more looking. As it turns out, Toyo's sister company Nitto recently introduced a new tire geared toward the same type of use as the M55. It is called the Exo Grappler AWT, and unlike the M55 it is available in a 37" version. 37x13.5x17 to be exact, so it is an inch wider than the typical 37" radial. It's E load rated, and guys running them on 3/4 and 1 ton trucks report 30,000+ miles with plenty of tread left. And, they only cost $15 more per tire vs the BFG's. Sounds good to me, so I had Discount order a set of four. They arrived in due course, and looked better in person than on Nitto's web page:
Mounted on my H2 rims:
Like the KO2's, the Exo's are severe snow service rated, which will come in handy during those December hunts when a snow storm rolls in:
Here's the tread:
And finally, installed on the truck:
So far I have put about 100 miles on them, and they are night and day compared the the 35" KO's they replaced. They are responsive, and despite their E load rating they soak up the road bumps better than the BFG's they replaced. They are also smoooooth, which I attribute both to the quality of the tire and the 10oz of Dynabeads in each tire instead of conventional balancing. It will be interesting to get them off-road and see how they work and how they wear, but so far I like 'em a lot.
One side benefit is that the 37" tire actually improves my gearing. The engine seems happier cruising down the freeway, and I no longer need 5th gear on the surface streets. It will be interesting to see if/how much my fuel economy is impacted by the new rubber.