I believe this to be the best tire review on YT. I cannot envision a better informative narrative of a tire owner's experience. This vid is of high value for me even though I'm concidering the AT3-4S in LT-265-75R17 for my 2000 Expedition.
Excellent off road tire review. Would like to have seen a little more about the 80% on road experience you had, mpg changes and noise levels over time but the thorough off road perspective you did offer is top notch.
I switched to Cooper a year ago. I don’t do the extreme off road like you, but I must say this is THE BEST tire I’ve ever driven on over the years. Great tires.
I ran into a guy in Mexico that had these on a 12V Cummins Dodge with a huge truck camper. They were down to 4/32 but he said he had put 55K on them. Pretty impressive.
Ran this exact size on my 2016 Ram 1500 Quadcab 4wd Ecodiesel 3.92 ratio. I was testing the tall skinny tire concept, using the stock rim. I sipe tires to get best traction, ride, and life out of tires. The tires had unbelievable traction under many conditions. The only shortcomings were because of the size and load range. They are a tough long lasting tire. I put 20k miles on them before I changed the rims and tires to a different size. I may get a set of 17x8.5" rims to test these on my wife's 2018 Ram 2500 Crewcab 4wd 6.7L. I have the tires, so I may as well test them. I like tires with rim protectors. They help the handling and stability of the tire. If I had gotten 17x9" rims, and 315/70-17 tires. They would have worked perfectly. With Bilstein 5100 shocks set at 2 or 3" lift on the front. And the same lift and shocks on the back. I have also upgraded my upper and lower control arms. Half ton pickups of any brand. With the IFS suspension are so weak. But driving my truck is very much like a sports car. Compared to the solid axle on my wife's 2500 or my Jeep ZJ. The sipping I added, helped these tires work very well in snow and ice. I currently run General APT 275/60-20 tires, on a 20x9" rim. But believe the 17x9" rim, with 315/70-17. Would be the ideal tire for my truck.
I am glad to find this review and was surprised when I got here and found you have the "skinny" version, which is exactly what I want. I just moved from the Cherokee platform and purchased a 2021 Sport S, which of course came with street tires so they are getting upgraded, as are the wheels. Thank you!
I agree with everything you said, my feelings and thoughts are so similar to yours I think you read my mind on the Cooper ST MAXX tires! The first set I put on my 2011 Toyota FJ Cruiser with some off road mods, was 6 years and a little over 50,000 miles ago. My build on the FJ has taken 10 years and I'm still working on it. My off road driving is not as much as it used to be as I'm getting a bit older now but, I still off road here in north eastern Montana where I live, and the mountainous parts of Wyoming, where I grew up, and the western mountainous part of Montana where I went to college a long time ago. I do drive a lot of crappy back country gravel and serious gumbo (bentonite clay that turns to jell when wet but dries quickly with warm sunny days still, slick as shit) roads here. Also this far north, 50 miles from the Canadian border, a normal year is 9 months winter where we get snow and a lot of ice and about 2 weeks of wet weather with the other 10 weeks just a crap shoot of all kinds of usually shitty weather! Temp. extremes here range from 105 deg. F to -110 below with the wind chill, it's just crazy hard on the vehicles, man and animals. I bought my second set of the ST MAXX tires 2 years ago, along with a few newer mods to the FJ and myself now being 67 years old, plus another 20,000 + miles on the Toyota, I couldn't be happier with the performance of these tires! I drive a mix of gravel, gumbo, mountainous tundra, rocks plus highway miles (I travel to the nearest city with over 50,000 people on the highway 600 miles every three months for Dr. appointments). Over the past 10 years with the FJ, and 80,000 + miles in all kinds of weather and road conditions, I truly admit these Cooper tires are the best mud tire/off road A/T tires I have ever owned and, I think that's saying quite a bit! Oh, ya I thought I would tell ya all before someone accuses me of being a Rep. for Cooper, that I am not associated with, or in any do I way receive any money or compensation from Cooper Tires for this review. Hell, 25 years ago I ran 2 sets of Cooper tires on my old Jeep and I truly thought they were the crappiest and cheapest made tire out there, I swore I would never own another set!
They're very quiet when new, but start to get louder after about 25k miles. It's never as bad as a dedicated mud tire, though. I didn't think they were ever very loud, but you could tell there was extra noise as they aged.
We used to run the ST Maxx on HD work truck in south texas for oil field work. They did not hold up well on the gravel roads out there. They chipped and wore down quickly compared to typical mud terrain tires. I don't know if it was due to the weight of the trucks, the caliche in the roads, or some of the other sharper natural rock in the roads. To be fair the roads in the area i worked were known to shred tires. The stock tires that came on our trucks would last a couple months at most before starting to get flats, and mud terrains would only get about 5-8000 more miles than the ST Maxx. As far as off road, the ST Maxx had good grip on everything when dry, but took a great bit of wheel speed to clean out on sticky well pads. We still always got where we needed to go but with much more effort than a mud terrain. They would not be my choice for areas with mostly clay as they are too hard to clean out. If you have hard rock under you i would recommend them. they are great on the highway dry and wet.
@@Ricks4WD Well, for me and my group, we could only get what the contract company approved. The Firestone Destination MT's were popularly viewed as the best but they were a pain to get. I imagine someone important had a contract to get the ST Maxx's in bulk for cheap. The company guys with credit cards almost all had the Firestone MT's. I saw a lot of BFG KM2's and Nitto Mudd Grapplers on guys trucks that were paying out of pocket for their tires, contract hands, welders, and the like. They seemed to favor great big block lugs as the best for longevity and not getting stuck out there.
@@cjr4497 Thanks for this feedback. I offroad at high speeds in North Texas, and the track I frequent eats tires. The ST Maxx has held up a lot better than my KO2s did, but I'm getting more chunking than I'd like. I noticed that the Cooper AT3 XLT is marketed as specifically being designed to fight gravel chunking, and I'm wondering if that might be a better choice for me next time. Seen any of those in action? I've also heard nothing but good things about the Firestone M/T and Nitto, but Nitto is way too heavy in my size and the Firestone is pretty new still.
Great review. I have a set of these on a Tacoma. I agree whole heartedly about the wet traction and chip/chunk resistance. I have a set of these at 15 k that show less chipping and chunking than a set of BFGs exhibited in just one trip to Utah. What is crazy is I did the same trails in the Coopers plus 15K more road miles and probably 500 more low range miles than the BFGs had. These are a great tire for serious off roading that can still gobble up freeway miles.
From personal experience, 100 miles at the local track was enough to ruin one set of K02s. About the same mileage on the track has definitely affected my ST Maxxes - they are worse than the tires in this video - but they definitely seem a lot tougher, if not quite as much as I was hoping for. Against the K02, they have way more traction in all conditions but rain, where they are about the same (which is embarrassing for the K02).
@@T4nkcommander I think that right there says it all. The people that love them seem to lack real A vs B vs C experience. I have swapped out 2-3 year old KO2s in the middle of the same snow storm for blah 5 year old all seasons and experienced just blah all seasons blow away the frankly kind of scary winter performance of the KO2s. Something about that rubber compound goes to hell after a couple of years, way above and beyond the normal degradation of most tires.
Great review exactly what i was looking for before i buy these. I am running a F150 on 35mt 12.50x20 I want the hybrid ones only cause I'm not off road like this guy is. In My opinion he should have gone with the Coppers MT for his off roading
I put 65k on my St Maxxes on my old silverdo. I had 295/70/18s on it. They were a bit wore down but the dealership I traded my truck into sold it with them on.
That's pretty good! I could have put some more miles on mine, but they just weren't biting as well off-road anymore. Could have rolled up at least 10k more road miles easily. 👍
@@Ricks4WD Also want to note that I had a lot of highway miles on them. Trips to FL and driving a lot to see my then GF now wife. I want to put some more on my Ram 2500. Also Cooper makes mastercraft tires and the Courser CXT is basically the same tire and you can usually get it a little cheaper.
The MAXX definitely behaves similarly to an all- terrain on road, but has better performance than a standard AT off road. Good luck with your choice! 👍
I’ve just loved the Mickey T ATZ-p3s on my Toyota Hilux, but I’ve just heard that they’re not being made any longer.. so I’m going with these STMaxx instead..
This is a good review - I agree with just about everything. I have about 7k on mine - they are showing quite a bit of chunking on the interior sipping (and the upper sidewalls are pretty shot) - actually, they look worse than yours in this video by a decent margin. That said, I think I have to blame the rocky high speed offroad course I frequent. My K02s survived about 100 miles before chunking to ruin on the same track. Actually, first time out with these I had picked up a nail which punctured the tire - ended up going around the track with the tire basically flat and it did not debead or come apart (tho it was much hotter than I liked when I discovered it). Compared to my stock K02s, they have much more grip in all conditions except wet, which they are about the same. They are only 2 lbs heavier in 315/70/r17 and they are as comfortable despite being load range D vs C. They seem noticeably louder - they aren't loud per say (especially for how aggressive they are) but some days I wish I had gone with the AT3. I found out after purchasing that the AT3 is actually designed to reduce chipping/chunking on gravel roads, which makes me wonder if that may be the better choice for me. All that said, I really do like these tires. If they were just a bit quieter I'd have no complaints at all.
@@Ricks4WD I really loved the ride of the ko2s and they are great in the bad winters, but they grated the gravel road I live on and dug up some flint rock. Those flint rocks cut through the tread and belts like butter.
I commented elsewhere but a local track ruined a set of K02s in 100 miles. The coopers have done the same mileage (same track) and look only a bit worse than the tires in this video. My only complaint is that they are a bit louder than the K02s. I have sensitive hearing - they are quiet for what they are but get on my nerves about half the time.
I have a 2006 Tacoma regularcab 2.7 5 speed and i really want these but just from researching them i wish they had a lowerd load rating because im just comuting roadtriping and will be seeking offroad fun and i love the look and quality of the st maxx
It's interesting that you mention this. I never thought about it much before, but I just replaced them with a set of BFG KO2's today. And I did notice that it isn't pulling to the right as much, but the difference isn't huge. Need to get some more miles on them to know for sure. I'd say the MAXX's do pull a bit, but not so much that it overrides all of the other good things about the tire.
@@Ricks4WD I thought I recognized some of the trails. I ride at Windrock a good bit. Excellent video for sure. Which trails at Windrock have you ridden?
Great review and footage. How do the st maxx compare to the ko2 in road noise? I'd like a slightly more agressive tire for a 25k miles/yr daily driver wknd warrior but want a quieter smooth riding tire. I'm looking at the st maxx load d 315/70/17 or mickey thompson atz load d. Also considering mastercraft courser mxt or bfg km3 in a 37/12./0/17 load d, but am not crazy about mud terrains for a high mileage daily driver. Currently have 13k miles on ko2's 315/70/17 load c in a wrangler jl 4 door with 8.5" wide wheel. Have gone offroad about 10 times in them and they've done fine at 15 psi in dry conditions...but they do cake up in mud and pick up alot of small stones and look like grandpa's jeep tire:-) They only weigh 62 lbs and are extremely quiet on road...cant hear them at all. Getting 19mpg on hwy at 75mph with 4.10 gears in a 6speed. Thoughts on a lighter hybrid tire for daily driver?
The Maxx starts out quiet, probably just as quiet as KO2's. But the Maxx gets considerably louder once you put miles on it. At 20k they'll be quite a bit louder than new, and at 30-40k they'll sound like a mud tire. Most MAXX's are also load range E and will ride harsher compared to a C range BFG. I'd stick with the KO2's in your case, or perhaps look at a D range Mickey Thompson ATZ P3 ( which are also made by Cooper and are a hybrid tire). I just put on a set of KO2's and I'm much happier with the on road performance, even though I know there will be some compromises off-road.
@@Ricks4WD I have 315/70/17 ko2's in load c and considering going to 37" ko2 load d that only weighs 68 lbs. The Mickey Thompson ATZ 37 weighs 85lbs and their 35" weighs 65lbs...20 lbs more on each wheel is alot of extra weight and too much for my daily driver wknd warrior. Have you looked at the km3 or Milestar Patagonia tire? I wish the duratrac came in a 37
@@Strizzle81 yeah, KO2's are light compared to many other tires. KM3's are a good tire but pricey the last time I checked. I personally wouldn't use the Patagonia as they are designed to be run on the crown of the tread on road and must be run at a high PSI, which will cause uneven wear--and I think they're really overhyped. If you are happy with the weight and road characteristics of the KO2, I would stick with them.
@@trevormcdonough wow... I've heard some people like the KM3's but based on your report that's not very good performance, sounds like the same problems people had with the KM2's. The ST MAXX should hold up better, although as you can see in the video they are not immune to chunking.
