KO3's!!!

[Buckfever]

Ok so got the KO3's in the stock size 265/70/18. Now I was not 100% that I needed an LT tire. But this tire has so many appealing characteristics in terms of it's development, for sure I needed a snowflake rated off-road tire and at least for now it was what I wanted to experience. The other aspect of it even though I figured out how to get along better with the stock tires, I did not like what I perceived to be the roll from the weak sidewall. So now I am not a tire guy so the words that I am using are likely incorrect but this is my perception.

These were installed at the dealer and once again inflated in the high 40s psi as I when I took delivery of the vehicle. It must be their thing. What I can say right off is that roll that I was experienced with the stock tires was gone, so at least for now that aspect of picking the KO3's I regard as a success. Also the steering response IMO was excellent. And even with the high PSI these were not as floaty as the stock tires were at similar pressures.

To me anyway this gives the Land Cruiser the feel that I was anticipating would be consistent with the character of this vehicle. Also IMO the off road tire is very handsome and compliments the Land Cruiser. Just my preference.

Now I wasn't sure about what to do about the PSI, however driving it home I had several occasions to experience rough railroad crossings and definitely felt that was too harsh and was not allowing the suspension to do it's thing. So that made up my mind on needed to bring down the pressure.

Got home brought it down to 40 psi and then went and retested it over the railroad tracks and now we're golden. The tires are working with the suspension to dampen beautifully. After that I drove into the adjacent subdivision which has curvy roads and round abouts and the handling is now beautiful. Great steering response, well planted. This is where I wanted it in terms of the driving characteristics.


We'll see what of hit to the mpg, but so far so good and we'll see how it goes in the winter.

 

[ultane]

I think you are the first forum member to not put oversized KO3’s, etc. on their rig. THANK YOU!!! Please keep us posted as to how they change your fuel economy.

 

[msenske]

I think you are the first forum member to not put oversized KO3’s, etc. on their rig. THANK YOU!!! Please keep us posted as to how they change your fuel economy.

I have also been running the KO3s (265/70 R18 124S RWL) in the original OEM size and am averaging approximately 20mpg. I never ran the stock tires so I can’t speak to the relative difference in fuel economy but at least you can use this as an absolute number for a First Edition with no other modifications from stock. I have 1170 miles on the vehicle at this time.

 

[TrailWhale]

I think you are the first forum member to not put oversized KO3’s, etc. on their rig. THANK YOU!!! Please keep us posted as to how they change your fuel economy.

There's a few of us! I'm on stock sized SL load Wildpeaks.

I'm curious to hear how the KO3s do in the mountain-west winter though. I wasn't happy with K02s in the past (to be fair they were on a RWD transit van, so the odds were stacked against them!), but it does look like the KO3 should be a decent improvement.

 

[ultane]

There's a few of us! I'm on stock sized SL load Wildpeaks.

View attachment 12867

I'm curious to hear how the KO3s do in the mountain-west winter though. I wasn't happy with K02s in the past (to be fair they were on a RWD transit van, so the odds were stacked against them!), but it does look like the KO3 should be a decent improvement.

I will be so glad to get rid of my 2015 Tranny 350!!! It is such a POS… once I have my stuff fully moved out of Florida, to NC, it will be gone, like a bad habit. Never again, will I own a Ford!

 

[Bappy]

Try dropping down to 32 - 35 and see how they run

 

[mayonayze]

Anybody tried this size on the stock 1958 wheel?

 

[LandcruiserNut]

I’m keeping stock size. Live in NW NM, discount said they can’t get them.

 

[mountaindesert]

Anybody tried this size on the stock 1958 wheel?

Ironically Costco has them in stock but they won't install on the 58. They said they have a national Costco rule of not installing anything over 3% of the current tire size.

Oddly, they said if you already had a larger tire installed they can reinstall the same tire or something 3% larger but they can go from the stock 58 tire to the 265 tire

 

[Siblue]

I am Siblue and I am an oversized KO3 offender.

 

[ultane]

I have also been running the KO3s (265/70 R18 124S RWL) in the original OEM size and am averaging approximately 20mpg. I never ran the stock tires so I can’t speak to the relative difference in fuel economy but at least you can use this as an absolute number for a First Edition with no other modifications from stock. I have 1170 miles on the vehicle at this time.

265/70 R18 KO3’s, and you are still getting 20 mpg.. that’s pretty amazing!!

 

[LCColorado]

Ok so got the KO3's in the stock size 265/70/18. Now I was not 100% that I needed an LT tire. But this tire has so many appealing characteristics in terms of it's development, for sure I needed a snowflake rated off-road tire and at least for now it was what I wanted to experience. The other aspect of it even though I figured out how to get along better with the stock tires, I did not like what I perceived to be the roll from the weak sidewall. So now I am not a tire guy so the words that I am using are likely incorrect but this is my perception.

These were installed at the dealer and once again inflated in the high 40s psi as I when I took delivery of the vehicle. It must be their thing. What I can say right off is that roll that I was experienced with the stock tires was gone, so at least for now that aspect of picking the KO3's I regard as a success. Also the steering response IMO was excellent. And even with the high PSI these were not as floaty as the stock tires were at similar pressures.

To me anyway this gives the Land Cruiser the feel that I was anticipating would be consistent with the character of this vehicle. Also IMO the off road tire is very handsome and compliments the Land Cruiser. Just my preference.

Now I wasn't sure about what to do about the PSI, however driving it home I had several occasions to experience rough railroad crossings and definitely felt that was too harsh and was not allowing the suspension to do it's thing. So that made up my mind on needed to bring down the pressure.

Got home brought it down to 40 psi and then went and retested it over the railroad tracks and now we're golden. The tires are working with the suspension to dampen beautifully. After that I drove into the adjacent subdivision which has curvy roads and round abouts and the handling is now beautiful. Great steering response, well planted. This is where I wanted it in terms of the driving characteristics.


We'll see what of hit to the mpg, but so far so good and we'll see how it goes in the winter.

It looks like the 265/70/18 KO3 is also an E load range, so the dealer actually filled the tire in the correct PSI range. E load tires designed to be run at a higher PSI. if you run them too low you’re generating too much heat in the sidewalls, which could lead to a premature failure. I personally run my 275/70/18 KO3’s at 50 PSI.

 

[Buckfever]

It looks like the 265/70/18 KO3 is also an E load range, so the dealer actually filled the tire in the correct PSI range. E load tires designed to be run at a higher PSI. if you run them too low you’re generating too much heat in the sidewalls, which could lead to a premature failure. I personally run my 275/70/18 KO3’s at 50 PSI.

Believe me I wish that I could get a definitive answer. In this case this dealer had the Stock tires at 48 upon delivery and the spare at 52 which is the max pressure for that tire. They inflated the KO3's the same which does not make sense. I for sure have heard that for the e load tires should be run higher than the recommended pressures as you say, but most have been telling me 5 over. 50 would be 17 over the 33 manufacturer recommendation.

I think I'll reach out to BFG and see if I can get guidance. IMO though 47 was too harsh going over the railroad tracks, the suspension seemed overwhelmed to me. But that is a very anecdotal opinion.

Thank you for the response.

 

[LCColorado]

Believe me I wish that I could get a definitive answer. In this case this dealer had the Stock tires at 48 upon delivery and the spare at 52 which is the max pressure for that tire. They inflated the KO3's the same which does not make sense. I for sure have heard that for the e load tires should be run higher than the recommended pressures as you say, but most have been telling me 5 over. 50 would be 17 over the 33 manufacturer recommendation.

I think I'll reach out to BFG and see if I can get guidance. IMO though 47 was too harsh going over the railroad tracks, the suspension seemed overwhelmed to me. But that is a very anecdotal opinion.

Thank you for the response.

The dealer didn’t properly PDI your vehicle. The OEM tires were pumped up like that for shipping. The dealer messed up by not setting them to the recommended PSI on the door card. Once you switched over to an E load tire whatever the door card says is no longer applicable.

 

[Buckfever]

OK a couple more things here. I emailed BFG for guidance on tire pressure although I may just chat with them on Monday.

I talked to a patient of mine that’s a service technician at Toyota based on his experience he thinks they should be run closer to 38.

Based on my driving experience this morning, I would say that the steering response on these tires is exceptional. I was very pleased with how crisp the steering was and the precision.

My subjective impression is that they were not quite as well planted as the Michelin LTX on the highway. I think the softness helps the Michelin’s.

For sure in my opinion, the ride is harsher, so if anything, my inclination would be to soften it a bit.

They are louder not horrible, but appreciable. But it’s not an apples to apples comparison. These are nothing like the general grabbers that I was running on my 4Runner.

And I’m gonna get even more subjunctive here the thing that I like the most about these tires is that it makes the whole vehicle feel more solid. It’s how I expected the Land cruiser to feel. There’s nuance and there’s room to refine it to your liking but in one word Solid.

OK so a little housekeeping on the mpg’s when I was driving off the lot, the mpg was at 20.6.. I wound up getting there real early and I probably idled there for about 20 minutes.

So we’ll see where we go from here on the mpg’s.

 

[Buckfever]

Down to 20.5mph on the drive home, for sure though been pushing it feeling out the new shoes.

 

[Buckfever]

So this morning I lowered them to 38psi cold and that feels really good to me. I had a highway run and I am way too comfortable with the handling now. 84mph all the way and we saw the mpg dip down to 20.4. Got off the highway and on the rural roads it bumped back up to 20.5.

This is a beautiful vehicle and I get positive feedback all the time, but at 84 mph it has the aerodynamics of a brick.

I'm not going to be able to give an apples to apples comparison compared to the stock tires, because I ran those mostly in the high 40s psi and now I am so much more comfortable with the vehicle I'm not driving it the same.

But still we'll see over time.

Really like these tires.

 

[Buckfever]

OK so LCColorado got me thinking. I looked up the load index on the KO3's for my tire and it's 3197 the load index on the stock LTX trails are 2756. So then it becomes a simple math problem. 3197 divided by 2756 times the recommended 33 psi which gives you 38.28 PSI for the K03's in the stock size.

However for many sizes of the KO3's the load index is 3525 so for those tires the math comes out to 42.2 PSI.

I'm still going to reach out to BFG.

 

[LCColorado]

OK so LCColorado got me thinking. I looked up the load index on the KO3's for my tire and it's 3197 the load index on the stock LTX trails are 2756. So then it becomes a simple math problem. 3197 divided by 2756 times the recommended 33 psi which gives you 38.28 PSI for the K03's in the stock size.

However for many sizes of the KO3's the load index is 3525 so for those tires the math comes out to 42.2 PSI.

I'm still going to reach out to BFG.

I was running mine around 35 when I first got them, but started seeing others talking about running Load E at higher PSI. I didn’t know who to believe so so I reached out to BFG and they told me 45-50 based on my vehicle. I found an online calculator that also confirmed for my size (275/70/18) they should be around 46psi based on the stock recommendations.

 

[Buckfever]

I was running mine around 35 when I first got them, but started seeing others talking about running Load E at higher PSI. I didn’t know who to believe so so I reached out to BFG and they told me 45-50 based on my vehicle. I found an online calculator that also confirmed for my size (275/70/18) they should be around 46psi based on the stock recommendations.

Ok those are 3638 load index and so doing the math using the 46 psi comes out to 40.42.

So that really helps tightening up the range of where I should be.