KO2s or is the Bronco

[Area51BS]

Originally posted in what did you do with your Bronco today.

Nearly crapped pants in it and wrecked it. Saved it.
Applied a little gas on a left banked wet turn merging onto an highway. Immediately kicked the back end right and closed to swapping ends. Lifted foot and steered into direction rear end was going. 3 yo KO2s 17k miles. 2nd time. Is it the tires or something about the Bronco/traction control?

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[TX-Dennis]

Yes.

Mine will get a little squirrelly if I punch it on a wet corner with the Goodyear. KO2s have a reputation of being worse in wet conditions.

Blame both. The Bronco’s high center of gravity doesn’t make for great cornering, and the tires aren’t as grippy as regular street tires on pavement.

 

[allagash24]

I’ve not had that happen or had any issues with the bfgs on other vehicles I’ve had with them but I’ve heard they’re not great in wet conditions.
I have gotten in the habit of just putting 4A on when it starts raining just in case.

 

[Area51BS]

I’ve not had that happen or had any issues with the bfgs on other vehicles I’ve had with them but I’ve heard they’re not great in wet conditions.
I have gotten in the habit of just putting 4A on when it starts raining just in case.

I did this for rest of drive home.

 

[Brian_B]

Honestly hard to say as you can get any tire to break loose on a wet curve if you try

but KO2s do have a reputation for being a bit more temperamental about it than most

Bronco is a lot more stable platform than, say, a pickup truck with nothing in the rear end.

 

[zombie]

I never had any issues with my OEM KO2's in heavy rain, or even snow, but I've seen lots of people complaining about them. Could have been something on the road combined with the water that made that particular spot extra slippery.

 

[74Bronc21]

Originally posted in what did you do with your Bronco today.

Nearly crapped pants in it and wrecked it. Saved it.
Applied a little gas on a left banked wet turn merging onto an highway. Immediately kicked the back end right and closed to swapping ends. Lifted foot and steered into direction rear end was going. 3 yo KO2s 17k miles. 2nd time. Is it the tires or something about the Bronco/traction control?

Is yours a 2 door? My 21 2D Badlands with Sas does this with Goodyears. It will do it even when it’s not wet, with especially if there’s a little washboarding on the road.

 

[Area51BS]

I never had any issues with my OEM KO2's in heavy rain, or even snow, but I've seen lots of people complaining about them. Could have been something on the road combined with the water that made that particular spot extra slippery.

It happened immediately when throttle was applied. Same as last time. Never under no acceleration conditions

 

[Area51BS]

Is yours a 2 door? My 21 2D Badlands with Sas does this with Goodyears. It will do it even when it’s not wet, with especially if there’s a little washboarding on the road.

4 door. As far as wash board conditions or hard bumps causing it to shift right. That can be fixed by significant mod changing the upper links to a welded mount on rear diff and different upper links to accommodate the new positions.

 

[BroncoChallenger]

High center of gravity is prone to being loose in corners. Made worse in slippery conditions.

3 yr old tires are starting to dry out regardless of tread compound. Meaning they're not as grippy as when they were new.

KO2s, after some wear, do tend to be a little more prone to slipping in wet conditions, which is unfortunate for an all-terrain tire. From what I hear, the KO3's may be better but not by much.

That performance is a big reason I switched to General Grabber AT2's (now ATx's). Softer compound, extremely similar tread pattern, lower cost, much better performance on wet surfaces, the same or slightly better on most other terrains/conditions. Shorter mileage life though, due to the softer compound.

 

[Area51BS]

High center of gravity is prone to being loose in corners. Made worse in slippery conditions.

3 yr old tires are starting to dry out regardless of tread compound. Meaning they're not as grippy as when they were new.

KO2s, after some wear, do tend to be a little more prone to slipping in wet conditions, which is unfortunate for an all-terrain tire. From what I hear, the KO3's may be better but not by much.

That performance is a big reason I switched to General Grabber AT2's (now ATx's). Softer compound, extremely similar tread pattern, lower cost, much better performance on wet surfaces, the same or slightly better on most other terrains/conditions. Shorter mileage life though, due to the softer compound.

I may have to look into those. Don’t care about mileage as it’s garage kept and is only used for fun as you can tell by my low mileage. This isn’t cool. I’ve owned 7 pick up trucks and none slide like this thing. None of those had KO2’s either.

 

[not on the rug]

K02s are terrible on road tires and even worse than terrible on the wet roads. They do great offroad so that's why people always liked them, but they're bottom of the barrel when it comes to on the road performance in the AT tire class

 

[SeptuagenarianSasquatch]

Thanks for the posts and info, folks.

At 52K and 4/32 tread left, I finally swapped out my OEM GYs for K02s and am just getting familiar with them (2022 Badlands/4DR/SAS). They were great for a day's outing on Vermont Class IV roads (Dirt, unmaintained, often littered with very irregular glacial debris/old mountain rocks--lots of fun!). I was easily surmounting obstacles which a lifted YJ on 38s was having moderate difficulty with. So it was a good first experience.

I was impressed with the KO2s' highway manners, very smooth. At my age, I'm not taking corners aggressively, so there's that. I'll try to make it a habit to go 4A on wet pavement.

 

[Moontraveler1984]

Have the k02s on my 96 bronco, no traction control 2hi, 4hi or 4lo only, wet pavement is like Disney on ice. Running normal 2hi is fun or work depending on my mood. I can only imagine what they are like on the new broncos. My 22 wildtrak has the stock Goodyears which are much more tame on wet roads. It's the compound of the rubber, hard and stiff makes for bad wet road manners. Good luck

 

[swamp2]

K02s are terrible on road tires and even worse than terrible on the wet roads. They do great offroad so that's why people always liked them, but they're bottom of the barrel when it comes to on the road performance in the AT tire class

I disagree.

Although I don't have much to compare them too other than some Nittos different rig), I find them to be a great AT tire.

I've driven them in all conditions, mud, sand, snow, dry and wet pavement and rock crawling. I'm happy with their noise, wear and traction in all conditions. I would say they are best, relatively speaking, in sand, rocks and dry pavement and worst in mud (they ain't MT tires after all...).

I think when I need replacements (at 42k mi now) I'm going you give the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss a try. It's a way more modern generation and construction and I've heard good things all around.

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