First off, let me say that we are not associated with BFGoodrich. I purchased these tires myself and am conducting my own personal review.
BFGoodrich was founded in 1870 by a man named Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich and was one of the first rubber tire manufacturers in the United States. From aeronautics to racing to off-road driving, BFGoodrich has had experience in everything that demands a set of tires.
I’ll be walking through my experience with the latest addition to their off-road mud terrain tire, the KM3.
The KM3 was released June 1st, 2018 to the North American market. Some of its key features over its predecessors and competitors include:
- 5 percent better mud traction.
- “Mud-Phobic” bars on the tire’s shoulders are designed to release compacted mud for enhanced traction in muddy or soft conditions.
- Massive tread blocks designed to deliver grip from any angle.
- The Krawl-TEK compound in the KM3 delivers 8 percent better rock traction.
- 27 percent stronger sidewalls.
- Better chip-and-tear resistance on gravel roads.
Ok, enough facts, let’s get into how these tires actually perform in real life situations off the record. I’ll go through every type of terrain that we’ve had them in and give the good, bad and ugly.
MUD
Mud is where these things really shine, after all, they are a mud terrain tire developed for max traction in the slick stuff.
What I found was that as long as the KM3s are spinning in the mud, you’re moving forward. The key word there is spinning. If your going to try to slowly crawl through a mud pit, no tire will get you through it. You need to get them spinning relatively quickly so that mud can be ejected out of the tread blocks and avoid becoming racing slicks. The massive tread blocks really do a good job of chewing through just about the thickest mud and give you a good boost of confidence that you will make it out the other side.
This being said, I did manage to get stuck in a rather large mud hole but that was more user error than anything else. Your equipment can only get you as far as your own limitations. Be smart about where and how you drive.
SNOW and ICE
Now, being from Canada, most people are concerned about what tires to run during the winter months. My real question was, do I need to swap over to a winter tire or can I get away with leaving these muddies on during the cold snap? Only one way to find out.
I kept the tires on for the duration of the winter and was amazed at how well they did in deep snow. Icy roads on the other hand are a different story. These tires had noticeably less traction compared to winter tires especially around corners or when coming to a stop. This would be expected from a mud terrain tire on ice. They did however provide enough traction to make me feel safe when driving in the winter conditions. I just had to give myself more reaction time, which should be done anyway regardless of tires.
Let’s go back to deep snow for a second. In my opinion, deep snow can be similar to mud. If there is enough substance for the tire to really dig into, it’ll grab on and pull you forward.
Again, the deep lugs and aggressive tread pattern along with those “mud-phobic” bars really help to clear out excess material weather it be mud, snow or anything else. You can see in this picture that the lugs are clearly visible and are doing a good job of keeping the tire from smoothing over in deep snow.
But let’s not get carried away, there’s always a way to get stuck!
These KM3s met their match going up hill in deep snow.
GRAVEL
Long gravel roads are notorious for kicking the crap out of inferior tires. Chips and tears begin to occur, weakening the tire, making it more susceptible to punctures. Thankfully our friends over at http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com engineered a tire better suited to resist chipping on those gravel stretches. After 10,000 km and a lot of gravel, the tread blocks still look like they just rolled out of the factory.
In my opinion, the 4Runner felt more planted and less squeamish on the gravel. My previous BFG KO tires were always wanting to kick the truck to one side or the other when cornering or hitting a bump on loose gravel roads. The KM3s have a very stable feel and adequate control in this terrain.
ROCK
Big rocks are another area where these tires kick butt. The KM3 is designed to be aired down not only to soften the ride on bumpy roads, but to also envelope around rocks and other obstacles protruding out of the ground when traveling over very rough terrain.
The tire effortlessly molds and adapts to the surrounding environment then bounces back after the obstacle has been tackled.
BFG’s Krawl-TEK compound in the KM3 delivers 8 percent better rock traction, meaning more grip and less spin on those shelves. I could really feel a difference coming up the shelves compared to my previous tires. There was little drama and almost no wheel spin while crawling up the larger rocks, the truck just seemed to grab on and walk right up.
SAND
Sand is a tricky one. You can’t compare it to driving in anything else, the way it wants to suck you in and not let go makes it challenging. A lot of gas pedal and good tires are required to get through this stuff. It’s compact and hard but soft and forgiving at the same time.
In my opinion, other than paddle tires, mud terrain is defiantly the tire you want in sand. You want to give yourself the most amount of traction and least amount of resistance. Those tread blocks need to be able to clear out fast to allow for new material to cycle through in order to keep you moving forward. Guess who has threatening tread blocks big enough to conquer soft sand? Yep, you got it, the KM3. They do a really good job of sinking in just enough to grab on, propelling you forward. Air those puppies down to 10 psi and the only thing that can stop you is… well, nothing!
Well, maybe there is one thing that can stop you. Your own driving errors. Remember talking about that earlier? Yeah, sand magnifies driver error. You really need to pay attention to your gas and brake pedals. Otherwise you could end up like this guy.
Oh wait, that’s me.
Pavement
A few big questions I had when contemplating buying these tires was how well they would be to daily drive. Are they going to be loud and harsh on the highway? Are they going to make the vehicle want to wander all over the road? How is the tread going to hold up on those long highway trips?
The fact is, I daily drive my 4Runner which means, its spends a lot of time on paved roads. What I found over the course of 10,000 kilometres, a lot of which were spent on the highways, was that these tires held their own against the not as aggressive all terrain tires. I’d even be willing to say that they’re better. The road manners of the KM3 are surprisingly good for a mud terrain. They are quiet and smooth for having such large and uneven tread lugs and they track very well. That means I don’t have to constantly make micro adjustments while pounding pavement. I found that quite annoying and frankly, very tiring on my last set of all terrain tires. Picture this; driving 10 hours on paved surface and making a micro adjustment of the steering wheel every 2-3 seconds. That adds up! Over the course of the entire drive, you’ve now made thousands of adjustments… That gets incredibly frustrating and tiring. As long as your alignment is in check, these tires are awesome on the highway.
As for tread wear, I honestly can’t notice a difference in depth or wear. Well, that’s not entirely true… Those little rubber hairs that stick off of a brand new tire are gone 🙁 Keep your alignment in good health and these tires will last a long time!
RECAP
I’ll rate the tires out of 10 for each terrain I’ve taken them through.
- MUD ……………………. 9/10
- SNOW and ICE ……. 7/10
- GRAVEL ………………. 8/10
- ROCK …………………… 9/10
- SAND……………………. 8/10
- Pavement ……………. 9/10
- DAILY DRIVING ….. 9/10
Notice no 10/10, I believe that everything has room for improvement. That being said, these tires are awesome and definitely get my stamp of approval!
Do you have any experience with these or any other mud terrain tires?
Let us know! Leave a comment below or send us an email 🙂
