18 inch BFG K02 on D4

[BobD]

Here are some photos of the new BFG K02 tyres on my D4. Size is LT285/60R18 on GOE rims.

[BobD]

Here are some more with a bit better light.

[Drizzle]

Looks great!

I'm fairly certain the R16 is a typo [emoji6]

So, are they 285/60R18 or 265/60R18?

[BobD]

Drizzle, fixed the typo thanks.


Tyres are 285. That's not a typo. I had 285 D697's previously.


We do lots of soft sand in WA and 285's are great, not that I had much problem with the original 255/55R19 tyres before upgrading to GOE wheels.

[Drizzle]

Nice! We do a lot of sand driving too. Fraser Island again for us next week.

Any issues with the tyres rubbing? Does the spare fit in the spare wheel compartment?

[BobD]

They just touch in the couple of spots mentioned on the GOE web site for that size of tyre. Chassis extension on RH front, only in reverse with new tyres, and the seam behind the plastic liner on the RH rear. The liner has a hole worn through it on the RH rear but it barely touches the metal and doesn't mark the tyre at all. I should just bend the seam out of the way but I haven't bothered.


My two spares are on the Kaymar rear bar. No way that they would fit under the car fully inflated and they are a pretty tough tyre to try to reduce in diameter I would think, being 8 ply rating.

[BMKal]

Be interested to hear how these go for you. ;)

I'm still happy with the Mickey T's I have on mine, but will probably look at something a bit heavier duty when these eventually need replacing. The KO2's look the goods in your pics.

[Russrobe]

Think I'll end up with these next month. Always wanted to own BFGs. Although if the 697s are significantly cheaper, it's going to be a tough decision. I see you put the white writing inside. Looks better suited for the colour. Nice!

Were you tempted to go the 265 75's???

[Russrobe]

Oops i mean 275 65 r18s

[BobD]

No, I haven't ever considered that size. They are very slightly bigger in diameter so they would rub much more than mine. I also want the biggest width. Basically no significant change in sidewall size for a narrower tyre with the 275/65 size.

[Morover]

I use 265/65/18 KO2s. I think they are 3mm larger diameter than the 285/65/18. Mine rub a little bit on reverse full lock. nothing else significant. I find them to be a very good, strong all round tyre. I considered the wider one but decided on the 265. I'm actually about to head from the rock and mud of Vic to the sand of WA.

[BobD]

I use 265/65/18 KO2s. I think they are 3mm larger diameter than the 285/65/18. Mine rub a little bit on reverse full lock. nothing else significant. I find them to be a very good, strong all round tyre. I considered the wider one but decided on the 265. I'm actually about to head from the rock and mud of Vic to the sand of WA.



265/65 would be 1.25 mm bigger than 285/60, so no significant difference in diameter but slightly more prone to rubbing.

[Aaron40]

does the 265/65/18 spare fit underneath?

[~Rich~]

Deflated it might in a squeeze!

[Drizzle]

Will fit when deflated to 5psi and heat shields removed:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/218605-petition-bring-bfg-k02-lt-265-60-18-australia-post2409943.html

[plusnq]

It fits deflated with the heat shield intact on my 2013 D4. Very tight squeeze though..

[Morover]

I also have mine squeezed in underneath with heat shields in and almost no air. I have decided to move it to a rear wheel carrier and fit a long range tank. Its happening this week.

[BobD]

I took my brand new BFG's on an outing to Margaret River on Saturday and managed to damage the side wall on a sharp pinnacle of limestone in amongst the massive holes and rocks at the start of Bob's track to Boranup Beach.


No problem with the tyres going up the rocky hill to get to the beach but we came back after dark and I had a car in front of me and didn't use high beam or LED driving lights. I was picking my way through the rocks at less than walking speed when thump and I stopped dead. I thought the bull bar had hit a rock but the car started moving again and I couldn't feel anything wrong.


When airing up a few hundred metres further down the hill I found a large gouge in the front right GOE rim and a 50mm long flap of rubber cut from the side wall of the tyre, probably 8mm deep near the bead. Looks like the rim hit the rock and stopped dead before sliding off the side. No problem driving and no air loss but I will have to replace the 500km old tyre, unfortunately. No sign of the belts either, so there is a good thickness of rubber there.


The tyre was on around 16psi for the beach so I assume the sidewall got pinched between the rock and the rim. Not the tyre's fault and the blame goes squarely on the driver who picked the wrong line in the dark.


I drove the 300km home on it with no problems but will replace it tomorrow and maybe keep it for a spare.


I will post a picture when I get the chance.

[BobD]

Here are the photos to show what the tyre survived without puncturing.

[Graeme]

An expensive 2nd spare!

[Meken]

Ouch - bit of rubber cement she'll be right mate ;)

[BobD]

When I see the pictures that my son took I think it will just go in the bin and I will use my half worn D697's as spares. It still has plenty of rubber at the cut but who knows what damage has been done to the structure of the tyre. A very expensive mistake on my part.


It looks like it hit a piece of steel, not a soft limestone rock. Who knows what was in amongst the rocks and holes in the dark. Maybe there was some steel or an old rim or something that I didn't see? Anyway, the damage is done now.

[letherm]

When I see the pictures that my son took I think it will just go in the bin and I will use my half worn D697's as spares. It still has plenty of rubber at the cut but who knows what damage has been done to the structure of the tyre. A very expensive mistake on my part.


It looks like it hit a piece of steel, not a soft limestone rock. Who knows what was in amongst the rocks and holes in the dark. Maybe there was some steel or an old rim or something that I didn't see? Anyway, the damage is done now.

Why don't you take it to a tyre place and see what they say. It may be ok as a spare. Easy to damage a tyre given the right circumstances. I split the side wall of one of my tyres by clipping a smooth gutter at an almost parallel angle. The tyre was the OEM goodyear though which is not known for its strength from what I read later.

Martin

[Morover]

Here are the photos to show what the tyre survived without puncturing.

Those tyres have a strong wall, I found that out the hard way.

When you replace that tyre and get a balance make sure it hasn't gone out of round. Mine took a hard hit but looked fine, when I had it checked they found it was out and not repairable. I'd say yours are fine but keep it in mind.

[LRD414]

I had BFG KO2s fitted today in 265/60/R18
No trouble with stock through Jax, only made final decision on Wednesday.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2016/10/554.jpg

I was undecided between these and another set of D697s for ages.
The D697s have served well in the city and in the bush over some tough roads with a reasonably heavy camper trailer but have worn down faster than I expected.
Our recent central aus trip really accelerated things.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2016/08/671.jpg
This is RH rear after 42,000k. Still legal and would maybe get to 50,000k if staying in the city but I don't feel confident running tyres this low.
The fronts are slightly better as per usual, with the rears getting extra stone damage.

Anyway, I'm keen to see how the KO2s go in comparison.
I've been following BobD's experiences with interest and his seem to be going well.

Cheers,
Scott

[RobA]

I will post a shot of my 697'after a similar distance but our recent 18,000km sojourn through the NT, Kimberley, GRR, Cape Leveque and all things in between. Towing a heavily loaded Ultimate and the D4 well full itself so pretty close to GCM all round I suspect.

Our tyres look remarkably different in so much as; a long way off the tread wear indicators, I will shoot the rears only as they have done the most work. Much less scuff wear, distortion and shredding. You can now see from the two pics below that the tyres whilst having covered around 42,000 themselves look a lot different. Removed in Geraldton so they do not have a lot of bitumen travel to smooth out any damage and that was nearly 4,000km ago now. The fronts are now on the rear and look new compared to ours below

My analysis from this shot and a whole pile of others on this subject is we all drive differently, use quite a wide range of tyre pressures in similar conditions and many don't use a TPMS to record hot pressures for later analysis. Sadly we do all of this as after 15 years of tyre testing that is just what we do to report back to the engineers and we will be doing exactly that when back in Adelaide as the rears will be pulled down for further analysis by the factory I suspect.

We saw plenty of the KO2's in the Kimberley and received a very wide range of feedback from crap to fantastic and owners of everything from D1,2,3 & 4, LC200, Hi-Lux and pretty much all the new utes to start with.

What am I getting at here? Well a picture may be worth a thousand words but it may only be a picture

Given where we have taken our 697's in the last four months and 20,000km by the time we are back in Adelaide I have to say without question they represent at least to us incredible value for money and unless the price of the KO2 becomes acceptable to my wallet we will continue on with the Bridgestones

Rob

[BobD]

I will post some pics of the tyres after a 5 week 14000km trip through Central Australia, Birdsville and the Savannah Way, Darwin area plus the track to The Bungle Bungles, when I get around to it.


The fronts look almost new, the rears are a bit the worse for wear. The right rear has several large chunks missing from the tread where the tyre was cut by rocks. The sidewalls are all perfect and no punctures. I think most of the cuts happened on the Bungle Bungle track towing 2.2T on the steep rocky bits. I had my tyres on 28 cold.


The new K02's on my Kimberley Karavan are more worn than the D4's I reckon. Probably because the suspension was not greased when the repairer in Perth put new swing arms on after mine was damaged when a wheel fell off in March. This resulted in the alignment adjustment bolt moving with the swing arm and destroying the alignment. I didn't notice the tyre wear until I got home. That is now fixed and properly greased.

[SteveK]

It fits deflated with the heat shield intact on my 2013 D4. Very tight squeeze though..

How much did you have to deflate to to fit the spare wheel well ? 15psi 8psi?

[Mike57]

Got my BFG 265/60/18 in the spare wheel housing of my D4 at 30 PSI. At 40 PSI it was not going in at all.

[SteveK]

pretty close and that's the stock tire.

[SteveK]

Got my BFG 265/60/18 in the spare wheel housing of my D4 at 30 PSI. At 40 PSI it was not going in at all.
Hard to imagine hey that size is only 12mm more than stock.

[LRD414]

Hard to imagine hey that size is only 12mm more than stock.
And also interesting that my 265/60/R18 B'stone D697 fitted easily without deflation.

Scott

[l00kin4]

And also interesting that my 265/60/R18 B'stone D697 fitted easily without deflation.

Scott


Me too - I didn't even think about it or notice any difficulty.
I wonder why the difference...?
David

[scarry]

Me too - I didn't even think about it or notice any difficulty.
I wonder why the difference...?
David

Weird as both brands have the same diameter as per their specs.

A 245/70/17 will fit fully inflated no worries. Which is also the same diameter.

Maybe it is the extra rubber in the KO2;)

[Mike57]

Tread depth on the BFG's is 16mm new. What do the 697's have?

I had a general Grabber AT tyre in 255/55/19 and compared to the Highway tyres in the same size it was a larger diameter due simply to the tread depth.

That might explain the difference?

[BobD]

Here are some photos of the right rear tyre as promised above. You can see the two major stone chips but not too much other damage after 14,000km on very rough and stony roads.