BFGoodrich produces premium tires for many vehicles. Still, the BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 is one of the brand’s best off-road tires. In fact, it’s among the best off-road tires on the market.
Quick Facts
- Type: Mud-Terrain LT
- Sizes: 15-22
- Uniform Tire Quality Grade (UTQG): N/A
- Speed Rating: Q
- Warranty: 6 Year Workmanship
- Price: $$$$
What Sets It Apart
As the name suggests, the BFGoodrich Mud-Terrains are specially built to perform well on one of the most difficult to transverse surfaces you will ever attempt to drive on: mud. That’s actually doing it a disservice, though, because these tires will give you ample traction on snow, rock, gravel, and pavement. The only thing you might want to avoid is hot lava, although they seem tough enough to survive that too.
They have such amazing traction because of the “Terrain Attack” tread design found anywhere the tire can contact the terrain. It’s a special design that keeps the tire clean and can bite into soft surfaces. It also provides extra traction when the tire is aired down a bit; the sidewall tread spreads out to help create a massive footprint.
Comfort and Performance
You don’t buy tires like this for on-road comfort. They are noisy on the road, they will make your steering feel heavier, and they will kill your gas mileage. When you are driving at highway speeds with MT tires like these, you will wish you had a chiropractor waiting for you at your destination.
Take the tires off-road, and you’ll experience a completely different world. They can absorb bumps, roll-over obstacles with ease and give you much-needed confidence when the ground gets soft and slick. The reinforced sidewalls and sidewall tread offer you even more options off-road because these tires are easy to air-down and spread out. That extra traction and cushion can be exactly what you need to conquer mud.
As a testament to how amazing these tires are, you can regularly find them in action if you go watch the Baja 1000 or the King of Hammers. The King of Hammers is an especially grueling off-road race that includes mud, sand, rock-crawling, and a crowd of pedestrians that will cheer if you roll over; it’s awesome.
Safety and Durability
The one thing you have to remember when buying a hardcore off-road tire like the T/A KM2s is that off-road traction does not translate well to on-road traction. The aggressive tread will not make you stop any better on asphalt, and the sidewall tread will actually make it harder to turn at slower speeds.
Worse, that aggressive tread does very little to help you stick to ice or shallow water. They will not work well for you if you expect them to be a good winter tire on the pavement. They also won’t last nearly as long as any tire meant to be on the pavement. That aggressive tread will eat itself pretty quickly if you put a lot of highway miles on it.
They are puncture-resistant and very difficult to damage, though. A tire would not be able to survive Baja or Moab without being tough, and BFGoodrich prides itself on building some of the toughest tires available. They are even willing to back that philosophy up with a decent six-year warranty.
Who It’s For
If you own a 4×4 truck, SUV, or Jeep, you’ve probably already considered buying this tire after you saw a set being used on the trail. The good news is that there is a very simple formula to determine if they are right for you.
If you are going to spend more than 20% of the time on a highway, or value on-road comfort, get the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/As instead. Those tires are still Baja champions and will destroy a lot of the competition off-road. They are just a little friendlier on-road than the Mud-Terrains.
If being off the road is the most important part of your driving experience, get the Mud-Terrain T/As. You won’t be disappointed.
