Santa was nice this year.
Tires first- Cooper Discoverer S/T 35-12.50/17. These are pretty aggressive tread. Sort of in between an AT and MT tread. On stock rims, and they do rub the front control arms slightly at full lock. They whine just enough to hear in the 40-60 range. Higher speeds it gets lost in the wind.
Balanced out good, but it took a Hunter Roadforce balancer to do it. Regular spin balancer did not cut it. Steering is a little less precise, and takes just a tad more effort- as I expected. Not objectionable.
These are D tires -which is what I looked for because I was looking for a softer ride off-road. They're still rated 3,000 lbs/tire so there's more than enough capacity for any load I'll ever carry. These ride much softer than the original tires and took out most of the harshness on pavement, and when hitting off-road obstacles.
The KORE Recon is what I chose. I'm a trail rider, not an off-road racer, so I went for the Bilsteins. Front install done today, rears tomorrow. Then testing this weekend.
All quality parts, and no surprises so far with the install. All I have is one short highway cruise so far, so no real assessment yet. It does feel like the KORE gave me back the little bit of steering precision I lost going from the 265's to the 35's. My steering was dead on center before and after the install. No wandering, DW, or negatives to report. Front gained 3" in elevation.
Greg at DRC was a pleasure to deal with. I called a few times with questions and got fast, precise and courteous responses. As everyone knows KORE isn't cheap, but so far I'm getting that 'money well spent' feeling. My order shipped out the day I called it in and arrived on time.
After this weekend I will update with a report on the highway trip to the trails and off-road testing.
Gary
PS- and maybe a picture or two if I can figure out how.
KORE and 35's (long)
Linear Mode
