New tires installed, Falken Wildpeak A/TW3s trip report.
09-03-2017, 04:23 PM
#1
JK Freak
Thread Starter
New tires installed, Falken Wildpeak A/TW3s trip report.
A couple of weeks ago in anticipation of our annual "Jeep trek" to Utah I decided it was time for some new rubber. We had run BFG KM2s (E's) and Hankook RE03 MT's (D's) and this time around I wanted an all terrain. I had narrowed the selection to Cooper ST-Maxxs, Mastercraft CXT's, or Falken Wildpeak A/TW3s. I was vacillating on size, did I want LT285/70R17's like I had on or did I want to go up slightly to LT285/75R17s? Since the trip was going to involve higher elevations and I am only running 3.73 gears I went with LT285/70R17E's. My tire guy sold me on the Wildpeaks on price. I got five mounted and balanced, with tax, disposal, etc. all out the door for $1,120.00.
On the trip I encountered a lot of highway driving, on which I can say the tires are very quiet compared to the previous KM2's and RE03's. Of those two the RE03's were a little quieter than the KM2s, which are like driving a dump truck on the freeway. Seriously, at one point I considered installing an intercom system they were so loud. We also encountered a day of rain in the mountains. The wet highway traction of these tires was incredible. I never felt any slip. In the desert of Cathedral Valley and the dirt tracks of Grand Staircase, Burr Trail, and the Wolverine Loop and off-shoots the tires were fantastic, traction in and out of a creek a couple of dozen times was superb. The tires seem to let go of gravel and rocks easily. I was able to find one good muddy section to try the tires out and there they performed like every other all-terrain I have ever run; they loaded up. I bet I drove 1/4 mile before the tires let go of all the mud. That is the deal with all terrain tires, somewhere, something has to give. The tires are snowflake rated but it'll be February before I get to try them in snow.
These are an E rated tire. I ran them at 18lbs front and 20lbs rear off road and ran them at 35lbs on highway to keep the TPMS happy. They are a heavy tire 10 ply but that is what I wanted for the weight I run in the desert and pulling a trailer.
Falken lists these specs for them,
LT285/70R17 E/10 121/118S 8.5 7.5 - 9.0 33.0 11.6 632 9.3 14.6 18 59 80 3195
On the trip I encountered a lot of highway driving, on which I can say the tires are very quiet compared to the previous KM2's and RE03's. Of those two the RE03's were a little quieter than the KM2s, which are like driving a dump truck on the freeway. Seriously, at one point I considered installing an intercom system they were so loud. We also encountered a day of rain in the mountains. The wet highway traction of these tires was incredible. I never felt any slip. In the desert of Cathedral Valley and the dirt tracks of Grand Staircase, Burr Trail, and the Wolverine Loop and off-shoots the tires were fantastic, traction in and out of a creek a couple of dozen times was superb. The tires seem to let go of gravel and rocks easily. I was able to find one good muddy section to try the tires out and there they performed like every other all-terrain I have ever run; they loaded up. I bet I drove 1/4 mile before the tires let go of all the mud. That is the deal with all terrain tires, somewhere, something has to give. The tires are snowflake rated but it'll be February before I get to try them in snow.
These are an E rated tire. I ran them at 18lbs front and 20lbs rear off road and ran them at 35lbs on highway to keep the TPMS happy. They are a heavy tire 10 ply but that is what I wanted for the weight I run in the desert and pulling a trailer.
Falken lists these specs for them,
LT285/70R17 E/10 121/118S 8.5 7.5 - 9.0 33.0 11.6 632 9.3 14.6 18 59 80 3195
Last edited by kmrtnsn; 09-03-2017 at 04:59 PM.
09-05-2017, 12:36 PM
#2
Nice feedback.
I ran them on a 4wd RAM and they were acceptable until they hit about 25k miles. They did the job, never got a flat, and were pretty quiet. After that point, the wet tarmac traction was awful so beware, haha.
I ran them on a 4wd RAM and they were acceptable until they hit about 25k miles. They did the job, never got a flat, and were pretty quiet. After that point, the wet tarmac traction was awful so beware, haha.
09-05-2017, 08:09 PM
#3
JK Freak
Thread Starter
Last edited by kmrtnsn; 09-05-2017 at 08:17 PM.
09-06-2017, 09:10 PM
#4
JK Enthusiast
Good review. I hadn't considered these for my next tire but I may now. I was really leaning toward the Nitto Exo Grappler but may reconsider. I am currently on Nitto Trail Grapplers which are a fantastic tire and completely blew me away in snow / ice which was quite surprising however I do more overlanding than rock crawling and mud is few and far between so...
Decisions decisions
Decisions decisions
09-07-2017, 07:23 AM
#5
Super Moderator
The old AT's were crazy sketchy in rain and they wore pretty quickly on my lightweight TJ. I'm glad to see they've changed the design to something more usable.