Aesthetics - BF Goodrich KM3 7.50r16

Hi - am in the process of doing up my series 3 and approaching what I would argue as the biggest aesthetic decision in the car - wheels and tyres. I’m a fan of skinny so am thinking of going with the new BFG km3 mud terrains on wolf rims. But, before I fork out £1k, has anyone got any pictures of this setup please? Have agonised over this decision for ages. Thanks.

thspeller said:

Hi - am in the process of doing up my series 3 and approaching what I would argue as the biggest aesthetic decision in the car - wheels and tyres. I’m a fan of skinny so am thinking of going with the new BFG km3 mud terrains on wolf rims. But, before I fork out £1k, has anyone got any pictures of this setup please? Have agonised over this decision for ages. Thanks.

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Mine's on stt pro cos I'm a tight wad

Didn't like the look of either of them and went for the Geolandar GO15, full M&S rating, 50k miles life and £200 a set less.
https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/geolandar-a-t-g015

Marmaduke said:

Mine's on stt pro cos I'm a tight wad

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Any photos please!?

In my humble opinion, mud plugger tyres only look tight on vehicles that are actually covered in mud. When they are on nice shiny vehicles they look like a tutu on a hippo.

Col

@rob1miles Those Geolanders are A/T right, rather than Mud Terrains?

What are your thoughts on MTR tyres in a series. I’ve been hammered on forums for saying it is unsafe to put MTR on a series just for their look but Land Rover supplied defenders with Goodyear wrangler MTRs and range masters, ZXL and SAGs all have a mud pattern.

There's some good youtube videos (OK and some bad...) where people compare MTs and ATs and ATs with a more road bias. What comes out of it is the unless you spend a lot of time off road then an AT and even one with more road bias is best. There's more to all this than meets the eye. The ATs and especially the AT with a road bias (like the Goelandar GO15) put a lot more rubber on the road and have sipes to suck up the water. The MTs have big block but they don't put a lot of rubber down. The MTs cannot be too soft as the blocks get damaged, so they are often not mud/snow rated - you have to check each one. Interestingly (every day is a school day for me!) the MTs come out worse in sand - they just moved it and dig in. Obviously MTs are best in mud so the question is "how much time will you spend in mud?" There's issues of noise, the bigger the blocks the greater the noise - but clever design helps, but also tyre life, more rubber in contact = longer life. I would say the general view was that people bought MTs for looks and imagined mud use, then drove 95% or road and regretted their choice and went for ATs next time. Put "MT vs AT" into youtube and get the coffee on.

That’s helpful Rob1miles. I understand the differences, it’s just curious to me that all the OEM tyres - Rangemaster, Super All Grip, ZXL and G90 all have a mud bias pattern. I just think the rugged look suits the series. In 7.50, my choices are ZXL, G90, General SAG, Rangemaster, BFG KM3 (all muddies) or radial cross and geolander in AT. I am not hugely bothered about noise or MPG but more maintaining the look of the vehicle whilst driving mainly on road around the coast (short journeys only). I love the Cool n Vintage look (I know that’s an awful admission for the purists) but keen to get it right as it is expensive! Tom

If you are choosing tyres based on aesthetics I would not be fitting km3's to series. They look far to new and even in the correct 750 size do not fit with the series aesthetic imo. I have xzl's fitted to wolfs on my sereis again chosen more for the aesthetic than anything else, and a friend has the deestone extra traction which are a purely aesthetic choice as it has near enough the original tad pattern. For me on aethetics alone I would be looking at deestone, sag's, xzl ragne masters, as they fit the series look as a "vintage tyre". I would argue from an aesthetic point the wrangler is too knew and fall sinto the saem catagory as the bfg.
However having said all of that everything above is purely from an aesthetic stand point. none of the tyres recommended above for aesthetics are great tyres one the road (noise, wet grip etc) and although good off road have been suppassed by modern equivalents, so it depends entirely on what you priorities.

mine on 750 xzl:



friends on 7.50 destine extra traction’s:

thspeller said:

Any photos please!?

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Marmaduke said:

View attachment 227639
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They look larger than 7.50!!
What size are those?

Marmaduke - that’s a lovely setup but those are 255s I’d guess. I’m after a narrow tyre - it’s between ZXL and Latitude Cross by the sounds of it. Want a more aggressive tread but worried about road manners in wet where I drive 90%. I would go to 235 but concerned about weight and turning circle, etc.

dag019 said:

They look larger than 7.50!!
What size are those?

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235's

Beware the word "aggressive". I watched a ton load of tyre review videos and one thing that struck me was how often the term "aggressive" was used (constantly) and mostly about sidewalls. I have no idea what an "aggressive sidewall" is and I'm not sure I want one. I wanted a strong high load capacity (120), a 31.7" dia, M/S rating, low noise and a long life. I came the the view that "aggression" in a tyre is like a "credit score" - we are constantly advised we need one but no one can explain why. Its seems inconceivable that we used to mange without either "aggressive" tyres or credit scores, but trust me, we did. I like the LT 235/85 tyres and especially the Yokohamas because they have a square profile that suite a series. The original tyres would have been like these and I'm struggling to see how this reads across to a mud tyre (these are taken from the S2A parts book specs)

thspeller said:

Marmaduke - that’s a lovely setup but those are 255s I’d guess. I’m after a narrow tyre - it’s between ZXL and Latitude Cross by the sounds of it. Want a more aggressive tread but worried about road manners in wet where I drive 90%. I would go to 235 but concerned about weight and turning circle, etc.

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Road manners in a series They were 104 quid each and they'll perish before I wear them out. I was tempted by latitude cross but 104 when I was buying 4 was the deal clincher.