BFGoodrich’s ‘toughest’ all-terrain tyre

Earlier in the year, Tyres & Accessories attended the launch of the latest tyre for specialist off-road brand, BFGoodrich. The All Terrain KO2 was described as “our best all-terrain tyre ever,” by BFGoodrich business segment manager Claire Fioretti at the “Landrauvergne” launch (Michelin’s pun referencing the Anglo-French nature of the event, and the tyre’s target Land Rover fitments), characterising the event as a “return to our core 4×4 segment in Europe.”

BFGoodrich lays claim to the creation of the first all-terrain tyre in 1976, giving the new product a certain lineage. Competition in motorsport has been an important influence too. The KO2 is engineered from BFGoodrich’s championship off-road motorsports racing technology – the brand remains prominent in various rallying events – with exceptional toughness, durability and traction for traversing harsh terrain, including gravel, dirt, rock, mud and snow, the major features of the tyre. BFGoodrich has a long heritage as an innovator in all-terrain tyre manufacture, with 80 off-road wins for its off-road motorsports teams at races in the Baja peninsula – more than any other tyre brand – the proof. In developing the KO2, engineers leveraged this off-road racing technology; the KO2 borrows heavily from the BFGoodrich Baja T/A KR2 tyre, which equipped nine of the top 10 finishers in the 2014 Tecate SCORE Baja 500. BFGoodrich states the tyre will give consumers the confidence to take on the toughest challenges, in both sporting and working contexts.

The most telling development within the tyre does not concern the tread itself, emphasising another key all-terrain performance characteristic; the All-Terrain T/A KO2 tyre is the first commercially available tyre to incorporate the company’s race-proven and race-winning CoreGard technology. CoreGard was developed to increase resistance to sidewall splitting. Compared to the current KO tyre, the KO2 is 20 per cent stronger in this critical off-road performance area, based on internal sidewall splitting tests against its predecessor. The prominence of the sidewall’s strength in the development of the tyre is illustrated by BFGoodrich’s use of a simulated sidewall aggression testing machine for which it has a patent pending.

CoreGard technology means the use of split and bruise-resistant sidewall rubber and a thicker, extended shoulder to reduce sidewall failures. Computer modelling was used to predict object paths and create a sidewall design most likely to deflect protruding objects, reducing the chances of splits and snags. The result is a tougher tyre so drivers can take on trails of various conditions.

The KO2’s durability is also geared to off-road usage. Proven by off-road test results based on commissioned third-party gravel endurance tests, and on-road results based on internal wear tests, the tyre lasts twice as long on gravel roads and 15 per cent longer on asphalt, the manufacturer states. The KO2’s new tread design and rubber formulation has been optimally blended to reduce chips and tears on gravel. A new footprint shape and interlocking tread design provide more uniform wear over the long-haul. Special stone ejectors help push objects out of the tread to reduce drilling into the tyre.

Traction has also been improved in the tread. The KO2 has 10 per cent greater traction in the mud based on internal subjective mud condition traction tests using SAE ratings and converted to percentage by competitive analysis programs. In the snow, the tyre generated 19 per cent greater traction compared to the previous-generation KO tyre according to commissioned third-party standard GM Spin testing. As you might expect from this latter improvement, the KO2 is an all-season tyre that carries the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake symbol.

Features that help the KO2 to achieve these traction improvements include “Side-Biter” lugs in the sidewall for better grip on mud, snow and rocks; raised bars in the shoulder, which help release compacted mud for better traction in soft soil; and 3-D sipes, which  create biting edges for better snow traction.