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I was fortunate enough to get my Bronco back in October and I love it. Black diamond 2dr with the 2.3L engine. I love everything about this Bronco. I have 2 kids and we've already road-tripped to Florida from Michigan in it. Totally worth it to be able to take the top off and cruise around the beach towns of southern Florida.
I wanted to share my experiences and choices with tires. I have now had 3 different sets on my Bronco. I started with the factory Goodyears that come with the sasquatch package, 315/70/17. Overall I really like the look and the performance of the sas wheels and tires, I plan to use those in the Michigan summers and any time I want to actually go off-road intentionally. BUT for a couple of reasons, I planned to not ride with those tires/wheels all the time. First I was concerned about tread life on the larger more expensive tire. I drive my Bronco as a daily driver and put a lot of miles on it.
My second concern was winter driving. My brother-in-law is the huge gear head and works for Ford as an engineer. Grated not on the Bronco but still someone I trust and take advice from on all things automotive. The story he told me in that Ford was dead set on a mud terrain tire for the sas package, but that the tires they were using for their internal testing were not passing the snow/ice test so they had to ask Goodyear to modify the tire to pass the tests, well those changes made the tires not a true mud terrain tire, so the MT on the SAS tires actually stands for Maximum Traction, not Mud Terrain. NO idea if it's true or not, but the idea was that he was worried how well the SAS MT's would do in the Michigan winters.
Factory Wheels and Tires
My first attempt to solve my "problems" was buying a set of take-off wheels from a Bronco Big Bend that someone at my dealer switched out. I know a guy so I got them cheap for a set of wheels and tires, they came with the 17" wheels that are not unattractive along with a 255/75/17 Dueller A/T tire. I was hoping to use these in the winter to maybe increase my fuel efficiency and keep the wear and tear off my SAS tires. These are the tires I used to drive to FL. I was happy with my slightly increased fuel economy vs normal commute highway driving. BUT they left me feeling neutered...
Factory BB Wheels and Tires
Final Solution: after I got home I decided between the looks and the questionable snow/winter rating on the Duellers I wanted something else for my winter tires. So I ordered a set of 285/70/17 KO2's mounted on the factory BB wheels I have. I love these, they look great! They are so far slightly more fuel-efficient than the SAS tires while also being one of the most highly rated A/T tires I could find in terms of winter performance. Right after I got them installed one of my buddies made the comment that "you're driving a bronco again". I'm sure none of it was completely necessary but I have had fun and wanted to share. I really think the 285's (which are standard on a Badlands) are a really good compromise tire for anyone who wants a little more than the factory Big Bend tires, and they will keep me happy till summer when I get my 315's out again.
I wanted to share my experiences and choices with tires. I have now had 3 different sets on my Bronco. I started with the factory Goodyears that come with the sasquatch package, 315/70/17. Overall I really like the look and the performance of the sas wheels and tires, I plan to use those in the Michigan summers and any time I want to actually go off-road intentionally. BUT for a couple of reasons, I planned to not ride with those tires/wheels all the time. First I was concerned about tread life on the larger more expensive tire. I drive my Bronco as a daily driver and put a lot of miles on it.
My second concern was winter driving. My brother-in-law is the huge gear head and works for Ford as an engineer. Grated not on the Bronco but still someone I trust and take advice from on all things automotive. The story he told me in that Ford was dead set on a mud terrain tire for the sas package, but that the tires they were using for their internal testing were not passing the snow/ice test so they had to ask Goodyear to modify the tire to pass the tests, well those changes made the tires not a true mud terrain tire, so the MT on the SAS tires actually stands for Maximum Traction, not Mud Terrain. NO idea if it's true or not, but the idea was that he was worried how well the SAS MT's would do in the Michigan winters.
Factory Wheels and Tires
My first attempt to solve my "problems" was buying a set of take-off wheels from a Bronco Big Bend that someone at my dealer switched out. I know a guy so I got them cheap for a set of wheels and tires, they came with the 17" wheels that are not unattractive along with a 255/75/17 Dueller A/T tire. I was hoping to use these in the winter to maybe increase my fuel efficiency and keep the wear and tear off my SAS tires. These are the tires I used to drive to FL. I was happy with my slightly increased fuel economy vs normal commute highway driving. BUT they left me feeling neutered...
Factory BB Wheels and Tires
Final Solution: after I got home I decided between the looks and the questionable snow/winter rating on the Duellers I wanted something else for my winter tires. So I ordered a set of 285/70/17 KO2's mounted on the factory BB wheels I have. I love these, they look great! They are so far slightly more fuel-efficient than the SAS tires while also being one of the most highly rated A/T tires I could find in terms of winter performance. Right after I got them installed one of my buddies made the comment that "you're driving a bronco again". I'm sure none of it was completely necessary but I have had fun and wanted to share. I really think the 285's (which are standard on a Badlands) are a really good compromise tire for anyone who wants a little more than the factory Big Bend tires, and they will keep me happy till summer when I get my 315's out again.
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, like I said it's been more about the fun of playing with different setups. And yes, I have been adjusting the tire sizes as I go in ForScan.
