Our 2019 Ranger (affectionately named Rango) has been a great little toad for our RV life. It’s comfortable and quiet enough, tough and capable. Part of the reason we opted for the 4x4 (besides the fact that the RWD model is not flat-towable) is because we wanted the freedom to be able to take the truck on some adventures! And we’ve done just that. During said excursions the little truck has performed admirably. The suspension, torque and locking diff have all worked great and powered us over any obstacles we’ve encountered. There was, however, one glaring weak link in the whole package: The original Ford-equipped Hankook Dynapro AT/M tires. Not only did we encounter some slippage on basic obstacles, we also damaged a sidewall and wheel when the flexible sidewall pinched on a rock. Although no tire is immune to damage in rocky situations, this particular instance was during a slow crawl over a rock shelf with pressures at 30 psi. We should also not discount the fact that our optional 18” wheels are less ideal than the standard 17” wheels for off road purposes, as there is less sidewall there to absorb flex and impacts. At any rate, while the truck (and tires) did everything we asked of them, there was certainly room for improvement. The Hankooks weren’t all bad. Redeeming qualities include light weight compared to a heavier-duty off road tire which result in decent handling and fuel economy, and quiet performance on-road. They just weren’t great either - and that’s typical of OEM tires. Auto manufacturers are always riding the balance of installing a nice name-brand tire with good manners in all types of weather and conditions which is also quiet and fuel efficient. True all-terrain tires simply do not fit into this category. A step up to the Ford Ranger Tremor does get you more rugged (and upsized) Goodyear Wranglers, but all other trims are on Hankook Dynapros. Honestly, I couldn’t wait to wear out the Hankooks and replace them with something bigger, better, and cooler. At 27,000 miles (plus about 15k towed behind our RV), the Hankooks were clearly on their way out. I’d plugged one of the tires roadside and still had the big sidewall gash in another, plus the tread was down to the wear bars on the shoulders. So I began shopping. The Candidates Going into the process my top choice was by far the BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2. I’ve always felt that the BFG is the quintessential off road tire, and apparently many others share my opinion! The BFG KO2 is one of the most popular all terrain tires on the market. I got to spend some time with these tires during a week of aggressive buggy driving in Baja Mexico with Wide Open Excursions where the grip and durability of these tires shined through as we put them through the wringer over rocks, sand and gravel at high speeds. At the conclusion of that event I knew I had to have some BFG KO2’s! But wait… what else is out there? I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t shop my options before pulling the trigger right? There are several tires that compare to the BFG KO2 and I found very quickly that while the differences were trivial, prices varied greatly. In other reviews I found it became apparent that the General Grabber ATX, Falken Wildpeak, Goodyear Wrangler, Toyo Open Country and Cooper Discoverer series have really closed the gap on BFG in terms of overall performance and in many cases represent a better value. My priorities Everyone has their own order of priorities when it comes to buying all terrain tires. For me personally, this was my order:
Narrowing it down In looking over my priority list it may come as no surprise that the BFG All-Terrain KO2 took a couple steps down the ladder almost immediately. Several times I placed the BFGs in my online cart and stepped away to give it some thought. Every time I returned to my computer, I opened the cart and looked at the total purchase price… then deleted them from my cart. The more I did this, the more I realized these may not be the tires for me. I then started to look more and more at the competition. After several hours of comparing tires on various websites and reading review after review, I found myself gravitating towards the General Grabber ATX. I like the looks of the tire, from the tread to the white letter sidewalls. In addition they were quite a bit less expensive than the BFG. Again I added the Grabbers to my cart… let it sit… then came back and did one last search. That’s when I stumbled across the Cooper Discoverer ATP II. Not only were these Coopers great looking tires, they were offered at a much lower price point (made sweeter by a Black Friday deal!). Most importantly, they appeared to have many of the same features and capabilities as the more expensive tires. What I found interesting (and marginally concerning) was that there were no really good reviews of the ATP II tire online. It seems since this tire is quite new (it replaces the outgoing ATP model) and exclusive to Discount Tire, maybe it isn’t getting much attention. After giving it some thought and considering budget more and more, I opted to give these relatively-unproven tires a shot on our Ranger. The purchase and install experience I originally planned on purchasing online through Tire Rack, but since the Cooper Discoverer ATP II is only available through Discount Tire I was sort of forced to go that route. I’ve heard great things about Discount but I’ve never used them, so I was interested to see if they could seamlessly translate my online order to the in-store experience. I ordered on the Discount Tire website and scheduled to have the tires delivered to a local store where they would be installed on my Ranger in two days’ time. Before driving to the store I stopped by an empty lot and did some “before testing” with my old Hankook Dynapro tires. Twice I got stuck in the sandy terrain and had to switch to 4WD and/or locking rear diff. I then drove on to the store with my tires filthy and coated in goathead stickers (which I massively apologized for to the technicians). Upon arrival I was greeted immediately by a friendly consultant and they immediately checked me in. All my information was in the system and ready to go from my online order, so there was no paperwork to fill out or hoops to jump through. The consultant brought one of the new Cooper tires out for me to inspect, and once I gave them the thumbs up they got right to work! Since I was going up in size quite a bit the technicians first mounted a front tire and installed it on the truck to ensure we had good clearance all around the steering and front suspension components. That was a nice touch. All-in-all I was only in the store for about 15 minutes! My consultant handed me a pamphlet with my printed paperwork and warranty information, then he explained my Discount Tire benefits such as free flat repairs and tire rotations & balances nationwide. That was a pleasant bonus that I did not take into consideration when I made the decision to buy the Coopers and it adds even more value to the purchase. I backed the truck out of the bay, stood back and admired the new shoes, and hit the road! First impressions I’ll be honest, my past experience with adding larger off-road tires to my vehicles has not been overly pleasant. As I mentioned earlier, the added weight of these types of tires can really affect ride, acceleration, handling, fuel economy, even braking. Aggressive tread patterns and big tread blocks typically mean increased tire noise especially when on the highway. You certainly have to be prepared to sacrifice some on-road manners for off-road capability. When I left the Discount Tire shop I jaunted right across the road to Sedgwick County Park, which has some bumpy and unkept areas as well as nicely paved roads with sweeping curves. It was a good place to quickly get a feel for my truck’s new road manners. I found rather quickly that the tires did indeed change the way the Ranger drove, however the difference was not nearly as drastic as I’ve felt with other tires (such as the Toyo Open Country on our last SUV). Acceleration is slightly more sluggish and I can feel the truck wallowing more when making corners. I feel that the ride is only slightly harsher than with the OEM tires, although it may not be much different at all. It’s hard to tell really. Leaving the park, I immediately merged onto the highway to head back to the sandlot for a follow-up test to compare off-road grip against the old Dynapros. This is where I fully expected some road noise and ride harshness thanks to these tires’ much more pronounced and aggressive tread pattern as well as stiffer sidewalls. Instead I found myself pleasantly surprised! Tire noise was not discernibly louder than with the OEM tires and the ride was just the same as with the Hankooks (which, by the way, is quite poor in a stock Ranger). Because we do a lot of highway travelling, this was a very welcome discovery. The off-road test My completely unscientific off-road test of the Discoverer ATP II was to drive the Ranger over a series of berms at low speeds on a very low-traction surface. My theory here was that while the Ranger would make it through any of these obstacles pretty easily in 4WD and with some momentum, lower speeds would force the tires to do the work. Before I get too far into the findings I think it’s important for me to explain that this is not intended to be a direct comparison between the Hankook Dynapro AT/M and Cooper Discoverer ATP II. Not only are these tires fundamentally different, the Hankook also had 27k miles of wear on them. Think of the Dynapro results simply as a “Brand X” baseline.
1,000 mile thoughts I’ve now had some time to live with the Discoverers and try them in all sorts of different day-to-day scenarios: dry, wet, gravel, highway, residential, etc. I believe most people are going to purchase this tire for use in the same manner as me, that is to say lots of daily driver street use with the occasional off-road excursion for work or play. With that in mind I will continue to test these tires in various off-road conditions and report back later in the life of the tire. Today let’s focus on the everyday practicality of upgrading from an OEM all purpose tire to an upsized Cooper Discoverer ATP II. First and foremost I have to say that I am really enjoying the new look of our Ranger with these new tires. Whereas the OEM tires always looked one size too small and a little bit too subdued, these 275/65/18 Coopers fill the wheel wells much nicer while raising the truck slightly and showing off those blocky sidewalls with off-road intent. The optional raised white letters are a personal preference and I’ve found that people tend to love them or hate them - there’s not much in between. As a child of the 80’s who adored his Tonka and Nylint toy trucks, the white letters really speak to me. Most of our driving has been highway miles and there haven’t been any real complaints from Tosha nor I. As I mentioned earlier, tire noise is no issue and road manners are essentially just the same as they were before (that is to say, not great). One comment was made from our son Carter as he sat in the backseat - he felt that when Tosha was driving she was darting back and forth in the lane a little bit more frequently and it was bothering him. Tosha agreed that she might have been giving more steering input and pointed to the tires as the cause. I can certainly see how this might be the case, as those thick tread blocks wallowing and flexing under the carcass could cause one to correct left and right constantly. The biggest drawback however comes as no surprise: fuel economy. I must say first that we have been traveling almost exclusively north and south on I-35 and we’ve had some horrible luck with headwinds. During one trip from Oklahoma City to Wichita we charged headlong into almost constant 40-mph winds. When we headed back south to Dallas, wind had shifted out of the south and again we found ourselves pushing the Ranger’s little 4-banger to punch through the gusts. We’ve truly seldom had the wind at our back since getting these tires installed! All that being said, our economy went from an average of 19.5 mpg over the last 5000 miles of driving with the OEM tires (as calculated by the Ranger’s MFI), to just 16.0 with the upsized Coopers! While I do feel that our numbers have been quite skewed given our luck with these recent winds, it can’t be denied that there was some sort of considerable loss in fuel economy here. Would I buy them again?
It may be just a little too soon to tell yet. The overall purchase experience from Discount Tire was amazing and just as I was writing this blog Discount Tire has announced they’ve acquired Tire Rack and are merging operations. This is no doubt going to be an incredible pairing as they now represent two of my favorite options for tire purchases. It makes the choice that much simpler. I would absolutely purchase from Discount Tire again and I highly recommend purchasing and scheduling online! I’ve never experienced such a friendly and efficient tire install experience. While I am quite happy with the tires thus far, I am keen on trying them off-road alongside similar trucks and SUVs with the competitor’s tires. That will be the true test. Has this latest iteration of the budget(ish) Cooper Discoverer line truly closed the gap between them and the big boys? In terms of off-road capability I’m unsure of that until I can see it for myself. The on-road manners are quite good and I truly do not see any of the competition feeling any better or offering a quieter ride. For the price, I won’t be complaining either way. If you’re interested in watching our YouTube video showing how the tires performed off road, you can do that here! Please consider subscribing to our channel while you’re there. I hope you found this blog and video helpful! See you in the next one!
4 Comments
Michelle
3/19/2024 11:31:04 pm
Now that it's 2024, I'm curious if your thoughts on these tires remained fairly high. Discount Tires is discontinuing my favorite all terrain and I need new ones in about 20k miles. They are telling me this tire will be better and very comparable. We pull a smaller camper trailer but I like to offroad/boondock with it and am curious what your final thoughts were on these Coopers after a few years? Thx
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Robert Lackey
9/22/2024 10:00:29 pm
Hi Michelle, I'm sorry for the delayed response! I liked these tires a lot but after 40k miles there was a lot of chopping wear on them which caused road noise. I rotated them every 10k miles but they probably should have been done sooner. I also had the alignment checked every oil change and realigned the truck once during the life of the tires, so I know that wasn't the issue.
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Mark
7/4/2024 08:01:07 pm
Great review.
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Hunter Hillier
1/31/2025 08:57:52 pm
Great find, thank you for your post and opinion
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AuthorsRobert & Tosha Lackey are full-time RVers, business owners and parents focused on providing a unique, well-rounded educational experience for their children through real-life learning on the road. Archives
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