Upgrading Tyres in 2026

Bought a 2010 last week still on the original Bridgestone tyres! 
Needless to say, at 16 years old, they’re well past their best.

I’m looking at changing them to 215/75/r15’s. 

I’m a sucker for the looks of the KO3’s but I have some concerns about the additional weight and heard they can be a pain to balance as well. 

Toyo Open Country A/T3’s are another option but honestly, I’m worried every time I see KO3’s I’ll regret my choice. 

Running Geolanders on my 2023 and have no real complaints other than I wish there looked a bit more aggressive. 

The car will spend 80% of its time on the tarmac. 

Interested to hear from people who have first hand experience. Pics welcome too. 
 

I keep having the same quandary, I mostly do road miles in my gen3 so want a good tyre for rain and cornering but I also want it to look like it could at a moments notice drive up the side of a mountain. I currently have renegade at5 which aren't actually that bad just maybe a bit of a softer compound so they do grip but they are also wearing quite noticeably. As for what to replace them with i don't know.

When I was looking last year the KO3's had no 15" rim alternatives. And having had problems with hard BFG rubbers with no grip on the Jimny, and a set of extremely noisy uneven worn BFG's on the T5, I wanted to try something else.
Having to cope with winter sometimes in May, many of the tyres suggested in here will not do it for me.
(Even though I have a proper set of studded winter tyres for cold winter use.)
But the Cooper Discoverer AT3 sport2 are ok for an all terrain tyre. Ok on road. Not bad on winter. I Use them on both my VW T5 and the Jimny.
They are soft and grippy and seem to wear off on the VW fast enough so I will avoid having to use them after 5 years. Looks like I will get 4 years out of them of only summer use on the heavy VW, April -> October.
Guessing the Jimny will need far more years to wear them out.

I've never had an issue balancing BFG tyres and I've had half a dozen sets on Jimnys and Landrovers. Yes they are heavier, but they are tough so you never get punctures and they last for years. My current set of KO2s are 9 years/40,000 miles old and have plenty of tread left, but the rubber has hardened so the grip on wet tarmac isn't what it once was.
That said, I've currently got a set of much lighter Dunlop Grandtrek tyres on and the difference in acceleration above 50mph is noticeable.

throwyourbike wrote:

Bought a 2010 last week still on the original Bridgestone tyres! 
Needless to say, at 16 years old, they’re well past their best.

I’m looking at changing them to 215/75/r15’s. 

I’m a sucker for the looks of the KO3’s but I have some concerns about the additional weight and heard they can be a pain to balance as well. 

Toyo Open Country A/T3’s are another option but honestly, I’m worried every time I see KO3’s I’ll regret my choice. 

Running Geolanders on my 2023 and have no real complaints other than I wish there looked a bit more aggressive. 

The car will spend 80% of its time on the tarmac. 

Interested to hear from people who have first hand experience. Pics welcome too. 


 

Problems balancing a KO3??? Really. Sorry, never heard such things. Nor for any AT really. Did you mean KM3 for the Mud Terrain? But even then, still not heard issues with balancing them. Any 'new' non extreme MT should be fine really. It is only the remoulds and extreme MT's that tend to be more difficult to balance.

For me the issue with the BFG tyres is price. They do likely last a long time, so cost per mile can be good. Although after a certain amount of time you'll be wanting to change them, so many may not get to realise this full potential. But initial purchase price is generally way higher than other brands.

I personally rate the Maxxis Wormdrives. Have had 3 sets and can't complain at all about them. But no idea if available in your desired size.

I also have Open Country A/T3's on the Freelander. They are fine, but nowhere near as good off road the mud as the Maxxis Wormdrives. And I'd say only marginally better on road if at all.

I ran Geolandar G015s in 215/75R15 for about 49k miles and they were great. Switched to G015s in 195/80 about 2k miles ago and they feel better.

I think the 215s are too heavily constructed for a light car like the Jimny, the 195s have more flex to them.