Cooper tire failure at 65mph - now what?

[thedavidzoo]

Bought 6 of the COOPER DISCOVERER AT3 LT235/80R-17 for our 2014 Ram DRW in April 2017 before our 13,000 mile AK trip with extensive gravel to Inuvik, etc. After that trip we were generally not too impressed by the wear on the front tires but knew our alignment might be a bit off. The worst front tire was then rotated to one of the inner duallys.

In the 10,000 miles since then we have taken our rig on many unforgiving and hairy forest gravel/rock roads, some falsely advertised as "maintained for passenger vehicles" :R. We like to get off the beaten path but obviously have a good bit of highway in between these places. The truck is driven very little without our 12' TC in the bed and we never tow.

Well, coming back from Flagstaff on I-17, we hear a clunk in front passenger wheel well and figured it was a rock that finally dislodged. Another mile and we hear a rythmic clunk clunk and pull over. A good chunk of tread had peeled off and separation in other areas all around. Thankfully the tire held pressure. Ohter front has worrisome areas. So, we have 3 1/2 years and fewer than 23,000 miles on these tires. Failure seems a bit extreme to us. We are always careful with rock and sidewalls, but maybe we are pushing these tires too hard?? We travel really light but usually have at least 1/2 to full tank of water. We contacted Cooper tires, so we'll see what they do with their warranty.





So now we are tire shopping for 6 new ones. We have narrowed it down to these 4 all in original size. Analysis paralysis has struck. Would appreciate any thoughts given our load, driving habits, etc. Don't need snow capability (live in the desert and try to stay away from that stuff). Just want something with good wear, that can handle rocks/gravel we seem to often find ourselves in. Prices are nearly the same.

1. Falken Wildpeak A/T3W
2. BF Goodrich ALL TERRAIN T/A KO2
3. General GRABBER A/TX
4. Toyo Open Country A/T III

Thanks and sorry for bringing up tires, yet again.;)

[jaycocreek]

I learned along time ago you want your best tires on the front,for obvious reasons..i would put the new on the front..JMHO

[thedavidzoo]

Well, we do expect and have had puncture issues on various roads. Our tire plug kit took care of those nicely. We also expect tread wear. What we didn't expect, even with lots of gravel and rocks, is the tread separation.

Swung by Discount Tire and they confirmed tread separation on 4 of our 6 tires, 2 fronts, 1 dually each side. Probably some kind of defect. Fronts still had 7/32, rears 8/32. Cooper Tire will give us a prorated amount toward new ones.

Talking to the Discount Tire guy, we are now considering the updated version of Cooper Discoverer AT/3 LT and the new Toyo AT3. He does not recommend the KO2 as the heavy truck/torque will shred them faster.

Question now is according to sales guy:
4 new Cooper tires for rear and put remaining 2 supposedly ok tires on front until they are done (slight change in tread design), not liking this option
or 2 new in front, 2 new one side dually, 2 old other side, seems weird
or 6 new Toyos and keep old Coopers as spares, probably this one...

[JimK-NY]

Close to 4 years and over 20,000 miles of rough and gravel roads carrying a heavy camper! What do you expect?

I have had worse. I drove 20 miles on a gravel road with new Michelin tires and had a sharp rock drive right through the center of the tread of one of those tires and totally destroyed it. The guy at the tire shop told me it happens all the time.

[Grit_dog]

BurbMan wrote:


I have a 2015 3500 SRW diesel and the door sticker says 60 psi front, 80 psi rear.

Apples and oranges Burbman.
Hence my post why SRW diesel pickups tend to have less front tire issues than drws. Bigger, wider, much higher rated tires on the front of a srw vs the pizza cutters on a dually.

[shum02]

I put Coopers on my F350 and had wear issues as well. Replaced them after 2 years and around 35K miles and went back to GY's. No defects in them just unusually rapid wear on all four corners

They were not worth the savings.

[jaycocreek]

I have AT3's on my dually and really like them..The only problem I had with them was in the snow and ice..I had them siped and problem solved...I use it almost exclusively on dirt washbordy roads with a 4K plus TC..No issues..

Sorry you had issues,maybe just a bad batch...

[smarty]

I believe you traveled on a very nasty gravel road with a fully loaded vehicle. Not sure any tire would withstand this.
I went mulie hunting in NM three years ago and completely destroyed the tires on my Jeep while driving on very poor gravel roads.

[Kayteg1]

I think he is talking dually.
Even with my 6000lb camper on dually, I weight the axle to have
front carrying 2400 lb per tire
rear carrying 2250 lb per tire
So rear had lower pressure loaded than front.

[BurbMan]

thedavidzoo wrote:
Ram owner manual and door sticker recommends unloaded psi 80 front, 65 rear.

I have a 2015 3500 SRW diesel and the door sticker says 60 psi front, 80 psi rear. The door sticker always specs tire pressures that will support the full GVWR, then you can dial back from there if you are running less than fully loaded.



NOTE what it says in the owners manual:

[billtex]

Not sure it would have helped in this case as this appears to be a catastrophic failure. But I can say having a TPMS is a God send for us truck campers. The ability to monitor psi as you are going down the road can really help predict if something is amiss with your tires.
Not sure if your truck has this, but you can add aftermarket.

I have much greater peace of mind with TPMS in the new truck.

We had similar failure and it scared the p**p out of me. No fun when hauling a TC.
I did add an aftermarket system to the old truck and it worked fine as well.

Bill

[jimh406]

I’ve had good luck on the Toyo Open Country on Explorers, but it’s a different tire for a truck.

Lots of people here seem to have good luck with Michelin XDS tires. I’d also consider those.

I’ve only run 19.5s for a few years on a truck, so I don’t have personal experience with the “normal” sizes.

I don’t think I’d trust the Coopers unless you changed all of them out. If it is a defect which seems likely, it’s a matter of time before a different one fails.

As far as tire pressure goes, my F450 recommends 80 front 75 rear for GVWR, but based on load charts that’s way overkill.

[time2roll]

I recommend GY Wrangler Duratrac or All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar.

[thedavidzoo]

No road hazard as far as we know.

That is not a nail, just a piece of gravel.

Haven't been on a scale in a while, but once early on we had 5460 lb steer, 7720 drive axle.


Ram owner manual and door sticker recommends unloaded psi 80 front, 65 rear.

[zcookiemonstar]

I bought my truck used with newer Toyo tires on it. Last year driving down the highway something broke and I had a bubble across the tread of the tire. There was nothing in the road and I did not hit any pot holes it just happened all of the sudden. I emailed Toyo and they were no help. I will never buy a TOYO tire.

[Bionic_Man]

I put Bridgestone on my truck last year, so far very happy with them.

If you bought those at Discount, I am 100% that they would cover that under road hazard. One of the reasons I buy all my tires from them.