Cooper ST's - 255/85/16

[madizell]

I had to do a demanding 4-day offroad trip with a staple in a leaky tire!

I picked up a piece of stem wood in the Outback during the 2003 OBC Challenge which caused a slow leak. Rather than fool with it, I just aired up every morning and left it that way because we had to adjust air during the day anyway, depending on terrain. Tire did fine, including one stretch at around 85mph. I got so used to it, I forgot the tire had a foreign object in it.

I finally got around to pulling out the wood a little over a year and over a thousand miles later. Quarter inch diameter and inch and a half long, and hard as iron. Didn't even dent the wood when I pulled it with channel locks. I still have that chunk of wood somewhere. Hard to beat Swampers for tough.

[dnellans]

I just bit the bullet and bought 5 from custom-wheel-car-rims.com! $137 + $78 shipping made them about $40 cheaper than what I thought was the cheapest option from unsertire.com where they are $160 but free shipping. So depending on your shipping cost, one or the other might be the best deal. $764.35 shipped to my door was my final cost. A few shops in Santa Fe have said they will mount and balance them for less than $20 a piece.

I'll keep you guys up to date when they arrive. They are going on a 2004 extended tacoma that is is currently running BFG AT 265/75's.

[Redline]

I'm relatively close to Discount Wheel and shipping is reasonable. I could have 285s delivered for 154.00 each or 255s for $151.00.

I would have them mounted & balanced locally.

[dnellans]

Why have them siped? Compared to other aggressive semi-mud tires they look to have a fair bit of siping already...

[Redline]

They do, but cutting sipes into the tread at the dealer will add hundreds more gripping edges to the tread. I might do only the center ribs to help prevent chunking.

Why have them siped? Compared to other aggressive semi-mud tires they look to have a fair bit of siping already...

[ShearPin]

Hmm... thank you for the post on the tread widths James (Redline). I have the opposite problem with my Wolf Rim widths running 6.5 inch only. As a result I am leaning more and more towards the BFG Mud's. I've run them before and really had no complaints. I looked at Maxxis as well but their site suggests minimum rim widths of 7 inches....

On a side note - is 1/2 an inch under the recommended rim width a problem? Will I get tire shops refusing to mount?

Thanks again,
Henry
www.4x4freedom.com

[Redline]

I just confirmed what I already knew... the specs for most 255/85R16s is for rim widths from 6.5-8 (BFG, Cooper, etc.) I have put 255s on 7, 7.5 and 8s, but never on a 6.5 but I think it would be great, nice tight fit. Particularly the skinny Coopers. I wouldn’t shy away from the BFG M/T either.

Hmm... thank you for the post on the tread widths James (Redline). I have the opposite problem with my Wolf Rim widths running 6.5 inch only. As a result I am leaning more and more towards the BFG Mud's. I've run them before and really had no complaints. I looked at Maxxis as well but their site suggests minimum rim widths of 7 inches....

On a side note - is 1/2 an inch under the recommended rim width a problem? Will I get tire shops refusing to mount?

Thanks again,
Henry
www.4x4freedom.com

[p1michaud]

Though I’m a 255/85 fan, the very narrow Dean SXTs I had several months appeared to have too narrow a tread width for their section width. Dean SXT and Cooper ST 255s have a tread width of only 7.2-inches. I had them mounted on Rubicon 8” wheels, surely they would have been better on sevens, or even a 6.5” wheel. But all the other 255s I have tired have been fine on on sevens (ideal) or even the Rubicon eights. I would rather have the bead pinched in a little than spread apart for a better seal and bead retention when airing down. Another small negative is that the ST appears to only be N-speed rated, 87-MPH. I rarely drive that fast/faster but it is nice to have a little more margin on those very rare occasions.

Redline,
I'll have to let the cat out of the bag here but now you have me worried, I'm picking up 5 brand new 255/85 R16 Cooper S/T tires and 16" x 8" rims next week. I hope that running these narrower tires on the 8" rim won't be an issue. I know that many others on this board currenly are or have been running the 255/85 size on 8" rims on their Tacomas although they are all BFG tires. Mr. Brady, The Dude and Nic for the Tacoma crowd and Jim65wagon on a Tundra. I wonder if any of them have had bead retention issues? Perhaps they could chime in...

Cheers,
P

[BCJC]

fwiw i've had a 33x10.50R15 on a 6.5" rim (min. reccomended 7.0) for nearly 2 years/50 000km, and no worries, other than a slight wear on the middle of the tread. i even rubbed a log once and wedged a 3"x1" sliver of wood between the rim and tire, and it didn't even lose any air!

[Redline]

Pierre:

I doubt you will have a problem. As I said, I have run a few sets of 255/85 on 8-inch wheels, including a set of the very narrow Dean SXT (same case & width as Cooper ST) on 8-inch wheels. I didn't have any bead retention problems and don't think this is very different than a 235/85 on a 7-in wheel, which I have also done and was factory for years. Part of my comment and concern was the 'appearance’ of the very narrow tread faced Cooper ST/Dean SXT on an 8-inch wheel.

I just pulled out my Jeep LJ log-book to see what data I had to share... Again these super-skinnies were on stock Rubicon 16x8 wheels. The short off-road test I did with these tires was mostly at 16-psi. But I did lower the front tires to 13-psi for some extra deformation on a little rock. Didn’t loose any air.

I think these Cooper STs are really cool, maybe the perfect all-around tire, glad you bought them and I may still order some myself! :-)

Redline,
I'll have to let the cat out of the bag here but now you have me worried, I'm picking up 5 brand new 255/85 R16 Cooper S/T tires and 16" x 8" rims next week. I hope that running these narrower tires on the 8" rim won't be an issue. I know that many others on this board currenly are or have been running the 255/85 size on 8" rims on their Tacomas although they are all BFG tires. Mr. Brady, The Dude and Nic for the Tacoma crowd and Jim65wagon on a Tundra. I wonder if any of them have had bead retention issues? Perhaps they could chime in...

Cheers,
P