Cooper tires are GARBAGE!

[R.Taylor]

I have 22k miles on my Cooper Discovery SST 35/12. 5R18 tires, Properly inflated and rotated. The fronts have chunked so bad that now I need to replace them... . Were talking BIG chunks nearly and inch deep. Now I am in a bind..... Do I stick with the 18" rims and get new meats on them or do I put the stockers back on with new meats. I noticed the selection for 18" tires is dismal compared to a 17"... ... Plus the 18's cost a lot more. I think I'll do the Toyo's or Nitto's but should I stick with 18's or go with the 17's. I don't care for the 18" rims I have too much. I'd go the 19" route but since pRickson has a stronghold on the steel 19's I can justify spending $3000+ on wheels and tires. Just the shipping alone on those is a drag! We should all email Alcoa and bother them to make a direct fit aluminum 19" wheel for our dodge trucks, No spacers or adaptors... Bolt on and go. With that I'd have no problem forking over some dough for a set of Alcoa classics.

 

[JTitone]

All my replacement tires both on my truck and car have always been Cooper's. From comparing with others, they wear just the same. Best thing about the Cooper's is you can get into them for less $$$ than other brands. For tires to be chunking like you described, sounds like something going on with the front end. Somewhere I recently read about chunking tires and the front hubs were the cause. The article went into detail on replacing the front hubs. Cooper and Goodyear the last 2 American owned tire companies.



Jim T.

1998. 5 2500, SLT, Ext Cab, 2WD, MBRP Exhaust, Isspro Mech Fuel Pressure, Fass DDRP, Linux Bed

 

[UAV]

A nice alternative to the stock wheels are the 17" OEM Hummer H2 wheels, they come in a grey/silver alloy or crome fishish. You use the Dodge center caps on them and it looks real good. They have the correct backspacing but you have to slightly mod the wheel and center caps to make it work, not a big deal. I found a set locally on craigslist for $200. Without spending much money on wheels I was able to afford the 35x12. 50 E rated Toyo M/Ts.

 

[R.Taylor]

All my replacement tires both on my truck and car have always been Cooper's. From comparing with others, they wear just the same. Best thing about the Cooper's is you can get into them for less $$$ than other brands. For tires to be chunking like you described, sounds like something going on with the front end. Somewhere I recently read about chunking tires and the front hubs were the cause. The article went into detail on replacing the front hubs. Cooper and Goodyear the last 2 American owned tire companies.

I've read a few bit's on these Discovery SST's and folks say they chunk up pretty well. My rig is a 2006 with only 22,790 on it, Drives straight as an arrow, Alignment is dead on. I'd like to think the hubs are still good at 22,7k!! I don't drive on pavement in 4wd and I'm not driving on rocky gravel type roads, All freeway and highway driving. I don't care about the cost of the tires, I'm more concerned for the safety of my wife, our 2 boxers and myself. I was planning on replacing these this fall as they are noisy and loud... Louder than the truck running at 70! Now I don't feel safe cause they are coming apart. A blowout at 70+ on a 35" tire sounds like a bad time.

 

[juicedcummins]

My first 2 sets of hubs did not last 30k each!

 

[CAROLINA CUMMINS]

Love my Coopers! On my sixth set of ST's, bout the best tire they sell. Usually run 30k++ on my trucks.

The STT's are an awesome off-road tire, but too soft; we have one truck running them, prob be lucky to get 20k on them.

 

[seafish]

I don't care about the cost of the tires, I'm more concerned for the safety of my wife, our 2 boxers and myself. I was planning on replacing these this fall as they are noisy and loud... Louder than the truck running at 70! Now I don't feel safe cause they are coming apart. A blowout at 70+ on a 35" tire sounds like a bad time.

Well then, the ONLY way to go is with Michelins... . the AT2 is an excellent tire, though not available in E rated in larger sizes. If you do need larger tires, then the Toyo Open Country AT, in the 285/75/17 or even 295/80/17, ARE available E-rated, and are also an excellent tire. Of course, you would hve to go back to the oem wheels. JMHO.

 

[JJPage]

325/60/18 Toyo AT's = 20k miles... worn to the wear bars. I tried 285/75/18 Toyo AT's = would not balance, they hopped, rode rougher than cobb.



I am trying the MT's now, 12. 50/18/35's, ride nice, no bounce, quiet. Mileage is too be determined!

 

[Regcabguy]

I've had three sets of Toyos on two vehicles,with decent wear considering the weight of these vehicles(8650# w/camper 24/7 in my case). The tire techs at my local tire shop love them as far as balancing go and they are stupid strong and highly resistant to flats. I'd love to go Cooper but a member of another Dodge forum posted a list of tire recalls and they were overwhelmingly Coopers. Ride quality is probably a result of tire construction and load capacity. My Toyo 285-75-17's have a load capacity of around 3900# which explains their firm ride characteristics. Offroad I've got to air them down quite a bit but I know the sidewalls are strong and can handle it. You've got to go with what works for you. BFG has released an E rated 285-70-17 and that might be another option.

 

[TFucili]

My first 2 sets of hubs did not last 30k each!

Mine needed hubs and ball joints at under 40K:{
I've had a set of Toyo ATs on order for several weeks now. I had good luck with Cooper ATRs on a previous truck.

 

[TMax]

I have the Cooper Zeon and I LOVE them. They have lasted much longer than my Nittos ever thought of lasting and they are pretty quiet as well. I have always kept them rotated and I will get 50-55k out of them.

 

[CBrabec]

I wanted the Cooper SST's but my cooper dealer said I would hate them and would not get long life out of them. So I ended up going with the ST's and they are awesome. I have about 15k on them and they still have more than 70% of the tread left. Give them a shot

 

[flyby night]

I have 22k miles on my Cooper Discovery SST 35/12. 5R18 tires, Properly inflated and rotated. The fronts have chunked so bad that now I need to replace them...

Did you by any chance have these tires siped?

 

[CAROLINA CUMMINS]

Yeah, the ST's are awesome. Out of the six sets of ST's I had, only one set was recalled. had about 15k on them at time of recall, had just came back from a 1200 mile trip; no issues. The tire shopped mounted me a new set for free. We have also run the ATR's with good luck.

 

[rashwor]

Cooper.

I have run Cooper STs since 1992 on 3 different dodge rams and never had a problem with them. I only run them on the rear of my trucks. I have had one set of SSTs and I liked them but the STs are cheaper and easier for me to get (my tire dealer does not stock the SSTs but does stock the STs). I also ran the cooper HTs on the front of 2 different dodge trucks from 1992 to 2005 and never had any problems with them either. I am running Ameritracs on the front of my '05 with good results and they are slightly cheaper than the cooper HTs.



Sounds like something is going on with your front end. I think I have a front end issue with my '05 now as my front tires are wearing on the inside now very similar to yours.

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

I've had, or driven company rigs, with ST Coops and liked them very much. I would like to see the link to the recalls that was listed just to ejidcate myself because I was actually thinking about going with Coops STs next fall.

 

[Blakers]

I have had the same exact problem with Cooper STT's - they are junk! They wear out in about 20,000 miles and chunks come out. After 10,000 miles the tread blocks wear and get so close together that they load up with mud. The ST's are great - we had them on wife's Grand Cherokee and they worked great.

After I got rid of the STT's on the work truck, I switched to BFG Mud Terrains and love them!

Blake

 

[NSperduto]

I had 2 sets and a buddy had one set that all within a year had dry rot cracks about 1/4 in in from the rim all the way around the tire. I had the 1st set replaced with a pro-rate, after the second set did it, I went with another brand tire.

 

[Gasmasher]

Never had good luck with cooper tires. Cooper discovers came stock on my gooseneck didnt get 10k out of them and center of tires ballooned out and soon after they would blow out. i do have a bad habit of overloading trailer especially during hay season so that could be self inflicted. A lot of our meter guys run the sst tires and like them but they are in a lot more mud and crappy lease roads than I run. Tried them on service truck they didnt last 15k. Went back to BF Goodrich rugged trail getting 25-30k out of them.

 

[Blakers]

I get about 30K out of a set of BFG Mud Terrains. That's about a year for me. The SSTs were terrible in the mud. For snow they were ok the first year.