Goodyear Wrangler SR-A vs BF Goodrich Ko2: Both Goodyear Wrangler SRA and the famous BF Goodrich KO2 are All Terrain tires, which are made to provide splendid performance on paved and off-road areas. Although both tires have a standard build, their tread design, groove pattern, and radial sizing enable them to perform differently in varying conditions.
Goodyear Wrangler SR-A is a balanced off-road tire to provide fantastic performance in rough terrains with confident traction on paved roads. BFGoodrich KO2, on the other hand, comes with a more aggressive design to favor extreme off-road adventures and wild trails.
Examine the treads on these tires closely. They hold the key to knowing which to choose. In fact if you visit my "tread design" page, picking the right tire would never bother you.
Let’s start things off with designs, make sure you don’t miss anything here as its going to explain their performance later on in this post.
Table of Contents
Design Differences:
Vs
Wrangler SR-A has an innovative build design. The tire has four main longitudinal grooves that divide the tire into four sections. The central blocks are divided into small tread blocks to increase the void ratio.
We can see efficiently placed advanced zig-zag sipes, deep cuts, and tapered edges inside each tread block.
The central rib has a zig-zag cut design instead of a straight cut perpendicular to the grooves that can be seen on the side ribs.
The tire is given a balanced shoulder design with minimal spacing to increase the contact patch for lateral stability.
The shoulders have massive self-cleaning cuts that help to maintain the vehicle’s strength while cornering.
The tire has a stone ejection feature, but it is not prominent and can favor mild rocky conditions.
BF Goodrich KO2
Goodrich KO2 is a beast for off-road terrains as its design is specifically built to overcome rough surfaces and withstand extreme conditions. (BTW. Speaking of beasts, Toyo AT3 and Goodyear DuraTrac are not any less)
The tread has an overall aggressive look, with a vast number of tread blocks covering the entire body of the tire.
Unlike other tires, KO2 does not have a traditional tread design. Instead, it consists of small worm-like blocks spread irregularly over the entire tread. This innovative design significantly increases the void ratio of the tire.
The tire has massive shoulder and bold sidewall lugs for lateral stability and an overall aggressive look. The spacing between the shoulders is comparatively high.
The tire has impressive stone ejectors, which favors it in rough areas. Overall, the tire has all the features required for off-roading.
The BF Goodrich KO2 is more aggressive overall by looks and design, the tire also offers 3 ply inner construction and that’s why it’s also heavier. It’s tread depth is seen more here, so it’s capable of letting more volume of off road dirt out form its grooves.
| KO2 | Wrangler SRA | |
| Average Weight | 55.3 lbs | 37.8 lbs |
| Average Tread Depth | 15/32″ | 12.3/32″ |
| Sidewall Construction | 3 ply | 2 ply |
On-Road Tire Performance:
A tire with more contact patch will be more reliable and provide more grip and stability.
The tread pattern of Wrangler SR-A makes it dominate on highways as its longitudinal tread design helps it to offer more contact patch and increase grip with the road.
The void ratio in this tire is relatively low, which helps to attain maximum grip with the surface, therefore, reducing the braking distance.
The wet traction of SR-A is also satisfactory as the efficient zig-zag sipes consistently wipe away the water from the tread to maintain the mobility of the tire in wet areas.
The BF Goodrich KO2 performs decently on paved roads, but due to a relatively higher void ratio, the tire lacks a bit in maintaining maximum grip with the road while going at high speeds.
But the stiffer compound really helps the tire here, and with more biting edges, there is only a small difference in the performance.
One thing you would feel with KO2 is cornering. The tire has a great lateral traction influence.
Off-Road Mud Traction
For off-road performance, tires with broader spacing and high void ratio give a better performance regarding stability and handling. That’s why mud terrain tires have that.
But like any other All terrain, the Goodyear Wrangler SR-A has to struggle a bit if we talk about navigation through deep mud terrains due to its narrow grooves.
The closely spaced tread blocks cannot handle extreme mud loads and may fill up with soft mud and dirt, leading to skidding of tires.
The relatively narrow grooves cannot clear all the soft mud from the tire, which compromises the handling and grip of the vehicle.
This tire can be used in mild rough areas, but it is recommended not to expose them to deep mud terrains it could get stuck and cause problems.
The BF Goodrich KO2 would be slightly better with muddy swamps, but don’t expect too much from the tire either. It’s interlocking design is very good at capturing the mud.
So both of these tires lack the self cleaning abilities, but with aggressive traction shoulders, the KO2 would take a lead here.
Traction on Snow
Snow traction has a lot of factors. And in case of these two, it’s not surprising that the BF Goodrich KO2 is dominating.
The tire is rated with severe snow symbol, the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake rating, which is an acceleration test, showing the tires capability to accelerated better than any all season tire. In fact, its almost 25% better than average all season tire.
So The Goodyear Wrangler SRA where it’s considered a season tire, would not be able to outperform KO2.
The tire does not offer enough biters to trap the snow and make snow to snow contact (which is better for this terrain).
What’s really impressive for KO2 is how well it shows icy roads performance.
This has to do with it’s full depth sipes, which act as biters here, although they are not so efficient on wet asphalts.
Traction on Rocks
Wrangler SR-A is designed to give satisfactory performance in mild rocky terrains as it has provided a good contact patch to maintain its grip on the rough road.
One thing to remember while exposing this tire to rocky terrains is that it has narrow spacing between its ribs along with comparatively lesser grooves due to which small stones could enter and get stuck between them.
This could cause damage and make the tire vulnerable to stone drilling as its stone ejection feature is not dominant enough.
KO2 does not have to struggle much while propagating through rocky terrains.
You can take this tire on wild adventures, and the results will not disappoint you.
The peculiar design has many tread blocks that enable it to maintain a maximum grip on the rough surface without compromising its stability.
The tire offers notches everywhere where they are mostly prominent on shoulders, and this along with siping which goes all the way deep, it’s a piece of cake for this tire.
Also with more durability of 3 ply polyester construction, you confidently move on rougher terrains without worrying about puncturing sidewalls.
Tread Life of both tires:
Wrangler SR-A is pretty durable and offers around 50,000 mileage, which is reasonably good.
On the other side, the BF Goodrich KO2 is a tough tire with an aggressive design and is made with a robust compound that provides maximum protection from external damage to withstand extreme conditions.
And although this tire also provide with the same warranty, its still going to last longer, with it’s more tread depth (that would take time to go) and it’s chip resistant rubber.
So whats the verdict?
Well, it’s farily simple. If you are staying on road and don’t need an aggressive looking tire, go with the Goodyear, otherwise, the BFG KO2 is the king when it comes to durability, the tire is very capable to nearly taking all sorts of rugged terrains.
The Baja champion is also 3 peak mountain snowflake rated and is amazing on snowy terrains. But be careful on wet roads with them. They are not going to impress, let’s just put it to that.
Compare BFG KO2 with other AT tires:
- Nitto Recon Grappler.
- Toyo Open Country AT3.
- Falken Wildpeak AT3W.
- Cooper Discoverer AT3.
- Nitto Terra Grappler.
- Nitto Ridge Grappler.
- General Grabber ATx.
- General Grabber AT3.
- General Grabber AT2.
- Yokohama Geolandar X-AT.
- Firestone Destination AT.
- Hankook Dynapro ATM.
- Hankook Dynapro AT2.
- Michelin LTX A/T2.
- Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo 3.
- Kumho Road Venture AT51.
- Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus.
- Goodyear DuraTrac.
- BFGoodrich Trail Terrain.
