New Tires (with pictures!) - Cooper Discoverer AT3

MechE · Feb 24, 2012

Went for a little test drive up into the hills today, got to test out the snow/ice traction of the new tires. I thought they performed rather well. Where I stopped to take the pictures I had to turn around on the shoulder of the road in about a foot of snow and the tires clawed me right back up onto the road. They aren't probably the best pictures of the tires since there's so much snow, but here you go anyways. As you can see in a couple of the pictures I had some visitors (or rather, I was the visitor). I was hoping they wouldn't mind me being there but they got a little nervous about halfway through the photo shoot.

Burly Rez Goat · Feb 25, 2012

I like those tires....do you notice a power decrease with those bigger tires?

Earthworm51 · Feb 25, 2012

Great job and please give periodic updates on the Cooper Discoverer A/T3 tires performance.

MechE · Feb 25, 2012

Burly Rez Goat said:
I like those tires....do you notice a power decrease with those bigger tires?

Yeah being that it's a 5 speed and I'm more connected to the engine, I seem to notice that it's a little more sluggish. I also have to make sure I remember that the speedo is a bit off as well, although I'm going to see if they can reprogram my PCM for FDII size tires to help a little with that.

Earthworm51 said:
Great job and please give periodic updates on the Cooper Discoverer A/T3 tires performance.

Thanks, will do, if you think of it sometime down the road and want to know how they're performing, shoot me a PM or something...

johnnyboy123 · Feb 25, 2012

Hey! I just got the same exact tires installed today. First impression is that they are a little louder than the stock Affinity's I had but do much better over bumps. I'm a little worried about how close they are to the fender but a lot of peeps here haven't had problems with bigger tires.

Do you mind me asking what you paid?

Here's some pics.. couldn't get full body pics since I was in my garage but I'll post them when I get them.

MechE · Feb 25, 2012

I would guess you're going to get some rubbing, unfortunately. I had to pound the inner fender back (area marked in red below) a little to give the tires more room, and I have the RR lift. No rub whatsoever though after pounding on it a little.

And yes, I've noticed they soften bumps quite a bit better than those little affinitys.

I paid $155/tire plus install. I didn't think that was too bad of a price for how expensive some tires are now.

The second picture's just to show clearance, I didn't have any rubbing there or anything.

johnnyboy123 · Feb 26, 2012

MechE said:
I would guess you're going to get some rubbing, unfortunately. I had to pound the inner fender back (area marked in red below) a little to give the tires more room, and I have the RR lift. No rub whatsoever though after pounding on it a little. And yes, I've noticed they soften bumps quite a bit better than those little affinitys.

I paid $155/tire plus install. I didn't think that was too bad of a price for how expensive some tires are now.

The second picture's just to show clearance, I didn't have any rubbing there or anything.

Argh! Got the dreaded rub today when backing out of a parking spot and then trying to maneuver the tiny parking lot I was in. Tomorrow I will pounding away at the wheel wells. What about the plastic part though? It seems to be rubbing against that too.

Mine was about the same price.

MechE · Feb 26, 2012

Hmm, mine hasn't rubbed on the plastic part of the wheel wells at all, maybe because I have the lift. I think I may know what part you're talking about, that plastic rib that extends towards the tire from the back of the wheel well? Wherever it's at, if it's plastic, you might be able to trim it. If the rubbing isn't real bad you can always just leave it and as the tires wear the rub will become less and less anyways.

johnnyboy123 · Feb 26, 2012

Thanks for all your help MechE. I looked today while pounding at that spot and the tire clears that plastic "rib" you mention. I was talking about the front when turned inward. It's close but I don't think it's touching and that's at full lock.

How far back did you pound that spot back anyway? I did a little pounding on each side and it doesn't seem to be moving back at all. Still rubbing at full lock. Any tips you can give me?

johnnyboy123 · Feb 26, 2012

So I took another look at the issue of the front of the tire rubbing against the plastic part of the wheel well. I cant be sure (because I kept touching everything so I don't know if I made the mark or the tire) but I think it rubs in one spot about the size of a quarter on the drivers side only. With the tire turned inward all the way to the right take a look at the drivers side wheel well... there is almost no clearance. On the passenger side with the tire turned inward all the way to the left there is almost an inch of clearance from tire to plastic. Can anyone explain this?

MechE · Feb 27, 2012

Get a bigger hammer. Kidding aside though, I didn't move it much. Maybe 1/2 inch at the very most. You have to make sure you're hitting below the brace on the back side of that weld seam, other wise you won't move it. We pounded the whole area (what I had marked in red in that picture) back probably about 1/4 inch and then pounded just the edge of the metal to kind of curl it back and away from the tire, if that makes sense. So maybe 1/2 inch total. We jacked it up and took the wheels off too so we could get some leverage on the hammer. If you're trying to pound it with the tire in the way, you're probably not gunna be able to get enough force to move that metal much... Hope that helps.

I did take a picture of the front of the tire on the passenger side to show clearance and like you mentioned, there's plenty of clearance there. I guess I can check the driver's side to make sure there's clearance, but I didn't notice it before when I looked. Also, I'm not so concerned with it rubbing in that location because the tire is moving away from the edge of the plastic, and it's just plastic anyways. I wanted to pound that metal area away because it was rubbing bad and I figured that metal would be strong enough to really eat at the tire over time.

johnnyboy123 · Feb 27, 2012

Well I went back and pounded some more after I posted yesterday and went to a parking lot to do some tests. It still rubbed but that was with me forcing the wheel all the way to either side. Came home and pounded some more but didn't retest. I couldn't get the damn lugs to come off (the factory lug wrench sucks and I couldn't find my good one) so I just pounded with the wheels turned in. Maybe this weekend I will take them off and do it right.

MechE · Feb 28, 2012

Yeah with a little more leverage with the wheel off, you might be able to move it far enough to minimize the rubbing. Make sure you get some undercoating of some kind on that bare metal after hammering it too, and on the edge of that weld seam. I used POR15 on mine.

johnnyboy123 · Feb 29, 2012

MechE said:
Yeah with a little more leverage with the wheel off, you might be able to move it far enough to minimize the rubbing. Make sure you get some undercoating of some kind on that bare metal after hammering it too, and on the edge of that weld seam. I used POR15 on mine.

Yea I planned on doing the undercoating. Thanks again for all of your help and sorry for hijacking your thread.

One more question though.... how noisy are yours? Mine seem to have a whirrel sound coming from the left front tire. Would this indicate the balance is off? It doesn't pull to either side... just noisy.

MechE · Feb 29, 2012

No problem. Mine are noisier than stock of course, but far from what I would consider a noisy tire. I had A/Ts on my previous vehicle and drive other vehicles with A/T tires so I don't find them unusually loud. Usually if the balance is off you will get vibration at a certain speed moreso than noise. If you've had it up to interstate speeds and no vibrations I wouldn't worry about the balance being off.

Edit: Post some pictures of the whole vehicle with those tires if you can. I'd like to see what they look like on a non-lifted pat.

johnnyboy123 · Mar 1, 2012

MechE said:
Edit: Post some pictures of the whole vehicle with those tires if you can. I'd like to see what they look like on a non-lifted pat.

Yea I planned on it... just haven't had time. Probably this weekend.

johnnyboy123 · Mar 11, 2012

Washed the Pat today and finally took some pics... there are more in my album.

Old pic for comparison:

Another old one:

MechE · Mar 12, 2012

Looks good! Much better than stock. How's the rubbing now?

johnnyboy123 · Mar 12, 2012

MechE said:
Looks good! Much better than stock. How's the rubbing now?

Thanks. No more rubbing and I painted the area with the rust resistant paint like you suggested. Lots of noise though... sometimes worse than other times. And since I'm a worrier I think it's a wheel bearing or feel like I'm damaging the tranny and/or engine with bigger tires on. Are there any long term effects on the engine or tranny I should be worried about?

Also do you have any pics of your Pat on regular ground (i.e. not snow) so I can see how it looks with the lift? Might be the next thing I have to do but wont be for a while.... $$$$.

MechE · Mar 12, 2012

The added rolling resistance of the larger tires is going to put more load on the engine and transmission. Enough to cause problems? I don't think so, personally. Without hearing the noise it's hard to say about that, does it just sound like tire whine or is it a metallic sound?

You know what, it's a nice day today. I'm going to go see if I can find a decent place to take a couple pictures...

New Tires (with pictures!) - Cooper Discoverer AT3

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