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Cooper A/T tires...


dasbulliwagen
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I've been looking at the Cooper A/T3 tires for my WK2, but I've been a little hesitant on the price. I saw someone say that we should check Walmart for their prices and low and behold, they have the Cooper A/T for half the price as anyone else. I was thinking this has to be an accident, but then I figured it out. Walmart has the previous version Cooper A/T for that price, not Coppers current version A/T3. The A/T3 is $252, the A/T is $125. I looked up the reason for this and evidently walmart has an agreement with Cooper to build the previous model to sell at a lower price point. Cooper says they are made exactly the same they were before with same Warranty. 

 

Does anyone here have any experience with the previous Cooper Discoverer A/T as compared to the newer A/T3??? I'd love to only have to spend half the money for these tires. Thanks.

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Just now, MiNi Beast said:

wear fast. ran a set on my ford. had one blow out replaced and went to cali and back and was bald. they are cheap as to be  cheap tire to get you by or just sell with "new tires". :sad2: if wanted to be cheaper side look into treadwright.com good reviews. :dunno:

or cooper discovers. they're a good tire as well. 

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$508 for the set is a hefty savings, but, how far is that $508 savings going to go if the “lesser” tire doesn’t perform when needed?

 

I’m in a similar boat. I’ve got the Grabber AT/X on my ZJ, because it’s a tire I can run year-round. But recently after driving it back to back with my MJ I’ve noticed that the cheap winter tires with unknown mileage that I’m only running because I had them have much better traction on the 2wd open-diff MJ than the much heavier ZJ does in 2wd with the truetrac. So now knowing this, and that those four tiny patches of rubber are the only things keeping me on the road, do I go get actual winter tires for the ZJ? I’m a competent driver with lots of experience in winter conditions, so it’s not a big deal, but consequences to going off the road are severe here in the Rockies and I’ll be driving it up to the ski hill on average once a week for the next six months... so is the risk worth shelling out $1000 for new winters? What effect will it have on piece of mind and stress levels while driving? On the safety of myself, my passengers... other road users? I definitely don’t want to spend the $1000 and can likely get away with the ATs, but I also know that if something bad were to happen that I could have prevented, I’ll be beating the $#!& out of myself for not doing it.

 

Yeah, it’s a dilemma.

 

Walmart’s business is selling cheap things at low prices. Cooper’s is selling tires. Cooper discontinues products that aren’t competitive because they’re harder to sell. In the case of Walmart, they buy lots of tires and selling them becomes their own problem. Walmart sells their products because they’re cheap, not because they want to give you the best value. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t.

The other point of contention, a tire shop often offers free or heavily discounted installation when you buy a set of tires from them. Is that enough incentive to make you trust your ride in the hands of a Walmart employee, or will it cut into your savings to get them installed elsewhere?

 

I don’t to seem like I’m telling you to spend more money on tires. I doubt you’ll have a catastrophic issue with the “lesser” rubber, and it’s rare to need every little bit of tire performance in regular driving. But I also don’t think you’d regret spending the extra to get extra performance.

It really sucks playing the “what if” game. Also I think I talked myself into buying new winters while typing this up...

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Just as a clarification, my intention was to buy the tires and mount them and road force balance them myself as I have access to the equipment working at a dealership. The AT3 gets top ratings and reviews on tirerack.com and they're US made. Really good snow and rain ratings. With the walmart version being half the price I had to consider them, but I think I'm going to spend the extra and get the 3's. I've never been a fan of the Generals, but that's mostly because I think they are ugly, and not based on any real issues. 

 

And there's no way I'm putting Treadwights retreads on my 2015 WK2. I don't care how cheap they are or what ratings they have. If it was an old wheeling rig, it might be a different story. 

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16 minutes ago, dasbulliwagen said:

Just as a clarification, my intention was to buy the tires and mount them and road force balance them myself as I have access to the equipment working at a dealership. The AT3 gets top ratings and reviews on tirerack.com and they're US made. Really good snow and rain ratings. With the walmart version being half the price I had to consider them, but I think I'm going to spend the extra and get the 3's. I've never been a fan of the Generals, but that's mostly because I think they are ugly, and not based on any real issues. 

 

And there's no way I'm putting Treadwights retreads on my 2015 WK2. I don't care how cheap they are or what ratings they have. If it was an old wheeling rig, it might be a different story. 

well alright sounds like you figured it out. i agree with you, rock it. 

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On 11/13/2020 at 11:19 PM, JMO413 said:

Check the tread depth before you buy anything from Walmart. They tend to have allot less rubber.

You're right, I checked the AT vs the AT3 in a comparable size. 12.5/32" for the Walmart AT, 16/32" for the AT3. 

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37 minutes ago, scguy said:

You're right, I checked the AT vs the AT3 in a comparable size. 12.5/32" for the Walmart AT, 16/32" for the AT3. 

So you only get 3/4 of the tread but it's 1/2 the price. It's been a while back but one of their budget tires started with 7/32". If I remember right it was the Goodyear Viva.

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