wibornz
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- First Name
- Ted
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- Aug 3, 2018
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- lansing, Mi.
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- Retired from Corrections....I have stories.
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I meant to do this at 15,000 miles, but the miles slipped by so you get it at 20,000 miles. I am a big fan of Cooper STT PRO tires, but when time came to buy them again, they were back ordered 6 months and to buy them, they were listed at $630 a tire. So time to try something else. We travel a lot and Jeep all over the US, on all types of terrain. I put the Baja Boss AT tires on in August and well they have 20,000+ miles on them and I will add another 1000+ going home on this weekend from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia then back to Michigan.
Think like this. What the last two or so years of Jeeping looks like for us.
So onto the tire review. I found the Mickey Thompson tires to be easy to mount to bead lock wheels. I have use tire spoons to get the wheel inside of the Cooper Tire, the Mickey tire, I can just drop the tire on the wheel and walk on the tire to get the tire into the wheel. Much easier for the Mickey tire. The Cooper STT PRO tires were a very tight fit to get onto the lip for the bead lock side. I would use big washer and have to work the tire inch my inch to get it on the lip. The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss were super easy to mount. set on side on the lip, use to flat head screw drivers to push the remainder of tire on to the lip. It would usually take about forty five minutes to an hour to mount a Cooper STT PRO tire vs twenty minutes to mount the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tire to the bead lock wheels. When airing up the Cooper STT Pros to set the rear bead, the Cooper STT Pro would set the bead at seven to eight psi. The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires set at three to four PSI. This is using a water, dish soap spray to help lubricate the tire and wheel.
So the Mickey Thompson tires are way easier to mount. I think the size of the tire opening on the Cooper tire is a way tighter fit. I think, this may be an issue if you were airing down Mickey Thompson tires way down on a non bead lock wheel. I have had zero issues with the Mickey Thompson tires aired down to 4 psi on the sand and 6 to 8 psi for off roading. Note I usually air down between 10 to 12 psi.
I estimate that the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires have approximately 5,000 miles off the pavement in off roading situation. Yes, there are times that we off road four to six time a week for months on end.
So lets cover the terrain that we have used them in.
Mud in the UP of Michigan.
The sand at Glamis Sand Dunes. They performed great on the sand, I was able to crawl slowly up Oldsmobile Hill.
On the rocks. They did very good, no real issues. Never felt like I had a lack of traction.
I thought they were great in the desert for trail running.
We ran sixty miles of a beach in the Baja Peninsula in Mexico from wet sand to dry sand to pea stone and rock
on that beach with zero issues.
We did get caught in a rain storm in the desert and had to deal with a bunch of water and wet sand. They handled that will ease.
The tires actually inspired confidence in this situation. Just know these pictures are taken approximately 60 miles from the closest hard surface road and about 70 miles to the closest town. So obviously getting stuck or having a tire failure here is not a good thing. There was approximately five miles of wet trail to get out.
So the above should give you a good idea of off road performance. I do think the Cooper STT Pro would get the edge in the mud, but the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT get the edge in the snow. While I don't have any specific pics of the tires performing in the snow, they do perform well, I did get an opportunity to drive our Jeep in the snow covered roads a few times before heading to the South West two days after Christmas in 2022. The snow was mid thigh on me in the driveway when we left. I thought they performed excellent on snow and ice covered road.
So let's talk about road performance. On the road the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT are quiet. Very quiet in my opinion, My Jeep has the the Armorlite flooring in it with sound reading added under the flooring system. I do have a Bestop Sunrider installed.
I think the Mickey Thompson tires are quieter tires than the tires on my 2022 Camaro SS and the tires on our Kia Optima. This is a sound reading in our Jeep running over 70 mph. 65 decibel is pretty quiet in a Jeep with a sunder top, 37 in tires on a lift.
I thought I had a picture showing the decibel levels at 76 db with the Coopers on at sixty mph, but can't seam to find it. The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT are dam near silent as far as road noise goes. The above picture was take with about 12,000 miles on the Micky tires.
My jeep drives smooth and straight and true on the road. They are wearing very well. I don't think I will have any issue getting 50,000+ miles out of them. I rotated them yesterday for the four time.
So during the tire inspection, I took some pictures of how they are holding up.
Two tires has a chunk of a lug missing.
I am not surprised by this. They have thousand of off road miles on them. I use 12 ounces of balancing beads in the tires. So they have stayed balanced.
Three of the five tires have cuts to the sidewalls. I have known about these for a while. I also had cactus spines get stuck into the sideways.
I was most worried about the tire with the huge gash in it. That one happened in February. I was worried at first and had concerns, but I have about 5000 or so miles on that tire since I noticed the gash. I was also worried about cactus spines getting stuck in the sidewall. Note it took pliers to pull the cactus spines out of the tires.
Yet zero flats or tire failure. So maybe it is a testament about how tough these tires are and how hard they have been wheeled. I would note, that the Cooper STT Pros never got a cut in the sidewalls and I wheeled them much harder than the Mickey Thompson tires. Maybe the softer compound used on the sideway contribute to the better ride quality. The Mickey Thompson tires have an armor rating on them and they are manufactured by Cooper Tire.
Overall I would I would re buy the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires again. I paid $320 a tire for them. I also got a $100 rebate from Mickey Thompson for buying the tires. It was some promotional deal. I did not get some special discount. I am not sponsored by anyone nor am I an internet influencer getting some deal to write a review on these tires.
I will be running the Mickey Thompson tires at the Gulches Off Road park this week as well at Beasley Knob if everything works out as planned.
Think like this. What the last two or so years of Jeeping looks like for us.
So onto the tire review. I found the Mickey Thompson tires to be easy to mount to bead lock wheels. I have use tire spoons to get the wheel inside of the Cooper Tire, the Mickey tire, I can just drop the tire on the wheel and walk on the tire to get the tire into the wheel. Much easier for the Mickey tire. The Cooper STT PRO tires were a very tight fit to get onto the lip for the bead lock side. I would use big washer and have to work the tire inch my inch to get it on the lip. The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss were super easy to mount. set on side on the lip, use to flat head screw drivers to push the remainder of tire on to the lip. It would usually take about forty five minutes to an hour to mount a Cooper STT PRO tire vs twenty minutes to mount the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tire to the bead lock wheels. When airing up the Cooper STT Pros to set the rear bead, the Cooper STT Pro would set the bead at seven to eight psi. The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires set at three to four PSI. This is using a water, dish soap spray to help lubricate the tire and wheel.
So the Mickey Thompson tires are way easier to mount. I think the size of the tire opening on the Cooper tire is a way tighter fit. I think, this may be an issue if you were airing down Mickey Thompson tires way down on a non bead lock wheel. I have had zero issues with the Mickey Thompson tires aired down to 4 psi on the sand and 6 to 8 psi for off roading. Note I usually air down between 10 to 12 psi.
I estimate that the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires have approximately 5,000 miles off the pavement in off roading situation. Yes, there are times that we off road four to six time a week for months on end.
So lets cover the terrain that we have used them in.
Mud in the UP of Michigan.
The sand at Glamis Sand Dunes. They performed great on the sand, I was able to crawl slowly up Oldsmobile Hill.
On the rocks. They did very good, no real issues. Never felt like I had a lack of traction.
I thought they were great in the desert for trail running.
We ran sixty miles of a beach in the Baja Peninsula in Mexico from wet sand to dry sand to pea stone and rock
on that beach with zero issues.
We did get caught in a rain storm in the desert and had to deal with a bunch of water and wet sand. They handled that will ease.
The tires actually inspired confidence in this situation. Just know these pictures are taken approximately 60 miles from the closest hard surface road and about 70 miles to the closest town. So obviously getting stuck or having a tire failure here is not a good thing. There was approximately five miles of wet trail to get out.
So the above should give you a good idea of off road performance. I do think the Cooper STT Pro would get the edge in the mud, but the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT get the edge in the snow. While I don't have any specific pics of the tires performing in the snow, they do perform well, I did get an opportunity to drive our Jeep in the snow covered roads a few times before heading to the South West two days after Christmas in 2022. The snow was mid thigh on me in the driveway when we left. I thought they performed excellent on snow and ice covered road.
So let's talk about road performance. On the road the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT are quiet. Very quiet in my opinion, My Jeep has the the Armorlite flooring in it with sound reading added under the flooring system. I do have a Bestop Sunrider installed.
I think the Mickey Thompson tires are quieter tires than the tires on my 2022 Camaro SS and the tires on our Kia Optima. This is a sound reading in our Jeep running over 70 mph. 65 decibel is pretty quiet in a Jeep with a sunder top, 37 in tires on a lift.
I thought I had a picture showing the decibel levels at 76 db with the Coopers on at sixty mph, but can't seam to find it. The Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT are dam near silent as far as road noise goes. The above picture was take with about 12,000 miles on the Micky tires.
My jeep drives smooth and straight and true on the road. They are wearing very well. I don't think I will have any issue getting 50,000+ miles out of them. I rotated them yesterday for the four time.
So during the tire inspection, I took some pictures of how they are holding up.
Two tires has a chunk of a lug missing.
I am not surprised by this. They have thousand of off road miles on them. I use 12 ounces of balancing beads in the tires. So they have stayed balanced.
Three of the five tires have cuts to the sidewalls. I have known about these for a while. I also had cactus spines get stuck into the sideways.
I was most worried about the tire with the huge gash in it. That one happened in February. I was worried at first and had concerns, but I have about 5000 or so miles on that tire since I noticed the gash. I was also worried about cactus spines getting stuck in the sidewall. Note it took pliers to pull the cactus spines out of the tires.
Yet zero flats or tire failure. So maybe it is a testament about how tough these tires are and how hard they have been wheeled. I would note, that the Cooper STT Pros never got a cut in the sidewalls and I wheeled them much harder than the Mickey Thompson tires. Maybe the softer compound used on the sideway contribute to the better ride quality. The Mickey Thompson tires have an armor rating on them and they are manufactured by Cooper Tire.
Overall I would I would re buy the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires again. I paid $320 a tire for them. I also got a $100 rebate from Mickey Thompson for buying the tires. It was some promotional deal. I did not get some special discount. I am not sponsored by anyone nor am I an internet influencer getting some deal to write a review on these tires.
I will be running the Mickey Thompson tires at the Gulches Off Road park this week as well at Beasley Knob if everything works out as planned.
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