The Firestone Destination AT2 and the king of durability, the BF Goodrich KO2 are although both all-terrain tires, with tougher construction, the BFG Ko2 offers better off road experience in comparison.
Being a tire engineer in my opinion, the Firestone Destination AT2 is very on road aligned where its one of the best when it comes to wet traction and fuel economy. In comparison the tire is also superior in other on road aspects as well, including dry traction, comfort, noise and tread life. The tire also offers better traction on pavement snow. On the other side, the BF Goodrich KO2 is better off road by a large margin. This tire is very powerful internally and externally with it’s sidewall biters it yields better performance on rocks, dirt, gravel, mud…you name it.
Table of Contents
Tire Sizes
Both tires are very different and this even goes for their sizes. Let’s start with BF Goodrich KO2.
- Tire comes with 90 total sizes, 15″ to 22″.
- All sizes are M+S as well as 3PMSF rated.
- Speed Ratings are seen in R, S, or Q.
- Load ratings vary from C to E.
- Weight ranges from 35 lbs to 67 lbs.
- 15/32″ of tread depth is seen in almost all sizes.
- 50k miles warranty.
If we look at the specs of Firestone Destination AT2 sizes.
- They are total 30, going form 16 to 20 inches.
- Speed Rating Availability: Either S or T.
- Load Rating Availability: Either SL or XL in all sizes.
- Weight range: 29 to 45 lbs.
- Tread Depth: 12/32″ on all.
- All sizes have 55k miles warranty
Tread Features
Let’s start with the famous BF Goodrich KO2.
The tire offers more aggressive sidewall and shoulder lugs, if I start with the sides.
These blocks have full depth sipes and traction notches providing them with uneven shape and providing them with powerful biting abilities.
The wide lateral gaps add to that further, as they are equipped with bold stone ejectors.
Speaking of which the tire also makes triangular stone ejectors as well, and they are place in outer longitudinal grooves.
In the middle there is a 3 rib design and all these blocks have full depth sipes which split open these tires further.
With a uniform design in the middle, the tire where offers superior off road traction does not compromise a lot on rods as well.
On the other side, the Firestone Destination AT2 is more oriented towards road performance.
This tire has continuous central rib with several (more in comparison) siping, which offer better directional traction in both and dry pavements.
The surrounding ribs are also very stable as they are joined together form underneath with continuous secondary layers as well.
The shoulder lugs are also very compact, especially in comparison with KO2, and even the small lateral grooves the tire makes are not full depth as the underneath this rib is also joining all blocks.
Towards outer edges, the tire is not staggered and does not make any sidewall lugs, though each block has stepped edges which give some sort of off road biting (when you lower the air pressure of the tire).
But still compared to Ko2 these lugs are nothing, as that tire offers proper serrated shoulders with mud scoops and large area covering sidewall lugs providing amazing footprint with sidewall flexing.
Internal Construction
Off road, the tire needs most of the protection to its sidewalls, that’s why the number of internal plies covering the sides are important for an all terrain tire.
And here the BF Goodrich KO2 T/A is as better as it gets, as this tire is the most durable out there (in all-terrain category).
The tire has 3 ply polyester casing with 2 wide steel belts on top and 2 layers of spirally wound nylon.
In comparison, the Firestone Destination AT2 only has to offer 2 ply cover, with 2 belts and just a single nylon cap ply.
So its obvious why this tire is so weak in comparison.
Dry Road Performance:
There are 3 main things here to consider, grip, handling and tire’s response.
Let me start with grip.
Grip
Grip is calculated with braking distances and acceleration times a tire is capable off.
So here the rubber to road contact is considered. Meaning balder the tire, the limited the grip.
So it’s obvious how BF Goodrich KO2 with is more voided design is not able to perform as well in comparison.
Same goes for handling as well.
Handling
Dry handling of the tire is calculated by considering the shoulder lugs. As the tire rolls over the curves, most of its’ weight is pressure towards the sides of the tire.
In other words, how much shoulder lugs meet up with the road on curves are crucial in determining the overall lateral traction.
With such wild shoulder lugs the BFG KO2 loses a lot of rubber that would have met the road and improved grip.
The Firestone Destination AT2 on the other side has very compact lugs over there with continuous secondary rubber layer running underneath, so its superior in offering a better lateral traction, as well as steering response.
Wet Traction
Wet traction is different, here you need water removal, and with that comes grip and better hydroplaning resistance, the two main dimensions to consider.
Wet Grip
The grip on wet depends on siping. Sipes have to have a better suited design and they need to be flexible.
The BF Goodrich KO2 has a dual compound, where it has a slightly softer rubber on top and harder layer underneath, yet it’s softer rubber is still not that flexible in comparison here.
Firestone Destination AT2 on the other side has both, and it not only performs great here, it’s one of the top performing tires on wet, in all-terrain tires.
Hydroplaning
Hydroplaning happens when a tire forms a thin layer of water in between the tread and the surface its on.
BF Goodrich Ko2 with such interconnected grooves has no trouble here, whereas the Firestone Destination AT2 although offers straightforward longitudinal channels for water to evacuate, it’s sideways removal capability is limited.
Yet, the tire is still better overall in wet traction with it’s flexible tread which creates negative pressure and squeezes the water out.
Fuel and Tread Life
Fuel makes energy to roll a tire and the more resistant a tire is to “roll” the more of this energy would get consumed.
So it makes sense why tires that don’t want to leave off the surface (as they roll) easily consume more fuel (as they generate more friction).
The Firestone Destination AT2 is a lighter tire in comparison, and even though it’s rubber is sticky it still consumes less fuel on average compared to KO2.
The BFG KO2 on the other side has more weight, and with balder design, each lug gets to have larger pressure on it (when evenly divided), so it eats up more fuel to roll.
Though with the harder compound of the tire, even this high rolling resistance don’t make it a bad choice for wear, as it shows up with pretty decent overall mileage.
And in terms of warranty it gives up to 50k miles (compared to Firestone Destination tire’s 55k).
Ride Quality
Overall ride quality of the tire is dependent on a lot of key factors, but the main ones are tread composition, internal make-up and tread depth. These things analyze the overall tire’s efficacy to absorb the bumps and tread noise, the two significant factors for ride quality.
Let’s discuss them both.
Noise
Noise is just air passing through the tread and it makes two types of noise. Humming, which comes from groove resonance, and whistling, which comes from air coming in and out of the tire.
Now as most of the air gets through the gaps in between shoulder lugs, so this explains why BF Goodrich KO2 with such wild shoulder gaps produces so much noise.
Comfort
Similarly with stiffer rubber and 3 spirally wound layers of nylon (and 3 ply polyester casing), the tire can not absorb the imperfections of the road too well.
On the other side, the Firestone Destination AT2 with its softer built does better.
Winter Performance
The snow performance of the tire depends on the tire’s ability to bite on a micro level, so here the overall sipes and notches come in to action.
The overall tread composition also play a huge role, as the softer the tread, the more capable it is to bear the winter temperatures (which make tires stiff).
Basically these are all the features of winter tires, which these all-terrain tires try to implement that’s why both of them are branded with 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake and M+S rating.
The Firestone Destination AT2 although has a very flexible overall built, that makes it resistant to get frozen, the BF Goodrich is better optimized for all types of snowy terrains (in comparison), be it light on road snow, deep snow, well anything but ice.
The tire’s interlocking pattern is basically a snow trapper and it makes better snow to snow meet up with lodged particles in it’s grooves (which by the way stays in, as the tire’s larger weight pushes them in).
On deeper terrains, the tire’s sidewalls lugs act as traction scoops and plough the snow out of its way to move forward.
Off Road Traction
Off road things get very different very fast. That’s because here there are so many key variables to consider. But let me just explain things with types of terrains.
On Mud
Mud is very challenging as here you need balder tires. The balder the better. As highly voided tires allow easy mud evacuation which is the most crucial performance factor on this terrain.
So it explains why BF Goodrich KO2 is so much better here comparatively, though compared to some other aggressive all terrain tires, it’s not too good.
Nonetheless, the tire’s huge mud scoops help it a lot and then make a great combination of digging and scooping, throwing mud everywhere and making its way forward.
Firestone Destination AT2 would simply get packed as it just can not escape as much mud.
On Sand
Sand requires a lot of skills from both tire’s tread and driver.
In terms of tire’s design the best performing sand tires are the ones which are lighter in weight, have softer compound, and have thicker lugs.
Now here the Firestone Destination AT2 has the advantage of weight and with lowered pressure, it gives pretty decent tread print to meet up with the sand.
The lighter weight of the tire actually helps the tire to not dig in (which is the recipe of getting stuck on sand), and allows it to move better, especially on inclines.
The BF Goodrich KO2 although has great sides and sidewall lugs which offer ample tread print, the tire’s stiffer sides dig in a lot.
But the good thing is this tire is also equipped with powerful rim locks, so you can overcome that by further reducing the air pressure of the tire.
On Rocks
The BF Goodrich KO2 is the king of rocks no doubt about it. And it’s amazing how little it has to compromise on smooth pavements and highways for this terrain.
On rocks you need durability, and KO2 is the toughest tire in A/T category.
You need aggressive shoulders for sideways traction, and this tire checks that box as well.
You need powerful sidewall lugs, and of course this tire gives you a M/T level lugs over there which grab and pull with superb chewing power especially when you pressure the tire down to lower PSI.
And speaking of which KO2 also has very powerful bead lock, like I mentioned int “sand” section above.
Firestone Destination AT2 simply has no chance here.
Summing Up
The BF Goodrich KO2 and the Firestone Destination AT2 are although all-terrain tires, they both are at the extreme ends in terms of aggressiveness.
That’s why KO2 does great in all sections off road, whereas Destination is better for pavements.
Though its amazing to see how little BFG KO2 compromises on pavement as well, where it’s comfort is manageable, I don’t know how its so light in weight with 3 ply sidewalls (which offers a great steering response), and its a good option in terms of wear as well.
Though it’s wet traction is not impressive at all, I tell you that, yet it’s also 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake Rated like the Firestone Destination AT2.
