Cooper Discoverer Stronghold

Got word that FedEx Argentina delivered my tires to the shop today.

Haven’t heard too much about these on here so I figured I’d post how they do on my drive back home tomorrow.

It’s not what you think. About 245 miles and about 170 of it is off-road. 80 to 100 is harsh rock road ( not gravel ) and the rest single track through muck and slop. It’s an all day affair.

Temps have been 28 to 33 at night so I’ll be able to see how the tread does when cold. Good chance for snow Wednesday morning so hopefully even get a chance to see how they do in that.

 

Here’s a few pics of the tires installed. I’m one of those that need a tire to perform over looks so I have no opinion on that.

Been a brutal 2 days working in the weather down here. Should be able to get a 500 mile review up by the weekend. So far I have about 125 miles on road and 300 off-road in varying conditions.

 

Looks great!

 

I love my Cooper mud tires. But those are an all terrain I could see buying. Let us know how they do offroad. I really like the design, the side walls look grippy and like they could do well in the mud.

 

235/ 85? dem skinny bois! Wouldn't have guessed though from the pic- they look great!

 

Oh and here’s the big kicker to these tires: Cooper gave the LT’s a 60k mile warranty.

 

Cooper always made decent truck tires. I just installed a set of LT’s on my friends work van and they took very little weight to balance. Nice deep tread too.

 

Yes

Last 4 sets of tires were Yokohama G003 in 255/85/16. I got close to 42k out of a set. But 4 sets of tires in 19 months I got sick of the price tag. Used to run the 235’s on my second gen.

Saw these liked the tread and the warranty and said why not. And Cooper doesn’t make these in 255 yet. So I went down a little.

 

Ok have a little bit of time before I lose sat reception waaaaay down here.

589 miles since install on Tuesday. 132 on road, 457 off-road.

On road:
Fairly quiet. A lot quieter than the last 4 sets of Yoko G003. Has a bit of noise, not a hum just a background noise. Louder than the Toyo at’s I had in at the beginning. Can hold a convo in the truck and talk on Bluetooth and all is good.

Good in the rain got dumped on while on the way home from the shop. No issues on pavement. No loss of traction no slipping. Starts from a stop no slipping.

Handles turns fine. I don’t expect race car handling. I have a 3 rotor 95 rx7 at home for that.

Nothing really to report as far as in road issues. Will see how the noise is once wear starts.

Off-road: mix of gravel roads, single track, rock roads ( think no smaller than softball), mud, wet grass( ranch land) both up and down hills, sand.

Gravel roads: these tires have grip and at decent speed. No wander. Stone ejectors work well. Trust me you can see them flying up behind you and and hear them. After about 35 miles on gravel I stopped to check. Only had 1 to 3 small stones per tire.

Single track: basically just a used route through ranch land no gravel nothing. Just what is there.

Handles dry and wet grass just fine. No slipping going down a steep descent to get to the main road. Handled well over all the different surfaces with no noticeable loss of grip. Maybe the Stronghold in the name actually means something. Lateral grip was also very good.

Rock Roads: yep just rock thrown down in an attempt to beat the mud. Rough going. Side biters actually help in lateral traction when slipping along the side of larger rocks. Handled airing down just fine.

Sat is going down in a few mins. Will finish when comes back.

 

Great review. Thank you for the details.

 

No problem. It’s snowing right now and I’ll post that along with the mud review tomorrow sometime. Spoiler: mud performance was much better than expected.

 

AK to Argentina...so is this work or fun that takes you all over the continents? Trying to determine my level of jealousy..

 

R

Retired Mil. I do contract work for several different countries ( PMC private military contractor). This started out as an 18 to 24 month get away from society solo trip. Halfway through I get an offer for a gig in Chile and Argentina. Originally said no but the $$ on the counteroffer was too wild to pass up. So it was for fun when I started in March of 23 but turned into work in April of this year.

 

So yeah it’s been cold and rainy here. Was going to post about mud traction the other day but a storm rolled in last night with rain. We are at the brink of snow yet again. Had to head west into Chile for work today so I thought 78 miles on a mud road would be a good review. This road only has gravel by the cattle guards. The rest is 3 to 5 inches of clay mud.


So here’s my thought on mud performance including those of the other day that I was going to post. Unbelievable is all I can say for an AT tire. At slow speeds less than 15 maybe 20 you get some build up of mud. Not too bad though. Bump it up to 23 as verified by GPS and the tires get rid of the mud. I just did a 37 mile stretch and I’m quite pleased. Is it as good as the Yoko G003’s I had on before? No, but it’s better than any other AT I’ve ran in not only my second and third gen tacos, but my other trucks as well.

Bumped the speed up to around 40 for a bit as there is no one out her but me and cattle and the tires had no problem finding grip and keeping it.

The next pic is when I stopped before a cattle guard. Three to five inches of thick clay mud for the last 30 plus miles. Yes I did clean out the wheel well with my mini shovel. It was packed. I’ll take another pic when I stop over the border into Chile and not clean it out.

I’m sold on these tires especially if they get close to the 60k mileage warranty.



I’ve put about 1200 miles on them in a week and have been impressed. No chunking or ripping on close to 359 miles of rough large gravel roads, good grip in some rocky stuff, excellent grip on wet grass both uphill and downhill and excellent grip in mud for an AT.

Snow is rolling in about three hours so I should be able to post that tomorrow morning.

And as an add on been in 2WD the entire time. Never need 4WD.

 

Lateral grip in mud. Forgot to mention this. Small amount of the rear slipping sideways in the mud. Apply a little gas and you can feel the tires grab with a definite jerk. It’s obvious when they get traction.

 

Just crossed into Chile. That’s snow coming behind the truck. Still haven’t been in 4WD. And it some thick ass heavy mud.

 

OP, thank you for the detailed review! Beautiful open country there!

 

All are welcome. I wanted to give an honest review as I’m in different conditions every day and 90 percent of is off-road in varying conditions.

And it definitely is beautiful.

 

I am very interested in how these compare to the Boss AT I’m currently running on my Tacoma. So far I have love the Boss AT.

 

Tread life warranties are basically useless.
The chances are, if you ever attempt to use it, you'll either be denied altogether due to the plethora of restrictions, or at best, both the dealer and manufacturer will make money off what's left of your pro-rated "warranty"

That said, I wish you luck, I've run many a Cooper tire without complaint.