Mud terrains will be louder than all terrains. No other way around it. I had a Sahara before my Rubicon and there's definitely a difference in the sound of tires. I don't mind it, but I can understand other folk not liking it.
Look into some of the new hybrid MT/AT tires - Cooper ST Maxx, Mickey Thompson ATZ P3, even the Goodyear Duratrac among others.
Yikes! 12k w/o a rotation, I'll bet they're howling! I rotate my mud tires every oil change (3-4k miles) and it keeps the pattern decent and the noise down.
And BFG AT's would be a great alternative if you're looking for a quieter, longer lasting, better handling, etc tire.
You lost some usability out of the tires too. You need to rotate the spare into the mix. I have managed just over 48,000 miles out of my 35x13.50x20 Fuel Mud Gripper MT's (1st editions) by rotating my spare in and doing so every 3-4k miles. I would think that 12k with no rotations has potentially cupped a tire or two.
Maybe that was your plan so you had an excuse to get bigger tires.......good plan.
I had previously ran the BFG KOs (pre-KO2), and after 1 tough Baja run, the tread had been chunked pretty badly. Worrying about being able to balance the tires in the future, I sold the tires and bought a set of KM2s. Tread chunking was addressed with the KO2s, but I have not personally tested these tires, so I cannot accurately comment on their actual durability.
All-Terrain liabilities
KO's tend to pack in mud, causing loss of forward, lateral and braking control.
KO's have less sidewall treatment than do the KM2s. KO2s have a stronger sidewall than the KO.
KM2's tend to chunk far less than KO's. KO2's have 20% better resistance to chunking than KO'2. 20% ain't much.
I rotate my KM2's every 5,000 miles religiously. I make sure that the tires are not overinflated - try the chalk test to prevent quick wearing of your tire treads.
Mud-Terrain tires have great applications on the trail, and on the street - back east and in the mountains. Good luck!
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