The Kumho Ventire SAT KL61 is an all terrain tire designed with a combination of off-road looks and on-road manners. I picked up a set, sized 265/70/16, for my 2005 Toyota Tacoma after realizing that my Firestone ATs were not going to make it through another winter. The tires are designed with a ‘flame inspired’ tread pattern, which sounds lame, but allows the tires to easily disperse water and stay clean when traveling through gravel, dirt and mud. As an added bonus, the tires are also rated for severe weather and include the ever-important ‘snowflake’ which alerts people to this rating.
Because my Tacoma was a daily driver, it didn’t see extensive use off-road, but it was an excellent on-road tire with impressive handling and road noise qualities. While the Kumhos aren’t designed to be a pure AT tire, they did provide excellent traction when I was driving through several fields to go fishing and provided good control in the snow. The tires ride quieter than other ATs I have used and while they didn’t have the pure grip that the Terragrapplers offered on dry pavement, they did a better job in rain than the Nittos. I also noticed a slight increase in gas mileage after installing these on my truck, with my highway average jumping to 20.1 after averaging 19.3 with the Firestones.
The tires wore evenly and slowly, showing that they should be good for at least 40,000 miles if they are rotated on a regular basis. I had the Kumho Adventure KL78s on my truck for nearly 15,000 miles and was always impressed by how well they handled. I eventually upgraded to a larger tire and was given a great deal on a set of Bridgestone Revo 2s.