I didn’t miss anything. I also don’t believe that Scout as a new manufacturer can afford a special KO3 just for their vehicle.I think you missed the part about them usually having softer compounds.
The K03 Scout will install will likely not be the same K03 you buy at a tire shop.
Most people dont realize they are different tires despite being the same size and model.
Car manufacturers typically get multiple versions of the same tires sent by the tire manufacturers. Then pick one based on their goals and handling characteristics for the new vehicle.
While you may be familiar with the K03 tire, there is a chance the ones on the Scouts will behave different in snow, wet, muddy, uneven, hot, or rocky conditions than the ones you had in the past.
This is also why factory tires tend to wear out quickly on most vehicles.
This article describes part of that tire selection process.
Sticking With Your OEM Tires, Some Notes About Wheel Sizes
"Well, Pieter, I too find the choice of 20” wheels across the board odd, but there could be a very good reason for this. I can’t look into the minds of the engineers and product planners at Renault but one reason to have a single tire size is that tire development is expensive and time consuming. If you can release a new vehicle with the same tire on all trim levels it saves a lot of time and money during development. A lot of effort is put into making sure the tires a car is sold with perform at the high levels a manufacturer specifies. This process can take over a year to complete and requires the tire manufacturer to make several “submissions” to the car company.
In each submission, the tire company will provide several hundred tires with different types of construction and rubber compounds. The constructions may vary in the way the steel and nylon belts are oriented, or what rubber compounds are used in the tread blocks. Each design will behave differently and the vehicle development engineers will then spend several weeks testing each of the tires to see which one works the best in the car. They will test each tire for cornering, stopping, and acceleration performance in dry and wet conditions. They will test the amount of noise a tire makes over various types of road surfaces. They will see how well the tire communicates road conditions through the steering system. Does the tire wander over minor road imperfections? Is it sensitive to ruts in the road? They may also test it on special machines to get an estimate of tire life.
Stick With OEM Rubber
All this can take several months to complete and it will usually happen about three times, with each successive submission refining the tire construction until hopefully by the third submission there is at least one construction that meets the targets set by the company for that particular vehicle. These targets, as well as many other vehicle targets, like cost, weight, fuel economy, vehicle size, etc. are set very early in a vehicle program to meet the expectations of the expected customer. The overall vehicle targets then get broken down into targets for each individual system, including the suspension and tires. Often the targets are based on vehicles made by the company’s competition, and also by doing a bit of guesswork on how the competition’s future products might improve — a process called “futuring.” You have to make some assumptions about how everyone else’s products are going to get better in the years it takes to bring a new car to market and make sure your product is as good or better than that. You don’t want to get into a situation where your new car is just as good as what your competition had four years earlier.
Once the engineers find a tire submission that meets (or even exceeds) the vehicle targets, that submission will be released for production. Since so much work has gone into choosing the right tire construction for a particular car, it is almost always advisable to replace your car’s tires with the same ones it came with. Round and black is not sufficient. All tires are absolutely NOT the same and choosing a non-OEM specified tire can have significant effects on the ride and handling of your car. It can also have a very strong effect on steering feel.
The tuning of the tire and the tuning of the steering system go hand-in-hand, as the rubber plays a big role in communicating the steering feel the manufacturer wants. That great steering feel and handling confidence your BMW 3 Series has can quickly disappear if you put some generic aftermarket tire on it. More importantly though, if the replacement tires don’t have the same amount of traction as the OEM tires, you could increase your stopping distances and hurt braking performance. Replace your car’s tires with the same brand and model it came with and you will likely be much happier in the long run."
Why You Should Replace Your Tires With The Ones It Came With Originally: Ask An Engineer - The Autopian
Should you replace your worn-out tires with the same make and model of tire that came on your car when it was new? An engineer makes the case.www.theautopian.com
Ford has been running the BFG KO2 on their Raptors for years. They run a Load C tire be because it helps with a softer ride. While the KO2 was still being manufactured, I could go to the local tire shop and buy that exact tire. Chevy does the same thing on their ZR2’s, and Ram does it on the Power Wagon, RHO, and the TRX.
Yes, manufacturers can get a discount on for tires they put on a vehicle when sold new at the dealership, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get the same tire if you want.
