Cooper Tires Discoverer A/T3 Tire Review

A few weeks back I received an email from Cooper Tires asking me to be a part of the Cooper Tire's Blogger Outreach Program. As part of this program, Cooper Tires hooked me up with a set of their new Discoverer A/T3 all-terrain tires and a Flip-Cam to record my experience and thoughts. In return, They asked me to write a review and send them the video footage of the tires in action. I am really excited to be a part of this project and want to thank Cooper Tires for this opportunity. I'm going to focus mostly on how the tires handled both on and off-road so you can click on the Cooper Tires logo on the right side bar and get all the specs there.
I've had a love-hate relationship with my currant "all-terrain" tires. I think "some-terrain" would have been more honest. They did all right on the pavement but once you went off-road it wasn't if you were going to get a flat, but when. I've had the tires for a year and have had several flats while in the back country. This is one of the big reasons I jumped on this opportunity. I want to see if Cooper Tires actually made an all-terrain tire and could handle the abuse I tend to put my tires through.
I went to a local Cooper Tire dealer to get the tires put on and their customer service as fantastic! If you're in the Salt Lake City area, check them out at http://www.claytonstirepros.com/. My excitement grew as I saw the new tires put on and how much better they made my truck look. They actually gave me an extra inch of clearance compared to what I had before. The Discoverer A/T3 has an aggressive tread for being an all-terrain tire. While I loved the way they looked, I was thinking they were going to make for loud driving on the freeway like the bigger tread tires tend to do. I was surprised however at how quite they were. They had double the tread and were still just as quiet on the road as my other tires! It was a smooth ride and they handled just fine. Utah has had a lot of rain lately and the tires stuck to the road just as they did in dry conditions.
Now lets talk about the fun stuff; Taking them off-road! I was able to put these tires through several different terrains and it handled everything in stride. I took it up and down steep rocky trails no problem. I had the same results going through deep ruts and muddy conditions. I am admittedly not a tire expert by any stretch but these tires are some of the best I've driven on. I am very impressed with how they drive both on and off-road. The Discoverer A/T3 are the first Cooper Tires I have ever owned and if all of their tires perform like these, I plan to put a set of Cooper Tires on every vehicle I own. You can read my latest review on these tires here.

The Discover A/T3

Before...

Getting the tires mounted.

Clayton's Tire Pros are outstanding!

Looking Good!

After!

Time to take them off-road.

Lets throw a little mud on the tires.

In The Presence Of Master Fishermen

I had a spare hour today so I made a quick fishing trip out of it. I headed down to the Lindon Boat Harbor of Utah Lake to try my luck at catching some white bass and crappie. They are on the verge of spawning and I figured I could get into them pretty quick. The fishing was not as fast as I had hoped but I did manage to catch a few white bass on some crappie jigs.

As I was fishing I scanned the area and noticed that I wasn't the only fisherman in the area. In fact, I saw a pair of fishermen that far exceeded my skill set so I packed up my gear and went over for a closer look. The fishermen I'm taking about were a pair of beautiful Osprey! This bird is also known as the fish eagle and is a deadly fisherman. I don't see them very often so I had to take the opportunity to see if I could get a few shots of them. I was able to sneek in really close and just sit and admire these magnificent birds of prey. I still can't get over how big their talons are! I've given my older brother a lot of grief in the past for setting his rod down and going bird watching and I'm almost certain I will get a call from him once he reads this post. Maybe he's been onto something this whole time? Nah, time to get back to catching fish! Enjoy the pictures!

Willard Bay

I met up with one of my friends to hit Willard Bay for the first time this year. As always, my main goal fishing Willard is to catch a wiper so I can knock it off my fish list. A Wiper is a hybrid bewteen a striped bass and a white bass. We were on the water at about 9:30 and started trolling various cranks and spoons in the hopes of having some fast action. Well, Like the two other times I've fished here, I got a giant goose egg! I swear, Willard Bay is my kryptonite! I have never caught a fish on this body of water and I'm starting to take it personally. I really think the fishing gods just sit back and start laughing when I launch my boat! It was slow fishing the whole time we were there and my friend landed the only fish of the day; a 21" walleye.

At least we had nice weather....Wait, HOLD UP!

The day actually started out great! It was a little overcast with no wind and the water was like glass for the first 3 hours. Then, in a matter of less than 2 minutes, we were in a mini version of deadlest catch! I could not believe how fast the wind and waves came! We were in my 14 foot bass tracker and we had 5-6 foot waves we had to get through. The pucker factor was in full-force the whole way back to the marina. I've never been that nervious in a boat in my life! I had several waves crashing over the bow of the boat and my boat came almost completely out of the water a few times as we crashed over them and into the next wave. By the time we made it back to the marina, my friend and I were drenched and happy to be out of harms way. Once we were in the marina, all I seemed to be able to do was laugh. I hope I never have an experience like that again. You may have beat me this time Willard Bay, but I will return and catch my wiper before the year is over and how sweet that feeling will be! until next time....

A nice 21" male Walleye

Valley of the Goblins

This is not fishing related, but an adventure none the less. We got to take our Boy Scout troop down to a place I had heard of but had never been to myself. Goblin Valley State Park is in south western Utah and is unlike anything I have ever seen! You can read up on Goblin Valley by going to www.utah.com/stateparks/goblin_valley.htm . There is no camping inside the park so we set up camp a few miles away. The next morning we packed up camp and headed over to take in the views and explore the "Goblins". It is seriously like you're on another planet as you walk through the maze of uniquely shape rock formations.

The boys had a blast climbing around and exploring a few caves that were there. One scout even happened upon something that took us all by surprise. As we were all sitting around inside the cave, one of the boys found a baggy in one of the crevices. I heard one of the younger 12 year old scouts say "Is this Crack"? Well, needless to say that got my attention. They handed me the baggy which turned out to be full of marijuana! I told them to put it back where they found it and went and told the Ranger. They filled out a report and that's all the Scouts could talk about the rest of the day. I told them they all earned their contraband merit badge and a few of them actually believed it was a real badge which still cracks me up. It was a fun weekend trip to a destination I will definately be revistiting in the future.

This formation was close to our camp.

Here's to you Mr. Miyagi.

It's like you're on a different planet!

Hold the mushrooms? Not today!

The cave of surprises.

Cool spider web.

Jordanelle Reservoir Cinco de Mayo Style.

I'm finally fishing again! I had a month long stretch where I didn't make it out and it is so good to get back to what I love. All the rivers are high and some are flooding (so my favorite spots are out). The weather is starting to warm up and northern Utah is 200% above normal for snowpack. There is so much more water that still needs to make it down the mountains and I hope the state will be able to manage the run-off. This fishing trip had a few firsts for me. I could not find anyone to go with me today so I got the pleasure of launching the boat on my own for the first time. It was tricky launching without getting wet but I managed. It was even more fun getting the boat back on the trailer! This is also the first time I have ever fished Jordanelle Reservoir. I had a few friends tell me they had some success catching some good sized browns and a few smallie's so I had to give it a try.

I was on the water early and fished for a few hours. I had several takes but ended up landing only one fish. That fish was well worth the slow fishing. The 22" brown put up a great fight, eploding out of the water a few times before I got him to the net. I would have had a much more successful day if my boat had an electric trolling motor. I definately need to invest in one. It's a lot of work trying to slowly work the shorline and steer at the same time. All-in-all, it was a fantastic morning and I didn't get skunked so I consider it another successful fishing trip.

22" Jordanelle brown trout.

Heavy Snowpack.

Heading home.