I've been doing my research on A/T tires for this car and thought I'd share my comparison spreadsheet for anyone else interested. I've only been looking at 215/70R16, but note that going up a size or two opens up a lot more options (including Falken Wildpeak and Hankook Dynapro AT-M).

Some notes...
-Cooper Discoverer AT3 is my current top pick, as reviews consistently mention it's a quiet tire. The main complaint is it's poor in the snow, but I already have winter tires
-The General Grabber APT appears to be replacing the AT2, at least in this particular size. They're both still currently available. APT is less aggressive than AT2. It's too new to have reviews out yet.
-Toyo Open Country AT-II: Light in weight and down a load rating compared to most of the list... which probably makes it a really good choice for a CR-V.
-The BFGoodrich KO2 is the only tire on this list that is LT-rated, and is 5-7lbs heavier than all the rest. It's also the only one with a similar price in both Canadian and U.S. dollars, so it's a relatively better deal in Canada. I like BFG street tires, so if not for the weight I'd be sold on these!
-The Geolandar A/TS appears to be getting phased out, but the G015 has not yet shown up in Canadian retail so I couldn't find a price and opted to keep the A/TS on this list.
-Maxxis is an unknown but their mountain bike tires are pretty legendary in my mind, so I'd consider giving it a shot
-Nokian: makes awesome winter tires, but that's all I know
-Wild Country: I see a lot of these on jobsites, second to BFG of course. Cool looking tread. One reason to pick this over Cooper AT3 in the same price range is it looks like it could be better in the snow.
-The Falken Open Country is also available as Ohtsu AT4000. Judging by reviews it's not very good

 

Just gonna post the technical differences on going up one size.. Except the extra "lift" you get..

 

You've been busy! Good info! If you're looking for some feedback, from my own personal experiences (which may mean anything or nothing to you):

Generals I've always found to be excellent tires at an excellent price
I've been running Yokohamas for the last 80k miles (Avid Ascend) and couldn't be happier with them
Cooper tires I've always found to be kinda so/so. I worked at Pep Boys while in college and Cooper was our "high tier" brand at the time, so while the other crap we carried made them seem nice, they always kinda felt like the guy excelling in the beginner race who should've registered sport and got his *** handed to him.
Falkens I've found to wear horribly...lots of noise
BFG I believe is owned by Michellin, and therefore tends to benefit from oversight by arguably the finest tire maker in the world (if not also the most expensive)
I agree that Maxxis makes pretty fantastic mountain bike tires, but I've never owned any because they tend to ask car tire prices for them! I'm surprised to see them on the lower end of price in this list. I'd consider them because they seem like a deal! Car tires for MTB tire price!

The other brands I don't have much knowledge of/experience with, but take that list with a grain of salt. I've been out of the shop for about 12 years and companies can change course in that kind of time.

 

That's great, thanks for adding it!

Thanks for the feedback, may reconsider on the Coopers then, and take another hard look at General! It's funny because I don't think I've owned any Maxxis tires either. They just had really great marketing. It's been a few years since I was riding a lot, but my go-to tire was the Kenda Nevegal in single ply for a compliant ride. It was about as light as you could expect a 2.5" wide sticky tire to be, and I'm sure they were cheaper than the Maxxis Minion but I digress... Kenda makes an AT tire in 215/70r16 as well, the Klever A/TKR28. It's a 100S tire with 12/32" tread and I left it off my list because I couldn't find a local store selling it.

 

Here is my latest very little project, mudflaps.

I had originally intended to acquire stock front ones, but they've proven hard to find. In the meantime I decided I don't even like how the stock rear mudflaps look. They're bulky and add visual weight to the CR-V's rear end. Which, in my opinion, is already more than hefty enough.

So I cut that negativity out of my life.

I retained the upper parts that screw onto the car because one inner mounting hole is at an angle. These would serve as my brackets.

I had some vinyl flooring material I'd rescued from a dump bin on a job site. Sparkly! I cut that down to the shape I wanted and drilled two holes to align with the outer ones in the stock mudflap. I drilled another new inner hole through the new and old mudflaps together.

First I secured each old partial mudflap to the car with its angled inner screw, then put the new slim mudflap in place and fastened the two bumper screws. Lastly, I used a small bolt and nut to secure the inner edge of the new mudflap to the old cut one.

The new flaps are only about 1.75" longer than stock, and the only reason they stick out like they do is to still work when my low offset summer wheels are mounted. I went conservative on the size for a couple reasons. The wider you go, the worse it is for aero. The longer you go, the more likely you are to back over your own mudflap (a friend damaged his fender that way).

Just a simple project anyone can do, get out there and DIY!

 

I have been playing with the idea of making quick disconnects for my front swaybar. The thought is it could free up a little more flex and make for less rocking back and forth in potholes, but I wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort of finding spherical rod ends, pins, and clips all in just the right sizes. My searches led to a lot of forum discussions regarding this on 4x4s and even Subarus, but I couldn't find anyone talking about how it would affect the CR-V.

So, yesterday while I was rotating my tires, I took off the front end links. Going for a drive, the result surprised me in that it wasn't dramatic at all. In fact, if it had been my first time driving this car, I would not have noticed anything "off" about it. The increase in body roll was really not a big deal. When turning, I think it takes more throttle to break loose the inside front tire. But don't take my word on that 100%, because that's an effect I was expecting and looking for.

The front suspension feels more supple over bumps, though I don't have a ramp to flex on. Even on paved roads, it seems like an improvement so far. I'll keep the swaybar disconnected for a while and see how it goes carrying more weight, dealing with crosswinds, etc.

I offer this caution to others trying it: removing a swaybar will change the handling balance in one way or another, even if it's not apparent under normal circumstances. I've probably created a snap oversteer monster but I need snow to safely test that.

 

Cool! Great information, might have to try it too..How did bigger potholes/bumps feel?

 

Last night I found a rough trail, so I can say that big bumps do feel smaller now than with the swaybar. They don't magically disappear, but are less jarring. The trail had a couple of 4-6" diameter downed trees angled across it, and those were easier to get over than I expected. I would say it's worth trying it if you're interested, doesn't take long to pop out the end links.

I also pushed it a bit harder on the road today and found that there is a fair bit of body roll when swerving. You don't notice it in normal cornering, but it really shows up in transitions like you might experience during an emergency lane change. It was also *really* easy to induce off-throttle oversteer in a roundabout. With all the body roll and a basic awareness of vehicle dynamics you know it's coming, and it was easy to recover, so it was actually a ton of fun! But it was also really eye opening in regards to safety... I would probably not go up to the local ski hill without hooking the sway bar back up. I could easily see losing the back end in a downhill corner...

 

Is there a factory rear sway bar? If so, you might want to disconnect it as well, and see if the oversteer lessens.

 

That's a good idea. I didn't do it to start because I figured the body roll would get out of hand, but might have to try.

 

I just wanted to chime in on the tire thing since I seen you was undecided. I have a 3" lift on an 03 CRV and went with the Toyo Open Country II and they are by far the best SUV tire I've had so far. I have 15 inch wheels though so I'm not sure how big you can go but on mine I went with a 235/75/15. Guys at the tire shop laughed when I brought it in saying I was crazy and it wouldn't fit and how I wouldn't be able to turn. Well after they were on they all loved it. Said it turned and drove amazing. BUT I did have to get 1.5" spacers to get the wheels to go back on. The tires were so big they hit the spring and you couldn't tighten down the lug nuts. But I ordered a set off Ebay and fixed that easily. Like your V man, looks good so far. Keep up the good work.

 

Hey thanks for the input! They look like good tires!

Here are a couple pics from the weekend. Exploring near Lytton, BC:

This was further south at Jones Lake:

I didn't get around to disconnecting the rear sway bar yet. I still have just the front disconnected and it does make the car handle curves poorly at highway speed. If I'm not perfectly smooth with steering inputs, the car flops gracelessly into each corner. But, wow, it's so much nicer on rough stuff. My wife is not a car person, but still noticed the difference.

 

Damn you guys have some beautiful scenery! The Mid-Atlantic sucks. Beyond looking like ...not that...if you can find an un-paved place to drive a vehicle you can be sure you'll quickly have either a very unhappy land owner, or a ticket to deal with.

 

Yeah, I love living here. Do you at least have an off-road park somewhere nearby? The CR-V could probably, possibly, run a couple of the easier trails in those places. I don't know, never been to one.

Tonight I disconnected the rear sway bar to experience what fully independent suspension is like. The rear bar is thinner than the front, so as I expected, it made less of a tangible difference than just the front. Around town, it's perfectly acceptable. In a roundabout, I was able to get slight oversteer but had to work for it. Perfect.

On the highway, though, it's scary - and beyond the feeling of imminent death, I think there could be some actual danger because of the way our front wheels toe out under compression. If you go into a hard squat on just one side, your front wheels aren't parallel anymore. Allowing the suspension to cycle further more easily only exaggerates that. I know there are some bump steer reducing parts for the sister chassis RSX & EP3, so I plan to look into that as well as trying to figure out a solution for quick disconnects.

 

I've been driving around with no sway bars for two weeks now, and I think I'm going to leave it that way for a while. I did 600km of highway driving this weekend and never felt like I really wanted the sway bars. To be fair, it was snowy and I never got to corner really hard, but I was at or near the speed limit around a LOT of curves. You get used to the extra body roll pretty quick and it's actually kind of fun in that it adds some character to an otherwise sterile driving experience.

I've been trying to think of a way to quantify the improvement without building a ramp and actually measuring flex. I ended up just taking a couple pictures.

Here the left front wheel was in a fairly deep hole, with the underbody below the driver's door almost touching the ground. I'm confident that with sway bars I would have had the right rear wheel off the ground.

In this next picture most of the weight is on the left front and right rear corners. The front right suspension is extended quite far, so there's only minimal weight on that wheel. I was able to start uphill from this position with no problem. My guess is that with sway bars, it would have been possible but the front right wheel would have spun a lot on that loose dirt.

 

Got a spare tire cover. Bestop size small / 28x8 in "black diamond" material. Pretty good fit on the 215/70r16.

 

Just wrapping up this thread up because I sold the CR-V. Great car and I was sad to see it go, but I needed a truck for work. To sum up my experience with the 2nd gen CR-V:
-It is definitely not a true off roader, but can go almost anywhere there's a dirt road - provided the cross ditches are not too deep.
-Disconnecting or removing the sway bars makes the ride a lot nicer on rough surfaces without compromising the drive too much on pavement (my opinion). Just don't disconnect only the front as it will lead to snap oversteer (fact).
-[manual trans] 1st gear is a lot lower than reverse, something to keep in mind if going down a steep hill and not sure if you'll have a place to turn around. 1st gear feels about halfway between a normal car's 1st gear and 1st in low range on a truck.
-It's probably one of the more versatile, practical and reliable vehicles out there for the money. Does a lot of things pretty well but nothing spectacularly well...
-More powerful, better on gas and quieter than a 1st gen. It's missing some of that "older Honda magic" but it currently sells for around the same price, so give it a look if you're shopping for a 1st gen

New ride:

 

I'm kind of sad you did all that work, and only kept it 8 months. Insult to injury that you replaced it with a junky American truck even though I like the color. Good luck!

 

Nice truck! Aside from the TBI it should be solid!

 

...Ever tried to find a Japanese brand full size truck for cheap? With less than 400,000km on it? Would have definitely picked up a Tundra if I could find one in my price range
It's got a vortec. So not TBI, but instead the funky spider injection system which I hear does have its own issues. I also know to expect IM gasket failure at some point.

 

The spider injection system is kind of junk, yeah, but you can replace it with an upgraded multi-port system. It's still a spider-looking part, but the fuel poppets are far more robust than the original part. The fuel pressure regulator is also much more robust, and the regulator is generally the main (but not only) reason the old-style spider systems suck. If you still have the old style one, keep a nose on your oil. If it starts running rough and your oil smells like fuel, the regulator has failed and it's dumping fuel into your oil volume. This will thin out the oil and can eventually ruin your bearings because of the drop in viscosity. Old GM pick-ups are fine vehicles. They're dirt-cheap to fix and maintain, and they resist rust relatively well. Tundras and Tacomas are definitely not known for their rust resistance.

 

Thanks for good info!

 

You got it man! GM was my first love...my first car being a 1987 Camaro IROC-Z. Replacement was a 1998 Camaro Z28. That's when I started working for Acura and decided that my DD should probably always be a Honda something-or-other, but my fun car is still V8 muscle. Here's a video describing the 2 injection systems: