Radials instead of Bias Ply on 67 BB Convt

[Don M.]

Re: Radials instead of Bias Ply on 67 BB Convt

Thanks Donald

[Ed D.]

Re: Radials instead of Bias Ply on 67 BB Convt

205/75 R15

I agree with the poor quality of Coker. Got Firestone Wide Ovals Cokers F70 15 on my 72. Took 9 oz of wt to balance them. The weight were stacked so high on the flat part of the rim, the caliper hit them. My last set of tires took about an oz on the same rims.
Ed

[Duke W.]

Re: Radials instead of Bias Ply on 67 BB Convt

I have no need for a speed rated tires, as my racing days are over.

Don

I forget how many times I've heard: "I don't drive fast enough to need high speed rated tires" and how many times I've responded, but here I go again.

All tires that I am aware of that are H-rated or above have one or sometimes even two spiral wound nylon cap belts above the steel belts. These nylon belts will usually keep the tire from disintegrating in the event of an internal structural failure. The common and usually cheap S and T rated radials lack this safety feature.

Tread separations can happen at any speed in road driving. Remember the Ford Explorer/Firestone tire fiasco from the early 2000s. There were several fatalities, and there have been a few reports of tire disintegration on vintage Corvettes over the years. No fatalities or injuries that I recall, but several thousand dollars in body damage in each incident and likely some new underwear needed.

There have even been several reports of the cheap S and T rated tires blowing out while the vintage Corvette was sitting in the garage!

Some think that tires "age out" in six years or whatever. There is no way to peg the age limit of a tire because its life expectancy in years (for a car driven only a few hundred to a few thousand miles per year) starts out with the quality of materials and manufacturing processes and how it lives its life. I have no problem running high speed rated tires 20 years on an infrequently driven car that is kept inside and protected from UV light and ozone, but I wouldn't trust a cheap S or T rated tire for more than a few years, if at all. In the long run a more expensive high speed rated tire may be a better value than a cheap low or no speed rated tire that may be suspect after a few years with only a few hundred or a few thousand miles.

I've experienced three tread separations. Granted all were on race tracks, but in each case the tire stayed in one piece. The tip off was a big vibration, and when I got back to the paddock there were big bulges in the tread.

I probably haven't driven any car over 50 MPH for the last two or three years, but I will never buy less than a H-rated tire for any car I own, period!

Duke

[Tim S.]

Re: Radials instead of Bias Ply on 67 BB Convt

I myself, like the look of the Coker Wide Oval radials. I have a set of redlines (albeit oversized) on my 67. I have used these before on my own cars as well as some customer cars. I like the way they drive. I'm thinking this is my last set. One of the tires was bad enough, that I used 3.5oz of weight, and still had to utilize 4oz. of balancing beads to get the vibration out. FWIW, the wheel was nice and straight and the balancer was only asking for .25oz on the wheel itself.