Disasterous Cleveland Trip

[Daniel Scully]

Tires

You're quite welcome. Kyle and I were glad able to help out.
Boy, the wife nearly had a heart attack when she came home to find that giant white beauty in the driveway in place of Kyle's car.

It was nice to get at least one of the '59's wheels out of the garage for the first time in 5 years. Interesting that the wheel and tire is exactly the same on a 1959, 1975, and 1996 Fleetwood commercial chassis. But good information to know.

And for the record, for such heavy cars, I highly recommend buying extra load light truck radial tires which are available in a white wall.

Only truck tires I have seen in XL is a black wall ,do you have a source for these?

This is one of the few XL P235/75R15 I have seen with a white wall = Hankook Optimo H724 Tire P235/75R15 XL

Here is some good info from tire rack.

 

[Dieter Obeji]

Radials are ok if they're new. Bias ply will wear faster, but won't fall apart suddenly like a radial. I had a new set of bias ply whitewalls on a 70 M-M daily driver, and they lasted 10,000 miles before wearing through to the cords. Before those it had the original bias plies that all wore down completely before I replaced them. Not one of them disintegrated on me. did drive the car pretty aggressively through the canyons, however. I've had 5 year old radials with perfect tread blow with no warning. This said, I have a skirt and hubcap I can give you for $60.

 

[Ron Devies]

Shawn!

Shawn, take it from me, get those tires replaced ASAP. Your cruisin along and out of no where it scares whatever is in you out of you. That is not to mention the devastation. You are a detail guy like me, and seeing all that ugliness not to mention the mess it made. There was a black powder all over the rear of the car. I can't wait to get her home and begin cleaning that crap off. Everybody has me thinking now I need to buy three more sets of tires. I replaced the Pinner's in 2011, the high top in 2015. But now I am looking at the Poncho that still has the tires on it when I bought it in 2006 and have no idea when they were put on. The fat gurl, again, no idea when they were put on. Hey Ed, how old are those tires on the Burb?

 

[Larry Sears]

Most GM cars through 1975 came with bias ply tires. I've seen some factory photos of some 1976 Professional Cars with bias ply tires as well such as a 54 XL etc. A bias tire seems to hold up better than a radial and doesn't "blow out" as often. Your not going to get the miles out of a bias tire that you will out of the radial but how often do we put 50k to 70k miles on a professional car in 8 or 10 years. If you look how a old hearse or ambulance sets with a radial tire (pre-1975) you can see who much stress is put on the sidewalls. How could anyone be surprised when it falls apart on the highway? Age is a killer on a radial tire. I've seen them blow out without any sign of dry rot on the outside. In short, if I were replacing tires and the car came with bias ply tires from the factory I would stick with the bias ply. They seem to have a much stiffer sidewall and hold up longer than a radial. They look much better on the car as well!

 

[Terry Lange]

Larry is right when he says that age is a killer on radial tires. Right behind age is sitting (as in storage).

I just ordered 6 new radial tires for my RV. Nothing wrong with the old ones, other than they are now 5 years old. The majority of RV tires will age out long before they wear out. There are hundreds of threads on RV-related websites that address this issue, and the general consensus is to replace them every 5 years, regardless of the mileage on them. It can get costly at 6 tires at a time, but an exploding tire on a Class A RV can do a ton of damage (or maybe kill you).

When I restored my '59 Comet Olds, I put bias ply tires on it, not only to be period correct, but also for the safety aspect, and to raise the ride height. I've never regretted that decision.

 

[John Royark JR]

I wonder if all the radial tire problems are just because many of you do not drive your cars often, possibly sitting causes flat spots that weaken it, or rotating side to side so they roll the opposite direction? I don't know but just a thought. I have only had one blow out on a pro car in 25 years of driving them, and it was a coach that was sitting for 20 years before I got it, so who knows how old the tires were. Ive ran many of mine for well over 10 years (my 49 tires are at 10 years this year), they usually stay on until they hit the wear marks with no issues yet. Yes, Ive had a couple that I could feel the wobble of a belt separating, and I would replace all on that car Maybe Im just lucky, I don't know. If so Im glad I am and I hope it holds out, I could never bring myself to taking the skirts off every time I drive my cars just as a precaution, they would be off more than on and it looks horrible.
Now that I said this I will probably blow one.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Ron the fronts came off that 92 6 door. The snows off the rear I found in the back seat of a car in the yard. Both had the correct ww and my driving was in town with trips not overt a hrs a time at speed. The spair not so good set were off the front of. That 92. I'm guessing it's a sitting problem and age. . That's why I went to the L78 on the 72. It lost a little rough road handling following the groove kind of stuff but it lost the I'm going to tip over an the corners feeling also. If your the kind of person that runs you car a lot it doesn't seam to be a problem. But if she sits expect one to go. Matt lost a good looking on on the trailer coming down. Peeled the tread leaving the out side groves on either side. Now if you can feel the side walls off that old set in the rear of the burb then you know why I trusted them they are a real ex load tire.

 

[Kurt Arends]

Most GM cars through 1975 came with bias ply tires. I've seen some factory photos of some 1976 Professional Cars with bias ply tires as well such as a 54 XL etc. A bias tire seems to hold up better than a radial and doesn't "blow out" as often. Your not going to get the miles out of a bias tire that you will out of the radial but how often do we put 50k to 70k miles on a professional car in 8 or 10 years. If you look how a old hearse or ambulance sets with a radial tire (pre-1975) you can see who much stress is put on the sidewalls. How could anyone be surprised when it falls apart on the highway? Age is a killer on a radial tire. I've seen them blow out without any sign of dry rot on the outside. In short, if I were replacing tires and the car came with bias ply tires from the factory I would stick with the bias ply. They seem to have a much stiffer sidewall and hold up longer than a radial. They look much better on the car as well!

Larry, you're a wise man! I wish I could thank you 10 times for your response! Especially the last sentence. I am always amazed by all of the people who will spend a boat-load of money restoring a beautiful car from the '50s or '60s........... only to finish it off with a set of squatty, under-sized radials with a skinny 3/4" white wall! The tires make the car!

 

[John ED Renstrom]

One tire that most probably have .not thought of is the 700x15 they are vary close to the right size. Enough that it doesn't throw off the speedometer. You they only are in black. One would have to have diamond back cut them in. You can get them in up to a 8ply. Rating.

 

[John Royark JR]

One tire that most probably have .not thought of is the 700x15 they are vary close to the right size. Enough that it doesn't throw off the speedometer. You they only are in black. One would have to have diamond back cut them in. You can get them in up to a 8ply. Rating.

Diamond back does not "cut them in", they vulcanize white rubber to the sidewall to permanently bond the two.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

I think I knew that once. Even better

 

[Shawn Blyler]

Bias tire

Ron, and others....
This is the only bias ply tire that I have found that has a whitewall I can live with. I don't want wide whites, I don't think that would look right on my car--50's car, yes, 60's car, no. This is an L78-15 with a load capacity of 1970 lbs. From the charts I have looked through, it is comparable to the 235/75/15 radials that are on there now. What do you think? Still not sure if I should go with bias ply or radials....ugh.

 

[Tim A. Fantin]

Ron, and others....
This is the only bias ply tire that I have found that has a whitewall I can live with. I don't want wide whites, I don't think that would look right on my car--50's car, yes, 60's car, no. This is an L78-15 with a load capacity of 1970 lbs. From the charts I have looked through, it is comparable to the 235/75/15 radials that are on there now. What do you think? Still not sure if I should go with bias ply or radials....ugh.

I have those tires on my 65 Superior Ambulance as well as my 64 Miller Meteor Combination. I've had good luck with them so far. I purchased them from Summit Racing. It was alittle less expensive than getting them from Coker. They were shipped from Coker anyway. I called Coker and asked if they would match Summit's price and they said they would not so ,I just ordered them from Summit. It's a correct white wall from 71 to 75 Cadillac but they look good on the older models too. As a matter of fact many of the 60's car had that style white wall in the 70's and 80's pictures because they had been replaced down the line anyway. We used the 64 on a service a week ago Saturday and I heard some old timer remark about the car still having bias ply tires on it.

 

[John Royark JR]

Ron, and others....
This is the only bias ply tire that I have found that has a whitewall I can live with. I don't want wide whites, I don't think that would look right on my car--50's car, yes, 60's car, no. This is an L78-15 with a load capacity of 1970 lbs. From the charts I have looked through, it is comparable to the 235/75/15 radials that are on there now. What do you think? Still not sure if I should go with bias ply or radials....ugh.

Depends on how much you drive it, or how you want it to look. Personally, I would not have anything but radials on any of my cars. You can get bias ply look radials now too, so that may be an option if you like the bias look. I haven't seen one in person yet, so not sure how true to the look they really are.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

That is what I have on my Seville. Next to look at is J78 I think they are a heavier tire about the same as the 235 around. But if I remember right a little Havre load. The did not offer it in the duel pin stripe and I passed

 

[Shawn Blyler]

New tires are on the car

A big thank you to Tim Fantin for letting me know that the tires I was looking at were available at Summit Racing. They had four tires, so I drove over after work last night and got them--its about an hour and 45 min drive for me, so not that bad. Went to the tire shop this morning and had them put on. They look great! Will look even better once it stops raining and I can get them cleaned off. It sits up so much higher. I haven't really taken it for a ride yet to see how it rides or handles, as the tire shop is only a block and a half from me and it was raining. I had them put the best radial from the old set on a rim I had for my spare. Okay, Ron, your turn......

Here are a few pics:

 

[Ron Devies]

Shawn, you were just twenty minutes from the house, we could have met you for dinner somewhere. I actually got my car back on Wednesday sporting it's new tires. I decided since it will be laid up for a while for this or that, body shop fender skirts,etc. I am going to give it a good cleaning inside and out. Painted the rim that blew today.

 

[Shawn Blyler]

I thought about it, but still don't have your correct cell number....see private message about said subject, lol. I just got back from taking the car for a ride, it rides really nice and the steering wheel is actually centered now, hmmm....

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Welcome to the world of happy motorin I