Anyone running bias-ply reproduction tires on their C?

[Forwardlook]

I'm slowly gathering parts for my B3 1969 Chrysler Newport 2dHT and one of things I try to decide is which tires to choose. Criteria number 1 is that they have to be American made by an American company. The car will be kept completely stock except for the optional wheelcovers and a 500 cube stroker. I wouldn't mind a Cooper made Master Craft on a mid 70:s car but I think a Fuselage would look so much better with correct tires. I assume that GoodYear Power Cushion was the factory installed tire? I haven't seen them wider than 8.20 and the standard size for the Newport was 8.55-15. What I'd really like to get is the optional J78-15 but I guess I'd have to get BF Goodrich then? It is a nice looking tire, anyone have any experience about them? Any other suggestions, I'm all ears.
BF Goodrich 7/8 Inch Whitewall | J78-15 | Coker Tire

 

[Davea Lux]

I'm slowly gathering parts for my B3 1969 Chrysler Newport 2dHT and one of things I try to decide is which tires to choose. Criteria number 1 is that they have to be American made by an American company. The car will be kept completely stock except for the optional wheelcovers and a 500 cube stroker. I wouldn't mind a Cooper made Master Craft on a mid 70:s car but I think a Fuselage would look so much better with correct tires. I assume that GoodYear Power Cushion was the factory installed tire? I haven't seen them wider than 8.20 and the standard size for the Newport was 8.55-15. What I'd really like to get is the optional J78-15 but I guess I'd have to get BF Goodrich then? It is a nice looking tire, anyone have any experience about them? Any other suggestions, I'm all ears.
BF Goodrich 7/8 Inch Whitewall | J78-15 | Coker Tire

If you are planning to drive the car, do not bother with bias ply tires, a lot of the reproduction ones are not very good. Find a modern radial with a whitewall that is appropriate and run those. With a 500 in stroker, you are going to be putting whatever tire you decide to run under some serious stress so go with a tire that is up to the task.

A tire with correct appearance is a necessity for a high point show car, otherwise not so much so. A lot of the reproduction bias tires are correct in appearance but mostly designed to look nice on trailer queens but are not for any type of serious street driving.

Dave

 

[Forwardlook]

Do you have personal experience of these particular tires? I know that the cheaper ones can be horrible but friends have redlines and Polyglases on their musclecars and would never go back to radials again. And yes, I find radials on older cars to be a terrible eyesore that ruin the whole car. People run 9:s on G70-15:s and I don't plan to race, in fact, I plan to have 2.76 rear gears for cross country trips. In the 60:s these tires was all there was and no one had a problem?

 

[LeBaron1973]

Why not contact diamondback tires White Wall Tires & Custom Vintage Tires - Diamond Back Classic Tires ? They have radials which look like bias ply, thus getting the best of both worlds.

In any event, I hope the car is great.

 

[bigmoparjeff]

If you really want the authentic look and feel, it would be fine to run the B.F. Goodrich bias plys. A guy in our car club drove on nothing but bias ply tires on his classic cars and had no problems driving on the reproduction tires every day. His '68 Fury convertible had 780,000 miles on it when it was retired due to frame rust. All of those miles on bias ply tires. The current crop of tires have improved handling over the ones made forty years ago, though they won't be as good as a quality radial.

One thing to keep in mind with these old cars is that front end alignment specs are different for radials than they are for bias ply. For the best handling and tire wear, the car needs to be matched to the type of tires that are on it.

Jeff

 

[Xenon]

Do you have personal experience of these particular tires? I know that the cheaper ones can be horrible but friends have redlines and Polyglases on their musclecars and would never go back to radials again. And yes, I find radials on older cars to be a terrible eyesore that ruin the whole car. People run 9:s on G70-15:s and I don't plan to race, in fact, I plan to have 2.76 rear gears for cross country trips. In the 60:s these tires was all there was and no one had a problem?]

If you know of someone who runs 9's on stock production G70-15 ployglass tires I want to meet them...
Then I want to see the car run in 9's with stock production polyglass tires..
In the '60's we had soft tires for drag racing.. Even on a bone stock car as say a 383
B body would not get the best ET wearing original tires... But boyyy could they shred them..

 

[Davea Lux]

If you know of someone who runs 9's on G70-15 ployglass tires I want to meet them...
Then I want to see the car run in 9's with polyglass tires..
In the '60's we had soft tires for drag racing.. Even on a bone stock car as say a 383
B body would not get the best ET wearing original tires...

A lot of the original polyglass tires used to leave chunks all over the strip.

Dave

 

[Xenon]

'specially if they got too hot......

 

[Forwardlook]

Watch the video....

 

[Jay Gibbs]

Radials just don't look right...I've had a set of repro BFG bias whitewalls from Coker on my 65 Fury since 1990. I don't drive extensively in this car- weekends and shows and they have more than served the purpose for me...

J.G.

 

[Big_John]

Do you have personal experience of these particular tires? I know that the cheaper ones can be horrible but friends have redlines and Polyglases on their musclecars and would never go back to radials again. And yes, I find radials on older cars to be a terrible eyesore that ruin the whole car. People run 9:s on G70-15:s and I don't plan to race, in fact, I plan to have 2.76 rear gears for cross country trips. In the 60:s these tires was all there was and no one had a problem?

The tires the OP is asking about are bias ply. The tires you mention are bias belted tires. Different animals. The bias belted tires are a much better tire in how they perform, matching and were often better than the radial tires of that era. Bias ply tires, however, roll the tread on hard cornering. The bias belted tire would keep the tread flat on cornering, much like a modern radial.

The difference is how the plys or layers are arranged under the tread.

Bias belted tires came into use as OEM around 1969 on some cars but many still had bias tires.

 

[Forwardlook]

I thought that they have to be bias belted but the Coker description reads bias ply on the J78-15....

 

[Big_John]

This is for motorcycle tires, but it shows the differences.

Difference Between a Radial, Bias, and Bias Belted Tire

 

[Pete Kaczmarski]

I personally like bias ply tires. I run them on my '59 Imperial and '62 300. Bias ply typically don't blow out if they fail. Here is my 300.

 

[fc7_plumcrazy]

I run lots of bias ply tires without any issues


Carsten

 

[The Goose]

Just my two cents but everybody I knew in the army back in the 80’s that had been “in country “ Hated the Michelin man. They told stories about how they fought against us during the war and a lot of good guys never came back from Vietnam because of that damn company. I wasn’t sure what to believe but if you look into it they sure valued those stupid trees over our guys. There’s a great story about a colonel who threw his career away to wipe out a battalion hiding in a rubber tree plantation. I would’ve given him the Medal of Honor instead of firing him. He said he’ll yah I’d do it again during his court marshal.

If your talking Michelin BFG’s you can count me out. The repro ones made by Coker Tire etc over here I guess are okay. Long long time ago but I gotta back my brothers.

 

[Davea Lux]

Michelin rubber trees were a valuable asset. Our idiot government paid for every tree we destroyed. Go figure. No body ever explained what a dead GI was worth relative to a goddam tree

Dave

 

[The Goose]

There’s another heavy equipment big tire shortage as we speak. Some things never change.

I think they said it was around $250 a tree back then. Crazy.

 

[Davea Lux]

There’s another heavy equipment big tire shortage as we speak. Some things never change.

I think they said it was around $250 a tree back then. Crazy.

At that time SGLI paid $10k, but I guess that was the politics. Had a couple of friends that "massaged" an arc light to wax a few hundred trees.

Dave

 

[The Goose]

Sorry about the rant.

Now Check this out.

Believe it or not I bought this mag last year specifically for the old tire test. I wanted to know how they felt about the different kinds “ back in the day”.

The guy who owns Autobooks Aerobooks in Burbank thought I was a nut when I told him. If you ever get a chance check it out it’s 200% worth the trip - - - Spring / Fall Flingers from out of state. 10 min from Burbank Airport. Which is the only one you should ever use by the way.

Sorry cell phone users you might want a laptop if you want to read the article.