Re: [FWDLK] Radial vs Bias

["Bill K." <pontiac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Now, I had a '60 Pontiac which when I bought it had a set of General self
sealing radials up front, and a crappy set of bias ply snows on the back.

I drove the car home the day I bought it about 80 miles up the interstate
with the back of the car jumping 3 feet one way or the other every time I
hit a ridge in the road - even the sealer they'd run to cover cracks along
the white line was enough to do it, and of course this stuff ran for miles.
Scary for a novice, but I found out quick enough it was the tires.


Within days of getting it home I whipped a set of summer radials (complete
with dry rot cracks in the edges) off another car, bolted them on and drove
it.  After that it was nice, in fact that was one of the best handling cars
I've driven... it would go pretty fast around the corners and stay nice and
flat and with the 389 and a 4 speed hydro it would do 75 up the freeway
onramps and want to keep going.  I didn't baby it much, is what I am saying,
and I never had an issue with the tires.  They didn't even match front to
back, the fronts were an oddball 14 inch size and the backs were 235/75R15
(gave me a bit of a rake).

What killed me (and the main reason I used these old junk tires) is a guy at
the tire store wouldn't just sell me two radials for the back in some size
close to the fronts (which they didn't stock).  He said it was 'dangerous'
to run different size tires front to back.   My @$$ it is, what about all
those hot rods with tires ranging from slightly bigger in the back, to
bycycle size front and steamroller in the back?  In any case I've never gone
back to Dunn tire, I figure they should change their name to Dumm(y)....  I
never had a tire problem until the tie rod ends wore out, and that had
nothing to do with the tires themselves, it just made them wear oddly.

I also probably should add that I run radials at about 35 PSI all the way
around, none of this 'reccomended pressure' nonsense.


Bill K.


----- Original Message -----
From: <Posti@xxxxxxx>
To: <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: [FWDLK] Radial vs Bias


> I managed a tire store for a while, and was a tire/auto mechanic for
several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when radial tires started
taking off.
>
> At the time, we were told that older cars should run on bias ply tires, as
the radial construction caused problems with handling on cars not designed
for it.
>
> As for my personal experience, my 1959 Dodge had radials that looked wrong
and handled poorly.  A switch to WW bias ply solved both problems.  In
contrast, my small cars (1952 MG TD, and 1973 and 1978 MGBs) ride great on
radials.  I don't know if weight is an issue or not.
>
> Bob
> 1959 Dodge
>


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