Please tell me if the tires on my vehicle must be a BRAND that was available at the time my vehicle was made? I understand that the nomenclature denoting the size of the tire must be period correct, but what about brand? The Judging Manual states, "Tires on all vehicles must be as specified my manufacturer". I interpret this that tires can be of any brand unless the vehicle manufacturer specified Goodyear or Firestone for example. I'm sure this is addressed in the archives, but I could not locate a similar discussion - sorry.

Tires (and everything else) are judged by the standard of basically, "Is it as it could have appeared when it was new"?

Essentially, if you have a tire that the manufacturer used, you are OK. If you have a tire brand that was never used by the manufacturer, then it is non-authentic.

An example that I am familiar with is Sears Allstate tires that were sold for Model A Fords. They are non-authentic as they were aftermarket equipment. Ford Motor Company never delivered a new Model A with Sears Allstate tires.

I think Matt is wrong on this one. I'm not really into judging, but I thought as long as the tire size and brand matched (all including spares) and that the size was available from the mfg. then all was ok. By your reasoning, anyone riding on Universals in an early car will have points taken off, since the Universal name was an invention of Anne Kline's.

Frank

I just found this in the guidelines:

9. Prior to 1915, tires must be matched in
pairs (front and rear), but spares need not
match anything on the vehicle except each
other. (If there’s more than one size spare,
they will naturally differ.)
10. The following items are accepted for judging
without penalty under the “Grandfather
Clause”, due to their initial acceptance in
the beginning of the judging program.
a. Whitewall tires. Must be proper size
designation and proper style.
b. 1941 Last use of double whitewall tires.
11. Tires on all vehicles must be as specified
by manufacturer. They must be nearest
the correct size if the correct size is not
available. Tubeless tires with a tube will
be allowed without removing the wording
“tubeless” on vehicles that did not come
with tubeless tires. Tubeless tires were
introduced in 1955 for cars and light trucks
and in 1956 for heavy trucks.

No mention of brand requirements.

Frank

Brand is not important.

Rick Lay
Chairman, Judges Training

Rick, Even though it is not how I would interpret "as specified by manufacturer", I will certainly defer to your intrepretation.

Maybe next year's judging guidelines should specify that Brand is not important if that is what the Class Judging committee wishes to do. I have reason to believe that other judges have used the same intrepretation that I have had prior to reading your last post.

Rick is correct. Many brand name tires that were original equipment aren't available today, which is also true of sizes, for example 6.25x16. A new 1939 Buick Special came with U.S. Royal tires, in 6.50x16 size. Although some tires are, I think, remanufactured with the U.S. Royal logo on them, by somebody else, that does not size 6.50x16.

Matthew - that is a very good suggestion. Part of my volunteer position job description is to update the Official Judging Guidelines (manual) each year. There were several similar clarifications made to this year's version (i.e. Safety Glass - we always accepted it, but had never so stated in the guidelines). This is an excellent suggestion and I will add it to the list of things to be discussed/approved by the Class Judging Committee. Thanks!

Rick Lay
Chairman, Judges Training