Radial tires anyone?

[JohnD1956]

Okay, it's an old beat up topic but looks like I have to go back to my stock 56 rims and I don't want to buy new tires if I don't have to. If anyone would be kind enough to reply to the following question I would certainly appreciate it:

Who had radial tires on their older than 1964 steel rims AND had a problem?

I'm just trying to get the score on this issue, that's all.

Thanks for your help.

[JoelsBuicks]

I've got radials on my 60 Electra and no problems.

[imported_buick5563]

John,

I have NO first or second hand knowledge of issues with radials being a problem, and I know of a lot of guys running them on original wheels.

But they DO bulge

Mike

[Guest sintid58]

I had radials on my 58 on original rims and drove over 10,000 miles on long trips and never had any problems.

[50jetback]

I'm running radials on my 1950 Super Jetback and have no problem.

Tyre companies here will only fit them on older cars if they are fitted with an inner tube.

The majority of post WW2 vehicles in this country are running on radials.

[Caballero2]

I drove our Caballero to Sacramento from Denver in 1991 on radial tires. That was the first year of the 400 point system. There, we lacked 14 points (if I am remembering correctly, not important here)scoring perfect. Ten of those points were manditory deduct for radial tires. Because of the positive features of the radials, I chose to drive that car to another four BCA National meets on those same tires. The last show after nearly 25,000 miles, excessive tire wear was evident. I do not consider that negative because that is the only problem that we encountered over the 14 years that we owned that car.

1957 Roadmaster convertible on bias plys.

1957 Super two door hardtop on radials.

1963 Lesabre convertible on radials.

[Guest imported_Thriller]

Not to try to hijack this thread...today I drove the '41 on bias ply tires for the longest run I've had it on. Last year, it only saw short stints around the city. Today there were some highway miles...I had the speedo over 60 mph (didn't have my GPS receiver along to see how accurate that is). I think it is partly the condition of our roads, but there were times that I didn't exactly feel in control. I've never felt that in anything else I've driven.

For driving, I would go with radials. For the miles they typically get on our old cars (quantity and quality), I don't think it should be a huge issue on the original rims, unless the rims already have issues. My plan for the Wildcat is to get another set of rims and get a set of bias plys for judging and certain shows, but go back to the radials for driving, particularly extended trips.

[The Old Guy]

This subject has been beaten to death ! It is a personal preference as far as I am concerned. I have driven my 40 over 106,000 miles on bias tires,and you do have to pay more attention, but they work fine. It is a little more costly, as radials will run 40,000 miles plus, and bias belts won't go that long. I am on the fourth set of tires on the 40.

That being said, I had a 57 Caballero wagon that handled VERY badly on bias tires, and drove nicely on radials. I wonder if the switch from king pins to ball joints made the difference.

[Airy Cat]

I have run radials on the original rims on Buicks from 1947 to 1965 and have never had a problem. The bias ply tires were too squirly.

[airbrushguy]

My father had a station all my chilhood days and I worked there from third grade until he closed when I was 28(1977). I lived through the introduction of radials in the late 60's and remember him putting them on many cars without tubes, in fact the tire manufacturers reccommended against radials with tubes. I've personally had them on alot of my cars from '59's on up and only saw improvement. I never saw any info from manufacturers about radials being limited to certain years. Like I said he installed them on whatever cars the customers wanted them on and always tubeless.

[Only Buicks]

John,

I assume that you found some problem with your wire rims?

What's up?

Glenn

[JohnD1956]

Both of my rear wire wheels have several broken spokes. I can't afford to have them fixed right now, and I don't want to take the chance of sending them across country ( again) in hopes that the manufacturer would repair them at a more reasonable cost as they are out of warranty, but I believe this is a manufacturing defect.

I was going to try and sell the two good ones and put these two broken ones in as a pair. One good one can be made from the two broken ones. But my wife ( gotta love her!) said to just keep them all. Lets save the money and get them repaired when we can.

Anyway, if I want to drive the car I have to go back to the stock rims, and thus I was wondering what the score was on people having problems with their old rims and radial tires. I'm relieved to see it's looking like the radial tire/old rim situation is overblown based on this thread.