ALLSTATE TIRES

[pkr]

What was the last year allstate tires were made ? And who was the manufacture for allstate ?

:confused:

[Guest Bob Call]

I don't know the last year of manufacture, but, when I worked in a Sears warehouse in the late 50s Allstate tires came from Armstrong Tire and Rubber Colmpany. Remember the Armstrong Rhino and Armstrong grips the road? Armstrong was acquired by Pirelli in 1988. That's about the time Sears started to feature Michelin tires in their stores. So, my guess is that Allstate died with Armstrong in about 1987 or 1988.

[rocketraider]

Best I can remember the Allstate tire brand was gone by the 70s. Sears was selling "The Sears Radial", "Sears Roadhandler" and "Sears Weatherhandler" tires at least as early as 1970 and I was under impression Michelin made the radial versions.

I base that on Sears selling radial tires long before any of the major American tiremakers were producing them in quantity. Michelin had been making them for decades by then. The first radial tires I ever saw were Michelins on my uncle's 1968 Renault 12 company car- he was the French car mechanic at the local British Leyland-Peugeot-Renault dealer.

Back then I nor my family could really afford the expensive radials, but my dad always wanted to try a set of Sears radials on his ElCamino.

I think Allstate as a Sears brand lasted on into the late 80s.

[Guest Bob Call]

Glenn

I stand corrected. You are right. Sears Radial, Roadhandler and Weatherhandler tires came in the 70s and were made by Michelin. Allstate brand may have remained on lower price tires for a while longer.

[5219]

Sears sold Allstate tires for antique and classic cars through their catalogue right up until the catalogue was dropped in the late eighties or early nineties. These were oem type tires in the old sizes and with wide whitewalls.

A friend of mine had a set on his 1959 DeSoto. They were never sold in the stores that I recall.

[rocketraider]

Sears had a lot of neat stuff in the Sears Catalog that wasn't in the stores. The Christmas Wish Book was even better! Miss them...

Come to think of it, is Sears even selling Sears branded tires of any sort now? Seems they may have switched to selling strictly major-label tires, though as many as they sold, I always considered Sears a big-league player in the tire market. We sure bought our share of tires there.

I know they don't stock any tires in the sizes I need anymore- when the wagon needed shoes last year, they tried their best to sell me a set of 225/75-15 LT tires for it until I finally asked the kid point blank if he could get me a set of whitewall passenger car tires in that size, and he dropped his head and said no.

[Paul Dobbin]

They did sell Allstate tires in Sears stores. I bought a set for my 34 Ford at our local Sears Auto Center in 1973. Blackwall 600X16, and then put Porta-Wall wide whitewalls on them.

I also still have a set on my 1935 Ford Pickup. The rubber is so hard that I'd never know it if one was low on air. The tread is still like new and they remained round, unlike the tires I'v bought since that get flat spots when stored to long. Makes the first few miles of a ride pretty bumpy until they get warm and round again. The Allstate ones are always round.

I don't remember when Sears quit selling them, but I had to go to Coker's in 1984 for my first Great American Race. They sold tubes "not for road use" in my stock 17" size and I had 10 flats from the tubes coming apart at the seams.

After that I went to radial ply motorcycle tubes!

Who made the Allstate's?, probably on of the big 13 manufactures at the time.

Now I've heard they're down to four (4).

[RPrice]

I seem to remember that Armstrong Tire & Rubber made the Allstate tires for Sears.

Rog

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

I bought a set of four Sears Allstate WWW, 8.00 x 15, for my '48 New Yorker in 1988.

Picked them up from the Sears store in Glen Burnie, MD.

They were wrapped in the clear plastic spiral wrap, so they couldn't have been on the shelf too long...

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

This might explain things a little more...

Allstate: 1926-1995 (Sears' divestment)

[Guest Siegfried]

I had 4 Allstate radials given to me. They were155SR15 for a VW bug that I owned. They outlasted the 4 165SR15 Michelins on my other bug. Both the Michelins and the Allstates saw over 80,000 miles before reaching 2/32's on the tread wear. Good alignment, balancing,and rotation probably helped.

I remember being told that Allstates were made by Michelin. Quite a tire.

Another tire that I really had excellent wear and handling were Remingtons. I had 4 of these on a '62 Corvair Spyder. They were bias ply.

Now I most ask, what ever happened to long lasting, good handling tires at a reasonable price? I can't find anything even close to the tires from the 70ty's and 80ty's. I wonder why..........

[pkr]

Thank you everyone. It looks to me like sears stopped using the allstate name in the mid 1970's. By 1998-1999 pirelli tire co bought out Armstrong tire and rubber co, so came the end of Armstrong and allstate.

Edited February 7, 2010 by pkr
wording (see edit history)

[pkr]

Thank you everyone. It looks like sears discontinued selling allstate tires in the mid 1970's and Armstrong rubber co sold to pirelli tire co in 1988.

[Jay Wolf]

I bought a set of 5.60-13 Allstate wide whites for my Amphicar in 1989.

Edited February 8, 2010 by Jay Wolf
I corrected the year. (see edit history)

[VicF]

I bought a new whitewall 6.50 x 16 set in Southern California around 1983. One is still brand new, never used! 😃