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Bedford Coach Tires- age and date codes.


cjmarzoli

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I'm looking at purchasing a set of used Bedford Famous Coach tires (19").   They appear to be in good shape but of unknown age. Does anyone know when these tires were introduced?  I have a picture of the code on the back but I can't determine a date sequence on it.  The code is  CYYA-P11V24 .  Can anyone decode this date?  Does anyone have these tires on a car?  How do they age?  The whitewalls are a bit dingy but may clean up.  How do the whitewalls on them stand up over time?   Supposedly there are no cracks in the tires and they are quite pliable.  What should i pay for a good used set of these?  Thanks.

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I think that code is a serial number rather than production date.

 

My 1930 Pierce roadster came with a set of 700x18 Bedford blackwalls installed when the car was restored in 2000, and they have given superb service.  They run cool and show less than half wear after 10,000 miles.  I liked them so much I bought a set of 700x17 Bedfords in 2009 for my 1934 Pierce, now with a little more than 10,000 miles and again more than 50% tread left.

 

The 18s seem to have a bit more road noise than do the 17s.

 

They are HARDY:  In the first 1,500 miles I had two flats at speed (55-58 mph) on the 17s, most caused by the reproduction 17" tubes splitting at the bonded seams which were nowhere near any potential friction point.  I replaced ALL the tubes with 16" light truck radial tubes and have never had a flat since (knock on wood).  No damage to either tire.

 

I like the pie crust sidewall and diamond tread pattern as of-the-era.  I will happily buy another set of Bedford tires but will not use the "repro" tubes offered by the sole U.S. vendor of Bedford tires.

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Bedfords look good, and ride well. I have never had a chance to get many miles on them.......seems every car they were on were show cars and not yet ready for major touring. They definitely make more noise than other tires from my experience. I like Lester tires, but 8K miles is all I ever get out of a set.

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One more point about Bedfords: they are dimensionally larger, both in diameter and cross-section, than of-the-era tires of the same nominal sizes.  That's a cheap partial-overdrive effect, but usually the nominally correct size Bedfords will not fit in your sidemount wells or under your sidemount covers.  It is frequently necessary to drop a size (e.g., from 700 to 650) for fender-mounted spares.

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While new and shiny is nice, I would say get your car back on its feet and if just using car locally then probably not an issue.  

 

Bedford's came into play in the 1980's - I think we bought the set for the 1931 Auburn in around 1983-ish (they are still on that car today several owners later).  

 

Everyone is correct - they were a tight squeeze in the spare tire fender wells. 

 

I have bought Bedfords since, but this was one of my most favorite Bedford tire projects (I never drove on this particular set, but always liked the ride on the other cars).

 

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John, thank you for your input.  Thank you to everyone else as well.  I don' t have sidemounts so the larger size would not be an issue.   That Packard is magnificent!  Is that yours?  What year and model is it?  Original paint?

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On 5/24/2020 at 9:37 PM, cjmarzoli said:

John, thank you for your input.  Thank you to everyone else as well.  I don' t have sidemounts so the larger size would not be an issue.   That Packard is magnificent!  Is that yours?  What year and model is it?  Original paint?

The Packard is a 1932 Twin Six Seven Passenger Sedan -  I sort of adopted it.  And it was an unrestored car, but needed a pick-me-up as it was a little too far gone to leave as a 100% survivor car.  As to preservation verses restoration: I did do some stuff like chip off the late 30's oversprayed paint from the hood and cowl belt moldings so that the original paint and pinstripe were visible - the paint is Aztec Olivine Green Dark and Aztec Olivine Green light with ivory pinstripe.   It was sold to a friend in Indiana, who showed it a few times and then sold it - I do not know where it is today.   Having done another 10 plus survivor cars since, I probably would do plenty of things different today, but then again would do plenty the same - the "point" is to get car to a usable level where someone (and I mean more than a one/single person on the globe) does not feel a need to shred it to restore. 

 

I spent some time here on the forum, but never finished posts as website went through a period of difficulty to load photos:  

 

Edited by John_Mereness (see edit history)
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