Radial tires for 1938 Special

[Gert]

Suppliers of ww radial tires suggest 225/75R16 to replace the old 650x16. It seems however, that the tread is very much wider (6.5") than the for the old 650x16 (5"- which is equally to the rim width).

Does anybody have experience with the use of radial on a 38 special? Any advice appreciated.

Gert

[old-tank]

Coker tire sells a 6.50R16 that would be more appropriate

[JohnD1956]

Gert, inspect and consider the beads on your steel wheels before putting on any tires. A long while back there was a lot of talk about the safety of Radials on early rims designed for bias ply tires( pre 70). I don't think there was any conclusion or consensus, but I can tell you I have had two rims split at the tire bead on my 56 Super. One rim did have a considerable spill of battery acid, but the other just split from rusting of the rim. I do not think anyone can argue that a radial tire has a different pattern of displacing the weight on it than a bias ply. But wheather or not a radial on an old rim is dangerous is ( in my humble opinion) a function of the state of condition of the bead on the rim in question.

[Matt Harwood]

I agree 100% with John D. If your wheels are in good condition, a radial tire should not place any additional loads on them that could be considered dangerous. After all, you're not racing the car and yanking it around corners at 80 MPH, right?

But please make sure your wheels are in top condition before mounting any new tire, radial or bias-ply.

[Guest tin knocker]

I am thinking of radials for my 37 and would like to know if the original rims would work without installing tubes. If anyone has experience with this or an opinion I would be happy to hear it.

Rollie

[Fred Rawling]

The best solution is to have the rims shot peened to strengthen them or what ever shot peening does. That was the concensus from the last discussion and from another article that I read about using radials on older rims.

That said, I have about 50,000 miles on my 1950 roadmaster with 735R15 with out doing the shot peening. All of the rims were in excellent condition when I made the change. I got tired of the bias plys following the ruts in the road and I like the bigger looking tires on the car.