Coker Tires - Is it just me??

I just saw a short video clip somewhere on Coker tires. It was a promo for the company where they talked about how Coker goes to great lengths to aquire vintage tire molds and tire making machines and produces them just like they were produced when new. So that being said, your getting a bias ply tire made with 70 year old technology. Guys want the "vintage look." Well you get the vintage ride quality that goes with it!

edit: I think a little vivbration is tollerable. It's like static and pop from a good old fashion vinyl record...

If I could afford a set of Cokers i'd buy some. Luckily I have a hoard of like new old wide whites in many sizes...

 

Sorry...gotta call bs on this...I grew up driving on bias ply before radials and we didn't have to do anything special to them. I don't understand why Coker can't do what the big tire companies were doing back then...make a round bias ply tire...

 

That would be awsome if Diamondback would come throught with those, the 15" 5.50's and 8.20's would sell like crazy.

 

When I was in high school, in the mid 60's, I worked in a body shop that had the machine to shave tires. We did a bunch of this to correct this problem. This not necessarly a Coker problem, but a problem with bias ply tires in General. There is a reason tires went to radial. I know you want the old look, but why mess with safety? Just my 2 cents

 

Darn it! I went from 34 to 36 psi and never tried 35! If only you had enlightened everyone sooner!

 

What blends of material are they using today for their rubber product? Where does the rubber come from (company, country, ect) And quality control/inspection is managed by strictly in house only?

 

My understanding is that Coker doesn't actually make the tires they sell, they only own the molds...I've heard they are made by a company called Specialty Tire out of PA.

 

Thanks Skittles! So this manufacture have some data for the buyers?

 

I think thats the old Mccreary tire company---not sure though

 

That's correct...Denman used to make Coker's tires until they went bankrupt in 2010...that's when Coker switched to Specialty Tires of America to make their Coker Brand and Firestone tires.

 

I have had at least 8 sets of Cokers and No problems
Radials are fine..... on a Camaro LOL

 

Running 6.70-15 bias with dyna beads.no problems

 

I have two set...both are fine.....My car will not go over 65 though.....

 

When my AA starts shaking at 48 mph, it's certainly not the tires that are to blame. There are alot of pieces on an old jalopy that can induce bad vibes. One of the most enlightening solutions I have seen to the problem, was a thread that I read right here on the hamb regarding the old Hunter on car wheel balancers. Not being an 'old timer', I hadn't heard of one before, but its not rocket appliances to figure out the benefit of balancing the hubs and drums also.

 

I mentioned earlier that I've had no problems with mine. But what Ryan mentioned reminded me of something.

When I first got the tires and was driving the car, they felt fine. To my surprise, other drivers started flagging me down and saying, "hey, you've got a bad rear tire, that thing is gonna come off"!

Put the car up on jacks and spun the wheel and that sucker was wobbling like crazy. Crappy bias ply crap is what I thought. Talked about beads, shaving, all kinds of things. My father in law said hey, just Set up an indicator and check the wheel....... yep, bad wheel. It was a perfect looking wheel (a 72 year old wheel).

FWIW

 

Somewhere I read wheel runout should be .040 or less. Anyway when I had my 1970 SS Camaro which I bought new. It came with bias Firestone wide ovals. after a few years and a few sets of bias tires I switched to radials. I could not believe the differance. You could drive the car all over the road and up on curbs, and the car felt very stable. I will stick with radials.



Ago

 

This is spot on.

 

Are there any cases of this wobble with newer made steelies, or cast alum. wheels that are most likely true and round? The 70 yr old wheels, would raise some concern.

 

My front wheels are the old original 4" Ford steel wheels. I had several to choose from so I checked them all with a dial indicator before I ever mounted the tires and used the two that were the best. From what I have read since then they should not exceed .040 radial measurement (up and down) and .045 lateral measurement (side to side) on a steel wheel. I do know that mine fell well within that range. When I started having problems I had two other wheels that I had trued up at a local shop that builds wheels and I tried one of them with the tire that I was having real trouble with just to be sure. I still could still not control the bounce in the tire. Now that I have been through all this I am back to my original wheels and once I had the tires shaved and re-balanced for the umteenth time it seems to be much better. My problem was definitely the tires. For what it is worth my wheel guy says a lot of his business is truing up "new" steel wheels. Like everything else just because it's new doesn't mean that it is better.

 

Its funny have two cars that are not even balanced and drive great plus a few that are balanced and drive great too.Then a new set that shake like a "Shake Weight Weight Loss System" It seems like the new set is really picky on tire pressure and likes to be over inflated were all are firestones

 

The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

I thought the same thing the O/P thought until I kept reading and hearing about similar problems with bias tires Coker sells... I'm no exception.
I bought a pair of 14" Firestone bias Whitewalls and a pair of 14" BFG bias Whitewalls for my Comet about 3 years ago. Out of the 4 mentioned tires, one of the Firestones had a huge soft spot on the sidewall which caused it to bubble IMMEDIATELY after the tire was mounted on the rim and inflated. Since I bought them through a local dealer I didn't have to go through the trouble of shipping them back to Coker,but.... Still had to drive an hour one-way back to the tire dealer I bought them from since I was using a friend's machine to mount them (worked at a tire shop in the past). When I went back, the manager at the tire shop was skeptical, but when they tried to re-mount the new tire on to my rim they knew it was a defect right away.... So, the dealer agreed to swap it out free of charge, and I thought that was the end of it, nope...

One of the BFGs are out of round as well... After re-balancing the tires, changing u-joints,wheel bearings,playing with air pressure,with no improvement, I should have know all along that the culprit was the new bias ply tires that I had just mounted to the car ditching the radials that were on there (that gave me no problems) since I had to have that "look". So now I have to find someone to shave the tire after I have already $700 invested into the set. Lesson learned the hard way, more cons with bias than pros, but I will do just about anything possible to keep the bias on my vehicles..

 

I will mention two friends of mine who bought the same firestone 450/16 tire who had the exact same bouncing problem. Both of them thought the solution was to have the tire shaved. Both of them have since taken those tires off their car because they couldn't run them without problems.

 

I forgot to mention even balancing the tires on the car and marking lug to the wheel so the hub and the wheel were mated.

 

That's because they don't use a "clamshell" mold to make Michelins. The parting line is down the middle. As the clamshell wears it, gets slightly out of round.

 

Oh and I took a day off of work 5 times to mess with those tires and since I took them off my car I haven't had to miss a day!

 

All you guys with "no problems" knock on wood.

 

We almost always build with brand new wheels, with near-zero runout. We have every single bias-ply tire shaved to make it round. I have seen only one single tire from Coker that was round, out of the box. ALL of the other ones required shaving to make them round.