Technical Bias tire, how many miles out of them, what type of driving

Interested in tyres (ok tires in USA speak) absolutely love the pie crust narrow sharp shoulder look of the Firestones.
How do you go with ware, out of roundness and drivability out of them?
If I am spending $300 Australian a tyre I would like to get at least get a few years of driving out of them in a little banger A RPU

 

I like the look of the bias plys, but thats all.
I was trying a lot with tire pressure @ bias plys, but the thread wear out was always high.
I was waiting for the Diamondback 16inch tire series as radail tires, still waiting, ha, ha.
On 15 inch tires, lots of my friends switched to the new coker radial tires. They look OK and drive well.
I run now coker radails, 6.00/7.50x15 and Excelsiors. With a bit performance in your hot rod, and speed above 100mp/h down the road, in handling and comfort, the new radails are so much nicer & safer to drive.
But, you get used to the bias bly tires and the way your car handles. Its just a thing how you use your old ride.

 

I also run Coker bias ply on my truck and had the Firestone's on my Deuce 4 door.

I drive all my cars hard and I never had any problems with the tires. HRP

 

I ran Firestone 7.10 x 15's on my 55 Olds 98 (BIG car!) all the time I drove it. Put on almost 160,000 miles on it, 4 sets of tires. So 40,000 per set. Not hotrodding around, but lots of highway cruising, at over the limit speeds!

 

Hi chopolds What pressure did you run in the 7.10 x 15's

 

anyone ever run bias-ply WITHOUT tubes....?

 

I have 600x16's on my 31, mounted them on '35 wires and decided to try to go tube-less...just curious if I'm looking for trouble. The wheels are in great shape and hold air just fine.....so far.

 

I have bias-ply on my 32 and my 35. They totally suck. I have really been mulling the idea of buying the 15" radials from coker.

 

I have a set of G-78 15 bfg's and you really have to keep both hands on the wheel on grooved or rougher roads. I bought a new set radial T/A's and the difference was night and day.
The bias plys look great though!


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I prefer bias ply. I run them until they are bald. You wont ever see a bald radial because they all fail before the tread is worn off

 

uhhh...yeah.... you haven't see how fast I can go thru tires on my 55.

I only have a few thousand miles on the bias tires on my Chevy II, they still have most of the tread on them. It doesn't handle nearly as well with the bias tires, as it does with radials. But the look is worth it.

 

I run Coker bias ply wsw's on my hi boy Model A. I love the look of them but truly HATE the hard ride and tendency to follow every imperfection in the road.
They wear like iron and spin quietly. They balanced up easily too.
Come spring I'm taking them to the flea market.
Going to those new tall skinny lookalikes Coker (and maybe Diamond Back) will sell.

 

While the shop manual recommended lower pressures, probably for better ride quality, I just ran them at 32 PSI, so I got longer life out of them.
About tubes, I've run them without, with rims made for tubeless tires. I think the rims are the issue. The old riveted ones can easily leak.

 

14 answers with one that actually answered the question.
In the early 70's I worked in a Firestone company store and the top of the line Deluxe Champion bias tires were good for between 25 and 40 K with most getting under 30. The cheaper ones were rated at 15K but usually went on cars that took two or more years to run up 15K.

I'd expect around 25 K before the tread started getting a bit thin. More if you drive gently, less if you wheel it a bit. If the car is bagged forget it, no tire is going to last unless you have a set rate that the bags stay at when the car is moving.

 

I have the coker drag pie crust 8.5* 15 I have about 3000 miles on them and countless burnouts they show very little wear with one little scrape in them. As for quality they are a very hard tire even when hot so I expect them to last a long time. As for the roundness they are not great they both have high spots and required a lot of weight to balance. Th best hi crusts out the right now are towel city. They are softer and radial so that should be considered. I have a set of the Firestone front runners and they are great.

 

I had Denman wide whites on my 52 for a while. I got about 15k out of them before I took them off due to thin tread. This is WV, the roads aren't that great and I took it across quite a few winding mountain roads.

 

Thanks all, looks like they should be ok for what I need especially as this A is such light car and only banger powered, just need to work out now if it's going to be 15" or 16"


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I haven't used bias tires since the early 70's but I just started using balancing beads instead of balancing weights in my 1 ton dually truck and the ride is a lot better and tire wear seems to have improved a lot. I've been told they help with the old style bias belt tires.
I get the beads at Nappa and went online to find out how much per tire.

 

I've put right at 12k miles on these Firestones in the last two-and-a-half years... much of that at freeway speeds... and no issues at all. They track straight, ride great, and show no real wear to speak of!!

 

I have a set of 600x16 Firestones out in the garage with 22,000 miles on them- only reason not still running is 25 years old- look like half tread left- I did switch to radials because I like the ride better-