Trying to decide on tires. Not planing any long distance driving. My 1930 coupe will be full fender not chopped 1960 's hot rod look. The rims and tires in the pictures came with the car , too bad they are dry rotted. The car has been sitting since 1975. My plan is to keep that look. I have never driven a car with bias Ply tires , I hear that radials ride better. Are radials much better or we just splitting hairs?
From my experience, yes radials are way better tires than bias ply tires. HOWEVER, I did run bias ply tires on my model A (now sold). It was solely based on the looks - radials just wouldn't have looked right on the car. Traction-wise bias ply tires are crap, smoked my 8.20:s on all four gears, in wet or cold conditions they were even worse. I always kept extra distance to the cars in front of me to make up for the lower traction. When it comes to comfort, I don't think radials would have done anything to improve the ride quality, can't say for sure tho, never ran radials on the car.
I have bias plys on my Model A pickup with no problems but it is banger powered and seldom goes over 55mph. I have radials on my 30 Sport Coupe but it isn't finished, radials will handle and ride better, I know people with both and would run radials on something I planned on driving quite a bit.
Something rattling around in my ancient memory suggests that when introduced in the '60's, radial tires boasted a 25-30% improvement in traction. Anyone else recall these or similar numbers? Or any numbers? Farmalldan
If you can afford it buy both. I changed to radials on my T bucket many years ago and that alone made it into a whole nuther car, unbelievable difference. Radials? It'll handle better, ride better, stop better, not follow cracks or irregularties, so it depends what you want from your car. You want original-period looks, or if you want to put miles on it, radials are the only choice if you plan to drive it a lot.
I like bias ply,they are different than radial tires but I enjoy driving a car with bias ply. Radials are a better tire but foe looks the bias ply can't be beat! HRP
I'm digging the wheels and tires that are on it....mostly... If you plan to lower it, then you probably want to run a narrow front wheel. But if you want to really have some fun, and a unique car, leave it sitting up high and get repop bias ply tires of the size that's on it. That look used to be the cool thing, back when I was a kid. Which is a little later than when many of the old guys here were kids. Coker sells Wide Oval up to G70-15, and they have 14" sizes too. dare to be different
I grew up driving cars with bias tires and was there with the transition to radials. I have a lot of experience with both. I have bias ply tires on one car (Model A pickup) and radials on another (47 coupe). Radial tires do have a more flexible sidewall, providing a more comfortable ride, and they don't follow rain grooves in the road surface like the bias ply tires do. And I suppose they offer better grip too, if you were to compare them side by side on a skid pad. But on my Model A I like the bias plies just fine and have no intention of changing them to radials. While the above mentioned issues are there, none of them bother me that much, and I don't believe the car would perform substantially better with radials. When you put radials on a car with suspension designed for bias plies, it's not a great marriage. Radials may offer improved grip, but the softer side walls cause the car to pitch side to side far more than bias plies do. So yeah, the skid pad performance is improved, but the overall performance, maybe not so much. Bias plies feed back information about what's happening at the tire/road surface interface better than radials do, so you can feel when you're at the limits of adhesion and when you cross that point it's controllable. With radials, when they cross over into sliding it is more abrupt with less warning, less feel at the streering wheel. I'm pretty sure I could make it down the same patch of twisty canyon road just about as fast with bias plies as I could with radials. Now, tune the suspension for radials, and it's a different story. On your A, sorry but that suspension design is getting close to the century mark. Seriously, there are advantages and there are draw backs, IMO they offset each other. I plan on sticking with bias ply on the A. On the 47, we'll see as I put more time in it with the radials, but I suspect I will be swapping it back to bias ply when the time comes.
If you're hell bent on the late 60's early 70's look, bias ply is what you want. Other than that I'd take a radial any day for comfort, safety and handling. BTW, you are not going to enjoy steering it with that wide of a front wheel.
yep, a big difference in ride of a car with bias-ply compared to radials - take a look at options offered by Coker, etc - for 60's look the move was away from bias-ply to the "New" radials - do not think that Cobra valve covers follow the 60's look - get hold of car mags from the 60's to look at what was popular - no access to old mags? Hot Rod magazine provides access online to look at their old issues - bottom line is to build it your way and drive it
I have gotten 20,000 miles out of bias ply tires. The tires were so smooth that they were illegal for the last three thousand miles. Bias plies need to be rotated which is ok for cars that are used as toys but a nuisance for guys who only drive cars from the 30s and 50s and dont own anything newer than 1966. The Toyota RAV 4 EV has radial tires which are only one inch wider than the factory size for my avatar. They are 195/80R16 and cost less than Model A tires and tubes. This car has a warmed up Model A engine and has taken me to four states. I have driven it for about 20 years
A lot of later 60's and 70's builds ran big fat front tires on them like that, and from my experience, it's a lot easier to turn the wheel of a non-power-steering car if it has bias tires on it. There are really good repop Wide Oval tires that would look great on those Cragars and really give the late 60's look.
I just bought a set of the goodyear polyglas gt tires from Kelsey tire for my off topic 66 chevelle. I have a have a bunch of old cars and not a radial tire in the bunch. they drive beautifully at 70 mph. If you like the tires that are on it here is the link to kelseys website... yes they are expensive http://www.kelseytire.com/pages/preformancetires2.html
I have had bias ply on all my rods. I am now building one that will have big'n'little radials. I have had no issues with bias plys and find they run and ride decent enough for me plus they look right. I mostly do back roads but have had them up to highway speed and again no issues.
I do like the look of the wide tire and smaller 14" rim in the front. Its a throwback to that time and my plan is to keep that look. The rear will be a 15" rim with a wide tire. " Dare to be different" Funny you say that i used that quote in my high school year book.
The Original builder purchased the ford 289 hp new from a ford dealer in 1965 and he said the valve covers came with the engine . The block is date coded 1965 so it fits the time
I had radials on my model A rpu. I switched to bias ply for looks, but I also like the way the truck drives with the bias plys better...so it was a win win. Sent from my SM-G920W8 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I won't get into the age long debate, but I will say I have had a really weird craving to put these on something lately. I'm a 68 model, and spent a lot of time in the 70's looking at tires like this. Takes me back. https://www.cokertire.com/tires/styles/classic-70s/firestone-wide-oval-radial-rwl.html
Are we really telling someone on a traditional Hot Rod site the benefits of radials?........ Just wanted to be sure I was at the right place because radials don't belong on a traditional hot rod regardless of how much better traction and ride quality they have. I also heard billet aluminum lasts a long time and doesn't require as much maintenance as chrome.
If I had the coin to spare I'd have a set of nice bias whitewalls mounted up on one set of wheels and a set of radials the same size mounted up on a matching wheels and put the bias on when I went to "those shows" where it really made a difference with my truck. If you have been to Billetproof you have spotted a few rods that all the sudden had an ID change for the weekend with a set of bias tires on traditonal wheels and a valve cover and air cleaner change. See them at Goodguys and they are full on billet street rod.
Well... he did ask about opinions about bias vs. radial, didn't he? What's the point in saying that bias ply tires are superior? They look great on the right car, but that's about it. I ran them on my model A, but I never for one second thought they were superior to modern tires, except for the looks. Hell... I never ever thought of my model A as superior to... anything. But that wasn't the reason I had the car. It was a fun toy, pretty horrible in every way, but fun.
Personally I'd go Radials, with the choice of sizes today vs years ago. This question comes up every year and it won't change. Like automatic/manual, alternator/generator etc.
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