How bad would a car ride with bias-ply's on the front and radials on the rear? I have new American classics all the way around, but would like a bigger tire up front and sure love those 4"WWW bias-ply Firestones, but they won't fit in the rear. Just wondering...Thanks
The only reason to do that is if you want to wind up in a vehicular accident...I know it "used to be done" but it for sure ain't no fun to "herd" it down the road
I tried it once many years ago on an MG Midget. Only drove the car a couple miles that way. It felt like I was driving on ice all the time. Don't waste your time ...all radial or all bias-ply
If you have to do it, that is the "correct" way round. Here in the UK during the transitional years, it was actually illegal to run radials front and cross ply rear. Other way around was ok. Mart.
They used to say that radials were good followers and poor leaders. I don't recall a law covering it here but it was the rule of thumb if you had to mix that you put the bias plys on the front. I ran a few that way never had a problem. And it wasn't like driving on Ice either. Of course I only did it on American iron, never on a short wheel based light car like an MG. (Not that I wouldn't have liked to own an MG of any year british iron is also desirable)
My experience was back in the early 80's on a long bed Datsun pickup and it was weird as all get out. Had radials on the rear, larger than front OEM bias ply, and it felt really unstable driving at 30 mph or so. Others claim to have done it "with no problems"...........I have my doubts about that, based on MY experience. Ray
I had Radials on the front of the Divco, and MT bias ply Pro street tires on rear. Around town, lower then 40 mph, not bad. Anything above 40 mph it was, like, the front was stable and the back was sloshing side to side. Very Dangerous, , white nuckle ride. I bought a set of Hoosier 31x16.5x15 street radials. The difference was unbelevible. Cruse at 80 mph, it is like driving my Dads 66 Buick wagon.
I had an old pickup with wide bias ply's on the front and tall radial mudders on the back, it drove great, but that said I wouldn't do it again, there's just no good reason to.
That is a sensible answer. We used to do it because we didn't have a choice one way or another, usually it was a monitary issue. Most of the time when i did it my car or truck was either moving in one direction or another, transitional.
I've had bias on the rear and radials on the front of my '71 Camaro for most of it's life; 1975 to present. Over 140,000 miles that way. Handles just fine at all speeds. Same setup on my Austin gasser and no issues so far, but only 600 miles to date. I've heard all the statements of strange handling, and not sure why I don't see any of it in my experience.
13 yrs of running bias ply up front and radials on the back. 100 MPH (plus), no issue... Notice : the bias ply's are on the "front". The rod is my avator.....
Radials Rear , was the buz word in England , as Mart said , illegal the other way around. I ran a 32 roadster the wrong way , felt like I had no caster , very dicey.
must be something with front end geometry or something, or rear alignment possibly. i guess the radials in the rear don't have much sidewall flex, unless they are huge and are running a low psi and pushing the car and then the fronts are bias then they would have lots of flex, so say if the rear end deflects on acceleration, or over bumps, the front bias would let the front flex in a different way then the rear causing weird handling. so in my pea brain i would say as long as the tires flex in unison its okay, its when they flex differently is when you have a problem.... i guess....
still thinking about this. i think it is deflection of the rear end pushing the car in an off angle then the length of the car being a lever then felt in the front end. so if running bias up front they would deflect themselves and absorb some of the unintended steer, where as the radials wouldn't and transfer most of the off angle stuff directly to the suspension. and steer the car. for the people that ran bias up front and the car was squirrly what kind of front and rear suspension was it? I wanna see if it there is a common denominator.....
I think it was that the radials were judged to have better grip, so with crossplies (as we called them - similar to bias ply) on the front, the car would tend to understeer, which was judged as a safer option to promoting oversteer. Just fit em and try em see what you think yourself. But wait till you are away from other people before testing the limits of handling. Mart.
i had a 69 charger that i had like 10inch wide kelly superchargers on in the back and i had kelly radial chargers on the front it swam like a fish but it never felt "unsafe" and i drove it hard it rode much better when i put radials all the way around it though
It seems like there is an awful lot of people running around with Cody's Hurst radials rear cheater slicks and Bias ply's on the front, I was doing the same on my chrysler, I had a vibration so I went to radials in the front, still have the vibration(I think Henry may have drilled the pattern a little off)But tracking and cornering was never an issue.
Thanks for all the info. The reason I am considering this is my car is lowered without airbags using Jamco de-arched springs and dropped spindles. I went with smaller diameter radials all the way around to get the extra inch or two and to eliminate tires hitting the fender lip. After all is said and done, I believe I have enough clearance for the fat whitewalls I really wanted up front, but they just won't work in the rear. Besides, I have skirts on and I don't think it will look too goofy. Hell, it may even give the illusion that the rear is sitting even lower than it is because it has a smaller whitewall width. I'm just theorizing here. The one thing i don't like is that the small radials look too small in the wheelwell up front and I love fat OG whitewalls. Here's a pic of the car, let me know what you think. </PRE>
Drove part of the way from Little Rock, through Saint Louis, to Cedar Rapids IA on that combo in a 68 Ford shortbed. A BY GOD HANDFULL THAT FELT LIKE WANTING TO TURN TURTLE. I won't do it again. I like the shiney side up.
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