Dry rotted and cracked? No, I would swap them out. Not dry rotted and cracked? Send them to me, I'll be happy to use them.
Radials have steel belts, steel and rubber/nylon do not like to stick together.[/QUOTE]The rubber was better years ago. A radial is wire wrapped around & around. the ends are held by the rubber. under constant pressure the wire creeps and moves. on a hot day at higher speeds the radial fails. Not from age but poor construction.
I think his tires where radials? And thousands of tires fail & blow out and the drivers don't have a wreck.
My truck has the same tires on it than it did in 1977. I put over 100,000 miles on them before i had it restored and there is hardly any wear showing on the tread. Now tires wear out after 40,000 miles. I'm not saying these old tires are safe to use, but the tread sure does last a lot longer.
Aint that the truth. Hell I blew a tire on a mud truck in Mexico at speed and all that happened was I had to hang on until I got it stopped. And that is only one tire that I have managed to blow in my lifetime. Not bragging about it, life just happens. The thing with radials is that often they are worn out long before the tread is gone. I can't even count the old cars with radials that felt like the suspension was gone. Plenty of tread on the tires and put new tires on it and the suspension was mysteriously repaired without ever lifting a wrench.
Tires are BIG BUSINESS! They build'em to last only a few years, plus alot of companies, including Coker, are having their tires done overseas.
Would you let your son wear 35 year old underwear ? No cuz they'd fall apart, or have a "blow out" Same with the tire except the consequences could be much worse. Don't do it
Yes a couple of years have passed.And the old bias ply tires on my stock trailer are still going strong. The raidials on my wifes grand Cheorkee have already bit the dust. There was a movie about the worlds fastest indian. And the tech inspectors failed the new zeland guys tires because they where weather cracked. He filled the cracks with wax shoe polish and went and set a record speed. I currently running some really old 14 ply 16 inch tires on the rear of my 66 GMC. I had to find some 6 hole split rims to mount them on. You could never get that old stiff tire to bend over a tubeless rim. Im not any more worried about a old bias ply than a new radial. I wish I could find a recapper place. Ive got some really solid but worn slick bias casings that I would like to get recapped with a rough tread.
Man I haven't seen a capper in ages, I would not even know where to begin to look. Last one I knew of was in Camdenton, Missouri, he did cold rubber recaps. That was in the '80s when you really couldn't find 16.5s any place within reason. He was every wood haulers friend. LOL Funny most of these guys would shy away from recaps but run cheater slicks that are pretty much all recaps.
There used to be a gas station in town. You could drop off your casings and he sent them off to be caped. Or you could swap from the recaps he had in stock. You looked at what he had on the rack and picked the tread design you wanted on your retreads. In 1968 I sent a set of firestone super belts off to be recapped as slicks. The rubber was a soft compound. and they hooked up really well. I broke a lot of driveline parts because of those recapped slicks. Out in my shop there is a NOS rough tred recap. and its on a 16.5 tire LOL. A neighbor Old Nick Stockwell had a 52 ford Pk. 16 inch mud and snow recaps on the back. 8 ply sears allstate casings. and he would wear the tread slick and send them off to be recapped. He had that set of rear tires recapped several times. I never knew him to drive faster than 40 MPH. but he would stack a 1/2 cord of green oak firewood in the back. shure made to old truck squat.
I got a pair of 16"rough treads that I don't need if you discover that you need 'em. they are 6 ply 7.50s I believe.
I went out to take a look at the nos 16.5 its a 4 ply with 6 ply sidewall, there where a couple of 16 in caps there and they are 750 x16 radials. I bought a semi load of new and used tires. There was a guy in the tire business for decades and he died suddenly of a heart attack. And his widow had a auction. I the semi trailer deal we got a lot of oddball NOS tires 19.5,17.5 and a lot of used tires ive never really sorted them . Im still in the process of moving and have dug a lot of stuff out that hasn't seen daylight in years. The next earth day im gonna celebrate by having a tire kill! Its getting summer here 94 with a heat inex of 107. So I get up early and work until its gets too hot for this old guy. Today is just the kind of day for a raidial tire to heat up and slip the belts and fly apart.
Don't drive on them but if they are unique, put them on ebaY for guys like me. I got these new/old Inglewood Pos-A-Traction slicks (never been mounted) on ebaY. There is no modern equivalent and were a must for this project.
There were several recappers in the area here but there are only two left now. They only do commercial tires and check casings by serial number. They won't cap anything over 6 years old.
I just turn them inside out and shake the fuck out of 'em. I have discovered that sheep's gut last the longest. I found some really cool old cheater slicks at a swap and shop the other week. They were mounted on old GM wheels, well kept and hard as a brick. They were so hard that you could have smoked 'em with a banger. (no offense intended to the banger crowd)
During a late-night emergency I used a 25 year old tire last year for an 'immediate' late night spare when my wife hit protruding re-bar on a corner side of the road and blew both right tires....I drove out to her, and put the one 'good' spare and also the used, mounted 'spare' I had in my garage that had sat for years....just to get her home....I got about 2 miles and the 'old' spare blew! It's playing Russian roulette with old tires, even if they ''look'' good....I don't like the odds!!!---------------------that said, I don't have a problem using 25-50 year old tires as 'move around the garage' while building a car...........so, I do have a set of old tires on old wheels...but they NEVER go more than 25 feet from my garage door.-----(I now have 2 ''good'' spares at all times...learned lesson)
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