Hot Rods Beware of Coker inner tubes

Yea I know Coker tires have been bashed many times.
My son and his partner were out and about at a rod run on the weekend in our 32 3W , luckily at low speed just got off the highway and had a very quick deflation of a front tire . At 4.30 pm on a Saturday, thought we were stuck, but a good buddy was passing in his 55 Lincoln and they used his spare to go the 1 mile to base camp.
Also got lucky as partners brother in law was able to get the keys to a tire shop and find a 15” tube to fit our 16” wheel.
The tubes and tires were bought from Coker about 5 yrs ago . And 8500 miles.
You can see the splits in the tube, scary stuff as to what the rest are like.
So Is it possible we did not care for them properly??

 

I'm no inner tube expert. But 5 years of temperature fluxion and under pressure? Seems like a good run for a thin skin of rubber. But again, I'm no expert.

 

Bias or radial?

 

Radial or bias ply tires? And what about the inner tubes, radial or bias? You can use a radial tire inner tube in a bias tire but not the other way around.

 

What is the physical difference between the radial tubes and the rest? diameter?
If the tubes had been stored previously in the sun for any time, they will end up with cracks which will leak.
I store them in the cellar, and they are good for a few years.

 

think he knows the difference........

 

what he said … over inflated , under inflated ?...who knows .. never had any problems in my 36 or my 49 Ford Coupe or 51 Ford Woodie.

 

It kind of looks like the tube was stretched further than it was designed to stretch. Was it the correct tube for the tire it was in?
Back in my tire store days most of the tube failures I saw were due to not being installed right (that was pointed out to me by one of the tire guys with 40 years of experience) Usually with a wrinkle in the tire that didn't come out when it was inflated, as Fred would show me and say "see here this is what caused it".

 

they just don't make them like they used to? I've taken old tubes out of 40-50 year old tires, the tubes are still fine.

 

Yes they were stored in the dark for approx 6 months before mounting on 16” early ford wheels with coker classic 550x16 bias look radials all purchased from Coker at Pate TX swap meet. Maybe pressure was low at approx 27lb when we checked the other side.

 

Rubber products coming out of places like China, seems like they have missed something in the translation. I have tie rod and ball joint boots splitting even before I have driven the car. Bicycle tire tubes are plain awful, I can't tell how many I replaced on my kid's bikes. Old tubes we could patch many times and rarely bought new ones. They don't hold air like they used to either.

 

bobss got it right. Currently made tubes are crap

 

Look how little time it takes new tires to dry rot.

 

Back in the day the only tube failures I can remember were due to road hazards (nails) and occasionally a stem would crack and leak. Never saw a material failure in the tube itself.

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Did you put any talc in the tires before installing and inflating the tubes? A huge error I made a long time ago was cleaning the inside of the tires and the tubes real well before installing. They both failed in less than a few hundred miles, and when Elroy the tire guy in my small town popped the tires off the rims, the inner tubes were stuck tightly to the inside of the tire in a few places. He actually told me what I did wrong. "You washed these tubes off before putting them in, didn't you?" He pointed out that the combination of flexing and road heat could actually get warm enough to fuse the tube and tire together and cause them to fail. A few shots of talc ( I just use baby ass powder) are needed in order to act as a lubricant to keep the tire and tube from sticking together.

All that said, the tubes today do suck. The only tube tires I run today are on my 1976 Harley, and they have some OLD tubes in them, might actually still be OEM. They're thick, unscarred, and have a lot of talc on them.

 

The baby powder is not a good substitute for actual 'tire talc'. The reason being, reportedly, the baby powder has some oily ingredients that are good for baby's comfort but not so good for rubber..... the long term contact of the baby powder with the inner tube can deteriorate the rubber. True tire talc has no such deleterious ingredients.

While I have not 'researched' it, I am wondering if plain corn starch might be an inexpensive and readily available alternative to tire talc.

 

"The Quality goes in, before the Name goes .. " ah never mind. I'm pretty sure those bargain "Grade 8" bolts at the hardware store from golly knows where are made of the good stuff too. Right?

 

thats why I keep old bolts
and use OEM bolts on suspension parts

 

I just changed a tube yesterday, put an old used one I got in. I’ve had good luck with inner tubes made in India. Lots of rubber trees in India, they know inner tubes.

Anyways lots of new high end bikes use tubeless now with a sealant. I’ve wondered about useing it with bias ply tires. When I take off the bike tire I basically gotta peal out a formed in place tube. Stuff is way better than slime and can be made at home. I’ve never made it but it’s made out of liquid latex and some mold builder and some glitter for sealing holes and something to keep it liquid.


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With 35 years in the biz, I can give you a FWIW opinion.
I don't remember ever seeing that corrugated looking construction in any tube.
It looks like stress cracks (from flex?) along the shoulder of the different body thicknesses.
They're consistent and uniformly located.

Send that pic to Coker, and see what they say.

Since someone asked, radial tubes were/are constructed with heavier gauge rubber, thicker body splice overlap and thicker valve stem base.

Michelin used to make the best radial tubes, and may still. Most tubes today are barely adequate for farm tire use, much less high speed radial tire use. Where was that one made?

 

Back in my service station days I was taught to use talc, and then inflate, deflate, and re-inflate. Theory was, it helped get any creases out of the tube. Don't know if that's actually true, but that's how I've always done it.

 

Changed my Coker front tubes (bias) on my coupe after one had a spot that failed. Replaced them with ones from a local tire shop and you could see the difference. On the other hand I have been running Coker's on my roadster for near seven years without a problem. The way things are, I bet the seven year old ones were even better than today's stuff.

 

And be sure to remove any stickers on the inside of a tire if using tubes.

 

Nail right on the head............
Anyone who has old inner tubes and new ones can see and feel the difference immediately.
I try to get all the older ones I can find........they will outlast any of the new.
I can't see how they can make them any thinner these days.

 

I was taught to inflate & deflate too. Tubes used to come with a talc coating on them. New bike tire tubes seem to be missing it.

 

These things are made in Korea , but purchased direct from coker.
They have a whole alphabet soup of numbers on them but no sign of talc.
Stamped into the tube “ PG16003”.
Printed on “D-GRA6”
“131 D-228031”
“Auto Butyl Tube”
“Pas 52” in a circle.

 

Is there not a size printed on them?
Nothing about radial tire use? Or not?

 

Kind of on topic with this thread. I have Coker bias on my roadster(over 6 years old) with no tubes and a Diamond back radial( one they put the whitewall on not theirs) with no tubes. Is it better to run tubes in both sets of tires for a better ride quality?

 

I had some issues with crap tubes as well. Ended up switching to name brand Firestone ones from the local farm supply store. So much thicker.

 

Their inner tubes are junk, have been for years.