Old Tires

[68BabyBlue]

Coker has different series of red line radials. When they came out with the bias ply look series based on the Firestone Wide Oval, I put a set on Baby Blue. Ran them until I sold the car, never had an issue. These are more expensive than the ones with the standard radial tread pattern. Most comments on the standard tire haven't been favorable.

I haven't seen or heard any other commentary on the Wide Oval style radials. Others may have had different experience.

 

[Black_Sheep]

For what it’s worth, my favorite tire shop stopped using Coker tires due to quality control issues.

 

[dadsbee]

Gave in and ordered a new set of Goodyear F60-15's for the Bird and just got an email from Vintage Tire that they have none in stock and no ETA on when they get them again !!

 

[68BabyBlue]

For what it’s worth, my favorite tire shop stopped using Coker tires due to quality control issues.

This seems to be the trend. With that in mind, I was going to install reproduction Goodyears from Universal Tire on my current GTX. They were on a six month back order, Cokers were immediately available with free shipping, so I took the bird in the hand. The market seems to have spoken. I hope I don't regret my choice.

 

[wahya]

If a front tire blows may God help you.
If a rear goes you have a better chance of staying in one lane.

I don’t do the x thing, but do respectfully disagree. Back in the 70s if one bought 2 new feel goods, they would go on the front. Made the car feel new. Over the years, things changed (at least for us) and new tires went on the rear, at least for rear wheel drive vehicles. At Highway speeds, you don’t want the back end to come around all of a sudden. Seen it many times. On a curve, I guess it’s a toss up.

 

[Some Car Guy]

I took a set of decades old bias plus off my car. They were on when I bought it and so hard you couldn’t control it over about 40. I believe the redlines are all from Coker no matter where you buy them. They took a ton of weight to balance, shop said rims were bent. Seeing so many comments about it makes me think it’s the tires not my wheels.

 

[33 IMP]

I took a set of decades old bias plus off my car. They were on when I bought it and so hard you couldn’t control it over about 40. I believe the redlines are all from Coker no matter where you buy them. They took a ton of weight to balance, shop said rims were bent. Seeing so many comments about it makes me think it’s the tires not my wheels.

My car is supposed to have ONLY Goodyear G70x15 redlines, (higher priced than the typical firestone redline repops)but I'm tempted to just get some no-name redlines from Diamondback. (Diamondback makes their own redlines)
They seem to have a MUCH better reputation than "others ".

 

[Black_Sheep]

My car is supposed to have ONLY Goodyear G70x15 redlines, (higher priced than the typical firestone redline repops)but I'm tempted to just get some no-name redlines from Diamondback. (Diamondback makes their own redlines)
They seem to have a MUCH better reputation than "others ".

Diamondback puts redlines on name brand tires, the last set I got from them were BFG TA Radials.

 

[33 IMP]

Diamondback puts redlines on name brand tires, the last set I got from them were BFG TA Radials.

Understood, but I believe they buff the original tire name off the tire to put the redline on, so hence no-name.

 

[RemCharger]

I am also going to upgrade the rims asap once the budget allows.

View attachment 1461335

What you have there are 15x7 cop rims. You could replace them with a set of " better looking" rims..
But pretty hard to find a set of rims that are " better".

 

[John H]

Any sugestions on doing something with these rims to give some more crome? trim rings... Crome the rims??? Shine? I am a rookie men. The more suggestions you have the better.
John

 

[Some Car Guy]

My car is supposed to have ONLY Goodyear G70x15 redlines, (higher priced than the typical firestone redline repops)but I'm tempted to just get some no-name redlines from Diamondback. (Diamondback makes their own redlines)
They seem to have a MUCH better reputation than "others ".

Clarification, I meant just the Firestone repops are all Coker.

 

[Cranky]

If a front tire blows may God help you.
If a rear goes you have a better chance of staying in one lane.

I've had both happen. Was on the freeway in the fast lane doing about 65 when the LF let go. The car moved around some but stayed in my lane. Everyone beside and behind me gave me room to cross to the right shoulder and by the time the thing came to a stop, the rim was squared. Years before that a RR went down fairly fast in a left hand curve and almost spun that out and was only doing 40!

Thank you everyone. Now the question is... what do I buy and where. Sounds like Coker is the place to go. Now what to buy. I have P215/70R 15's on it now. it's a 1967 Coronet 440 with steel rims and dog dish hub caps. I don't understand back spacing etc. so any info you guys have would be great.
I am also going to upgrade the rims asap once the budget allows.

View attachment 1461335

Wish you weren't so far away as I wouldn't mind having the wheels AND tires. The tires would make good burnout material for my beater 95 Dakota lol

I don’t do the x thing, but do respectfully disagree. Back in the 70s if one bought 2 new feel goods, they would go on the front. Made the car feel new. Over the years, things changed (at least for us) and new tires went on the rear, at least for rear wheel drive vehicles. At Highway speeds, you don’t want the back end to come around all of a sudden. Seen it many times. On a curve, I guess it’s a toss up.

I've seen a couple of people that put the new threads on the front thinking that was the thing to do and they crashed. That comes out of the old days. These days I want the new rubber on the rear. When a tire hydros on a wet road, you can feel it on the front but not so much when that happens on the rear and when you do feel it, it's usually too late to do much about it. A nearly bald tire will usually hydro around 55 depending on how wide it is. The wider it is, the sooner it'll start to plane.

 

[33 IMP]

If I'm driving a front driver (I did for a short while, hipo V6, lowered with Konis all around, z rated 18s) a new pair of tires is going on the FRONT, I don't give a flying f#@k what the sign in the tire shop says.
All the steering, all the acceleration, 80% of the braking, 75% of tire wear, gets the new tires, or the tire shop makes NO SALE.
Besides, I'm not worried about hydroplaning: it never rains in california.

 

[33 IMP]

Clarification, I meant just the Firestone repops are all Coker.

There are Goodyear labeled redlines out there, something like $75/tire more than the Firestone version repop. I don't know who makes em for sure..... but I suspect they're Coker too. $531 ea at Summit (this week. Who knows next week?).

 

[Some Car Guy]

Lose a rear tire and you’ll be having a bad day. I had one let go on the front and contained it easily. Had one slowly go down on the rear and about lost it in a curve. I’ve seen the tests where they blow a rear on purpose and things get nasty.

 

[Cranky]

I think the brand of tire is also a factor. Remember the Firestones of the early 70's? FS-500 iirc. They were junk especially if you rotated them in the X pattern. Been running BFG's since before they went to steel belts. Imo, those were a better tire and even rode better. Generals are one that I will never ever buy again! Had two of them shed the steel belt without losing air but both did damage to the vehicles and a 3rd tire that I noticed the belt getting ready to come off while moving really slow in traffic and could feel it and got it off. One was a 73 Challenger that my wife drove and was driving at the time it happened. It scared her but the car didn't deviate in the lane. That was in 88 with a tire that was less than 5 years old. Another got my 95 Dakota on the way to work and did damage to that. Got fed up with the brand and sent that tire back to General and they paid for the damage to the Dakota and should have sent the one that got the Challenger. That's the only thing I have good to say about them.

Also, I have some tires that are old....the BFG All Terrains on my diesel are 33-44 of 05. Have a pair of Yoko's on the back of my 95 Dakota that are 3711 and the Mich's on the front are 2414. The 96 is wearing a full set of Mich's that are 22-2318. The diesel and the 96 are kept inside while the 95 resides under the carport out back of the shop. It's exposed to the light of day but doesn't get direct sunlight.

 

[hacksaw]

This seems to be the trend. With that in mind, I was going to install reproduction Goodyears from Universal Tire on my current GTX. They were on a six month back order, Cokers were immediately available with free shipping, so I took the bird in the hand. The market seems to have spoken. I hope I don't regret my choice.

you have seen pops truck... 85 with 42k on it... we finaly broke down and replaced the original goodyear blue streaks last summer. not cracked or anything like that.... just kinda lost faith in them at 80+ MPH on the road.
tires and brakes are my big thing.... really dose bug the hell out of me after about 3-4 years old

 

[oldchevelle541]

To all, buyer beware of getting your new rubber from Coker. Just purchased a new set of BFG RWL Radials from them and they sent me tires with date codes 3 years old. This was just before end of 2023. We see BFG's everywhere so why I got old stock was a huge concern to me. Obviously they don't rotate their stock. My order even requested in writing to give me the freshest tires with the latest date codes which they totally ignored. Their response to the problem was poor and waited days to get any reply. When they said they found some newer tires in their warehouse they wanted me to purchase those ahead of shipment with full payment and then later refund my money on the others upon returning them. I lost all trust at that point and decided to move on and never buy from them again.

 

[Dave6T4]

From my personal experience, Coker tires are $hit. Buy Diamondbacks instead. My Cokers took a lot of weight to balance. At 4000 miles, the belts separated on one of them. Replacement Diamondbacks balanced with little weight.