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Projects Coker Vintage Tires Quality

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Roberto delvalle, Nov 9, 2022.

  1. Have any of you had any experience good or bad with Coker Vintage Tires as of 2022? They have a huge amount of advertisement and Summit Racing is a distributor. I can not find one positive posting on Coker tires. They have a terrible quality reputation.

    I am on the market to buy a set of 650R16 white walls. I usually buy them from Diamond Backs but this tires have been on back order for four moths and they do not know when they are getting them. Should I consider Cockers?
     
  2. scoop
    Joined: Jul 4, 2001
    Posts: 1,524

    scoop
    Member

    Diamondback Auburn Deluxe, have set on my A, love them! I'd wait.
     
  3. Here is a positive posting on Coker tires, I have a set of Coker wide white radials on the Ranch Wagon with zero problems and have had 2 sets of wide white bias plys on a coupe and a picku.

    I will be purchasing another set of radials in the near future. HRP
     
    GlassThamesDoug likes this.
  4. jimmy six
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 16,626

    jimmy six
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I have a friend with a traditional 40’s style 32 fenderless roadster that went thru 3 sets of 16’s before he could drive it over 50 mph. Got good service from who he bought them from which was a good thing or just luck.
     
  5. Thank you guys for your response. I hope I get more feedback. Jimmy was your friend's bad experience recent?
     
  6. deucemac
    Joined: Aug 31, 2008
    Posts: 1,629

    deucemac
    Member

    My experience is not recent but was a problem nonetheless. I put Coker Firestone repro 14x31x15 double diamond sprint car tires for the back of my roadster. I bought them at their then office in Fresno. I had them mounted on 15 12 early Ford center, wheels. My tire shop got one to balance out at 3oz. The other took 16oz! I called Coker and they said it must be the wheel! I asked how you could hide a pound of excess weight on a stamped steel wheel . I took the tire and wheel back to them and their big balancer was out of service. So, we all went to their local tire guru and he rebalanced it and it took 16 Oz in the same place. He then broke down the tire and rotated it 180° on the wheel, and magically, the 16oz imbalance followed the tire position. Well, standing there with egg on their faces. Someone ran back to the store and came back with a replacement tire. When it was installed, it balanced out at 3oz, like the other good tire balanced too. The problem was, I had to make a 300 mile round trip, spend an entire day unnecessary in Fresno, and listen to miles of B about how it was anything EXCEPT a lousy tire, before they, sheepishly, admitted that their tire was defective! I have since heard from any other buyers that fought with them over out of round/ impossible to balance bias ply tires. Buyer beware !
     
    alanp561, Atwater Mike and Tman like this.
  7. rockable
    Joined: Dec 21, 2009
    Posts: 4,927

    rockable
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    If you don't drive over 55 or 60, they are ok. If you are going to cruise on the interstate for any significant time, they will wear you out. I drove my tire dealer crazy balancing, rebalancing, balance beads, road force balance, you name it. They still rode rough because they weren't round. I've had about 4 sets and I have yet to get one set that was smooth. These are radials, not bias ply. Diamondbacks are better but it depends on the series you buy. I had to send 2 back but they exchanged them. The new ones aren't perfect but they are better than the Cokers. That's my .02 dollars worth.
     
    57JoeFoMoPar and alanp561 like this.
  8. Mr48chev
    Joined: Dec 28, 2007
    Posts: 35,518

    Mr48chev
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I'm thinking that Coker gets away with the poor quality control and ballance and out of round issues simply because a huge percentage of their customers don't actually drive the cars that they put the tires on on the highway that much. A lot of those cars don't get a thousand miles a year put on them and from some of the guys I see around here 500 may be a stretch. A local guy trailered his restored 55 Chevy less than two miles across town to a local show because he is caught up in the nonsense of it being too valuable to drive on the road. I don't think he has put 100 miles on it in the past ten years.

    Then we have the Hambers who buy the tires because they want "that look" but actually want to drive their cars fast and far. Lumpy tires that won't balance don't get it done with this bunch.

    I thought my buddy had Bias on his Coupe that he built but checking my photos of the car a minute ago say he had American Classics on it. The car looked right and I think he got some pretty good coin out of it when he had marked all the checks on his bucket list for it off and some guy back east fell in love with it. I know with that car first time out of the box after it got finished was a road trip to the nationals in Louisville where a Hamber took photos of it and posted them here.
     
  9. WiredSpider
    Joined: Dec 29, 2012
    Posts: 1,284

    WiredSpider
    Member

    I,ve never had an issue with Coker tires ever
    My coupe has 35,000 mile on it
    My convertible has 15,000 mile on it
     
  10. woodiewagon46
    Joined: Mar 14, 2013
    Posts: 2,464

    woodiewagon46
    Member
    from New York

    Absolute junk, I had Coker radials on my 1946 Woodie and wore them out in less than 13,000 miles. All four tires looked like a severe under inflation problem. The inner and outer tread was worn out despite keeping them at the 35 psi that Coker recommended. I went up to 40psi then 50 and the car rode like the tires were made of cement. Car was aligned at two shops and alignment was perfect. I showed pictures of the tires to the Coker people at Hershey and they said that "Coker tires were not for drivers" in fact that same BS was told to several other people that complained about their tires. Coker did not want to hear it. I now have B. F. Goodrich tires on the car and at 35,000 there is no sign of wear at all. That proves to me that the tires I got from Coker were junk. Get your tires from name brand companies like B.F. Goodrich or Diamondback's.
     
    1biggeorge likes this.
  11. Moriarity
    Joined: Apr 11, 2001
    Posts: 35,856

    Moriarity
    SUPER MODERATOR
    Staff Member

    I have no experience with radials of any kind but have nothing but good to say about the 6.70-15 bias ply BF Goodrich silvertowns on my corvette also the 7.50-14's on my Impala and 6.70 15 Firestones on my 55 chev and the 8.20 and 5.9015's on my 40 Ford, All are smooth as a gravy sandwich on the freeway at 70 mph plus (my Impala has been to Oklahoma, Kansas, Ohio, Alabama and Arkansas on trips with zero issues), I have had a tire machine and balancer since the eighties and I don't remember any tires with excessive weights on them... Again, I know nothing of radials because I hate the way they look
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2022
  12. tim troutman
    Joined: Aug 6, 2012
    Posts: 1,229

    tim troutman
    Member

    I have bought 18 bias tires from coker 1 was way out of balance but found a use for it.only a couple miles to the boat ramp. out of 10 wide white radials. had 1 broke a belt. Coker made it good after returning it & several calls I have had several tires go bad the last few years not Cokers & not old tires my daily the wifes car & my F1 20200904_180638[1].jpg 20221109_154211[1].jpg
     
  13. stuart in mn
    Joined: Nov 22, 2007
    Posts: 2,660

    stuart in mn
    Member

    One thing to keep in mind is people often don't make comments unless they have problems, so there are probably a lot of satisfied customers out there who haven't said anything.
     
    Acme45, Kume, dmar836 and 2 others like this.
  14. I dunno, after being on this board for darn near 23 years and hearing the constant issues I sure as hell will not be spending any coin with them. My GMC is going to be a daily, I CAN NOT afford to be messing with unreliable rubber since we live almost 30 miles from the office.
     
    AHotRod and dmar836 like this.
  15. Diamond Back radials have whitewalls added to the tire, they are good tires but a reoccurring problem is the whitewall separating.

    My pal Ken purchased 4 tires and within 6 months this happened to two of them, I suggested the tire pressure was low and he assured me it was 32 PSI. if that's the case I don't know what happened.

    It didn't effect the tires but it doesn't look good.HRP

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Desoto291Hemi and Driver50x like this.
  16. I think any tire company is going to have problems from time to time, remember the Firestone debacle. HRP
     
    Desoto291Hemi and CSPIDY like this.
  17. CSPIDY
    Joined: Nov 15, 2020
    Posts: 883

    CSPIDY
    Member

    Coker white walls will smudge if you look at them
    and
    the best you can get is off white to yellow
    they are way overpriced
    stay with the Black Diamonds
     
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  18. Acres
    Joined: Dec 19, 2021
    Posts: 1,443

    Acres
    Member
    from Sweden

    Skip the coker and go for some old quality tire brands, when it comes to bias ply i only drive Firestones, best lookin tires, nice quiet and drives like a dream down the road
     
  19. Atwater Mike
    Joined: May 31, 2002
    Posts: 11,618

    Atwater Mike
    Member

    Danny! That WWW looks like one of my high school Port-a-walls! Long time ago high school. 1959.
     
    OFT and 302GMC like this.
  20. I'm not seeing a problem here. Ain't rough riding, crack grabbing, limited service life tires 'traditional'?
     
  21. 31Apickup
    Joined: Nov 8, 2005
    Posts: 3,578

    31Apickup
    Member

    Firestone doesn’t make their own vintage style bias ply tires, Coker makes them under license from Firestone. That’s the same with all the other name branded vintage bias tires.
     
  22. Great responses. Greatly appreciated. My 1935 Ford has Bias Plys that came with it. They are black walled and are not Cockers. The car is in the upholstery shop so I can not check the brand name. They are like new. Consequently I can wait for the Diamond Backs as they have assured me that they will be getting the 650R16. In the event that they do not get them then I will have to gamble and get Cockers.
     
  23. Slopok
    Joined: Jan 30, 2012
    Posts: 2,954

    Slopok
    Member

    Oh boy, with all the stuff going around nowadays I sure hope you don't get Cockers! :eek:
     
  24. Hotrodderman
    Joined: Jun 18, 2006
    Posts: 188

    Hotrodderman
    Member

    My Dad has two cars with wide whites. One has Cokers and the other has Diamond backs. He has had problems with the Cokers blowing out. Coker made it right with him. They are also hard to keep white. The Diamondbacks have had zero issues. I chose Diamondbacks for this reason. 20,000 no problems for me.
     
    AHotRod likes this.
  25. guthriesmith
    Joined: Aug 17, 2006
    Posts: 11,405

    guthriesmith
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    1. H.A.M.B. Chapel

    I have had multiple sets of both bias and radial from Coker and have yet to have any issues. I have run them on my 56 Ford, my 52 Chevy, my 49 Chevy pu, my sons 59 Edsel, my 50 Buick, and I am sure others that I am not thinking of. All but the 49 Chevy pu went highway speeds just fine and I tend to drive my junk regularly wearing tires out instead of them getting too old. Anyway, pretty sure all their tires aren’t junk. But, I understand some have not had the same luck as I have.
     
  26. With a typical production run of 4K pieces for a new car tire, they can afford to throw away the first dozen while they fine-tune everything to spec. But for a short run of 10 custom tires, if they throw away the first 12 they're left with 'minus 2'. It's math.
    Another possibility is "rejected" tires are being put back in inventory in the hope that the next buyer mounts them on a trailer queen that never hits the road.
     
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  27. jimmy six
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 16,626

    jimmy six
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    2 years ago now…

    Reading other comments, in the 60’s I worked for Sears Auto in Inglewood in the tire dept. Typically bias ply tires were lucky to see 15,000 miles and work trucks tires 10,000 miles. We sold station wagon wagons 6 ply’s.
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2022
  28. leon bee
    Joined: Mar 15, 2017
    Posts: 1,124

    leon bee
    Member

    This is how I always understood it.

    I've only ever bought Coker bias ply tires, never a problem. Being able to buy them at all is good.
     
    WiredSpider likes this.
  29. Bandit Billy
    Joined: Sep 16, 2014
    Posts: 15,009

    Bandit Billy
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    On the positive side, since Cokers are not round your car will not roll off if you fail to set the parking brake.
    I sold mine with less than 200 miles on them and bought DB Auburns.
     
    49ratfink, AHotRod and Desoto291Hemi like this.
  30. Moriarity
    Joined: Apr 11, 2001
    Posts: 35,856

    Moriarity
    SUPER MODERATOR
    Staff Member

    Man, which Coker tires in particular are you people having trouble with? I have had dozens and dozens of them with zero problems
     

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