There is nothing quite as breathtaking as a shorn scrotum....or tires.

Well, a month or so ago, I took off to Austin with a brand new pair of Firestone 6.70/15s that I had mounted and balanced. They shook so bad I broke out the whole driver's window, and shook all of my electrical connections loose, and also my windshield wiper. The one was over a quarter of an inch (almost 3/8ths) out of round and the other was a little over an eighth. I drove 16 hours there and 16 hours home on them nonetheless, and was not very pleased. I called Coker and they said that they would send me some new ones, so I opted for the BF Goodrich 6.70/15's as I had good luck with them in the past.

So, I get busy at work and the truck sits for a week or 2 while I am spraying cornfields. Well, we get a big rain and I go and put on my new BF Goodrich tires. I drove an hour north of me to a shop that had one of those new fangled road force balancing machines. Over 11 oz. of weight on each one and 31 bucks later I am out the door. Now these wheels and tires have weights ALL over them and look like ***, but I decide to try them out anyway. I change the oil in my truck and get ready to head out to the Jalopy showdown. It is a mere 12 hour drive one way so I should be able to cruise there no problem. I head out on the interstate and I make it about 30 miles before I turn around an go home because these tires shook more than the ones I took off. I couldn't go over 60 which is a real problem for me. I grab the ol lady's Toyota and make the trip in it instead. Needless to say that I am pissed because these are the replacement tires for the ones that I had that were out of round. Now what am I supposed to do, send them back again? By the time I have all of these tires mounted and balanced and take time out of my day to chase down the right equipment, I will have just as much in them as buying a whole new set, it doesn't seem to be quite worth it to me.

So my truck sits for a week or so while I spray again and we get another rain. I make an appointment over at Burke Spring in Danville, IL to get the problem solved one way or another. Now, this place is over on the Indiana border about an hour and fifteen minutes east of me. They throw the wheels up on the balancer and yes, they balance out OK. So, they break out the shaver and commence to cutting off the tread of my brand new tires to true them up. Here is a pic of how much they took off to get them round. They also still took over 8 oz. of weight on each one to balance out after they were shaved. They charge $48 bucks per tire to shave and balance them. I took it out on the interstate and ran her up to 85 and it actually drove great with very little vibration. Out****ingstanding.

So far I think I have over $450 in these 2 front tires by the time I had them mounted and balanced a couple of times, and finally shaved just so I could drive my truck. So what is the point of all this, hell if I know??? I just thought I would share my tale of woe. If I buy any more tires from Coker I guess I need to plan on spending an extra hundred bucks and a day trip over to the Indiana border to get them trued if I actually plan on driving on them more than 10 miles.

 

Damn, I have bought two sets of tires through Coker (one set BFG bias, one set BFG radials, both sets wide whites) and they didn't have the out of round problems at all.

Are you sure it's the tires and not the old wheels? That ****s...

 

$450.00 and all that trouble for 2 inferior tires doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

 

We checked the wheels. They are fine. They aren't that old either. They are the newer Radirs. I think they are about 5 years old.

I haven't had any problems with the tires until recently either......

 

I got one 7.50x16 from coker that wobbles like a son of a gun, the other I got was fine. I guess these things happen but I'v been reading a lot about it lately.

 

That's odd, we've never had a problem, I don't think you have a tire problem though. It would be noticed on the road force balancer and would be visible. Time to look at bearngs, U joints, hubs, wheels etc.

How do you know it isnt your wheels? Personally I can't see one piece cast radirs being out of whack either, but ya never know.

Here's something, What luguts are you using on the radirs? When you have a wheel off the car, does the shank protrude past the mounting flange of the wheel whatsoever? Also, you may try hub rings. they take up the difference between the OD of the hub and the ID of the wheel.

 

Wheels are true we checked them first. Have 20,000 miles on the front end now with this being the first problem. I also put in new timken wheel bearings, not the Chinese ones.

No problems now that the tires got shaved.

 

Does this mean you're gonna shave your scrotum too? I say go for it. Pure freedom...

 

Friend of mine tried two differnt pair back to back, 1/8 to 5/8 out of round. I would have to call him, I think he is now running diamond back.

 

You'd think at some point Coker would recognize that you can mount a tire on any rim & shave it, not just the rim it ends up on. There's profit to be found offering that service.....but first you gotta admit the service is needed.

 

Aaron I noticed at Roundup Saturday night that you yourself kinda shook and vibrated when you walked. Maybe you do need to get your scrotum shaved, kinda balance you out.

 

Making round tires in the first place would be first choice.
Never mind shaving brand new tires to make them round.

Maybe "round" is an option.

 

fyi....
Radials and Nair, and you'll never have to shave again.

 

I don't know anything about yer scrotum, and really don't want to, But I think Coker aught to stand behind their product, including the mount and balance issue on the defective tires as well as the replacements.
They have a lot more to lose than they have to gain, if they choose to be hard *** about it.

I have three sets from them and, knock on wood, they're all round.



Rich

 

Your problem definitly is tire related.

But something I just came across might help someone else.
I got 5.00x16's on the front of the little car. Balance is good, done it a couple of times and still get a basketball bounce at about 60-65, not all the time and not always real bad.
On the way back from the Showdown, I was thinking maybe the drums ain't balanced, even thou each front has an orig looking hunk welded to it.
In 1940 maybe Ford wasn't too concerned with driving over 60 for extended time.

So I brought the hubs to a friend with a spin balancer and we managed to get just the hubs and drums mounted on the spindle of the machine. One was out .3 oz and the other.25 oz. I mounted weights on each with 1/4-20 screws drilled thru the drum. Went for a ride and it helped. Still a little shake, but seems way better. I might screw around adding and subtracting washers to dial it in better if it still annoys me.

Frank

 

Had a Bridgestone Spitfire out of round on the rear of my bike about 15 years ago. The tire was special ordered. Had it mounted, went down the road bump bump bump, went back to the shop and they called B-stone. B-stone refused to make it right and the guy at the shop refused to make it right. Haven't bought another Bridgestone in the last 15 years, and I never will. Haven't been back to that shop since either- glad the little f-er went out of business. Luke

 

X2 for sure.

 

Sorry guys; this is why I run radials on anything that I drive any distance at all.

 

We also forget that tire shaving was not a lost art when these tires were new. Apparently they're faithful reproductions.

I still don't understand why nobody makes a bias looking sidewall with straight tread on a radial carc***. Yeah the shape will be a little different, but the key features can be the same.

 

Bought a set of cokers in the spring of 2006, and never had a problem with them. They were perfect. Fast forward to summer of 08. bought 2 sets of cokers and 2 extra tires (for a total of 10 tires) All of them were out of round. I had hundreds (thousands?) of dollars in a bunch of **** *** tires. Coker is having problems doing things right. The current tires on the front of my rod are Cokers, that luckily I did not buy new, I got them used off of a friend of mine, THEY ARE OUT OF ROUND TOO! making the grand total of 12 out of round tires. I should win a prise or a free set of tires or something. damn it

The back set of tires are hurst cheater slicks, I dont have much problem with these other than when they cut the whitewall you can still see all the white letters that used to be on the tires, looks like ****. but oh well. I only paid $500 for them.....

 

Now I'm nervous!!! Got four Goodyear WW from Coker last year - 750's for the back and 600's for the front of the roadster. Not quite on the road yet but we will soon see how they work. I read these things and remember all of the new radials I've bought for the work tuck/car over the years didn't seem to have these problems. Is it so hard to make a tire that runs true? Is it the bias construction? Could it be antiquated tire designs - these things are, afterall, reproductions of older style tires used back in the day? What gives here?
Just in case, I wonder if anyone "shaves" tires here in the Okie City area?

 

As much as they had to shave off the tire to make it round the tire now has a thin spot at the shaved area, right?

Did you check the tread depth to see how much had to be taken off?

At some point you have won the battle, yet lost the war.

I am a captive audience on this. I bought a Firestone 640-15 for the spare tire fender mount on my '65 C10 Pickup. It has never been on the road yet. Your problems makes me think I should throw it on and check the run-out. I guess an out-of-round spare with air in it is better than a nice round tire with no air though. (But maybe not much).

While we are on this topic Coker shipped my tire to me smashed flatter than a pancake. (Had their shipping tape around it to keep it flat). The tire shop had a hell of a time get the bead to seal. They had the rubber donut thing-a-ma-jiggy that helps seat the bead, and they did the old trick of putting a ratchet tie down strap around the outside of the tire and sinching it down. It took them 45 minutes to finally get it to seat. And yes it was on the stock Chevy narrow rim.

John

 

Lakeroadster, that's fairly standard practice for shipping a tire. The "laced" truck load method used for all p***enger tires smashes em flat but most consumers never see it.

 

i just bought radials that were out of round.get good and bad in all of them!

 

if you don't know how to do it, it will take forever to mount a bias-ply. my guy did 4 of 'em in 20+ minutes. it's a skill and is as hard to find as a tire shaving machine....

 

Shave your own...


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Plowboy, I have bought 3 sets of 450/500 16" Firestones and had to true and balance all 3 sets, to be able to run them. But what else can you do??????---TV

 

This is as close to the bias ply look in a radial I could find. They are 16" and ride just great. I just got tired of fighting out of round bias plys so I got these instead. I'm really happy I did.

 

that vid never gets old