Technical Bias Ply question

I'm getting ready to buy my first set of Bias Ply tires and I'm wondering if all bias ply tires have to be trued? Is this something I should just plan on having to do or are some of them okay? I am planning on getting the 450/476 16 and the 750 16 zig zag tread.

 

If you are expecting them to ride & handle like radials you are in for a rude awaking,you will have to balance them and chances are with some of the 16's you may have to shave them.

Personally,I like bias plys. HRP

 

No I definitely knew they wouldn't ride like radials. I was just wondering if all had to be shaved. I asked Coker and they said maybe one in a thousand need it. But it seems like more than that need it. I know there is a lot of experience on here that would know. Thanks for your help.

 

I have had 3 sets of Cokers and never had to shave any of them.

It seems when a problem arises with a tire/tires the poster is vocal but there are also a larger percentage of guys that are happy with their purchase and are mute on the subject. HRP

 

I have had customers have to do two sendbacks on a set of four, more than once.

There is a reason that truing machines used to be fairly common.

My former boss' car had one tire on it that hat full tread on one side, and and 1/8" on the opposite.

Cross your fingers, you might get lucky. Many do, some don't.

 

Been lucky I guess on 2 sets of four out of 2 sets of four. They all rolled smooth.
It happens.

 

I'm gonna give them a try. Thanks for all of your help.

 

These are a new set of Cokers on the front of the coupe, running a round 80 or so.........you can answer your own questions as to how they function

 

Looks so cool and sounds even better! HRP

 

Looks just fine to me! Thanks hrm2k for the video.

 

heh...hard to see what these front tires (Coker BFG Silvertown) are doing at 130, but I never noticed a problem. The slicks on back are also Coker M&H.

 

It was about 7 years before I ever drove a car with radials and I don't ever recall the m***es of drivers truing their tires when bias plys were the only option. In fact, I never even realized truing existed. I've run a used set of Sivertowns on my '33 & most recently, a set of Firestones and both were/are totally acceptable. Maybe if you're interested in compe***ion you'd find the need, but not for sane street use. Maybe I've just been lucky...or oblivious.

 

Tire dealers/sellers won't tell you their tires are not round for obvious reasons.
Mounting a tire on a rim and spinning it on an axle or truing machine is the only way to determine roundness.
Truing/shaving bias ply and radials is the deluxe prep treatment for new tires and for correcting uneven wear on used tires.
Nowadays it's more profitable to just add weights. You gets what you pays for.

 

A couple of things gleaned from 35 years in the tire business:
1. Measure the radial runout on the bare rim mounted on the hub, measured at the bead seat. Mark the high spot.
2. Mount the tire, with tire lube, and see if the bead seats out. You can see this at the GG ring on the tire. If the ring is not concentric, break down and remount.
3. The tire (if nylon) needs to be run and warmed up to eliminate flat spots from sitting.
4. Measure the runout at the tread center, and mark the high spot on the tread.
5. If the rim had runout, rotate the tire so that the high spot on the tire is opposite the high spot on the rim. Remount if necessary.
6. Now if the tire/wheel ***embly is round, move on to the wheel balance. You can balance an ***embly with six flat sides, but why. Use a road force balancer, which loads the tire, for best results.

 

At the resto shop I worked at, we used a ton of bias tires, and I think we had to have a set cut once or twice. None of the ones I've ever had needed it, but I haven't personally used that many sets.

It's not necessary on every tire, but it's something that you have to be prepared to deal with, just in case. The advice above is good about sometimes it's just a matter of measuring and spinning the tire on the rim to get the closest balance.

 

Got 4 Coker Firestones on the A coupe for last 3 years. Mounted perfect on 40 rims, and never had to balance any of them. Goes down the road smoooth. I couldn't believe it... Love them

 

2X on the road force balance........but wait is that traditional? Never mind.

 

I've had four or five sets of bias plies and only one tire/wheel was a problem. I dd what hotrodA said; checked the wheel, rotated the tire on the wheel and had 'em balanced at the local tire shop - perfect. You could see the run-out when you spun it with the car jacked up so I knew there was a problem.

 

Not necessarily, but run 28 to 32 psi in them and they won't wander on ya!

 

Bias tires
Off the subject a bit but most of the new bias ties that are bought in tire shops today ,arn't they look -a -like bias but in fact radials with a soft side wall?

I do like the looks of the bias tire,really gives the car a great look.. gene

 

Nope a bias ply is a bias ply and a radial is a radial. Some radials are bias look a likes but they have to be sold as radials not as bias plys.

 

That's all we had in the good old traditional days. Only once did I get a tire that was "out of round". And that was after probably buying a couple dozen or so tires over the years for several different cars and trucks from a well known local tire dealer. that was around 1980. I had bought 2 new tires to go on vacation. the national speed limit was 55 and I hadn't had the car up to that speed in the days since I had bought them. At around that speed it acted like a a tire was out of balance. Got it replaced 500 miles later. Yes, radials do handle much better than bias ply. Seems to me that bias tires would last maybe 15-20,000 miles. Maybe better now days.

 

Radials don't handle better than bias plys they just handle different. Where the real problem lies with the radial v bias question is with people who have grown up with radials and never driven bias plys. Your suspension setup and driving style needs to be entirely different and there is a learning curve that some of us never noticed because we grew up driving bias plys.

The Ol' Man was running radials on the roadster clear back in the early '60s. They were import tires back then and didn't have steel belts yet. I never ever owned a radial tire until about '76; then I didn't have a complete set just rears, they were used. I had been driving almost 10 years by then.

I have had several bias plys shaved over the years, used to be I always knew where I could get to a shaver and making the tires round on about an vehicle I owned was important to me. Hell I even shaved my bike tires if I could find a shaver that would handle a Harley wheel. I never ever found a single bias ply that was not somewhat out of round. Part of that could have also been the wheels, old steel wheels also get out of round that that has an effect on the tire's shape.

I think that one should run what they feel safe with and if it doesn't look right to me that is just too damned bad isn't it.

 

Pure unadulterated MUSIC !!

 

I also have had many sets of bias......so far no issues.
Sure they may wander a bit on some roads at certain speeds but I like the look and mine run just fine.