I've been very happy with the Coker American Classic bias ply look radials on my T RPU. The tires are mounted on 1950 Mercury wheels without safety bead locks so I'm using tubes. In the last few years I've had two flats caused by the little "stickers"that are on the inside sidewall of the tires. The tire shop said radials flex causing abrasion on the tube eventually causing a leak. I thought the first leak was an anomaly so I didn't remove the stickers on the other tires. After my second flat, I had the remaining two tires stickers removed. So I'm saying that if you're using tubes inside radials it would be a good idea to inspect and remove those damn stickers before you mount the tires. .
Learned my lesson with my first set of Coker Excelsior Radials and those dam little stickers. The abrasive stickers combined with the poor quality radial tubes Coker was selling at the time spelled disaster. Finally had the tires broken down, pulled the tubes, installed new tubeless valve stems and went tubeless. Worked fine.
JFYI, tubes will not keep tires on a non-safety beaded wheel, so unless your tires require tubes, no reason to use them on your Merc wheels, as long as they are in good shape.
Just up your pre-drive flight check each time out to include checking the tires pressure. Keeping them aired up properly goes a looooooongggg way to keeping them on the rims. That, and no Roadkill-esk donuts!
Those little aluminium stickers are nasty. Had the same problem on my avatar . Second day on new rubber had a flat. Tyre shop repaired the tube but a few years down the track the patch failed. From now on we make sure the old rims are good and no tubes. We just take the gamble and don’t carry a spare in anything, a lot more luggage space.
Interesting! I had the same issue with their classic radial black walls. The tube was determined to be the issue but was not aware of the “tags”. Saved the tube to show them in Hershey and son of a gun, It has a square abrasion where the leak is. Should be an interesting discussion in their booth. Btw, I am running Mercury Wheels and dog dish caps too.
The little stickers on the tire liner indicate the location in the tire’s construction where there is a splice, for the body plies, the belt package and the bead bundles. If the tire is designated tubeless and the wheel has tapered bead seat, ditch the tubes. They are the air container, not the tire, and the slightest penetration is an instant flat! Plus the tire runs hotter with with tube flexing.. If you are adamant about running tubes make SURE that they are radial tubes. There is a difference, namely gauge of the rubber, splices and vale stems.
I have two sets of American classics, due to being flat packed when purchased here in Oz, my tyre fitter used tubes as it was easier to get them on the rim, I have had several tyres go down with this issue. I have had the tubes removed on 5 rims so far, only 3 to go
As a quick follow up on this topic, I met with Steve at the Coker booth in Hershey. He wrote the original order for the tires a few years back and reaffirmed that it was ok to use radial tubes with the American Classic radials. He had no full explanation for what happened to me but in all fairness, they were very busy in the booth at that time. As an aside, I did try to run the tires without tubes to find they did not hold air sans tubes. As a good will gesture, I was provided a complimentary tube. Steve has been with Coker for a number of years and represents the company well.
Do yourself a favor and look into all the issues that Coker tires have. There are plenty of post on here if you search. They are looking at not driving. They burned me also.
Marlin I'll never buy another Coker tire again, they really screwed me also. What really pissed me off was the total lack of customer service, even with the photographic proof.
The first four alpha letters of the DOT number identify the plant’s location. I did have a directory from work. I’ll look for it.
I have no experience with radial tires but have been very happy with the bias ply Coker tires on my cars. some of which do not have safety bead rims and I run mine tubeless with no problems, why do you guys need tubes?
I'm running the American Classic Bias Ply Radials on the front with no tubes. Never had an issue with flats or even loss of pressure? I am curious as to why you would have to run tubes also?
I had the plastic stickers in mine, these wire wheels will not hold air tubeless, my two sets of 35 ford wires hold air with no tubes.
sometimes 70 - 90 year old rims leak air, possibly around the rivets, ……….tubes are an easy fix. Are those one piece aluminium rims , probably wouldn’t have any leaks in them. I also had a similar problem, - the little sticker was stapled to the inside of the tyre and the technician didn’t remove it as he didn’t have much experience with installing tubes, - the tube rubbed and I eventually had a flat…….stripped the other one down and removed the staple. .
Does someone have a picture of these stickers? They are made of aluminum? I read a post recently about using more tire pressure with bias ply tires. Most folks recommend running under 20 lbs in bias plies. After going nuts with having the tires shaved and still having a wheel hop at 50-55 mph, I bumped up the pressure from 18 lbs in the front to 30 lbs. They seem to drive a lot better. I'm going to do a long drive this weekend to really test it out.
I understand wire wheels would need tubes... Never thought about riveted wheels being an issue though? I learned something this morning... Thank you.
I agree. ‘50 Mercuries ran tubeless bias plys. If the tire will hold air without a tube, he should be good to go. My ‘51 came to me with modern radials and they held air. Replacing those old radials with bias tires is one of the first thing I did after brakes. If a tubeless tire will not hold air, it’s wheel rim problem not a tire problem. As far as safety beads, when was that standardized, late 60s.....mid 70s???? Million upon millions of tubeless tires were ran before then.
You may want to run flaps too as the tube could rub on the rivets and cause a flat. I think safety beads happened in '67. Even plastic stickers inside of tires will cause a problem with tubes. There's been a good discussion on that on Fordbarn with pictures of the damage.
Another issue may simply be phantom air bubbles. These may pinch or fold the tube. If the tire seals to the wheel rim and the tube is inflated, you are going to have the sealed tire and the inflated tube working against each other. The only escape will be around the tube stem.
The first time I put a tube in a car tire and inflated it that hissing around the valve stem had me worried. And then I realized what you stated about the only place that the air can escape.
FWIW from my 30+ years in the tire biz with Goodyear. IF you HAVE to run tubes, remember to inflate to working pressure without the valve core, then let tube deflate entirely. Reinflate, install core and adjust pressure. It’s called double inflation. This lets the tube stretch out, then relax and conform to inside of the tire better. It helps prevent pinching and folding in the tire. There are/were rubber rim bands that covered the ends of the spokes in wire wheels to prevent the spoke ends from chafing the tube. You can make them by cutting a band from a smaller tubes OD that will stretch over the drop center. A necessity, IMHO. Whereas all major manufacturers made radial passenger tubes in the past, nearly all have discontinued them, as the majority of tires are now tubeless, and the manufacturers have merged. Michelin and Dunlop were the last brands that I can remember that MAY still make them today The best! Remember that radial tubes, by design, should have heavier gauge rubber, stronger splices, and stronger stem bases. All features to deal with the increased flexing of the radial design. NEVER run a radial tire with a bias tube. Most non-radial tubes are only suited for slow off road (farm) usage. Remember that a using a tube means it is the air container, not the tubeless tire. The smallest penetration from anything is an instant flat! The liner in a tubeless tire is deigned to seal off around small penetrations and may only slowly lose air.
I run the Coker American Classic radials on my 50 Chevy Fleetline stock rims no tubes 6.70 15 Coker did right by me replaced 8yr old set of wide white walls cause whitewalls where cracking. New set shipped to where I bought them in Texas. No cost to me, no other tire mfg would have done that Mike
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