Technical Kontio white wall tires. Anyone run them?

I’ve got a ‘51 Plymouth incoming and it’s going to need tires. I can get Hankook narrow white walls through work but the Kontio tires have cought my eye.. I know they are a Finnish company but the tires are made in China, but some Nokians are also made in china yet are a top tier tire of a Finnish brand. Wondering if anyone’s experienced them? It really needs some wide whitewalls, but I gotta get the cost past my wife. Who not only let me get the car but suggested we should get the car. So I can’t push $1,300 in tires

 

Compare to price on Hankooks ?

 

Hankooks are around $90 since I can get them wholesale. The Kontios are a little over $200 each…. Diamondback or Coker would be $300+ each

 

I run the Kontios on a couple cars, actually had the first set in the U.S. according to them....great tires, last longer than my Cokers, balanced better, and the white stays whiter. Very impressed with them.

 

IMO a '51 Plymouth would not look right with narrow band whitewalls. Would be ideal with wide whitewalls but at a cost. I think blackwalls would be the alternative solution and a much cheaper option.
It always amuses me when you guys in the US are sooking about the cost of tires, I paid $2500 for the tires on my 32-5 window

 

Kontio tires don't sound like tires for a traditional hot rod or custom to me.

 

Nexen doesn’t either but that’s what Diamondback uses as a carcass for their tires..

 

I think they look pretty good....they are radials which lots of guys don't like, but my personal experience with them has left me impressed. (Not my cars pictured or me.)

 

I guess I don't care as much about the name as I do about how much less these are than a set of Coker's were TWELVE years ago.

 

Looks like they are worth a shot. It’s just a driver quality car so it doesn’t need to be perfectly accurate

 

They use other tires for a base as well, Im looking at the one line that uses radial t/a's for our 61 Impala.

I have redlines from them using yokohoma tires.

 

I have a set of 4 WWW on my 40 convert. Mounted and balanced them myself. Mounted great and balanced excellent. Also seem to give a great ride. Glad I pulled the trigger, yes to Kontio.

 

Have a set on my Merc no problems

 

What size?
I’m shopping

 

Diamondback uses various brands for their catalog tires but will use other brands if you wish, any price difference between tires will be reflected in the final cost. For the ones I wanted DB usually uses a BFG TA but switched to a Cooper Cobra at my request. You do have to pick a brand they can get from their retailer. Same price....

As an alternate, you can furnish any suitable tire if you send them to DB, or at least that's what I was told a few years ago when I bought mine.

 

Too bad they don’t seem to sell a tall ( like 31”) 16” or 15” WW tire.

 

28.5 is it as tall as I have looked up

 

This thread prompted me to check the prices locally on the Kontio and the Coker radials
It's seem the Coker's are near 275 and Kontios sold out. Diamond backs are also in the 250-275
Coker's radial went up to 350.00 not too long ago. Guess the price came down a bit.
If you ask the price at Coker with the Alliance discount and see if they go to a show near you to get free shipping. That might be a good deal.

 

I checked a few places on line and most said they had them in stock, although you can't be absolutely sure unless you actually order them. I used to have a phobia about have them delivered until I did it for tires for my old beater pickup. They came through fine, so I got used to it. Since then I have done it a couple of more times, again without problems. The tire just show up at your door with a label on them. I might be a little more apprehensive about whitewalls, but I think if they can survive driving around in all kinds of weather, they should survive a trip in the brown truck.

Actually, I think it would be quite difficult to ind a specialty tire such as these locally.

 

There are 4-5 major tire wholesalers in the USA to tire shops. If one of them has access to the Kontios, and there is stock of them, they can be gotten locally through special order.

 

The big national distributors are geared for online sales. The local guys are a lot more interested in selling what they have in the back room, and in my experience, don't really like to get involved with non-standard procedures. And, they will want their "cut".

Eliminate the middleman. (I do have my own tire machine, which may influence my view.)

 

I spent 10 years in the tire industry, with 5 of those being at a small shop that did everything, including a lot of classic cars. The wholesalers that provide tires to shops usually have access to tons of tires. A couple of them have divisions that are online, like Tire Buyer is the division of American Tire Distributors. The shop I used to work at would do wholesale cost+ $25 for cash and carry, which is well below online costs.

im lucky to have access to one wholesaler now for my day to day tires for my vehicles where I can get wholesale pricing

 

I just installed a set on my '40 Pickup (Avatar). The Kontios replaced a set of Diamondbacks, one of which developed a defect in the tread and began to wear unevenly. I believe they are made in Finland. I am satisfied with them so far. I got them from Giga Tires in CA. With shipping to FL they were still the best deal around. If they last more than the 8,000 miles the Diamondbacks did, it's a win-win for me. They also balanced with much fewer wheel weights.

 

There is a place called Calli tire that I have been looking into. Might be another viable option. They use new tires and vulcanize whitewall of your size choice onto it.

 

Wish I could find Vitour Galaxy R1 whitewalls in the states.

 

They're all over eBay for sale, bought a set off there myself.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=vitour+galaxy+r1&_sacat=0&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=3

Another group I'm in has had a few members buy and run the Calli white walls. They look good at first, but turn the dreaded "brown" quickly. Google reviews of them, most not pretty after a while.

 

Yep, close but NO cigar!

 

No one has ever posted a good review of these tires on the HAMB. be warned.

 

215/75/r15 bought them from Performance tire

 

Thanks