Coker Tire Problems?

HMMMMM all this talk about problems with em..... makes me want to sell mine. So if anyone wants to buy 5... that's FIVE Firestone fat white bias ply tires or trade for 5 let me know

mmmkay

Drugs er bad mmmkay

 

seems coker has a serious pr problem.i dont think i'd buy a tire that to be blunt may kill me. for years the old car crowd who only drive 20 miles an hour or trailered the cars to shows used cokers.now i think you have a crowd who[gasp]drive thier cars.i was told years ago not use cokers on my harley because i used it every day[my dealer told me].maybe coker may have to look into a recall if more of these stories start coming up

 

tick tick tick tick.......This just in:

Corky Coker, president of Coker Tire Co. Inc., Chattanooga,
Tennessee, was installed as chairman of SEMA, the Specialty
Equipment Market Association, at the association’s annual
Installation Banquet.

Coker has served as chairman-elect of the 5,222
member/company trade association for the past two years. He
succeeds out-going chairman Nate Shelton, CEO of SS Sales
and Marketing.

Weather you like their products or not Coker is
representing our best interests.
TZ

 

Friday the new 6x16 Blackwall biasply Firestones arrived to replace the ones on my roadster.
My plan was to do as many measurements as practical to try and find out exactly what was the cause of the massive vibration problem.
I was a little surprised to see that the worst one of the two was about 3/8" out of round, and the better one only about 1/4", but that one was not tru sideways.
I remember seeing a lot more than that, but that might have been before I had them turned and remounted,on one of the earlyer attempts to try and solve this.
I took the Wheels to a local tire shop to have the tires taken off, and I explained to the tech what was going on.
This is one of the two tire shops that took a look at my rims earlyer, knowing I was chasing a problem, both shops gave them a clean bill of health.
This time, to check all the components seperate, I asked them to balance my rims with no tire on it, after explaining again why I wanted that done, the tech was willing to give it a try, he spun the first wheel and told me " I cant balance that, your wheel is bent."
I always really like it when I find something that's really wrong if I'm chasing a problem, but when that possibility was eliminated earlyer it pisses me off. A lot of time was lost here, and vintage frontend parts have gotten a serous beating.
Of the two front rims on my car, the best one had a little ding on the inside, but the lower part looked like it was ok. The other one was both out of round and bent sideways, and had no business being on my car. Intestingly that is the one that checked the least out of round on the car, but the sideways wobble was in the rim, not the tire.
So it seems to me that at least part of the problem was with the wheels, altough the fact that the worst rim checked out best on the car confuses me, I guess we will know once Coker has done their measurements on the tires, after I send them back.
The rest of the friday and saterday was spent, searching for a perfect set of matching narrow 16" wheels, with limited succes.
But I'll start a different post on that...

 

I think this is typical of the kind of frustration people have and feel when one corporation/company has, or for all practical purposes, has a monopoly on a product, and if you want something like that product, they are the only game in town.
Must be how Russians used to feel about the GAZ.
(No, I don't have an answer to the dilemma, other than, one of you billionairs start a new tire company, or, don't play the "traditional looking tire" game.)


But remember, Coker is the head of SEMA and SEMA represents us hotrodder's best interests just like the NRA represents gun owners interests. (Is a guy named Colt the prez of the NRA?)
(See letters in current HOTROD Mag.)

 

Actually DrJ, what frustrates me is that the first guy I talked to at Coker about this was succesfull in blowing me off, that tire stores hire people that are apearently not competent enough to be left alone with your stuff but have policies and insurance that does not alow you to stay close enough to catch them in a mistake, and most of all, that most of the things I found out in the last couple of days is information that was available to me all along, if I had gone about this in a different way.
I guess you can only be sure if you do the work yourself, and I really miss the days when I could walk into one of my racing buddy's shop, anytime of the working day, and start start swapping tires on his machine (whether it was for my Race Car or my Sreet Car )
Jess, do you have an old machine you want to sell?

 

[ QUOTE ]
HMMMMM all this talk about problems with em..... makes me want to sell mine. So if anyone wants to buy 5... that's FIVE Firestone fat white bias ply tires or trade for 5 let me know


mmmkay

Drugs er bad mmmkay

[/ QUOTE ]


how much . .. ? what size . . . etc

 

Jess deserves full marks for stepping into this contentious arena. His company is involved in one of the riskiest businesses imaginable. If you doubt that, look at FOMOCO's finger-pointing at Firestone over the SUV crash debacle. Does FOMOCO (and GM and Daimler-Chrysler) fudge on sensible tire inflation rates to keep their non-truck customers happy in their not-truck trucks? That's a toughy . . .

Tires aren't manufactured in a single fits-all size. In fact, the range of sizes from any given manufacturer is intentionally extensive so that a wide range of vehicle weights and applications can be safely accommodated. Tire size, along with spring and shock rates are the correct recipe for ride comfort and safe performance, not alteration of tire pressure alone. If you have to drop your tire pressure substantially below that of the tire manufactuer's rating to achieve a comfortable ride, it's time to re-evaluate your suspension.

For years I've run passenger-car and light-truck radials at 35 psig and have never experienced uneven tread wear. Quite the contrary, it's been my experience that they wear uniformly at that pressure and yield high treat-milage rates and optimum fuel consumption. Just as important, I've experienced only one blowout in well over a half-million miles of driving on radials and that occurred when a 4-inch-long bolt was kicked up by a front tire and shot into the same-side rear tire like a bullet at 70 mph! (The tire looked like the inside of a baked spaghetti squash.)

For all the good experiences and service many of us have had with Coker bia-ply tires like the Firestone Deluxe Champions, there's a great deal of anecdotal evidence that Coker's radial-tire offerings have been sketchy, certainly in regard to cosmetic degradation of wide-whitewalls.

The incidents of blowouts, tread separation, and blistering are really troubling because they involve our safety. I don't know what if anything Coker has on its legal plate right now, but I would not expect Jess to comment on these issues at this time; if you think this board is not checked out by legal-beagles looking for a chink in a defendent's armor you are naiive beyond imagination.

I think Coker deserves a shot at proving -- and improving -- their wide-white radials. When I order new big-and-little WWR'a for my F-1 next week they'll come from Diamond Back, however. I feel that Diamond Back's approach of vulcanizing a cosmetic whitewall onto a cured, high-quality tire makes excellent good sense. That, combined with competitive prices, fair warrantee, and an overwhelming body of positive first-person anecdotal accounts of their quality has convinced me that these are the folk I want to do business with.

Finally, don't give up on Coker or write them off. They'll put all the bad stuff behind them if given a chance; don't forget that they were the first folks to get serious about WWradials. They deserve some patience and support for their efforts. I'd probably hang in there with them if I wasn't in my twilight years. I want to get on with my truck right now!

 

FYI

So at work today we here at the shop get a post card from Coker tire saying that they will be present at the Goodguys meet in Scottsdale meet on Nov 15-16 to answer questions and deliever any orders to AZ. Just thought some of you might want to talk to them in person, I know Metalshapes and myself will be there to talk too them. I myself am running a set of coker tires on my coupe right now and have had no problems as of yet with about 2500 miles on them. Although the last couple of weeks I have been getting a bad shimmy in the frontend but have not inspected all components as of yet. hopefully it is not the tires but I as well, will report what I find good or bad.

 

i got denmen wide whites on my car for 3 years no problems pretty cheap tire also....

 

courtesy BTTT

 

I've seen this post floating around for about a week or so and tonight I finally decided to read it. I'm working on a '79 Chevy pick-up and I'm in the market for WWWs. I've had bias on a few 50s cars and I hate the way they wander. The thing is, as stated here so many times, they have "The Look". My head tells me I'd better get radials on the '79 because of the year of manufacture, lots of miles travelling, speed, etc. But, my heart tells me how great '57 Caddy caps look on Bias ply wide whites. I almost ordered Cokers last week and I've been busy during the day and haven't made the call. But now I'm not sure. How would the bias plys do on my '79? Is the '79 considered a modern truck? The owners manual shows applications for bias and radial tires. For the last 5 years, I've had some Discount Tire 4 for $100 radials on my Buick that I had the local lowrider shop "buff out". I haven't had any problems with them at all in about 20K miles. People say running buffed out tires is crazy and not safe, but from what I've read here, running Coker WW Radials isn't safe either. Now what?

Last thing. I'm amazed that nobody here has mentioned how much these tires cost. I've priced them and you're lucky if you can get them to your front door for under $700.00! I don't know about some people, but to me that is a lot of money! Then to hear of the problems people are having with them falling apart, having to ship them back (more $$$), and pay to get the new ones shipped home (more $$$) it makes me think is it really worth it?

I may just buff out some more cheap radials or buy Port-A-Walls. Any thoughts?

 

another option? Kelsey Tire http://www.kelseytire.com/

 

i had a set of coker classic radials on a previous car... one front had checking, slices in the white, and balanced poorly after about 200 miles...
i had bought them from a local tire shop, who warrantied the tire and just gave me a new one... never had another problem with them in about 8k miles.
Never dealt directly with Coker, as the tire shop ordered them for me, and they took care of everything. The prices were the same as directly from Coker, also...
America's Tire Company/Discout Tire, in Los Angeles... they carry or can order just about anything, and are cool to deal with...

 

[ QUOTE ]
I've had some Discount Tire 4 for $100 radials on my Buick that I had the local lowrider shop "buff out". I haven't had any problems with them at all in about 20K miles. People say running buffed out tires is crazy and not safe,



[/ QUOTE ]

Please explain for all us ignoranimuses out here what it means to have a tire buffed out - what does this look like?

MercMan

 

Buffing a tire means buying a raised white letter tire, or a narrow white wall tire and having someone with a special grinder grind away the black rubber to reveal more of the white rubber. Instant wide white. It's also called cutting the tire.

Good side: Cheap, Cheap, and more cheap. You can get tires anywhere, you can get a variety of sizes or use any quality tire you want from no-name may-pops, to BFG radials.

Bad side. Grinding can be dangerous depending on the quality of the tire you are starting with and the ability of the guy running the grinder. If you go too far out, you might hit the edge of the white rubber in which case your white wall will look feathered, or it will wobble when rolling. Get it too thin and the black rubber will bleed into it too quickly. Some guys won't take the grind all the way to the wheel which is OK if you want that early '60s look, but not if you want that late '40s to mid '50s look. The buffed part isn't as smooth as a factory whitewall. You can sand it out but that takes a LOT of time.

Like everything else in life, it's OK in moderation.

If you want to find someone to cut tires, ask the lowrider guys who to use. Most also do fake Vogues, redlines, double white lines, etc...

 

I think GOODYEAR is making WWW radials now, don't know if GOODYEAR dealer sells them or if you have to get them from a "specialty" place.

 

BTTT

Anyone every resolve anything with Coker?

 

Yes, and I posted that on Pg 7 of this thread.
Jess send me 2 new tires, and I send my old ones back.
The vibration is about 2/3 less than it was, and at a different speed.
Turns out one of my rims was bent as well.
I have not gotten around to rebuilding my steering box yet...
As far as I'm concerned, Jess took care of the problem. And as it tuned out, his tires were only part of the problem.
I will not hesitate to buy from them again.

 

I've posted several times my problems with Coker Classic WWW radials on my shoebox. In the most recent round, Jess Hoodenpyle at Coker replaced a tire that had started to separate, and the adjustment to the cost was very fair. In my experience, Jess' presence at Coker has changed the quality of their customer relations from poor to excellent.

 

I had a problem with a Coker bias WWW seperating at the tread and was treated fairly on the exchange. I then went with a set of big and little Diamond Back radial tires on my '47 Ford Sedan. The handeling and wear have been teriffic but I am having trouble with cracks in the whitewalls. According to DB the cracks are not affecting the safety of the tire but are the ends of the whitewall application that is vucanized on their blackwall tires. I was told that the straight "crack" was due to their old process of applying the white part and that they have a new process that uses a zig-zag in the mating ends of the white wall application. They also mentioned a minimum of 35 psi of pressure.
They were not interested in resolving my problem with the "cracks" caused by their earlier process.

 

And what does this have to do with Coker tires today??
I believe Corky has straighten out all the manufacturing problems.
He's a great Hamber and Alliance vendor. Should of bought Cokers and Corky would have made it right.

 

Very interesting comments. Thanks for posting - it seems to help with the tire homework (research) now.

 

Some updated info on this thread would be great. This is part of the reason I bought diamondbacks in '04 (which have been great! I'd definatly buy those again, cheaper than coker too) Around that time there were lots of posts about quality issues at coker. now it seems the attitude on here has changed, everyone loves coker again but I don't know why. Does everyone want to blow him cause he's an alliance vendor or has quality and service really improved??

 

i have a set of WWW bias plys that i bought about 8 months ago on my Hudson and the sidewalls are cracking! i havent done anything about it yet but all four tires have the same problem, splitting on the little bumps leftover from the injection molding process. i am confident that coker will address the problem but it was alittle scary when i noticed it.

 

Sorry if I lit your fizzle-stick with my comments. I just wanted folks to know that Coker tires aren't the only ones that have had problems. Do you feel better now?

 

Back Around Sept. I Posted A Thead About Coker Tires I Got A Blow Out On My 58 Ford On 78 Come Home From W.o.t.s.r.o. Show In Pa. The Same Week A Belt Broke On One On My 50 Chevy Needless To Say I Was Prissd Corkie Coker Posted A Reply And Grave Me A # To Call They Had Both Tires Pick Up At My Home And The Replacements Where Here In 3 Days All I Can Say Is They Gave Me Good Service But I Think I Also Have To Thank The Hamb

 

I have a set of www Silvertowns on a 39 pickup (brand new). No problems, nice tires. The truck isn't completed yet / zero miles. I'll keep my fingers crossed because I'm handing the truck over to my dad when it's finished.

I have a set of Firestone 7.50-16's and 500-16's, bias plys, on a model A coupe, that are 6 or 8 months old. The fronts are out of round (treads wiggle left-right, etc...), and they all required what seems like excessive weights to balance, but I'm running them. So far, other than the above listed problems, they've been okay, and it's my daily driver. The out of round part bugs the heck out of me because I can see them when I drive (so can everybody else) and my rims (steelies) are good.

There's a set of 7.50-16's and 6.00-16's, firestone www's on a car I'm working on for a friend (unfinished car / zero miles) in my garage. The ww's are already checking, I believe the tires are 6 or 8 months old and still have the factory blue gluey stuff on them too.

With my personal experiences (I've also had another set of WWW's check in the past) and with what I'm seeing here, I will consider looking at some other options in the future, but I'm not ready to give up on them yet.

The Firestones are easily some of the coolest looking tires made and I really hope Coker Tire is able to iron out any problems they appear to be having with the quality of their products.

I would hope any company's customer service is as good as recent reports by HAMBers are posting, but I'd prefer not to have to need to use customer service at all.

 

I had my Coker WW check all around the lip...took it back to the tire place I gotit from and let them deal with the pr people at coker...Went through this quite a few times in a year...Finally got a good set...So far ok...I do notice a little cracking arround the lip again...theyre blaming it on the car being too heavy (55 buick)...yeah its heavy but come on...

 

haha, what do they think these tires are used on? ford escorts or something!?