I'm prepared to take a beating for this, but probably sometime in the late 60's Montgomery Ward offered a performance tire line that was endorsed by a former Indy 500 racer. They were called "Rodger Ward Mustard Cutters" and they had to be the absolutely goofiest looking raised white letter tire ever made! I don't think I've ever seen more than maybe two sets of them in use, though I can imagine that most folks opted to have them mounted as blackwalls. And no, I can't find any info about them on the internet. But that doesn't mean that they didn't exist!
To the best of my recollection Sears Allstate tires were made by Armstrong tire and rubber in New Haven CT. We worked in the buildings after the plant closed and there were lots of Allstate tires still lying around, and no we were not allowed to take any!
hello ! i just buy a set of 4 allstate tires for my 41 dodge (i'm french and i find the tires on a web site called "leboncoin" or in english, "thegoodcorner" ) used condition but in very very good condition. their is a number painted on the tread probably the part number ! i buy this set of 4 tires for $76 delivery included !!! i don't know that brand before but it's collector tires no ? look at this ! it's 4 bias ply, wide white wall 600x16.
My brother picked up a set of 4 Whitewall tires just a few years ago at the local Sears. He was getting a quote for tires on his daily when he got to talking with the kid behind the counter about old car stuff. Somehow they got to talking about Sears WW tires when the kid says he thinks he saw one in the back. Kid goes back and comes out with a brand new 16" WW tires still in the plastic. Then he says he has the other 3 tires in the back.. and does he want them. SCORE! My bro picked them up for $50 each and they now sit on his 47 chevy
Picked up a pair of NOS Allstate 21" white walls a while back. Even came with the tubes. I mounted them up on a pair of Model A wheels I had laying around.
Armstrong also sold tires as gas station brands. I recall seeing a Gulf tire that was identical to the Allstate. Guardsman tires were supposed to be made by Kelly Springfield as were the fabric radials around 1978. Bob
it's not in a french tire store this can happen ha ha ha ^^ i'm looking for a fuel pump for a little french car of 20 yrs old and every car parts store i go sellers said "sorry sir too old !!" ( a citroën 2cv "deux cheveaux" ) and when i visiting my cousin in mississippi i go in a NAPA and the guy have a gasket set for my 48 dodge in is stock that crazy !
I believe Sears was selling bias ply tires into the 90s. When I was in college in '94-95 I worked at Tire America, which was owned by Sears. We didn't have any in stock but there were still SKUs in our computer system for bias plys tires, if I remember correctly they were Sentry Cl***ics or Sentry Deluxes. I seem to recall that they were numerical sizes, like 205-75B15 but I also remember seeing alphanumeric sizes. A bored afternoon and some computer searching showed that a number of stores still had some in stock as of 1995, I remember being told that the last time they got any in was around 1992 or so. We did still sell bias ply tires for medium duty trucks as well, 7.50-16s or something like that.
you sell bias ply in the 90's ?? in france i think the last bias ply on french motor vehicul is in the early 80's ! my grand father, dad side have a chrysler/simca store between 1957 and 1980 and he said in the 80's the customers want radial ! the french car is so different to handle of the US cars of the same years ...
I love the look of bias ply tires......on old cars anyway. For me radials cheapen the look, there to bubbly.
The tires look great on that Dodge...good catch! I think you can compare Sears to the way Manufrance used to be; reputable merchandiser buying its goods from a variety of manufacturers.
American cars used Bias Play tires well into the 70s, I've read that by 83 all American cars and light trucks were using radials. I wouldn't be surprised if a few inexpensive cars could still be bought with bias ply tires by the very early 80s. So would replacement bias ply tires still be available 10 years later? Probably.
i have a 48 dodge too, with bias ply, the brand is universal tires & co ! it look good and have a great look similar of my allstate the radial tires on that king of car is not very good for me sure it's more confortable on the road but don't have the original look and when you need to park the car, without power steering, it's relay more hard to handle, a friend have a 1949 dodge coronet with radials, no power steering, it's a real nightmare to handle !
on the cars of the 70's radial is better, for my experience but the lowest price car have radial too i thtink, i need to chack that, i have a book from 1975 of the new cars model for 76 there is many specifications. it's not a big deal but just for satisfied my curiosity ^^
Adrian, I think that, personally, radials look idiotic on older cars. But that's just my opinion. If I want to go flying around corners like a maniac I have modern off topic cars for that. In Europe the changeover to radials happened much earlier than in America, especially in France. However America continued to develop bias ply tires, I have a road test from the late 60s that showed that the belted bias ply tires of the same period performed nearly as well as the radials that were just coming to market, in some cases better. The first American car to be sold new with radials was a Lincoln, this would be around 1969 or 1970.
i don't know that about lincoln !! i used my 41 dodge as a daily driver, with his bias ply, i enjoy it everytime ^^ but i'm not a spe******t about radial or bias ply ^^ i never drove a big 70's us car with bias ply, all the people i know with us 70's cars put radial on it, and it don't want eard anything about bias ply like this kind of tire are a shame ha ha ha but if i have a 60's or 70's big full size (i dream of an oldsmobile holiday 88 1965 coupe or sedan ) i put bias ply on it just for the look ^^
I bought 2 tires (6.70x15) with about 3 inch whitewalls from the sears catalog in 1987 to put on a 50 merc. Maybe they were closing them out then.
I just bought a 57 Plymouth and it has Sears Allstates on, I was wondering the age of these tires, didn't know how long Sears sold white wide walls.
Interesting old thread. I just bought this 1951 Plymouth Concord Business Coupe. Has a full set old Sears Allstate bias ply white walls and a brand new (never used) spare. They look to be in great shape. Was also wondering about the age of the tires and hadn’t been able to find much info about em. Im probably gonna replace em with a new set of bias from Coker, just to be safe.
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