Bias Plies... Errrrrggghhh!

Why the hell do bias plies wear so much faster than radials?!?!? I bought a brand new set of Coker's last year for my daily. Put them on last April and they're already bald in the front. I already changed the rears a month or two ago cuz my foots a little heavy and everyone likes smoke. But the fronts?? One year thats it? I know my front end isn't the tightest but its also not falling out of the car. Same happened to a friend of mine, one year max and they were shot. The radials I used to have on it lasted a little over three years. I don't get it.

 

Bias ply tires wearing out within a year from everyday use is 'traditional'.

Welcome to 'the way things used to be'.

 

shit dude i have denman bias plies on my caddy for 4 years now...still look brand new..also i have a old set of sears bias plies on my 39 with stock susp and they are great...but my buddy had coker bias plies on his caddy and they wore out quickly..not the first time ive heard this

 

Do you think that maybe that is one of the reasons all new cars and trucks ride on radial tires? Maybe?

 

How many miles did you put on the car?
I put like 1300 miles on my car within the last 6 weeks and I can already see significant wear on my front and rear tires.

 

I guess I do around 8K to 10K pre year so mayeb about that much I'd say. The odo doesn't work so I couldn't really tell ya.

Perhaps you've got somehting there. Maybe the other reason is handling, or grip, or even weatherability??

 

My bias plys on my truck have held up awesome and I drive it everyday. Rotation front to back (not side to side like you can with radials) will prolong life. Siping will also. Siping is cutting little grooves from one side to another and will disapate heat. Also air pressure is key. Bias shouldn't bulge at the bottom like radials. My truck weights about 3200 lbs. and I keep them at 30psi. Hope this helps!

 

Welcome to the past, young fellow. Read the above post about radial tires. There is a reason we use them. They are safer, longer lasting, safer, handle better in the rain, and did I mention they are safer????

 

Granted Bias Ply tires are alot different than radials, but maybe you should look at the front end a little closer, and i mean no disrespect by that, but maybe its a little out of whack than you think, food for thought

 

They should last longer than that. Get the alignment checked or get GAY an put radials on and watch them wear also .

 

Your front end is out of alignment.

Bias-ply tires are like the canary in the coalmine when it comes to alignment.

Out of whack -- you'll wear them out quickly.


.

 

I've put almost 6000 miles on my Bias Ply's and they still look fine to me, I'd say about half worn. So I figure they'll last about 11000 miles, not bad in my opinion. On my '72 El Camino I run Radials and they're done at about 12000 miles. So My Bias Ply's are holding up just fine if you ask me.

 

The alignment is out a little yes, but they really didn't wear that unevenly at all. The ball joints are new and the only things that are slightly loose are the outer ends. Guess I'll change them too and hope this set wears a little better.

 

Stop fiddlin with that crap. Get radials. You can run bias ply on your 51 but for your daily get some good hoops. I just took a set of Coker classics off the 51 to put radials on. The looks is cool, so is sticking in every track in the road and fighting the lane to keep the car straight. We dont drive 45 mph anymore, we do 70 on the turnpike.

 

Dang dude, something is wrong. I have almost 60K on my daily and they still have the factory tires on em. I'll be putting tires on within the next 5,000 miles.

Bias plies used to be cheap, so people expected em to wear out. Radials were the upper end so you paid more. Now the bias are almost as much if not more than radials. Supply and demand.

 

With the rest...you gotta have something wrong with alignment, camber, etc. Pressures also matter a ton.

Give 'em hell.

 

Haha I'm so backwards. The 51 will get radials because it will deserve them. I wasn't as concerned with the look as I was the price. To me radials look just as good as bias on the right car. I wasn't into spending about $800 on radials for a car that in my opnion, isn't worth it. Perhaps if someone didn't steal the radials that used to be on it and grind em into wide whites I'd be in a little better shape.

Jackass

 

That cause you dumbasses run your cars too low to the ground!
Run it at stock height!
Simple formula: Bias plys + lowered car + Jersey roads = lots of money spent on tires!
I was able to get about 30,000 on my Olds, but lots of that was highway driving, out of state. 7.10-15 Firestones.

 

I remember when Radials came out with a claim that you could run 40,000 on a set. everyone called "Bull Shit" no tire will run over 10,000 miles and who would spend $45.00 for a tire? took me 15 years to buy my first Radial Tire. I still run both types, but nothing improves an old car more than Radials and Gas Shocks! IMHO

 

Hey,

'couple of points on Bias ply tires.....
First is that unless you keep the air pressure and rotation maintained
your throwing your money away. Bias ply tires are rotated in a "X"
pattern i.e. lt. ft. to r.r & r.f. to l.r. unlike radials that are rotated from
front to back. If you rotate a set of radials in an "X" pattern you'll
really fuck up the ride of your vehicle.
Another point is that of the repop bias ply tires that I've seen, most
have been moulded in a very soft rubber compound. Now I'm not a
tire engineer, and I don't play one on T.V., but I'm bettin' that the
tire manfacturers do this to give ya a little softer ride, and to save in
manfacture costs. If ya think the ride of bias plys is tough, ya should
have been around when the harder Nylon ply tires were on the mar-
ket. Yeah, a two-ton vehicle on ice, on Nylon tires- Yeeeh Haw!, no
power drifts necessary.

Swankey Devils C.C.

 

Eh a straight true wheel at good alignment is what it is. Whether the rocker is scraping the ground or at stock height. Im sure ride height in may apps may cause poor alignment, but poor alignment is the culprit of tire wear, not ride height.

 

Yeah some thing is wrong, my right foot is a little to heavy.

 

I have worked in the tire industry my whole career (about 10 yrs). On my vehicle there is no way I would cross rotate my bias plys. Bias plys like going one way through there life and when they go the other way the chance of them coming apart is far greater. Radials don't care which way they go throughout there life. As much as I hate to say it, radials are far superior to bias in all the ways we know but are also built with better materials and totally different compounds of rubber. If you want a tire that is going to last long, wear more even , disapate heat, and give a better ride there is no comparison. If you want to be period correct, there's no comparison.

 

It sounds like a visit to a good alignment shop is in order.

 

Say no more.......

 

Unfortunately, Chris, even a real good alignment is not going to cure all the problems.
Reason is, that when you lower the car, you are toward the 'end' of it's assigned movemets. With the A frames sitting at a 'higher' angle, at rest, than they are supposed to, alignment is difficult. Do-able, but difficult. BUT, when the car goes up, or down, or (especially) when you make a turn, the alignment is farther off than it is supposed to be. Just take a look at a fully turned wheel on a lowered car, compared to a stock height car. The suspension being at the end of it's travel, put the caster and camber off quite a bit. Enough to wear out tires at a rapid rate. Going straight is OK, but turns will scrub the tires a lot.

 

Yeah I dig, but we are then talking about ghetto heat/cut coils. The tradeoff is cheap and easy will get you somewhere, and this is where it is. But flipped/dropped uprights, or front lowering blocks like I do w/ shoeboxes and Mercs reduces the amount of travel taken out a ton less.

Bills car isnt that low at all, and I think for a daily driver especially in NJ where the roads suck, highway speeds arent 45, extreme weather shifts, one would be on drugs to run bias ply tires. Taking the Remingtons off my Merc for some homemade ground down radials was the best thing I ever did with that car. Just my .02.

 

For what it's worth, I have heard similar complaints about "COKER" tires. I ran Remingtons for the longest time with no problems, close to about 50,000 miles. I switched to Denmans about 9 months ago and have about 6000 on them with very little wear at all. And the front end on my heap is by no means "fresh", and it sits reasonably close to the earth. I would not consider the anti-lowered car approach as a solution, regardless of tire wear issues... Also for the record, I am not a drug user, and have no family history of such. But as a Californian, I guess I may be a little bit crazy...

 

Let me clarify my reasoning for this thread. First, it sucks that after a year I'm putting nre tires on. Second, I wasn't wondering why my tires wore funny, I know that. I was wondering if there was a difference in rubber compounds, or a manufacturing reason as to why they wore so quickly compared to radials. Or if it had somehting to do with brands.

See, simple solution, I'll just go straight all the time and run for 40K.

This is more of then answer I was looking for. Bias-plys don't disapate heat as well and are made of a softer and less durable compound.

 

Safer! Have you ever had a radial blow out at 70 mph, it grenades, usually take the fender with it! Bias ply tires just deflate when they go bad. Now, I have driven with extremely bad front ends and both styles wear out fast, all of my cars run bias and I used to live in Arizona, I have crossed the California desert about 12 times a year mostly in the summer, temperture averaging around 110 ( thats ambient temp) the asphalt is probably 20 to 30 degrees hotter and driving for a continous 4 hours, I have never lost a bias ply but I have blown a shitty radial! Say what ya want about em, most naysayers are just not good drivers.