Got a quetion for you, going to run Radir cheaters on the back, but I've been told both that you need to run ALL bias-ply or all radial, and I've also beem told you can run radials on the from without a problem, any input here on ant of that, thanks for your help
Several threads on the subject, here is one. The search function is your friend Mixing is not leagal in any state as far as I know. Mixing bias plys with radials, oh my
Yea, not really a good idea to run tires of different construction. As far as what...not to do... I've done it both ways over the years. Much of this depends on the car, the condition of the suspension and the actual tire construction. There's MANY ways to build a radial tire. Either way the car feels "loose" as if the suspension is worn out. You can even find different tires of the same construction acting weird. Different brands build radials slightly different. some are nice and stiff and can be run with bias ply tires on the other end. Some radials don't have the fillers in the sidewalls and handle like***** unless you run 50psi of air in them..! If you need to run this combination, just try to find radials with the largest "bead filler" in the sidewalls as you can find. You can normally feel this by grabbing the tire from the bead area, fingers inside the tire and thumb outside. Now move the sidewall back and forth. A loose sidewall tire is a tire to stay away from in ANY case. The stiffer the sidewall the better when mixed with bias ply tires OR radials. Mike
Some may disagree, but mixing the two is a not a safe situation. As mentioned previously, the side wall flex is not your friend. Stu
I wouldn't mix. Radials and bias ply have different driving characteristics, they don't match up well. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
In Saskatchewan, radials front/bias rear is illegal, bias front/radials rear is not. Go figure.........
No cut-and-dried answer here.... Mixing is actually pretty traditional; look in the old mags and you'll see lots of bias slicks/radials combos, usually Pirelli fronts as those were the only commonly-available radials back then. But these were only seen on smaller, lighter cars (like Ts, As, fenderless 32-24, or race cars) and where there was a big difference in size between the front and back. The small radial put down a bigger contact patch compared to it's bias-ply cousin and helped with understeer for improved handling. On a larger car and where the tire sizes were closer, not so good. As to safety, if you're running slicks, haven't you already thrown safety out the window?....
thanks to all, appriciate the input life in the fast lane, but safe, and I like to drag my car occationally, I'll post a pic when I get them
Got enough of these threads around so I grabbed an old one to add my 2¢ to: My heap as always been a handful since I got it on the road a year to two ago, and after countless alignment changes and other fettling I at least have it enjoyable around town and survivable on short freeway jaunts. I've always run radials on the front, and up until a moth ago had*****o M/T bias plies on the back. So a month ago I was rearranging the shed and came across some Radial T/As from my Corvette. Worth a shot to see what happens, so I put them on rims and stuck them on back. I thought it was better. Needed to clean up the tire pile today and wanted to do another back to back test. Went out for a jaunt with the radials, came home and swapped on the old M/Ts and drove the same course, fully expecting it to handle worse. To my surprise, I think it feels better with the M/Ts, less darty. I have no explanation, going to keep them on for awhile. Now of course there is the 'never mix radials and bias' law, and I've read both 'it's OK to put bias in back if they are much wider (like the T buckets)' and 'it's OK to put them in front because the back will slide first' exceptions. Anyway, there you go. I ran 20lbs. all around with the radials and 17 on the MTs. 1,400lb truck. I guess I could try bias in front..
I prefer not to mix them but I have and not had a bad result, in that I didn't die from it. For the record there is no law in Missouri about mixing them. Back when radials were not as common as they are now the tire shops used to say that you could run them on the back with bias plys on the front but not the other way around. The first radials that I personally owned were on the back of a car about '75 or so. I bought them used and they were wider then the wore out bias plys that I had on the car. I only put about 20K on that car but I never had a problem that I could tell. of course I was pretty intoxicated most of the time back then and never wore my seat belt either.
Like Benno,I don't think there is any laws on the books in South Carolina about mixing bias and radial tires,I just don't do it. HRP
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