Bias Vs radials?

I'm working over my '31 A Roadster with a hopped up B motor and T-5 trans. Also I am swapping out the 19's for 16's Thinkin Wide Whites. The Coker Radials are what I want but they are kinda pricy. Are new Bias tires as horrible as the ones I am familiar with?

Also is anyone weighs in on this, Big n littles ? If so what sizes? I see many people use the 600 16's on A's...

Going to check out the highboy look while things are coming apart. It has sidemounts, I picked up a pair fo regular fenders but will see how it look with no fenders.

thanks!

 

Do a quick search, this subject comes up once a month. ...and everyone has a camp and an opinion.

 

I've run bias plys on my 59 olds for over 10 years.... no problems!!!

 

I have Bias ply Cokers on my '29 sedan (see avatar). They are spendy! I had radials on it initially but wanted the "look". Handles as well as it did with the radials except when driving on uneven roads, Bias tend to follow and height differences in the pavement. All said, I'm glad a got 'em. By the way they don't ride any softer. I have 670x15's on front and 750x16's on the rear. Be sure to have balanced well and I keep 32 lbs in 'em them. The WW's are 4 inch.See my avatar.

 

I bought two fresh 600 Firestone Champs from Universal in the spring. Same as Coker sells. I think they come from the same manufacturer in PA. Any way they are nice, no balance issues and nice ride and drive.

Universal, Hershey. PA. Their prices were pretty equal to Cokers and the shipping to NJ was way less.

 

Model A's should have bias-plys period.........

 

I'm in Central NJ, mixture of hills n flats. Lots of ****py pavement. I had Bias tires on my '59 corvette, it was scary, but then it sat in a barn for 20 years so maybe that was the trouble there. I put radials on it and it was like a new car.

I did do a search and looked over old threads, after I posted of course ( I am the hindsight king ! )

The A has and for now will have a stock suspension. I'll probably do a little build thread just because. Yesterday I pulled the motor & trans, went to sleep thinking about tires.... Now my morning coffee is done, me n dog and going to the shop.

Cheers!

 

I agree completely. This thread will turn into a ******* contest before too long.

 

I live in Texas hill country with plenty tight turns and huge hills and no problem. Unless your using a real late model ch***is(one that would have come with radials) it shouldn't be a concern unless yours suspension is completely worn out or built too cheesy. Until the seventies we all drove on bias-plies. Oh, and they're not nylon and don't seem to get flat spots when they sit.

 

I don't know why these tire threads are so fascinating to me, as they go round and round in circles and nothing ever seems to get resolved. But as an avid follower of such threads it seems to me it breaks down something like this;

if you are used to bias-ply and know how to drive accordingly on them there is absolutely no problem whatsoever.
If you are used to radials and decide to try bias for a change then you may find them problematic.
My fully fendered truck runs good year wide white radials, because my wife has to chauffeur me around and she doesn't like bias-ply, but I can't argue with the fact that radials just don't look as cool on open fendered cars.
Best of luck whatever you decide
Paul

 

What I've found is the less air pressure you have in a bias ply tire, the lousier the ride will be.

I've driven my hot rods on nothing but bias plays around NYC for the last ten years, never had a problem.

 

I ran 5.50's on front and 7.50's on the rear of my Model A. They were the Coker wide white radials. I had bias plies but the radials handled and rode so much nicer.

 

I run Coker Cl***ic blackwall radials............look as close to bias as you can get.........drive like a dream.........i get nothing but compliments ........5:50 frt 7:50 rear

 

I have 7:00s and 5:25/5:50s on my A sedan and '36 pickup. I have 7:50s and 5:25/50s on my A roadster. None of these cars are high performance tire burners but they all see road use on two lane highways...not a lot of freeway use and the speeds I drive at are under 70mph, usually closer to 60. They also see the typical in town driving.

For me bias plies work just fine.... Yeah they handle like, well...bias plies, but that's a big part of the point for me....my cars take me back to the way things were when I was kid, and that's important to me.

Building and driving vintage hot rods is about more than the Look. It's about the rattling, noise, smell, wind, and the ride. It's a package deal.

Ultimately you have to decide what works best for your tastes and tolerance levels.

 

I triple that!!
JimV

 

Is it that time of the month again?
I guess a magazine bashing thread will follow in a day or two

 

I have installed 215 75 R16 good years on 16" Kelsey ayes wheels for the Model A that I am currently building.

These are steel belted tires similar to the tires used on 2000 Toyota RAV-4 SUV.

Jim Brierley of F.A.S.T. Fast A Speed Tech. showed the ones that he runs on one of his Model A's when I visited him recently.

He said that he used silicone sealant around the spokes on his Kelsey Hayes wheels so that he could run them tubeless.

I didn't even use silicone sealant on the 4 that I installed on the kelsey Hayes wheels that I have on my ch***is.

As far as looks goes I think that they look fine.

They certainly will perform well on my 4" dropped Model A with the lighter and lower 4 cylinder aluminum Mercruiser engine that I am using.

I am building a Model A sleeper that looks as stock as possible to the average person.

Every Model A person and Many Hot Rodders will spot it a mile away as a modified Model A.

They are not particularly my audience. I think that we sometimes are singing to the choir.

The one Area that the Traditionalist will give way in is safety and Radial tires are defiantly much safer turning and stopping than Bias Ply tires.

The picture below shows 4 Radials mounted tubeless on my ch***is for about a year without loosing any pressure.

If after running them I experience any leakage around the spokes I will run some sealant in them.

****

 

No problems here, just don't drive like an idiot.

 

Part of the reason the bias vs radial debate may never end because:

- A decent bias tire doesn't ****.

- Good bias tires are better than ****py radial tires.

- In everyday driving, bias tires tend to have a more precise feel than radial tires. Pushed to the limit, radial tires tend to perform better. So on the same car, depending on how it is being driven, either tire could be percieved as being the best. Add to that the fact this can vary quite a bit depending on the tires being compared.

- Radial tires have the POTENTIAL to do more things better than bias tires, but just the fact a tire is radial doesn't make it better.

 

I'm a little bias! I like my radials.

 

LOL!! Funny and true!

 

mj40's- good one!

 

I agree with several of the previous replies that this is going to degenerate into a ******* contest.

I also agree that if driven safely Bias Ply tires are safe, however sometimes it isn't how you are driving but rather how the Idiots around you are driving that causes you to have to make an abrupt lane change of have to slam on the brakes.

The differences between Bias and Radial tires in these two maneuvers is significant.

Radial tires have 40% more surface area in contact with the ground.

The bottom line is that aside from the tread life which is usually several times greater on a Radial tire, the safety factor and the cost of the Radial the only other thing that can be said for the bias tire is that some people like the looks of Bias tire better.

****

 

I have bias on my d.d truck and dont find them too much of a challenge. Ive had cars with radials that would follow grooves in the road also. I think adapting to what you have is more of the issue, no matter which way you go.

 

OK,, I'm listening to all the controversy of Bias VS Radial. Granted the radial design is probably better handling and in a steel belted tire some what safer. Let's not completely condemn the bias ply tire. We ran these tire for years with out major mishap. I have run bias tires at over a hundred miles an hour on a 3600 pound car in 100 degree weather and didn't kill myself. Bias ply tires aren't necessarily death traps. Get real! I have driven both for many years and depending on the look/style I was after would use either type tire with confidence.

 

Radials have reinforce sidewalls which keeps the tire from acting like a balloon (recall sitting on a balloon as a child?) which the bias tire does.

 

"Building and driving vintage hot rods is about more than the Look. It's about the rattling, noise, smell, wind, and the ride. It's a package deal"...................I got all that for sure, love it.

 

I'm going to pee in this ******* contest one more time.

As 1gearhead has said many of us ran as fast as we could on bias tires and lived to tell about it.

But now let us hear from those who didn't live to tell about it.

I am running Bias tires on my 1929 Tudor and my 1931 Model a Mail truck and they perform as well as the stock Model A's that they are on.

I am not saying that Bias Ply tires are unsafe but rather that radials are safer.

They also deliver several miles per gallon better mileage.

I forgot to say that they should have the toe in set to near zero to avoid wandering and feathering of the tread.

****

 

Just don't mix them, I had a car once I bought and drove home with radials up front, bias on the back, and it was damn near a white knuckle ride.... all the issues went away when I swapped a set of radials on the back, and that car handled like a slot car after that.

 

There are literally a dozen threads about radial vs bias ply tires, not counting specific questions about mixing the two, etc. Maybe more if there were some deleted, several were locked.

Seems to always turn into a ******* match.

Just FYI, read all you want (or don't)

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3308

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31845

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64807

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129980

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=187968

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=282647

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=340167

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=280515

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=471739

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=515876

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=547260

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=650821