Coker Tire Problems?

I met a guy at Fall Carlisle who had a problem with a Coker Wide White exploding at speed due to a tread failure. I told him that I had noticed a reference to the same thing here. How many HAMBers have had this problem or know someone who has? Coker sold him a new tire and offered $160 off based on tread wear. The guy kept the tire to show at Carlisle and get other stories. Any comments?

 

I noticed my less than a year old coker firestones have slices in the white wall now???

 

i have had 2 treads seperate

 

had three sets with bad balance problems. going with diamond back next time!

 

About two years ago I read on one of the Hudson bulletin boards a bunch of posts regarding this. One that sticks out in my mind is a guy who was driving long distance in his Hudson and he had more than one of his Coker radial whitewalls fail at speed. I believe he was very unhappy about the customer service he got also due to his tires being almost new. The problem was tread seperation as stated above. I've also read a fair number of posts from folks saying they have not had problems with them either, but I don't know how much they drive their cars. The Hudson posts stating problems were from folks who really drove their cars distances.

 

A good portion of tire failures happen because under or over inflation. I know that I have to remind myself to check my tire pressure every few weeks and there is always one that is a couple pounds low. When was the last time you checked yours?

 

Here's a few stories regarding Coker that were talked about a couple of weeks ago on the RRT

http://www.roddingroundtable.com/dcforum/DCForumID1/4247.html

 

i had a Coker Firestone 4.50/4.75-16 blackwall come apart on the inside(nothing showed on the outside)....causing it to rub a hole in the tube....which went flat real fast

 

I've had Coker 215-15 WWW radials on my '51 Victoria since 1998. One of the original four was terminally out of balance and was replaced without hassle; since then I have had six more fail because of tread separation.

Coker's customer service was poor on the first four; they were skeptical about the failures and insisted that I pay the freight to return the bad tires to them. On the last two they have been much more cooperative, replacing the failed tires at no charge.

Interestingly, on the last tire only, they said "have you kept them inflated to 30 PSI or more? Be sure that you do." Of course I have, but I thought it was odd that they didn't mention this until my 11th tire.

 

James Crawford in Texas with the 100,000 mile merc can tell you some nasty tales about Coker.

Coker: My self, several tires so out of round they were useless and were sent back. Some I got credit for, some I did not. Treads blowing apart, and in fact the new set that was on my old 51 ford I sold I saw a year later and all four were spliting and blowing apart (and the guy that had the car did not notice it and was driving on them and the were BAD). They turned yellow fast, real fast.

Silvertowns: On the merc now, yellow but better than the Cokers so far. I have been told they are both made in the same factory in Mexico. I did have one on the 32 when it was under construction that would not hold air because it was out of round in the bead the goes on the rim...was replaced no problem. I have not had bad luck with these.

Diamondback. On my 32...mounted better and hold the white better and seem to be worth it...I like them better than the Silvertowns. Have had zero issues.

 

The front tires on my Roadster are so out of round, that they beat the living shit out of the freshly rebuild F100 steering box, on the first longer trip I took with the car.(It is trashed now and needs to be rebuild again)
When I ordered the fronts for my truck, the salesperson screwed up, and they send me 14" tires instead of 15".
Things like that can happen, and it would not be a problem if they would be interested in correcting those situations.
They are not...
They gave me the runaround with the 16" Firestones, I would have to pay for all the shipping AND the new tires, and they were going to decide on a refund on the old ones once they got them back. I have no reason to believe that once they have my money and my tires, they would not rip me off.
With the Michelins ( the screwed up order ) They made me pay for all the shipping and both sets of tires, and when the refund finally came, it was about $110 short. And they gave me the runaround on that one too.
I will not deal with Coker directly again. If I really need their product, I will gladly pay a tire store to deal with that mess.
And if I have a choice I'd rather take my business elsewhere.

 

Uh, are bias ply's speed rated?

 

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Uh, are bias ply's speed rated?

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That's a damn good question.
Another one is, are they DOT approved for highway use?
Or are they "For display purposes only"?

(I don't mean do they just have the letters DOT on them like motorcycle brain buckets either)

 

my cokers are less then a year old, and the white walls have mystery "slashes" in them, and the black wall around the white wall is peeling.

 

Ive read on one of the restorers forums that since Coker went to Mexico for their tires the quality went downhill about as fast as most other stuff from down there.

 

Does that include the Firestones?

 

when I was running 15's on my hotrod, I knew I was going to replace them so I just bought the Coker Classic bigs and littles.... the fronts had the whitewall applied lobsided so when I drove down the freeway my front tire looked like shit. they also bounced around like crazy as if they were out of round. The weight it took to get them to roll even was a joke. Fucking junk. do not buy. repeat, do not buy.

that's all I have to say about that.

 

I've had a couple of problems with Cokers,one set were out of round,and would not balance and I had a blowout on a Firestone 750.The small fronts they wouldn't replace,but the 750 they did because I had bought the insurance, I think they are like any other big tire company(GOOD LUCK),we expect them to be good old boys because they sell to hobby guys,but in reality they are a big business.Now the problem with their products is BS.They need to put out a good product,or we shouldn't buy from them period.Send them letters and tell Corky these things should not be happening,and we as a group can carry a lot of weight.IMHO--TV

 

This is not the first time I have seen a
Thread on this subject.
Man It really sounds like this Coker Tire Company
is just keepin on selling the same crap...and getting
away with it! I have a set of bias stones that I havn't
ran yet, and now really don't know if I want to, cause
they may be unsafe.
I think TV is right, its not going to do any good just
takin the punches and then bitchin about it.
I will call them on monday, and see if I can get them
to respond to this thread.
If anyone has a better way or idea about how to get
Coker to respond, please speak up. Lets get this done.
It sounds like there are way to many bad tires out there.
Remember Firestone?
--------------------------------------------------------
"OPOSSUM BENDERS"
Central Missouri Chapter

 

Again,,,are they DOT approved for highway use?
Or are they "For display purposes only"?
(I don't mean do they just have the letters DOT on them like motorcycle brain buckets either)

 

I know the Stones I have that are not round do not say dot but they don't say for display only all they say is deluxeChampions gum wraped.So what are they selling tires to run or sit around to look at.--TV

 

[Coker: My self, several tires so out of round they were Diamondback. On my 32...mounted better and hold the white better and seem to be worth it...I like them better than the Silvertowns. Have had zero issues.

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I've had diamondbacks on my lil falcon/daily driver for over a yr now. No problems whats so ever clean up real good too. Even got some for the 38. Very pleased with the quality but their radials

 

I've had the same set of Diamond Back WW's on my '57 for over 3 years. I've got maybe 20k-25k on them. Not one problem! Still clean up nice too. No yellowing, splits, or peeling.

 

I had three out of 4 Cokers split on me, their on my parts car now ( they still hold air ) but I wouldn't use them I use Diamond Back Classics, 2 years 20,000 miles no problems. My buddy lost a Coker at speed causing body dammage on his 56. This crap about low pressure causing these failures is B.S.Coker has a problem not the customers! I can't remember seeing a set of Coker radials with out hearing a story about tread seperation or bubbleing up at the rim.

 

Okay stupid question here, Who sell's Diamondback's? I'm just tryin to get some good solid info for future use later plmczy

 

great.

I wish I would have heard all this a month ago.

I just bought a pair of the Coker Classics for the coupe.

Now what?





Paul

 

Thats what i'm saying.. What other options are available for 16" 6.00 or 6.50 and 7.50 bias tires besides what coker sells? Do the diamondback 16" radials look okay or do they have the "bulge"?
I was just about to order from them too, had just not got around to calling.

 

I didnt want to post this until it was resolved but I have a good experience so far with Ron at Hurst. My cheaters started checking after 3 months on the road. When I called him, he was very cool to talk to. None of this bullshit "We have never had that happen before?" He said I could send a tire in for inspection then I mentioned photos.....long story short, I am sending him detailed pics of the tires so he can figure out my problem.

 

Man I wish I'd heard of this sooner. I just got my set of Coker Classics in and mounted. Picked 'em up and noticed I had two new beauty rings. Looked closer and found it two be the damn weights! I'd never seen shit like it! Guy who mounted 'em said it was kinda normal with "those tires" and to run the "beauty ringed ones"(my words not his) on the rear!?! I know my luck, next post from me on this topic will be a story about how my Cokers took a shit on me. I almost ordered the DB's but nooooo!

 

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Okay stupid question here, Who sell's Diamondback's?

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Try here.....

http://www.widewhitewalltires.com/index.htm