Coker Tire Problems?

only 1 response post? maybe moving this back up to the top will help

 

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Posts on forums about concerns with products are an interesting thing to follow. I have seen pretty serious witchhunts happen, from hundreds of users complaining about customer service, all the way to companies suing those users for slander/libel. I think coker has addressed concerns by providing a personal contact and name to tell your concerns to. Those of you still needing to vent or address concerns should call Jess.


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They would have a hard time proving slander or libel when the tires in many cases can be produced. The problem in my case is it happend several years ago and as far as the money goes it is water under the bridge with me. The Silvertowns have not split, but they are yellow big time on my car. I guess I do have to give the guy credit for posting, but it is not like they could do much to satisfy me at this point. My wish, they would spend some more money or do something to increase the quality. They make some really nice looking stuff, but it wont hold up in my experience. IN FACT, I HOPE POSITIVE THINGS COME OF THIS and they take care of people. I have to be honest thinking back on what I wrote and say Im not so sure at this date who was the real force in the nonsense I delt with...the local Dallas guys selling their stuff or Coker. I do know they tried to tell me that cleaning products were the cause of my yellowing on the merc when I asked at shows several times and I know that is not the case. I have gotten mad at the guys, I am out some money...but as far as the fear of them going after me with a suit or them resorting to that I really can't see it...they do not strike me as the scum of the earth. I kinda hope he comes back on and posts here, but in a way I can understand why they would not...a flame war will do no good. I maybe would buy Silvertowns again, at this time I would not buy the Coker Classics. My opinion

 

It has gotten pretty quiet on this thread.
Am I the only one that went back and talked to Coker?
Or am I the only one that reported back to the HAMB?
Or is everybody still taling to Coker, so there is nothing to report yet? You wont hear anything new from me for a week or so, untill UPS does its deliveries.
I have already thought of a better way to measure the rims than how the tire shops do it, and I also want to try and measure how much the Wheel/Tire combination is out of round before I change anything.
If for no other reason than my own curiosity.

 

For me talking to them would do little good. I highly doubt they would replace my tires on the merc, and even if they did say they would I really do not care to bother with it...I would be out the shipping money (more $$$) and the trouble of taking them off the car and putting the new ones on. Yellow they can stay at this point until they wear out.

 

I recounted my experience with Coker Classic WWW radials back in the beginning of this thread (9th from the top) and I'll say that until the last tire failed, their customer service was just poor. With the last one, I reached Jess with my complaint, and told him of an incomplete adjustment that had been made on the previous failure more than a year before. He replaced the current tire immediately without charge, and after researching the earlier claim made a full refund on it as well. I can't say that my old resentment has been erased completely, but my experience with Jess has been absolutely first-rate, and has gone a long way toward restoring my confidence in the company.

I hadn't mentioned this before, but I have Coker's WWW bias tires on my '36 too. They have been completely trouble-free.

 

I would just like to add my 2 bits worth to this thread. I am a customer of Coker for about 4 years now. I ahve NEVER had a problem with their tires. I buy the Coker Classic bias ply's and the have treated me very well. I have even brought them up for freinds of mine who needed them for their cars, and THEY have never had a problem with them. 1 of the sets was put on a 60 Cadi, and he drives the car, no shit, from up here in Canada, to L.A. and area, and back again, about 4 times a year. Now for those who don't know.....thats a 22 hour - 25 hour trip..... 1 WAY! IF you drive straight through...you may cut it down like 4 hours. None the less, that is at hi-way speeds and a bit more...I would figure.... . Anyway, I think that this is one of those things were folks are remembering missfortunes of others and using them to cut down a company, that in my books, makes a shit kickin set of WW's. The reason I say this is because I myself have gone out and purchased 2 sets of the tires for my 59 Parkwoods...and I have driven them to Calgary and back, (8 hours), and to Seattle and back, (3 hours...depending on their crappy traffic), and oh yes, it's my daily driver...and I hit the freeway every day to go to work. No wobble...no shake....only cruizin luv! I'm sure that their are horror stories of Cokers "Whatever" tirees....but you know what? How about the Goodyear horror stories, or wait for it.....Firestones horror stories. And on a side note....I have another 2 freinds with the Firestone Bias WW...and they do the same show cuircit as I do, all over the Northwest, and they don't have any problems either. My point is if your gonna hang somebody, first sit back and think about HOW MANY OTHER SETS thay have sold...and how many SATISFIED customers they have. I find it amusing that some of the complaints about the tires come from people that have Coker tires on their OTHER vehicles....with no problems.......but they fail to mention that! And the white walls???? White as the day I got 'em. I know one of my pals went a shitty yellow....wanna know why? Cause he didn't take care of them. Thats not to say that you folks didn't take care of them. But what did you use to clean them? I use Castrol Super Clean...The Purple Stuff, and a steel brush.....a little one....not one of those massive metal working ones. You can pick 'em up at your local Schuck's or where-ever you folks go to buy your car detail needs. Remember those yellow white walls on my freinds 48 Cadillac? They are white now......2 hits...thats all it took. Anyway.....I just thought I would put my 2 bits in on this topic. A GOOD post from a satisfied customer, about a good company, that has me and my freinds rollin on some classy rubber...with little or no road noize.....and no wobble......and for "shits-and-giggles", 2 of my wheels on my daily...didn't need weights...go figure, huh? Class action law-suits?? Man...you Americans....I tell yah....If you wanna do something constructive, go after the manufacturers of SUV's that tip over MORE THAN ANY VEHICLE, and get them to make THEM safer.....so that one doesn't flip in front of you on the on ramp, and you plow your pride-n-joy into the roof, killin 2 outta 4. If you don't believe me.....ask you folks who do the stats....it was on the news here tonite! My biggest complaint about the tires...is gettin them accross the border...man....let's fix that, shall we?! Anyway....thank you for your time to read this, and the space to say it, Ryan, and I hope that those who have been wronged, will be righted, and you will be as confident about the product that my NON-SEATBELTED cars roll on, as I am. But you know what......? You gotta fone first!

Jess, You Rock!


59 Parkwood - E78-14 Coker Classics
59 Parkwood - E78-14 Coker Classics
and when the 59 Brookwood is finished...guess what? E78-14 Coker Classics!

The End

TBK

 

Lil Jimmy, I think one major thing you are missing (and might be a problem with this whole thread)is that few have trouble with the bias plys, it is the radials that get the universal scorn IMHO. In all the years I have been messing with the wide white radials I have not met ONE person myself that has not had trouble with them turning yellow and countless others have had the tread go south on the Classics. I think most of these posts are talking about the radials if I am reading it right. You can defend them all you want, but anytime you wanna see pics of my tires on my merc you can see them, and I challange anyone to go walk around and look at them on cars yourself. At the first Round Up I walked around and looked at all the cars with radial WW's (trying to see what Diamondbacks looked like in real life before I bought them)and I did not find any without the brown. All were Classics and Silvertowns (and I did not see the D backs in real life until a Goodguys show and then bought them). I have seen bias plys go brown, but in defense of Coker I will say that I have not myself seen any bad bias plys and I do not know anyone who has told me bad stories on those. In fairness to Coker, who is talking about problems with the bias and who is talking about the radials in all of this?

 

Merc50, yer right. I am talkin about the bias plys. I don't know anyone who has the radials. But I would have to say that the price of em up here after converting the money, you could make them and then bronze 'em. Remember, Castrol Super Clean, tell 'em Jimmy sent yah!

 

I've got Diamondback WWW radials on my 37 and have not had a single problem with them. When I put WWW radials on my shoebox it will be Diamondbacks. I must say though that I had Commamder brand WWW bias plys (from Coker) on my 32 and put 20,000+ trouble free miles on them.

 

i have had good experience with coker tires, both bias ply and bfg sivertown radials. all of the www's i've had required maintainence to keep white. i have used wesleys bleach white with good results. perhaps jess would like to address the maintenence issue about keeping white walls white.

 

I read an article about VW finally stopping production of the original bug in Mexico...In the article they showed one with "deluxe" options which included WWW tires?
If they are making them for VW's in Mexico, can we get them imported?
Any of you guys in or near Mexico know?

 

To clarify for me please, Is the general concensus that the Firestone bias plys (16in)are okay? I am debating on ordering them or the 16" radials, I was also concered about the "wandering' that you can get with bias tires. I was thinking about going to the diamondbacks or similar, but do they look "right"?
I'm kinda waiting on the outcome of this thread befor I do anything.

 

DrJ, Coker is the supplier to VW-Mexico for their "end of an era" version of the bug with WWW.

There were articles in Old Car Trader and in AutoWeek about it. Coker was very proud of this contract.

 

I started this post to get some feedback for the guy I met in Carlisle. I had been pestering a friend to get radials on his '34 Ford for a few years. He wanted WW so he was leaning toward the Coker's. After watching this thread I can't recommend the Cokers! I hope that Coker does research this and give a response afterward. From the thread I suspect the radials are the problem and Coker has kept their head in the sand and only addressed the problem thru their "standard" pro-rated policy. I hope they address the issue as it appears that they have not in the past. Thanks for all the input.

 

I'm registered on this board and I will continue to monitor it and reply as needed. I'm always interested to hear from other people in the hobby and I'm always concerned when I hear complaints about our products. 
 
I would also like to pass along information regarding tire care and maintenance. Remember that tires are not something you install and forget about. Check out this link, it has some really good information.  
 
http://www.safetrip.org/elements/ 
 
Air Pressure:
On our Coker and BFG radials we recommend you run 35 PSI. This is the pressure used when the tire goes through all its testing. (DOT, ECE, UTQG) Low air pressure is the number 1 cause of tire failures.
 
Mounting and Balancing:
Use a good shop who knows what they are doing. Make sure they use plenty of bead lubricate. This will help the tire seat properly and will reduce bead damage. We recommend you static balance (weights on the inside of the rim) your white wall tires. This will keep those unsightly weight marks out of the white wall. 
 
Tire handling and storage:
Store tires in a clean,cool,dry, dark, and well-ventilated area (but with a minimum of circulating air) and keep them away from direct sunlight. Store the tires whitewall to whitewall, to avoid staining. If the black part of another tire touches the white wall it will stain it. Store the vehicle on blocks to remove all weight from the tires. Try to move the vehicle at least every three months to prevent ozone cracking in the bulge area and also to prevent a "flat spot" from developing( due to strain from deflecting).
 
Cleaning:
My first thought about cleaning your white walls is to first don't ever let them get too dirty. Frequent cleanings are a must. Clean all dirt or stains as soon as possible, if they are left unattended they can be difficult to clean. Second use a good cleaner. Stay away from products with alcohol in them. Also, over use of bleach could dry out the whitewall. Someone mentioned Castrol Super Clean, it works well. We also sell our own cleaner made with a citrus base that works well to remove road grime and dirt.
 
 
  
Jess Hoodenpyle
Customer Service Manager
Coker Tire Co.
1-800-251-6336

 

DrJ,

The tires used on the last production VW was our B.F. Goodrich 165R15 2 1/4" whitewall tire.

Jess

 

Jess, as an owner of a set of your tires, this thread was making me a little nervous.

Thank you for "setting" some of the concerns straight.

All I would like to add is, the site address you provided wouldn't open for me. Could you repost it?

 

Hey Jimmy, if you don't like Americans...

We don't care....

 

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DrJ,

The tires used on the last production VW was our B.F. Goodrich 165R15 2 1/4" whitewall tire.

Jess


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Thankyou!

I've always been curious about these things...
(These are real questions, not accusations or attacks)

Do you have to get license from BFG and Firestone etc. to put their name on your tires?
When you make, say, a Firestone Champion Bias ply tire, do you make the carcass design and use the same rubber compounds that Firestone did or is it just a visual replica?

Do you copy the original rubber compounds on tyres or are all your tires made with a "Coker" rubber compound and are they all made with the same rubber or are different tires different compounds?

On that 35psi pressure recommendation...

I have 235-75R-15 tires (not Cokers) onthe back end of my 2980 lb. truck.
If I put more than about 22 psi pressure in the rear tires the truck bounces around like a freaked out basketball on the highway at 90 mph because the rear end is light.
Yes I know the rear suspension is "tuned" for 6.00-17.5" bias truck tires on split rims and was never intended to go faster than about 45mph in 1940 when it was built and to tune it to what a tire wants at 35psi ain't gonna happen.
Yes I know it doesn't "need" that big a tire under such a light truck, but that's the look and the type of application these tires get.

Are you saying "We don't really make a large rear tire that we recommend for your hotrod application"?

It would seem so if you say they don't "live" with less than 35psi of air in them.

I thought the 35psi was "Maximum recommended pressure" on most tires, not recommended running pressure.
Otherwise, why and how do car manufacturers continue to put recommended tire pressures on their cars that are different from this tire recommended pressure?
(eg, our Honda Civic calls for 29psi on one end and 30psi on the other, while the tires say 35psi maximum)

 

Sorry.

www.safetrip.org

Jess

 

We are licensed by Firestone and B.F. Goodrich to reproduce their vintage tires. The Firestone and B.F. Goodrich tires are all built in either the original molds or in new molds built from drawings of the original tire. These tires are built with modern materials and techniques. We want the tire to appear 100% correct (and they do) but perform better than the original. The rubber compound will vary depending on brand and type. The compound of a clincher tire for early era cars must be different than a 6.70-15 bias ply. Radial tires have different compounds as well. Radials also have a Uniform Tire Quality Grade. (U.T.Q.G). This rates the tire in three areas. Tread wear, temperature and traction. Tread wear is rated numerically, the higher the number the better. Temperature and traction are given ratings of either A, B, C, with "A" being the best. Our Coker Classic radial is rated 400, B, B. The BFG Silvertown is rated 300, A, C.

The number 1 cause of tire failures is heat build up. A under inflated tire will generate more heat than one properly inflated. On our Coker and BFG radials we recommend 35 PSI because it is proven to that you will get better performance, mileage and wear out of the tires. We list the recommended air pressure in our catalog for all of our tires (bias and radials are different). I can't say for sure why manufacturers recommend lower air pressure, but I would speculate it has something to do with ride quality. Just remember that the tire company is the one who designed the tire and knows how it will perform.

Jess

 

Didn't Ford and Firestone (long time supplier of tires for Ford poducts) get into a BIG fight about tire failures back a while ago?

Something about; Firestone recommended certain pressures for the tires they provided; but Ford claimed the high pressure(s) recomended, caused the vehicles to ride "harsh" and listed lower pressures in the owners manuals. If I remember there was a inordinate number of tire failures

Has this "war" ever been settled?

Sorry if this is a little off topic, but with an expert present, I thought I'd ask.

BTW, Jess, thanks the new link works OK.

 

One of Jess's earlies comments at least confirmed what I had hear about the Mexico connection. But he also mentioned something that has me worried now and I do not use Coker tires.

Michelin has licensed a Mexican plant to build tires, correct? Coker in turn use Denman who uses Michelin who uses Mr X; have I got this correct? What is the name of the Mexican company? I ask this because Ive had seperation failures with 3 out of 4 Michelins on my wifes Volvo all within the past 2 months. Mileage is in the 15-18K range. Ive pulled the remaining Michelin and went all Yokohama's as this car does weekly 4hr Interstate trips to Maine.
The original Volvo badged Michelins lasted over 60K.

Sorry to change the subject but you got my attention.The problem may not lie with Coker but with poor QC or plain old cheesy Mexican production. Seems like a long finger pointing line of companies to me.

 

Hey El Caballo....blow it out your ass........I never said nothin about not liking Americans you ingnorant fuck. Geeeee....that could be a reason though, you think? Fuckin attitude like that.......thats nice! I'll be sure to tell my 50 or so American friends about your swell attitude!!

 

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Man...you Americans....I tell yah....If you wanna do something constructive, go after the ...

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Jackasses who think we're fulla shit on something they think they know something about. Only to find out that they don't actually know Jack in the first place, Do They? Ah, I guess we can blame Canada! And Mexico. AND Clinton and NAFTA!!! But Mostly Canada! haha, leave your attitude at the border!

And I'd heard the same thing about recent Michelin horror stories just last week when going in for new tires.

Strange though that Jess would recommend Everyone to use a pressure that's only used to insure that tires don't fail in gov't testing and NOT a specific application. Obviously the mfg'r has to be able to adjust that pressure setting for variables related to a vehicle, with the tire, such as the weight exerted on it by that end of the vehicle. I'm no expert here, but Common sense says that if you have to run More psi than your vehicle was intended to have, you are running a "hard" tire which will wear a band across the middle out first. Right? Anybody? Bueler? If I've got to run "harsh" tires to acheive a "LOOK" then I have defeated my own purpose of using them in the first place! Wouldn't you say so? Would you walk around with a wedgie all day cuz it "LOOKED" Cool? I'm not hearing Anything here so far that would restore my faith in Coker after seeing friends tires going bad quickly. Sounds like a quick brush over job. GLAD to hear that they actually think we'll forget actual road tests of the product by an active propaganda/PR spiel though!

Short of an acknowledgement of the actuality of the problem experienced by a seemingly substantial percentage of their consumers and the information on how it's to be addressed en masse, that I don't see coming, this is fruitless banter from Coker. Of course it took Billions from the Ford coffers to get Anywhere with the liability issues of a substandard tire from their supplier, so it's not like WE'LL ever here more of the actual story than we have already. Or do you somehow have blind faith that we Will?

Funny, but I've still got a pair of the very first tread pattern, BFG Radial TA's that were made, in GR60-15's. There's Minor dryrot on them now, and I actually ran them for a few days this summer thinking I'd burn em off. I didn't. but I wouldn't hesitate to throw em back on again and put More miles on em just the same! Shame you can't get that from a year old repop under the BFG logo...

 

Well I just spent the last half hour reading this post for the first time. I have to admit I have seen and heard about all the problems discribed here. And It does appear to be the radials the have the actual failure problems compared to the bi-plys.

My experiance with the coker classics bi-plys have been the
whitewall yellowing on a pair of 5.60-15's while I was building the car( still had the stickers on them).
I had the tire shop I deal with return them without any problem other than I had to purchase a warrenty, so that worked out fine.

Now I just noticed the rear h-78-15 www are starting to develop very small cracking on the whitewall. The tire is about 3 or 4 years old now but I would like to know if this has happened to anyone else.

I also think it was really cool that Jess would come on here and defend himself and his company.
Lets just be thankfull we are not talking about horror stories like the recent Firestone tire failures and Ford.

Lastly I did purchase a set of Diamond back radial www's for my 40 coupe because they offered more sizes to choose from and I think they are a better looking tire on the car.

 

HAHAHAHA.. , You know Rooster, I was gonna leave a comment......but just.....not....worth...it........

 

We have had 3 sets of Coker Radials on our Lincoln. We are currently running B.F. Goodrich WW radials on it now. (from Coker)
The first set of tires we purchased was a very bad experience. We had seperation on 2 rear tires within 2 hours of each other on a trip to the south. We had to stop both times and purchase new tires have them mounted and find someway to get the other two tires home!! So we had the cost of these two tires and mounting. Yes we did have a spare, but still needed it just in case!! An unexpected expense on a trip that no one needs especialy when you have new tires. But, since you cant readily buy cokers we had to bring our tires back then send them in for the warrenty. I can't remember now who we delt with at coker at the time, but it was a real nightmare. we sent all 4 tires back, they were only about 6mos old. had to pay to have them sent back and the remounting. Then was given hardly any credit towards the new set on the other two tires.
So the Third time around, when we had trouble with that replaced set we went to a tire store in town that sold Coker
and purchased a new set from them and they dealt with sending the old ones back and getting our credit taken care of. We then had trouble with that set, we had, (if memory serves me) a bad belt on one, out of round on another and trouble with the ww's on this set. (never ww trouble on the others)
We were at a point of total frustration in dealing with the business of having to get all 4 tires unmounted/remounted and back and so on.
While we were at the Hot Rod Performance Trade Show, we spoke to the owner of Diamond Back, and were ready to eat the expense of the Cokers and switch to diamond back. Coker tires was also at that show, so we went to talk to them to see what they had to say. It was Jess who was there, and he was so nice. He talked to us for over an hour about the problems we had and what he could do to make it right for us. We told him we did not want another set of Cokers, but wanted the B.F. Goodrich ww. He told me to call him when he got back to the office the middle of that week. He was so pleasant and willing to help, unlike the first person I had to deal with.
He called me and said they had a set of Goodrich in the size we needed and they paid for the shipping to and from for the old and new sets. I have to say if it wasn't for Jess we would not have stayed with Coker. He was wonderful to deal with and an asset to that company.
The following yr that we returned to the Hot Rod show, we walked by the coker booth, and Jess said hello and asked us how the tires were doing. It was pretty impressive to us that he remembered who we were.
We love our BF's and have never had a problem with them in any way. The ww's stay really clean and no cracking or yellowing at all.

Thank you again Jess
Rob and Debb Butler

KustomLincolnLady

and this isn't really my first post I had to rejoin!!!

 

I agree it is admirable of Jess to join and defend his company. But up until now all we have heard is the same old song and dance about how much testing they have done, how great the tires are, blah, blah, blah. An honest admission that there were problems and they either have corrected them or are working on it would go a long way with me. I think if this was a few isolated cases maybe you could discount it somewhat, but of all the people I have talked to about tires, I've only met a few that are satisfied with their coker radials...and a very few. I'll say it again, these tires may have passed all the tests, but I don't think they ever expected that people would actually be using them...like most of US do. And for Coker to try to blame all the problems on improper mounting, improper pressure, etc. is just ridiculous. How can you mount a tire improperly? Sure, if you use 150 lbs pressure to seat the bead or something, but to say most of the failures are due to that just doesn't add up. So, Mr. Jess, I appreciate what you have done so far, but it seems like you are single-handedly trying to stop the flood here. Answer these two questions honestly:

1. What is the rate of return on the Coker radial?

2. Most of the problems have been due to belt seperation/tread loss. What is causing this, and what has Coker done to correct it?

I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but I have a lot of money and time invested in my car. I think too much of it and my family who often rides with me to risk their lives on unsafe tires......

If you look at the Denham corporation website (who Jess said is making these tires for Coker) 99% of their products are industrial and off road tires. Maybe they don't have the technology or quality control to produce a tire that will see regular highway use??? As Jess stated, most problems in the tires is caused by heat. I would think that the heat level in a tire on 130 degree asphalt at 80 mph would be significantly higher that tires on a forklift, or loader moving at 8 - 12 mph, offroad. Just a thought.....I'll shut up now.

Brian Logan
Former owner of Coker radials......