Coker Tires - Is it just me??

I run 525 x 16 Coker/Firestone bias ply tires on the front of my 5-window and 700 x 16's on the rear. I like the look but have been having trouble from keeping the front from bouncing all over the place. They balanced out OK but over 55 mph it wanted to shake you silly. One tire was worse than the other so I called Coker, expalined the situation and ordered a replacement. I received the new tire and sent the old one back. Once I mounted the new tire I found that it was as bad or worse than the first. I had previously checked the runout on my wheels and they were both decent. I had a couple other wheels that had been trued up for another project by my local wheel shop so I mounted the new tire on one of them to see if any difference. The side wall wobbled all over the place and it shook badly after balancing. I called Coker and order another new one and once I received it sent the original replacement back again. The new new tire that I received was much better but I took both tires and had them trued and re-balanced and all is well. Today I got a call from Coker and they said that they found nothing wrong with the tire and they were shipping it back to me and my expense. I realize that messing with bias ply tires is not the smartest idea but has anyone else had the same problem?

 

No problems. I have four of them.

 

I've got the 55-65 "Coker Shake" too....

on 2 different cars

 

Fist off - I'm no expert at this, but, from reading I know that many have their bias plys shaved to make sure they are truely round.

The second common fix is to find a shop that can balance the wheel/tire with the assembly on the car. Many on here swear by this.

Not sure what you meant by having everything "trued up", but, that may be your next step.

Good luck.

 

Exactly, the only really correct way to make the tires right is to shave them, a bias tire will ballance however it may not be perfectly round, that is where you are having your trouble, it may have a littel bit more rubber in one spot and that will throw it out of round at speed, if you could spin it at 55 MPH on the balancer then you might be able to balance it however this is not possible, ( and I dont think I would want to be in the same county when this was done either LOL) but anyway this is something you just have to live with if you want to run bias untill you get to someone that has a tire shaver. We have a member on here that has one and was doing the shaving for other members, he had a thread about it a year or so back, I just cant remember who it was or anything. Sorry, Jim

 

Get em balanced on a Hunter road force balancer and I'd bet $20 the problem would be fixed.

Click the "locate" button -

http://www.gsp9700.com/

 

My '52 has Firestone bias plys on it, and it does the death dance at around 65. I love the look of bias plys, but my next set of tires will be radials. The issue was made worse after lowering the front and changing the car's weight distribution. I have verified that it is indeed the tires... after swapping a buddy's radials on for a test drive it rides fine.

 

When I said "trued up" I meant shaved. Had a heck of a time finding anyone locally that had a tire shaving machine but I finally did. Convinced me that is the only way to go with these tires.

 

I went through 6 Cokers once for the same problem. Swore I would never own a set and ended up with 4 that came with my Suburban-in-a-box. Luckily they balenced when stock, but after lowering it and raking to the front, it has the same shake at 65 that I remember from the first go-around. trying tol smoke the tread off of them every chance I get and am going to order a set of Hurst WW when I can see the air in these.

 

try different psi's 15-25psi play with it til whatever works

 

I recall getting talked into getting my tires trued,, (shaved) The owner of the tire store,,started in, and slowly increased speed as the tire "shavings" started hitting the ceiling. When my tire was almost bald, he said that's the best I can do, $20.00 . I said, keep the tire, went out, used his jack , put on my spare, while he ranted. And left. I owned a muffler shop,and he bad mouthed me, to a lot of people. I stayed in business 28 years and retired.

 

Yo Tom, somewhere on here is a thread about balancing bias tires. It involves dumping what looks like a bunch of B B's into the tire. they find the sweet spot and things smooth out. Read it a couple years ago but dont remember the heading. By the way, your 32 looks great with the radials anyway. Rick

 

Coker Tire bias plys are about as round as a brick
Ya couldn't give me a set

 

When I worked at a tire store we had some people come back and say the tires weren't balanced. I found a batch of tires that were out of round(It was not a Coker though). You can balance a square tire but they are hell to drive on.
28

 

i love the look off a coker tire.but for the driving i use only dunlops&falken tires.

 

Yes you can dynamic balance your tires using the plastic Air Soft BBs sold in any sporting goods section or store. Buy the big container measure out 3.5 ounces and pour them into your tire after breaking a bead or while mounting. 3.5 ounces works almost every time rarely does it take more once you hit about 10 MPH the beads will find and stay in their sweet spot balancing out your rotating assembly on the car. when you stop the beads just fall back to the bottom of the tire again. just remember you can never use any thing like Slime or Fix a Flat if you have balance beads in the tires.

 

They are called Dyna beads. I use them in all my hotrods and my motorcycle. Having said that, my bias plys on my '32 "shake" at 81 mph.....

 

I've had 2 sets. They balanced and drove fine. Maybe Im just lucky?

 

I've had problems with littles on the front. It just happens. I did my homework and found many people with problems with anything under a 600. I went up to a 600 and it went away.

 

I haven't used these but a buddy did. He says they work great.

 

I think there are some widespread quality control issues in tires today and it's not confined to bias-ply tires or Coker. A friend of mine who has been in the tire business for years told me the only manufacturer with consistently "round" tires is Michelin.

 

I don't know if the problem is totally gone, but my front 525 X 16s run the best they ever have in 5 years. I origianally mounted and balanced them along with the rear 750 X 16s, then had them rebalanced by two other tire shops over the years, with the same results-front shake around 57-61 mph. Finally took the 525s to our local Tire Rack, and their above mentioned Hunter balancer has produced the best results so far. Good advice Dane.

 

I have had 6.00 and 7.50 Coker's on my sedan and a 35 3window, no issue at all... I have also used balance beads on a wide 5 when I couldnt find anyone to balance them. they were like magic... May be something to the smaller than 6.00 thing though.

 

.........You can't get much smoother than that!

 

.......I do agree that playing with the pressure a little bit can help sometimes, maybe not eliminate the problem, but make it more bearable. I'm always afraid though to get down in the 15-20 psi range, especially in hot weather.

 

Spoke with a Buddy about Coker tires, everyone he knows that has used them say they're junk. Won't balance, etc. Plus they screwed one guy after he mounted then and couldn't get them to balance, they said fine, ship 'em back.. he did, they tried to say he had used them, which was a lie...I'd look elsewhere.

 

Back ln the day a lot of businesses recapped bias ply tires and sometimes they had to shave the cap to get the cap true. I don't think it was common to shave new tires. I remember a lot of years running bias tires and never had one shaved. We only ran recap snow tires so they would have only been in the rear position. After managing a tire store for several years my opinion is that bias ply tires are junk and I wouldn't run them, but to each his own !

 

Well they were correct, those tires are used, I know if I bouth a new set of tires and got them and they had marks where they had been previously mounted on a rim I would be pissed as you would be, so there is no way they could ever sell those tires as new again, so I understand them saying they were used because they were! You should not bad mouth a company when they were in the right. I have delt with Coker many times, I have always been treated very well and their service has always been top notch, not only that but if you do the power tour they are a fantastic host site for that, they are fantastic folks and just because most of us "price shop" and Coker works very hard to give the old car comunity the best possible prices so they have the most sales their name is the one that turns up the most, so now if you all think the best solution is to go to another company, then by all means avoid Coker and see what happenes, I myself rembember scrounging swap meets trying to find a set of wide whites when they did not make them any more.....I am thrilled that there is a company like coker out there that is making the tires we all want and need, lets face it, now days we can buy justabout any kind of tire we want, redlines, widewhites, bias-slicks, pretty much anything is out there, and if you think a littel shake at 60 is bad, try a tire that has been sitting in some guys garage for the last 45 years.....Jim

 

They work fine for me