Coker Tires - Is it just me??

So you get your new car and the tires are shaved and you're cruising and you accelerate over 65 and your front end starts bouncing all over hell and back bucking your newly painted 32 shell to hell and back want do you do?

 

That's exactly the way I remember it. Those that think that what is being described here about bias tires is the way it was back in the day, and just quirks from antiquated technology can forget that notion.

The first widespread tire defects I can remember happened after radials hit the market, and most car guys wouldn't have anything to do with them for a long time.

 

Add one more to the list. It's not just you. The road might as well be a trampoline with those bias ply Cokers.

 

I did not read all of the posts and somebody may have already mentioned this. Those little front tires are rotating a lot faster than the 7.00x16. They are probably going 90 mph when the back ones are going 65. I have 12 Coker bias tires and they work fine.

 

I am not sure what 5:25x16 bias tires actually were used on in the old days. They sure were not stock tires on old Fords. Maybe they were used on little Fiats, small sports cars and Croslies (sp).
They were probably small cars and did not weigh a lot and top speed was 40 mph. Now you have under sized tires going 90 mph when the car is going 65 mph on old rims and probably a after market front end which is probably installed wrong, lets not consider the spring rate that is not matched to the car weight and the tires are probably not the problem. Lets add a big block super charged engine to the picture. Lets not pay attention to the Ackerman theory. The load carrying capacity of the tire should never be questioned. Lets split the front and back wish bones and not worry about how the axles rotate vertically. Lets throw in some chrome shock absorbers and not consider the damping rate.

 

It seems to me that ANY tire you buy shouldn't have to be shaved to work right, last time I checked tires were a mount and balance item. How would you feel about buying brake rotors/drums that should be a bolt on and need to be turned before you install them?

 

I think they arch brake shoes to fit the drum. This is a common practice but I am not an expert.

 

Have any of you Coker bashers stopped to think about why a tire shaving machine was invented? You see. before the radial tire overtook the market in the ’60s and ’70s. Before then, tire manufacturing was not very accurate and new tires actually came with extra tread—they were so far out of round, you’d need to have your installer shave tread off to make them circular or “true.” And so, shortly after the radial tire’s popularity brought with it advances in tire manufacturing, those tire shaving machines and the guys that ran them began to fade away. It's my understanding that when you bought a set of new tires before the advent of radials they shaved the tires true. They didn't tell you about it or charge you extra, they just did it because that's what you did when installing new tires. So with Coker using ORIGINAL molds, it's no surprise that the tires are out of round....It's normal.

At least this is what I understand and my opinion. Your mileage may vary....

 

A tire being out of round fresh out of the mold is understandable. The fact that someone would sell a tire these days without it being ready to mount and balance and run down the road well is asinine. I think Coker should be truing them before they leave the factory. Maybe someone should go "discount tire old lady" on them

 

read posts 156 and 157- It is probably not the tires

 

If it isn't the tires then why have several posters here said that their symptoms go away when the tires are changed? Got an answer for that one? I wouldn't be suprised if you were someone from coker, they've had a bit of a checkered past when it comes to internet forums. For the record, I don't and haven't ever even owned a Coker tire

 

with todays technology this shit should be a thing of the past. either get with it, or get the heck out of the way.
After hearing of all these issues and what you have to do to a brand new tire to make it round , who would bother?
vote with your wallet, if that dont wake um up..screw thier shit

 

There's a lot of finger pointing going on here. A lot of it is pointing at Coker. The issue here is the fact that bias ply tires have and alway had a greater potential to be out of round then modern radial tires. This is not unique to Coker. I ran bias plies on all my cars (my "A" coupe, my '40, '49) back in the day and yes they did a lot of strange things like thumping, pulling one way or another, developing flatspots and, ply separation and were more subject to blowouts. Most of the tires were good but a few were bad. We took it for granted back then because it was the best we had.

Fast forward to today and suddenly we are looking at the same 50 year old problems on the same 50 year old tire designs. You want the look of "classic" tires on your hot rod then why would you expect anything different. You expect today's technology to solve 50 year old problems on 50 year old designs, good luck. It's like expecting a early '30's top shifter to suddenly growing helical first gears.

 

Wow, I can't believe this thread is still alive... Doesn't Coker sell radials that look like bias ply? Problem solved!

 

^word!
It's unreasonable to expect that these tires perform any different than 60 years ago. They were not made for 80 mph highway cruising. That's why they also make the radials that look somewhat like the bias plys.

 

Just remember you are balancing tires for 75 mph when those little front ones are actually doing 100 mph. I do not work for Coker and my only connection is a satisfied customer. Again the 4.75x16 where never designed to go 100 mph and never designed to carry that much weight at 100 mph. I guess I could figure the rpm difference between the small front tires and and the big back tires but I have to go buy Mrs Sturgis Christmas present and Sears closes early today and the dog wants outside. He dose not know the meaning of "NO".

 

I bought two sets of US Royals, one for my 61 Caddy and the other for my 59 El Camino from Coker, they are awesome, the Caddy drives like a new car now, well it did have really shitty tires on it before but the Elky had new radials on it and it actually drives better with the bias plies, the handling is not as good which is understandable but the ride is smooth.
On top of it all their service was really great.

 

If you have a car with 4 small tires, and you go 70 mph, all 4 tires are going 70 mph. If you put larger tires on the back and go 70 mph, all 4 tires are still going 70 mph. The front tires aren't turning any faster than they were with small tires on the back...the larger back tires are simply turning less revolutions than the small front tires, but they are both only going 70 mph...my .02 cents.

 

Larry, put the egg nog down and slowly back away from the computer, : Merry Christmas !!!!

 

I 100% agree with traditional racing. Too much egg nog for this early in the morning. The wrong application of the product, the problems should not be blamed on the manufacturer.

Thanks for understanding Traditional Racing.

 

I want to buy some tires from Coker, but I'm going to wait until at least 95% of the feedback on the H.A.M.B. is positive. Until then, I'll run as old looking radials as I can find. If Corkey wants my money, he will have to step up. Hope he does.

 

I remember my Grandfathers tell me how much better radials were when they finally came out and how bias ply would freeze flat spots in the winter, wobble, and all sorts of other stuff. Also, in the 1930s-1950s the speed limit was between 35 mph to a maximum of 60 mph of highways after WWII. I'm sure they worked fine for that.

 

With my '64 I am active on the Corvette Forum among 60,000 other regular visitors. There seem to be many more complaints about Coker than any other tire brand, many of the dissatisfied seem happier with subsequent Diamondback purchases.

But Coker does sponsor and contribute a lot to old car events of all types, so maybe we should just accept their products as truly representative of the bad old days, to be driven on slowly at classic judging events, then swapped back for radials to drive home.

 

Thanks STURGIS39, I was just busting Larry's chops, we do that to each other now and then all in good fun.

Actually tire manufactureres use something called " Revolutions Per Mile ", when discussing and rating tires. Yes the smaller diameter front tires " revolve " much faster than the larger rear tires, but yes Larry- everything is going 70 Miles per Hour, then again we are all going like 107,000 KmH kilometers per hour with the earth's rotation, shit now I'm really confused, more egg nog please, TR

 

Just returned all four of my 16" Firestone WWWs to Coker for a full refund. They ran smooth, but every one of them was blistering and splitting on the whitewall. I WILL say they were great to work with, no hassles. What I can't figure out is why I've got 60-year-old www tires in the yard that have sat in the elements for years and still look great. WTF are they doing different now??

 

I am a happy Coker bias ply customer. Bought a set for my hotrod 34' pickup and had a buddy at Discount Tire balance them. They were a dream to ride on, no shake or wobble or darting all over the road. They even seen triple digits on the freeway on several occasions.

 

The quality of the rubber compounds have changed-I have 22year old Firestones on my shoebox - other than being hard as a rock still rolling just find and look good too, but I rather have newer tires on-Corky wants too much for his tires now. I bought a set in 2004 and I was ok with the prices then, but now-wow!

 

Used Dyna beads in firestone dirt trackers as they were too big to fit the balancer machine. Smoothed everything out a treat. THEN fitted Cokers ribbed on the front, frickin nightmare, nearly destroyed the front end. Tried all I could think of including dyna beads but NOTHING can really fix out of round tyres like some shitty secondhand radials. Dont look so good but no fear.

 

note to self...remove Traditions Racing form xmas card list...

 

I can not see how you mounted the tie rod. If the tie rod is in front of the axle you have ignored the Ackerman theory and that is your problem and not the tire problem. Post another picture of the front end from the front end.