Coker tubes = Crap?

Just bought 4 new firestones with matching tubes 7.50/16 rear, 6.00/16 front from the nearest coker dealer, listed on thier website. Before I got them home after mounting them one of the rears went flat, pin hole in the seam, unrepairable. So the tire shop put a generic 16" tube in for me. Now yesterday I go to the garage and one of the front ones are flat, the tire guy said that it was from were they folded the tubes, caused a line that leaked. He said it was like they were old or cheap discount tubes. Got him to fix it but before I got home it was flat again, no doubt another hole.

Haven't had a chance to phone the dealer yet, working a stupid hetic schedule. Just wondering if its even worth it, or are the new tubes (if they reinburse me) going to be as awful as these ones or should I just go and get all generic tubes. Its a good thing I know the tire guys here well or else this could get costly even better that I'm not driving this thing.

 

i got a set from them, with tubes, and i have no problems,,,so far.....

 

sounds like the tire shop pinched your tubes and is covering their asses. most of todays auto tire shops arent real good with tubes.

 

I agree 100%. Mounting tube-type tires is becoming another lost art. If they got pinched while mounting the tires they will most always give you troubles at some point, normally real quickly.

Coker sells so many tubes, that I highly doubt that they have alot of old tubes around for those size tires, which are real common/popular sellers

 

also you can't have ANY crap on the wheel or inside the tire, it will rub through. i had cronic flat tire problems on, of all things, my girlfriends new schwinn bicycle, after patching and replacing the tubes several times(and blaming it on her ass) i finally pulled the rim strip out, only to find that there were tons of microscopic metal shavings from assembling the rim and spokes. cleaned it real good, end of problems.

 

I bought a set of 4 Firestones w/ tubes for ny Model T from Coker last year. I mounted them myself using some equipment that a freind has at his house. I had no problems at all.

My guess is the shop screwd up. Mounting tires with tube isn't rocket science, but I bet that the guys at most tire shops don't have the finesse (sp) to do it right.

 

Also, next time make SURE the tire shop inflates the tube, then lets the air out, then re-inflate. This insures the wrinkles are out of the tube and it comforts to the wheel and tire BEFORE running it. On the first air-up, if the tube is pinched and you run it, it will go flat 99% of the time. I owned a tire store in the 80's when tubes were still fairly common.

 

Dude listen to the fellow Hambers my man,The tire shop=crap.Coker has top Quality stuff and they back it.I got tubes in my fronts and they are perfect-a mundo.

Find a real tire shop,or get a couple of screw drivers and do it yourself next time....HAHA Sorry bout your aggravation though,but you should have known better,you can't have a kid who grew up with 20's on his ricer put tubes in your tires.It ain't right.

 

Tires have tubes in them????

 

Get the bad tubes and inspect them your self, probably not a pin hole.

 

How anyone can realistically blame a tire company for a tube problem is beyond me.
You need to take a pill.

 

Not to be redundant but, I use a shitload of tires and tubes purchased from Coker and haven't had a problem yet other than needing to true up a tire from time to time.

 

Another possibility is that the tubes are too large for the tire - happened to a pal once.

 

Reminds me of when I worked in a bicycle shop.

I worked for a Schwinn dealer for 10 years, through high-school and college. In that time, I bet I sold/installed at least 10,000 tubes. I can only remember 1 single time that a tube I ran across actually had a defect. I can remember countless times that tubes were pinched when installed.

See, with a bike, the tube has to be inflated first, stuck in the tire, then the tire put on the rim. I imagine a car is the same way. If the shop tried to put in the tube uninflated, it will pinch on the rim.

Just a thought.

 

They should have started with sticking the tube in the tire and inflating fully up with the core out. That sets the tube in the tire, and also tests for leaks. Then you put the core in, inflate partially, then stick the whole assembly on. Had they done that they'd have known if there was a leak. My guess is they didn't know what they were doing........

I manhandle tubes with tire irons and beating the tires on, and as long as it is partially inlfated to set it right when fully inflated, I never have a problem. When it's flat and you try to do it, the tube folds over on itself and tends to rip when you air it up

 

You got screwed, blued, and tatooed by your tire "buddy". He thinks your an idiot and probably has no clue who Coker is. You need to find another shop, but, before you do, you need to remove Coker from your title and replace it with the name of the tire shop so nobody else gets s,b,t'd.

 

I've had problems with the tubes I received from Coker too. Being too large for 5.00-16 tires...caused them to wrinkle badly in the tire and eventually wear through at the folds. I started a post about the problem a few months ago with pictures of one of the folded up tubes. I buy my tubes at a local tire shop now. And I always mount them myself.

-Jeff

 

I've been in the tire biz 33 years, and it sounds like you're being BS'd by the shop that mounted them.

The "pinhole" could be from a lot of things: burr on the rim, improper mounting by the shop, something actually in the tire (valve core?). Was the hole on the OD or on the belly? A bad splice is possible, but extrememly rare; the tubes are checked by the mfg.

As far as the "fold causing a leak", the tube would have to be ancient and left folded up and out of its plastic bag for A LONG time to get to that state.
The shop probably pinched it during the mounting process.

You CAN do it yourself, with a couple of old spring leafs and some liquid soap. Check some old posts for details.

Cut Coker some slack (this time)

 

What *kantgetnun* said sounds like the truth to me........I have been running the exact same tire/tube setup for about 4-5 years with never a problem.....I have the Firestone 6.00/16 bias ply dirt tracker ribbed fronts with Coker's tubes, and the 7.60/16 bias ply tall Firestone rears........

I agree that that the tire shops really have no expertise in dealing with tubed tires anymore.....all they understand is *tubeless*.....

My $0.02

Brucie

 

Hey relax everyone. Should have had a question mark after the crap.. lol. Ooops.
I seen the tubes there was a pin hole on the seam. They said you could patch anywhere but the seam. The other he said you could see where the fold was from packaging. It started to rip along that line.
But this could have happened too...

They do lots of tires for the shop I work for, farm stuff, all tubed. Never had a problem with thier work. Not saying they couldn't have fucked it up. I mostly wanted to see if anyone else had problems, if it'd be even worth it to get new tubes and if theres a problem with mounting generic 16" tubes in my tires. I honestly forgot the ? mark, meant to be a question and not a statement. Sorry if it was wrote the wrong way.
As far as thier work, I just got them to mount the generic tube in the tire today and I'll see how that lasts.

 

The guys from coker are HAMB'ers themselves and have posted on here before. They will be the first to admit that sometimes a bad tire or tube may get by q.c. and get to the customer, but they also will be the first to do everything to make it right! Just ask them. I had a whitewall come in that I couldn't get clean and called them, without hesitsation they made it right and I had a new tire within days!

 

I have bought several sets of tires with tubes from them. I did have 2 tubes that split on a seam, kind of strange. Rather than hassle with the return it was easier to go to the local tire store and buy new. Just bought new Excelsor comp tires 550-16 and 750-16 and the tubes with them were excellent quality.

 

maybe just an accident, or the dealer maybe doesn't sell enough and had some old ones. Doubt its worth the hassle to pay the long distance calls and to ship the old ones back and shipping on new ones. Super happy with the tires though, they are awesome.

 

Another thing ya' can do is sprinkle baby powder inside the tire and on the tube during the mounting process.

Inflate, then deflate and then re-inflate. This helps to get rid of possible flat tire causing rinkles in the tube.

 

hahaha

WELCOME TO TUBES!

What you've got is called a "pinch flat". It's not uncommon in any tire that runs tubes... when they are installed by someone who doesn't know how to properly mount them.

Tell your shop that they are shitheads, and bring it elsewhere.

PS: Coker tubes are just like any other tubes... if you install them properly, they work just fine.

 

sometimes tubes dry rot and they do leak at the folds.some of us are old enuf to remember all that shit,the problem hes discribing is not from a pinched tube.
randy

 

And some of us are young enough to ride pedal bikes, and deal with tubes everyday. I go through no less than 50 tubes a summer on my bike usually. On top of that, I ride classic motorcycles as a main mode of transportation. Please don't try to use your age to lecture me about tubes. There's nothing more annoying that the whole "I know what I'm talking about cause I'm older" line.

Also, what he's describing IS likely a pinch flat. A small pinhole. Likely a pinch flat, as there would be a seam tear on a dry rotted tube I would bet.

He mentions that it's from where the tube was "folded" implying that Coker folded the tube and this caused a lateral tear? Come on....

Besides, its not even a problem he's describing. He didn't even check it out himself, he's just repeating what some "highly trained professional" at the local shop told him.

Coming from a background where I deal with wheelsets that run tubes all the time, I'm gonna go ahead and bet it was a pinch flat caused by the person installing not knowing how to propely seat a tire/prep a tube once you've got the tube in there. Especially considering the two tubes both killed themselved really quickly at the same time like that. Sounds like "user error" to me.

You can disagree if you'd like, doesn't bug me one bit.

 

I did check the tube, but am not a tire expert I seen a pin hole. Like mentioned before they do alot, I mean alot of tubed tires for the shop I work for. Never had a problem with thier work, so the assumption is that they know how to mount tubes.

The one lasted for about 4 days before it went flat, all from sitting in the garage. They figured is was from where they were folded and sitting in the sun. It was packaged folded.

Last thing the tire shop guys aren't my buddies, work deals with them so I've bought some tires there and they give me pretty good deals. Not like its my friend or anything. When I brought the first flat in they said that they could have pinched it when they put it on, but they took it apart and found the seam hole and said it was tube problem.

Its not that big of deal, just wondered if anyone else had problems, and if theres a problem mounting 16" generic tubes in these tires, anyone?