Just noticed on the specs page of the '37 Chevy Coupe feature in the latest Rodder's Journal that the owner is running bias ply tires on the front and radials on the rear. I have always understood that this combo will lead to very erratic handling and is actually dangerous. Does anyone have experience attempting to run a bias and radial mix of tires? Jerome
I ran radials on the back and bias plys on the front of my 48 Plymouth for about a month before I located a set of matching wheels. I didn't notice anything unusual about the handling. Maybe if it were reversed and the radials were on the front and the bias on the rear???
They used to say that radials were good followers but poor leaders. I have run radials on the rear and bias on the front alot with no ill handleing effects. Of course I didn't grow up driving a lexus either so maybe I just don't know.
I think the adverse effects pertain more to side to side, than front to back. As in, a left front radial, and a right front bias ply.
Back in the day when there was alot of mixing going on it was Bias in the front, and radial in the rear... The reason for that was, if the radials were on the front, and you entered a turn the radial will roll to the side and when it's done rolling over it stops, and tends to pitch the rear of the car. A squared off bias tire in the back does not follow the flexing to the side of the front radial tire... Don't know what the laws are today, but that's how it used to be done...
back when radials first came out everyone ran radials on the front and bias on the rear, skinny michelins up front and protac 50's out back, there were no wide radials, we had a michelin plant in my home town, and this was the early 70's and all the cars were jacked up as high as we could get them, handling was not a concern.
I ran radials in the front and bias in the rear(they were studded snows) . It was winter in New England, I was poor, And laws (if any) are made to be broken. With that experiance the assend wiggled making corners. It may have been the rims were too wide for the tires? But I dont think so. It didn't look out of place. Allmost felt like tread seperation at hard turns.
Not something I would do, but then I'm kinda a freak about handling and pushing those qualities. I did it many years ago on one of my bugs, 135x15 on the front and 5.60x15 on the rear... two complete ground loops in late afternoon Indian School road traffic is terrifying!!!
I had a '63 Impala that came to me radial front and bias rear mix on stock wheels. It was so scary I wouldn't drive over 60 before I changed tires. The rear felt sliding either way all the time. The same I experienced driving my buddy's '39 pickup with well worn original everything. It almost changed lanes at 50 mph. I had to steer correct all the time.
My gasser, I ran radials on front and cheater slicks on back. In every day driving, I never noticed any ill handling but then again, it wasn't a canyon carver. LOL
This subject is one those types that have been determined by educated people (engineers) to be something very dangerous, at least often enough under common conditions, to be vigorously discouraged. I did it once about 30 years ago, unknowing, and soon found it was a very scary result on that particular vehicle. I am not now, nor was I then, or ever, a "wimp" driver. Nonetheless, there is NEVER any doubt when subjects like this are broached, that are thought to be what is called "settled science", that some swinging dick, and his equally chromosome challenged cousin, will swear they have done it (whatever "it" is) with absolutely no Ill effects. Same can be said by SOME players of Russian Roulette.......but certainly not all. Ray
What I figured out back when I was in a position to do it is that you have to run the radials hard. I should say that running radials and bias plys was never out of choice at least not like hey I'm going to build my next car with radials and bias plys it was always a financial decision. Actually when I was living in the rain forest and spent a good portion of my time off road or on logging roads I found that radials had a tendency to pick up rocks and puncture and if you wanted them to live you had to run them hard anyway.
Wussies! I drove a 1972 Lincoln with radials on the front and bias on the rear for 6 months once, as daily transportation. It was fun - the rear end would wiggle around like there was ice on the road, and you could swing it out real easy in a corner. But it was still a lot safer than the bald radials I replaced them with. I also ran radials on the back of a 1971 skylark for a week or so that had bias on the front. It was less of an adventure to drive than the Lincoln. Like everyone said: the rear end went where the front end did. It didn't feel substantially different than the same car with bias all around. But when I got the radials on the front to make it radials all around there was a night-and-day difference in the tracking, steering, and handling. Suddenly the car stopped following grooves in the road and wandering in turns. Never ran bias tires again after that. Was around 1990. So: Bias all around, okay. Bias front, radials rear, okay Radials front, bias rear, okay if you want to pretend you're "drifting" all the time Radials all around, nice nice nice.
PorknBeaner........no offense intended......when I wrote that I wasn't even fully aware of who had posted......just that it has become a pet peeve of mine that a certain percentage of responders ALWAYS claim they have defied physics, gravity, mortality...whatever. Besides, I have never met your cousin! Regards, Ray
The main thing is that you can never let your attention wander from the task of driving the car for even a couple of seconds or it will do something that wasn't in the plans. Like some of the others I did it back years ago because I was broke at the time and on a road trip I thought the power steering was out or had gone bad. A tire change at the other end of the trip fixed the problem and it drove great all the way back. On a drag only car with skinny radials on the front on narrow rims and slicks on the back it probably isn't nearly as noticeable as it would be on a street car being driven under all conditions.
Ray, You are as least offensive as anyone I know. Don't sweat it speak your mind. Gawd knows I'm gonna speak mine.
Not sure I can agree with all the above. My experience was with a 1980 Datsun long bed pickup. Stock front narrow 6 ply bias tires.....rears were a bit oversize radial snow tire on stock rim. Perhaps they were also a little soft on inflation, at least for this mismatch application, though adequately inflated for the weight of the truck. I was astounded at how 'loose' the rear of the truck felt. I had lots of experience with radial tires by then.....had been running them on my OT personal cars since 1969 ......but never had a bias/radial combo on any of them. Well, since the truck was to be used for daily shop truck duties, driven by several people, the mismatch was quickly remedied. Too long ago to remember if I went to all bias or all radials, but it got fixed quickly. Ray
NO NO NO NEVER!!!!! You can put them on there but its not a very good idea to do so. People say they have done it without issues. but some people dont know when they are ((((OUT OF CONTROL))))and will never notice something is wrong. I saw a guy driving down the interstate with a rear tire so slack it was smoking and he didn't even notice it. I came along side and pointed it out. He just nodded and kept on going .
Lets throw a new Hurst cheater slick into the mix. Capped over a radial core, should you run a radial or bias up front? Or does it even matter?
My '60 Pontiac came with radials on the front and bias on the back. Going home up a smooth interstate it was scary to drive because every ridge in the road - and they'd tar seam sealed some cracks along the shoulder for like 50 miles - the back end wanted to follow those ridges. Terribly uncomfortable to drive. I swapped on some slightly dryrotted old radials with about half the tread life left I had and it was like night and day - with radials that car handled like a slot car, I could go full bore around sharp curves and not even squeal the tires. Wide track and long wheelbase was a part of that, though.
I once had a car with radials, one night driving home from work my left front tire blew out, grabbed my spare, turned out to be bias. Now I had one of each up front and boy did I notice, scaaarrrryyyy.
I ran radials on the front of my gasser for a couple runs...scared the shit out of me.....very eratic at high speed....I looked at everything on the car....couldn't find any problem and then finally somebody clued me in...I took the radials off and put Micky Thompson front runners on and now it goes straight thru the lights...the difference is night and day....now when people are experiencing handling problems like that, it's the first thing I look at.
I ran Mickey Thompson Sportsmans (bias) with some skinny 165R15 front tires. The huge Mickeys used to like following the ruts on the highway but I never had issues at highway speed on a smooth road. I'd do it again.
Back in the transition years we mixed bias and radials [always kept the same type on an axle] on the family fleet to use up tires [mostly the seasonal snows] with out major problems for the most part. Included were 2 Mavericks, a '71 and a '75, one had no problems mixing while we just got by with the other. Sure didn't want to test any limits with that one - could feel 'em coming on fast. Forget now which combinations did and did not work. Our experience says do any mixing with caution, it might work and might not, a lot depending on the individual car, it's set up, and the type of driving it's used for Ed.
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