Customs Skinny tires/lightening up steering on stock front 53 Chevy

Hey everyone

I'm just putting the feelers out there as to what good radial tires there are that are that'll look right on a 53 Chevy. Currently I've got 205/75r15s on them. They have about a 5.5" wide tread on them and 27" diameter. Is there a decent radial out there that is around 4.75' wide tread with the same 27' diameter?

The steering is damn heaving driving around in the city and the like with the original front end on these chunky radials. It would be a good thing to take a bit of the load off the box and king pins as well.

I saw that Coker do a Bias Look Radial tire that's about 28.2" tall and 4.7" wide, but at $240 a tire I'd like to find out if there are more cost effective options.

Cheers in advance!

J

 

Try Diamond Back they have radials that have the look. You can get them white wall black wall or pinners from them. The blackwalls are called smoothies and have non of the modern **** on the sidewalls.

Google 'em.

 

All original front end and steering?

As an experiment I'd crank the tire pressure up to the max on the sidewall. and also check for effort with the front end in the air ( should be ~ zero). Once in a while strange things happen.

 

Thanks guys, just looking through the diamondback catalogue now. Yes with the wheels in the air its nice and light. No sense of it binding anywhere. The bushings on the sector shaft could do with replacement, there's a slight, visible rocking back and forth as the worm gear twists left and right. I don't imagine that'd lead to added pressure on the steering. Its all adjusted per the manual. The whole setup seems fine otherwise.

 

Steering and maneuvering an old style, manual steering vehicle is becoming a lost art. There have been at least 2 generations of drivers since power ***isted steering has become the norm. Even the old farts like me can have those manual steering skills forgotten and petrified in the back corner of their brains. The trick is to adjust your steering habits back to those days and only turn the steering wheel when your vehicle is rolling, not standing. There is only a fraction of the effort turning the steering wheel when the tires (tyres ) are rolling.

Say you have to back out of a parking space and continue straight ahead 90° to the right. With power ***ist, you turn while backing to the point where you figure you can reverse the steering wheel more or less to where your front tires are pointing in the direction you wish to proceed while you are sitting still, then roll forward. But with manual steering you should back up the same way but not reverse the steering wheel until you put the trans in 1st/forward and start your roll forward, then quickly begin to align the tires in the direction intended. This may take your vehicle slightly back toward the row of parked cars so you have to factor that in to how far you back up and compensate for it. You don't have to be Arnie Armstrong, the weight lifter or switch to skinny tires, which are not much of a solution, to do this.

Turn while rolling. It's the "traditional" way to steer.

 

and grease the front end.

 

Are you still running the stock steering wheel, or a smaller one?

 

I have a Cavalier R&P with stock front suspension and dropped uprights on my 53. It still takes a bit of maneuvering
as noted earlier, done while rolling. I'm running 195's in front and have had no issues. Turning radius is still pretty large though. 1953 technology remember.

 

Chevys like yours were considered "ladies cars" when they were new, easy to steer and park by even the least strong of the fairer ***. This is how they were advertised anyway. The tire size isn't as important as the construction and the pressure. These cars were built for bias ply tires with narrow treads, tire pressures on the upper end of the spectrum and large steering wheels. If you've changed any of these features you're bound to get increased steering effort. And, as was mentioned previously, learning to drive a manual-steering car is pretty important, too.

 

I think the HAMB spammers sell a product that will make heavy steering much easier. It comes in a pill, I believe. Check back on here later tonight, you should be able to order some.

 

i am running vw tires185/75/15 on 6"rims on the front of my 50 with the max air pressure. it is not like ps but it turns a lot better than the 205/70 that was on it

 

I use VW tires on many ol cars. I think they are 165/80R15. They look right on my 57 chevy, my 59 Ford, my 39 Ford.