Technical Towel City Tires-they recapp piecrust slicks

I am fortunate to live a couple hours away from Towel City Tire. I made a trip up last year to get a pair of course tread drag tires for the rear and a pair of wide whites for the front of my 61. The guys at Towel City were super nice to deal with and took the time to show us around and give us a tutorial and tour of their recapping business. The only complaint I have is one of my whitewalls turned a brownish hue thru the 1st few months. I contacted Towel City and they said they would redo the whitewall, no cost to me. Before I sent them the tire, the issue resolved itself. The last time I thoroughly cleaned the whitewall, it has stayed white since. The drag tires I got from them hook great and have worn very well.

I don't have any personal experience with Hurst tires but I also would not buy them just simply because of the totally unproffesional post that is made by the owner. Got to remeber that the way you conduct yourself still matters.

 

Amen! Cody is the one that started the bashing of Towell City tires. Towell City is an A-1 business. Cody's lack of professionisnm and customer service (lack of) speaks for itself!

 

my friend bought his 10 in. pie crusts from towel city last year. they look great. i bought mine the year before, from Hurst....SAD

 

I was wondering about the used casings that these retread companies use. With all the hubub about not using radial tires that are too old, is the retread industry bound by the same laws about selling tires that are too old?
Also many retread companies buff the side wall. Do they remove the date code on the old tire? Then we would have no way of knowing exactly how old they were when they received the new tread. Just curious......

 

In regards to Fordy's post, and from a strictly product based view, I have the same thing with my 30x10 slicks on the Henry J. They are very heavy and took a lot of weight also. I can't remember the how much exactly, but it is in the ball park of what you have posted above. The 1st time I had them mounted on new 15x10 torq thrust Ds. I finally told the guy balancing the tires to stop adding weight. The second time, I had them remounted on 15x8 Romeo Palamides wheels by our local hot rod shop that can be trusted. They balanced out, but took so much weight I had to reconfigure the layout of the wheel weights on the wheels so they would clear the brake calipers. The weights were stacked 4 high. I never contacted Cody about this. I have always assumed that was the nature of a recap.

I haven't gotten the car out for spring yet, but last year it felt like it was going to shake apart. Part of it was due to flat spots on my coker front runners front sitting all winter. The Hurst tires were not under the car during last winter. After putting miles on the car, it did get better, but the car always shakes some with the pie crusts. I won't take them down the track, but that's also because the weight slows the car down.

I don't think my car sees enough miles for the tires to true up like Cody says they might. I really like 2 things about my Hursts, they look cool and there is so much rubber on them, that even after coming on 4 years of 3rd gear burnouts, I still have miles of rubber left.

I don't take them over 100 mph. I realize I probably made the mistake of leaving the car on the ground this winter instead of putting stands under it. I will probably have some ugly flat spots in the tires this spring that will need to be driven out. This is a problem likely to happen with any tire. Wrinkle walls are the same way, but the weight, thickness, and hardness of the recaps seem to amplify it.

I speak from experience of driving on the Hurst slicks only. I have never had a chance to actually drive on a set of Towel City tires for comparison.

 

This thread was created strictly as an informative read for those interested in purchasing a set of vintage slicks. I'm not interested in choosing a side on the subject, since I support US business, particularly family owned small businesses. The products speak for themselves and that's what this is about. I hope the business owners reading this thread can do their best to take these posts as constructive criticism for bettering their products. There are few tire companies in this market, and I hope the narrow competition will inspire improvements and new products as opposed to sabotage. We all benefit from a better product and a better selection. Nobody benefits from the latter. The audience is there to support this.

 

TC Pie Crusts. Happy Customer!
/

 

There aint no Fakebook " Like " on Hamb ... Soo I will just say I totaly agree with Von Hartmann .

Klaz

 

^^^^^What he said!

 

All I've gotten out of this thread is that I wouldn't buy pie crust recap slicks from anybody. Y'all have a nice day.

Bob

 

towel city retreads is just up the road from me. family owned and operated since day one.when i was younger i ran their retreads with no problems on all type of cars and trucks.they have some frontrunners for hotrods that i am considering for my 26coupe. they have slick sidewalls-thats what iam looking for. TCR has always beat everyones prices on new tires in this area on name brands. they back up their products also................

 

I have hurst cheaters on my truck that were real heavy, needed a ton of weight to balance(they sent me a big weight to glue inside)I love the look but they are coming apart already and from what I see on here I'm screwed.

 

just buy the radirs and be done with it. they are new tires not retreads. the power levels available today are very different from the sixties. the tires hook and last along time. i have used them for years and have had several sets with no problems ever. durometer readings are 60 that is exactly the same as my kids nitto extreme drag radials.

 

Call Cody, tell him what's going on and he will stand good for it. It's really very simple. I have 8 customer cars running around Phoenix with their recap cheaters on all year 'round and have not had any problems. And, if any climate will kill a recap, it's a 118 degree day in Phoenix.

Years ago, right BEFORE Cody and his dad acquired Hurst, I bought a pair of cheaters from the previous company owners that just weren't right. Cody made good on the grounds that they NOW owned the name and it was important that the product was right. Having been in customer service related businesses all of my life, it just doesn't get any better than that.

 

Where are they coming apart, were they made with new casings or old casings ??

 

they are old casings,they have splits on the caps and where the new meets the old there peeling on the inside only,one side has ridges where the cap meets the tire but not on the inside,i did call cody and have to send him pictures but I know there's no way you can fix this,we'll see

 

well, I did call cody talked for quite awhile and the problem is solved,seems like a good guy

 

That's good to hear he makes a nice product, and we need to support a family business in our Hobby

 

I just remounted my 30x10 Hurst slicks on my mags I run on the street. These are the same tires I have been running on the street for the last 4 years. I have the same cracking on the inner sidewall that was mentioned in the above post. I had it looked at by some people who know recaps and it's just cosmetic.

So here is my report on the 30x10 Hurst slicks after about 5500 miles over 4 years on a gasser that is very abused. I remounted and balanced them when one of my tubes went bad. They now have new race tubes and are mounted on 15x8 magnesium wheels. They ride better now than they ever have. They also took the least weight they ever have (still kind of a lot, but not as much).

They are heavy tires, because there is a lot of rubber on them. After all the burnouts I've done, the bottom of the tread is still no where in sight. When I race, I run a set of wrinkle wall Racemasters. When I want to do burnouts, I run my Hurst slicks.

I'm currently running my Hurst slicks on the street with a 4.56 spool. They see powerslides and 7000 rpm burnouts on every outing and so far, I have not had a problem.

 

I've had a pair of Hurst on my Falcon since I got it on the road earlier this year. In my haste to get going I didn't have them balanced, and probably wont. I've had the car up around 100 mph, and not even a tiny vibration from these unbalanced tires. I hear all the stories of how much weight recapped tires can need, but I sure didn't have that with my 10x15 Hurst slicks.

 

Ran Towel city tires on dirt long ago. Run them on my 39 , love them. One small problem years ago and they took care of it immediately. Also helps when you are only 5 minutes away , but from my experience with them they would be the only ones i would deal with if I were on the west coast

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Were running the Towel City pie crust slicks on our 62 Falcon gasser. We love them, quick service and a good price to boot! Very sticky! I know we will definatly buy them again!

http://www.towelcityracingtires.com/Pie_Crust_Cheater_Slicks.html

 

I have run a set of Hurst slicks on my 55 Chevy for five years. They did not balance for shit. I beat on them on the street but will not race with them at a drag strip. I would have to say that the consistency in the quality of Hurst tires seems to be hit and miss. I put my M/T ET drags on that hook, and are true, and much less weight. Its all about the right tool for the job. Let's be honest, these recap tires are more SHOW than GO. Period.

 

Just run Radirs. New tires made by Mickey Thompson.

 

If you can be bothered with the wait, their service is absolute shit, bought them through one of their dealers, quoted $340 each charged $390 each (this was not Radirs issue) but they did take about 2 1/2 months to ship, im not impatient but if you say you have them in stock and the customer fronts up with the coin, don't fuck them around.
In saying that they are still the best tyres on the market.

 

for those having a balance problems try finding a shop that has a hunter road balancer. since i have had my tires balanced this way the mysterious vibrations have gone away. its worth the extra effort.

 

Had towel city on 2cars and i dident even balance them.

 

had towel city recaps on a circle track car when we ran the lower classes which required street legal tires. rules said no recaps but we didn't give a shit, they were very fast but if you spun the car out sometimes the cap would come off and you were instantly busted........

 

So I'm very new to this subject and I may have missed something here, but are these recaps made using New tires or Old tires? Cause it may be just me not understanding much about these tires, but I'd be really nervous about not only spending my hard saved cash on them and not run right, but also putting my safety at greater risk than necessary... Can you set me straight on this? Thanks.


TRADITION NEVER DIES!

 

Oh my ride is not used for drag racing at all. Just the usual pissing contests around town, street light to street light really. Occasional burnouts in the back streets... But I do step on it quite a bit..


TRADITION NEVER DIES!