Decided to use 235/75R/15's in the rear, but not sure about up front. The car has 4' dropped axle with reversed spring and split wishbone. Was thinking 185/65R/ 15's, does this sound about right? Would like to keep the tires same brand all the way around.
The 185's are about all there are in smaller 15" radials. I ran my '36 with 600 and 700-16 bias ties, but when I looked for 15" radials for my '40 the sizes that you are looking at were about the only choice that I thought looked decent.
I have 185's on the front and 255's on the rear of the 40. The rack is a little tough to steer at low speed if inflation is less than 35#.
185-65-15 is a pretty small diameter at 24.5". If it is on a '36 with a 4" drop with reversed eye spring and anything else done to lower it, you will be scraping the chin right off the grille.
Thanks for the info, with my sloped driveway sounds like I would have a real problem. Will look for something a little taller.
Am now thinking 205/75/15. Trying to find blackwalls with no white lettering is proving to be challenging in the size I want.
205's w/ your 4" dropped axle will likely be too tall, and may even rub the fenders, fully locked. Check inflated diameter..(I have them on my 36 w/ stock 40 axle and reversed eye spring and they "look" a bit large at 27 1/2". However, recap/rollers are not always accurate in sizing). 195's may be the ticket but they are an odd-ball size.
I just wanted to chime in here and politely inform you guys that when referring the metric tire measurements that first number is not the tires height. A "205" could be any height. I will use this as an example 205/75R15. 205 is the actually tread width of the tire in millimeters. 75 is the aspect ratio which is the side wall height in a pecentage of the tread with. And of course R15 is radial tire 15" wheel. So to figure that in inches 205÷25.4=8.07" tread width. Then multiply by aspect ratio so in this case 8.07"x0.75=6.05" side wall height. Multiply that by two and add rim size and you will have your height. So 6.05"x2=12.10" 12.10"+15"=27" So a 205/75R15 is 8.07" wide and 27" tall. I just wanted to bring this up because I see and know people all the time order tire****uming the first number is referring to a tires profile height. Sent via Illinois Bell Telephone Company's Car Radiotelephone
A friend is going thru this problem on his 36 right now. A group of guys were discussing the problem. He has a 4 inch drop 40 axle under his 36. His tires rub. The solution, according to guys who are Ford guys, was that the 40 axle is too wide. Nobody got a tape out, just a point agreed on by them. You need a 36 droped axle so you can turn.
I tried to find 195s for the '40, but couldn't (at least in WWW radial). Below 205, 185 is all I was able to locate.
heres a couple pics. 165/80/15's front 235/75/15 rear. 4" dropped axle and reverse eye springs and minus a couple leafs in the rear. Gary
The "traditional set up on these cars and most other fat fendered cars for the last thirty five years has been a 235/75-15 on the back on a 7" or possibly 8" wheel, (though I've even stretched them over 8 1/2" mags before) and a 165 sr-15 up front on a 5"-6" wheel. This always looks just right and isn't hard to find. Recently, the old designation of 165sr-15 has been replaced with 165/80-15. I have also seen 165/85-15 in some companies designations. It took care of the 15 year old problem of the shiny 23 year old counter kid saying "there is no such thing as a 165-15, 'cause it doesn't have enough numbers..." Firestone makes a very nice 165 r-15 called the f560 series that can be had through ANY Firestone dealer as special order. Don't let the now 29 year shiny counter guy tell you it can't be had, because it can be. Also, this same size tire is available through ANY VW oriented shop on the planet, as this size has been replacement size for air cooled VWs for well over 30 years now.
That is correct, back in the day the only aspect ratios made were 82 (which was considered "low-profile") and 92. So they often abbreviated the measurement. Sent via Illinois Bell Telephone Company's Car Radiotelephone
BF goodrich makes a Radial T/A-155/80-15, that is 24.8 tall, (I will run this on a 4.5" rim),the problem is the matching rear is 235/70-15, at 28.0 tall, (run this on a 6 or 6.5 width rim) there is no 235/75-15, that would be about 28.8 tall. Worse comes to worse I can run a 225/70-15 on the same rim and get a 27.4 tall tire. This is the setup I plan on using on my '40 4" drop in the front w/poise reverse eye and a posie reverse eye out back. 235/75-15 tires in most major manufacturers are reserved for SUVs and trucks. off brands often have car tires in the 75 aspect ratio but I too want to keep my tires "matched".
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