Tires

[66bird428]

Cooper no longer makes the whitewall 225 75 R15.
Any thoughts regarding the hankook kinergy ST?
Ironman? Vercelli?
Jeremy

[Rusty57]

This summer I installed a set of Hankook Energy ST's on our '57. The size is 215/75-14. I ordered them through Tire Rack.

Your assessment in your prior thread is correct. There are not many choices for tires in our size ranges these days. It is even more limited if you want a whitewall. I also looked at the Ironman and Vercelli tires. I decided that I needed to go with a better known name brand.

We are pleased with the ride and handling improvement compared to the 10+ year old Semperit (another off-brand) radials. On our car I have determined that 33 psi all around seems to be the "sweet" spot for ride and handling.

There are 2 limitations I had to deal with. One is that due to the low demand for these tires, the inventory does not move quickly. The 4 tires I got were at least a year old. I think one of them was 18 months old.

The other is that on all of them there were whitewall blemishes. On 2 of them the blemishes were so visible that Tire Rack refunded the cost of one tire.

Our car is a nice driver car. 99% of the people do not notice that the tires are not wide whitewalls nor do they see the blemishes. I have those 2 tires on the rear so often the blemishes are not visible due to the fender skirts.

I am very satisfied with my decision to use a modern radial given the tremendous cost advantage. That is even more relevant when I know that we will never drive the car enough to wear them out in the next 10 years.

[66bird428]

Rusty,
My radial hankook are 11 years old. They appear in perfect condition. I took the car to a local tire shop and they agree.
Any thoughts on how much time is too much? I believe the car has been garaged in California since the tires were installed.
Jeremy

[Sierra John]

I got my Travelstar 225 75 R15 tires (whitewalls) almost 10 years ago. Still look like new. Got them at Pep Boys. I see that Walmart sells them too ($95).

[Rusty57]

You are asking the “$64,000” question. There is no correct or perfect answer. This will get to be a longer answer than you might like. But it is not a simple question with a black and white answer.

Obviuosly the tire and car manufacturers will recommend replacing tires is as short a time as 5 years. Their motivation is to minimize their liability exposure in case of tire failure as well as monetary benefits for them.

The number I see most frequently is 10 years. Of course there are variables that shorten or extend the usable life of a tire. Exposure to heat, sunlight, and ozone (produced when electrical equipment starts) all shorten tire life.

As a side note, my personal view is that “nitrogen filled” tires have no different life than those filled with regular air. First of all, regular air is already 80% nitrogen. The second is that unless you pull a vacuum on the tire before you fill it with the nitrogen there will be one atmosphere of regular air in the tire. So it is not filled with 100% nitrogen.

While I agree that 10 years old tires might “look” okay, are they really capable of performing like a 3 to 5 years old tire? Did the inspection include de-mounting the tire and inspecting thr inner liner?

I personally was not comfortable having my wife drive our car with the 13 year old tires. I agree that there was plenty of tread and there were no visible defects. I could tell that the rubber had hardened with age. It was very easy to spin the tires under acceleration, lock them up under braking, and slide the front end in a turn. One reason I did use them for a couple of years before I replaced them was because the car was almost exclusively driven in town at speeds less than 50 mph. The time at speeds 60 and above was very short duration. I am more comfortable driving the car these days. I am even more comfortable when my wife takes the car.

You need to your own cost/benefit/risk analysis. How much do you plan to drive the car and under what conditions? For example, I have a friend who has an over 100 car private collection. I know for a fact that most of the tires on the cars are over 10 years old and many over 20. The reality is that except for a few of those cars, most are driven maybe 10 miles once a quarter. So the risk of old tires is pretty low for him.

Here is another way to think of your question. Even though the possibility of a failure is low, what is the range of consequences?

[Richard]

I Bought Coopers for the second time last year. The first ones were 10 years old and about 13k on them. For the price of the Coopers this time at $110 apiece I think cheap insurance to stay safe. I guess next time will have an issue since Coopers no longer being made our size. I did check how old they were when I bought them and they were 6 months since manufacture.
I mentioned this in another thread that a guy at our annual Tbird/Ford show last year had tires from 1999. I tried to explain to him the risks of old tires even though they don't look old but he wouldn't listen. Talked to him 5 times during the show last year but this year I just ignored him. Very foolish..

[jtschug]

I had a 20 year old tire come apart. It was off balance and out-of-round when driving. Then I took the wheels and tires off to get the tires changed and within a couple days one of the tires just split open

[Alan H. Tast]

This is what remained of a 27-year-old tire I had on my Roadster. On the outside everything looked fine up until this happened. Coming home from a show I heard a thumping noise and pulled over on the shoulder to find my tread had come flying off the carcass. Luckily I was able to drive the rest of the way home (about 6 miles) on what remained.

The next day I went to a local Discount Tire outlet and got a set of 5 Hankook Optimo H724s and new inner tubes.

Fast forward to today (actually about 2 weeks ago). I thought I'd check back with the place I got the tires from to find out what the current availability was for a new set as I have 18- going on 19-year-old Goodyear Arrivas on my hardtop. "No longer available" turned up for 14- and 15-inch Optimo 724s in the sizes I would need (I knew 14s were virtually non-existent and have been considering switching to 15"x5.5" rims if I could find any).

Mind you, I love the ride of the Optimos and the price I got them for in 2018, but this is now coming on 2024 and the world has changed. I know I need to change out the tires on my hardtop as they're not holding air like they should and are well past the 6- and 10-year dates recommended to replace them. I do have a set of bias-ply reproduction Goodyear Super Polycushions that I put about 5,000 miles on, but I'm leery about mounting them (if I can find someone willing to mount a 23-year old bias ply tire) and putting them into use.

I guess I need to see if I can get a set of the Hankook Kinergy STs or any of the others shown locally. Otherwise, it's probably going to be off to American Classics, Diamondback or Coker for a set of repop bias-plys or something close in radials with a white-stripe sidewall.

[Rt.146]

Tire air pressure,is taken from the plate on the driver door or frame, on modern cars, Classics may be different where one would find the pressure needed, the pressure rating on the tire itself is not what is to be used. Possibly a factor to take in, is any weight reduction, eg.,iron manifold to aluminum manifold, at least fifty pound difference or changing the iron tire rims for lighter rims.

[Rusty57]

Alan,

You assessment is correct that the choice of tires for these classic cars is fairly limited. You either spend the big bucks for the "classic car" tires or struggle to find a modern whitewall radial.

In the March of 2022 I placed an order with Coker for bias look radials for our '57. At the end of October last year they could not even estimate a delivery date. By then I had re-assessed our use of the car and whether the $1500 cost was worth it to us. So I cancelled that order.

In the spring this year I started the same search that 66bird428 just completed. First of all, the choice of any tires in this size range is pretty limited. Add the whitewall requirement and you are down to about 5 sources for a modern radial. Hankook was the only major name brand I could find.

I am not making any statement about the quality or suitability of the other brands. For me the overall cost was so much lower than the classic tires on the market that I was more than willing to pay the slight increase to get a name brand.

One other detail I learned in my search is that the nominal size designation is more of "suggestion" to each manufacturer. For example, on our '57 (yes, I know this is the wrong forum) I was able to use the "larger" 215/75-R14 Hankook tire. Most people recommend that you use the 205 to void rubbing the fender skirts. The actual width was not much more than other brand's 205's and I gained back some of the diameter you lose with a 75 series tire.

[66bird428]

When I got the car 5 years ago there was a slow air leak from one of the tires. I thought it was from the spokes in the wire wheels. Brought it to a local wheel expert and he resealed the inside where the spokes insert.
Since starting this post, I’ve now noticed lower air in one of the tires a month after filling. Is this problem usually the spokes in the wire wheels or the old tires? Much appreciated.

[losendos]

When I got the car 5 years ago there was a slow air leak from one of the tires. I thought it was from the spokes in the wire wheels. Brought it to a local wheel expert and he resealed the inside where the spokes insert.
Since starting this post, I’ve now noticed lower air in one of the tires a month after filling. Is this problem usually the spokes in the wire wheels or the old tires? Much appreciated.

How old are the tires? It's recommended that tires 10 years or older be replaced, even if they look good.

If you don't have tubes, it's probably leaking from the spokes. You can always apply soapy water to the bead area and where the spokes go into the rim. If you see bubbles, you found the leak.