Tires F70-15

[Jerome E Pederson]

I am considering buying a set of 14 year old F70-15's for my 1972 Corvette. they have low miles less then 1000 and have been stored, off the rims, for 12 years. They appear to be in very good shape. Is there anything I s/b concerned about regarding the age of them?

Also is there a way of determining the age of tires, i.e. by date code/USDOT codes? Is there a web site?

[Jack H.]

Re: Tires F70-15

"Also is there a way of determining the age of tires, i.e. by date code/USDOT codes? Is there a web site?"

You don't need a website... Most of the Judging Guide books tell you how to decode the DOT sequence that was standardized across tire mfgrs in 1971. The last three digits of the sequence embossed in the sidewall recite the week of the year and last digit of the year the tire was originally made (WWY). When we crossed the century mark, that went to a 4-digit sequence, WWYY to differentiate between the two centurys.

[John H.]

Re: Tires F70-15

Jerome -

I sure hope you're not planning on driving on them

[Jerome E Pederson]

Re: Tires F70-15

Thanks John. I am not even thinking about buying them now. Between you and Doc Love I am convinced. What are your thoughts on buying reproductions from Coker?

Thanks Again.

Jerry

[John H.]

Re: Tires F70-15

Jerome -

I have no experience with reproduction bias-ply tires, but I've had one set of really good and one set of really bad Coker radials; I've gotten my radials from Diamondback ever since. I wouldn't even consider using bias-ply tires any more, from any manufacturer.

[Joe L.]

Re: Tires F70-15

Jerry-----

It depends what's most important to you. If you want absolute originality and still have a tire that's safe to drive on, the Kelsey Tire reproduction of the Goodyear Speedway Wide Tread is the most authentic tire currently available for 68-72 Corvettes. It will not handle as well as radials, of course, but it's very authentic. It's as safe or safer than tires originally installed on the car.

The Coker offering is the Firestone Wide Oval. Firestone Wide Ovals were originally used on many 68-72 Corvettes. However, it was not the same Wide Oval as is reproduced by Coker today. The Corvette Wide Ovals were nylon cord, bias ply (just like the Goodyear Speedway Wide Tread described above). The Wide Ovals used on other cars of the period were fiberglass belted tires and this is what Coker reproduces. The tread pattern on the two Firestone tires was slightly different, but similar. Although I've never driven on the Coker reproductions, I consider a fiberglass belted, bias ply tire to be a very good road tire. I remeber well when I finally switched from fiberglass belted bias ply tires to radials on my Corvette many years ago. I felt that there was a LOSS of handling (although the car rode much smoother and softer on the radials). So, I think that the Coker Firestone Wide Ovals might be a good compromise between a reproduction tire and a road tire.