Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
Well, I guess its time to get new tires given age of my existing P4000 tires which have around 7,500 miles on them and spent most of their time garaged (there on a '66) After doing some research I am leaning towards getting a set of Uniroyals, either the Tiger Paw Touring or Tiger Paw AWP with 1 in. whitewall, I welcome your feedback, thanks
-
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
I recommend Walmart on-line order of basic black walls They will be dry rotten before they need to be replaced Last set I bought for my 60 were about $55 a tire No need to waste money for a non show carFounder - Carolinas Chapter NCRS -
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
I purchased the Tiger Paw AWP white wall tire a few months back. The black bled through the white walls. Had two sets of replacements sent and they were worse than on the car due to damage during transport.
I finally ordered some Diamondbacks.Comment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
One can never dispute taste and preference...there is no right or wrong...that being said I always thought that particular car always looked great with either the whitewall or gold wall tires, depending on paint, that were offered as options for that year. Both of those are offered by Coker Tire.Comment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
A couple of months ago I put a set of Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring tires on my '60. No complaints at all. I ordered blackwalls so no discoloring of the white walls. I ordered these thru WalMart and the cost was ~$72-ish with no shipping charged since I did in-store pick up.Comment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
If you are looking for a reasonably priced mass market whitewall radial not too many choices left out there. The Uniroyal Tigerpaw is one. Another good one is the Cooper Trendsetter SE. I run Firestone FR710 on my 66 most of the time, but these have also been discontinued, although some tire retailers may still have some in stock. If a blackwall is OK there are many options out there.Comment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
Yes, I did see your post. I have not seen this problem on Tigerpaws on customers cars, but those have been on there for awhile. Perhaps they changed how they are made. Bottom line, I'm not sure how good the TP whitewalls are these days, all I do know is that whitewalls are becoming hard to get in the size we need.Comment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
I was looking specifically for blackwalls and I had trouble finding some. In contrast, whitewalls turned up everywhere and tire store operators dismissed my preference by telling me to just mount the whitewall inboard.Comment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
Don't know where you looked, but if you go to a big tire website like Discount Tire you will find Hankook, Kumho, Goodyear, Century, GT, Yokohama, Cooper, General, Falken, Toyo, Bridgestone, and others in P215-70-R15. I repeat, the only radial tires hard to find are the whitewalls.
A search of Discount Tire finds 50 different tires in 215/70R15, only 4 are whitewalls!Comment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
Unfortunately, there are no replacements anywhere close to the quality and speed rating of those tires on the market today. I bought what was probably the last new set in America for sale several years back. John Seeley, I hope you are still enjoying them!Big Tanks In the High Mountains of New MexicoComment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
Anything above an "S" speed rated tire in these 15" sizes is virtually impossible to find. And, if one does find any, the chances are they have been on the shelf for a long time. However, for a normally driven Corvette, "S" rated is OK. Not for high performance, high speed driving, though.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
Then you didn't look very hard. Of course tire places want to sell you what they have in stock, perhaps your guys only had white walls. But the evidence is indisputable, blackwalls are readily available from multiple manufacturers, whitewalls no so much. I rest my case.Comment
-
Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires
Exactly. Those P-4000s are W-rated with a spiral wound nylon cap belt, and every other tire mentioned in this thread are cheap, S-rated that lack the spiral wound nylon cap belt safety feature that will keep the tire from disintegrating if there is an internal failure.
Given the car's use including indoor storage, 15 years is not that old, Those tires should be okay for at least another ten years. Inspect them at least annually and if there are no signs of age, like cracks in the sidewall rubber, then they are okay for normal service as long as they are not overloaded (tough to do with a Corvette) and run at high speed with insufficient pressure.
UV radiation and overloading with insufficient pressure that generates high operating temperatures is what kills tires. Deterioration on a typical vintage car stored inside and driven a few hundred to a few thousand miles per year is very slow, especially on high speed rated tires that have better design features and higher quality materials than typical cheap, low speed rated tires.
The only decent performance tires that I know of in vintage Corvette replacement sizes are the Avon CR6ZZ and Vredestein Sprint Classic. Both are blackwalls, which IMO look better on a vintage Corvette than whitewalls. I've never seen a vintage Porsche or Ferrari with whitewalls.
DukeComment
Comment