Another tire question

[Terry M.]

Re: Another tire question

The "Sup-R-Belts" have been marketed by Coker Tire for the last 25 or so years. They were replacements for the OEM "Nylon Cord" Firestone tires as early as 1971.

Jeff, I would be inclined to read that date as 16 07 = the 16th week of 2007, but the history of the tires would tell us a lot more about the date than the numbers alson will.

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: Another tire question

Terry:
You are probably right about the date although I wasn't aware that these tires were sold as recently as 2007. I have a set of these and I will check the TIC on them for a clue when I go into the shop this morning.
Jeff

[Terry M.]

Re: Another tire question

I think I saw a Coker ad for them in the last Driveline. Of course even if one buys "new" tires for a driver car they can be a couple of years old before they reach your car, so being made in 2007 is probably a stretch -- unless Coker is selling a lot more of them than I think.

[Kenneth H.]

Re: Another tire question

Terry, Jeffrey,

Thanks for the info. As a matter of fact, The tires were on the LT1 when I purchased it last July (2008). The seller made a big deal about how he had just had new tires installed about a month before. They are in new condition (all of the nubs still attached, paint dabs present, tread like new, rubber not hard or cracked) so I've got to believe that the previous owner was being truthful and that he had recently purchased them.

Jeffrey, I googled McCreary in hopes of finding more info on the tires, but they appear to have changed their name some years ago and don't seem to be making classic tires anymore. The tire guy (actually a very large and well known family owned business since 1934 in my area) said that he thought that they were Coker's. However, I don't know if he has any knowledge that would allow him to identify a particular manufacturers' reproduction tires since the idea with repros is to make them look like the original and not an aftermarket tire.

Thanks,

[Terry M.]

Re: Another tire question

Terry, Jeffrey,

Thanks for the info. As a matter of fact, The tires were on the LT1 when I purchased it last July (2008). The seller made a big deal about how he had just had new tires installed about a month before. They are in new condition (all of the nubs still attached, paint dabs present, tread like new, rubber not hard or cracked) so I've got to believe that the previous owner was being truthful and that he had recently purchased them.

Jeffrey, I googled McCreary in hopes of finding more info on the tires, but they appear to have changed their name some years ago and don't seem to be making classic tires anymore. The tire guy (actually a very large and well known family owned business since 1934 in my area) said that he thought that they were Coker's. However, I don't know if he has any knowledge that would allow him to identify a particular manufacturers' reproduction tires since the idea with repros is to make them look like the original and not an aftermarket tire.

Thanks,

Ken,
That history argues for the 2007 date. So those are relatively new tires.

While the theory of a reproduction is to make a part that looks like the original, in the case of the Coker Firestones the reality is not quite that.
We made a point in the TIM&JG of pointing out the difference between the OEM Firestone Nylon Cord tires and the commonly available reproduction "Sup-R-Belt". The "Sup-R-Belt" was NEVER an OEM Corvette tire. The OEM Firestone tires were Nylon Cord, and said so on the sidewall. As the "Sup-R-Belt" name suggests, those tires are belted tires. That is one generation of tire technology newer than the OEM belted tires. FWIW: The next generation of tire technology after the belted tire was the radial tire.

The Coker Firestone belted tire also has configuration differences with the OEM cord tires in the area of the number of ribs in the tread pattern.

[Kenneth H.]

Re: Another tire question

Terry, Thanks. What I was trying to express (unsuccessfully) was that the manufacturer typically doesn't place prominent identifying marks on the tire, because otherwise it wouldn't be a proper reproduction. As I understood, these tires weren't appropriate for my LT1 on numerous levels (configuration, material, markings, etc.) and that's why I replaced them. If I ever decide to use repro tires I'm going with the Kelsey Goodyears. They seem to be the most correct for my 'vette.

So it sounds like these are probably Coker tires. Are there any other manufacturers' out there that might have made these specific tires? Also, I wonder if it makes sense to call Coker to see if they can ID these tires as theirs?

Thanks.

[Terry M.]

[Kenneth H.]

Re: Another tire question

Terry & Jeffrey,

I finally got it all figured out. You're both right. I spoke to Technical Support at Coker Tire and Customer Support at McCreary Tire (actually Speciality Tires of America since 1992). What I didn't realize was that Coker doesn't manufacture tires. They own the licenses and the original molds, but they contract with tire manufactures to make their tires. And they also allow other tire distributors to sell their licensed tires.

The Firestone tires in question were manufactured by Speciality Tires of America (formerly McCreary Tire) under Coker Tire's license agreement with Firestone. They were manufactured in the 16th week of 2007. They may have been purchased directly from Coker Tire or from any number of other tire distributors. Dennis at Speciality Tires identified that Universal Tire has an agreement with Coker to distribute these same tires so there's no way to identify which specific distributor they were purchased from.

Thanks, to both of you for your help. I wouldn't have been able to get as far as I did without your input to this thread.

Thanks.

[Terry M.]

Re: Another tire question

Thanks to you we now know more about the distribution of these tires. That is all good to know.

[Fred D.]

Re: Another tire question

I thought I share my experience with tires on my '72, hoping it might help someone in the future.

Within the last month, I took off my old Goodyear Eagle GT radials, and put on the F70/15 Speedway RWL from Kelsey Tire. My tank sticker says RWL tires, but doesn't specify which tire in particular. I the spare tire I have is Uniroyal Tiger Paw (bias ply) and I suspect it to be original. In addition to a tire change, I removed my gas shocks and put on oil filled AC Delco Pliacell shocks.

My impressions are as follows (in no particular order):

* The most noticeable thing is that the bias ply tires tend to track grooves or contours in the road surface, which results in a lot of unwanted travel. This is in comparison to the radials, which are much, much less likely to do so. This bias ply travel seems to diminish slightly as the tires warm up.

* The overall ride & handling is only slightly diminished. I tad more 'bumpy' but not horribly worse. This could be attributed to the shocks more than the tires.?

* I did notice a slight rub on tight corners. I haven't driven the car that much but bet it is the location as mentioned by someone above (Patrick I think).

* I'm not unhappy with the changes I've made, and, at this point I'm not planning to get a 2nd set of rims and put radials on them, switch back to gas shocks, etc. I think I'll ride the OEM setup for a while and see if my opinion changes.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: Another tire question

Ken:
Did they tell you how to decode the TIC? It would be very helpful to know what numbers/letters mean. I doubt that the last 4 digits refer to the date as was suggested by Terry- 1607= 16th week of '07 since my last 4 digits are 6211 (2 tires) and 6171 (2 tires). Maybe I'm missing something (which would be par for the course).
Jeff

[Terry M.]

Re: Another tire question

Jeff,
The post 1971 code -- as mandated by the Federal DOT -- is:

For 1971 (from about Spring of 1971) to 1999 = the last three numbers of the code are WWY as in week week year. So 368 would be 36th week of 1978, 1988, or 1998.

For 2000 and up the code is WWYY. So as you saw 1607 = 16th week of 2007.

I am certain this is well covered on the Internet, and was extremely well covered a few years ago when Ford had tire difficulties with the Explorer. I even had colleagues at work calling me out to the parking lot to show them the date codes on their spare tires.

And I teach these codes to my students in my Adult Education auto shop class. The RMA (Rubber Manufacturers Association) has a pretty good educational program on their web site.

Some brands of tires started the four-character dating before 2000. In dating the tires on the student's cars we have found we have to be a little flexible in which code to apply if the tire was manufactured around the turn of the century.

[Kenneth H.]

Re: Another tire question

Jeffrey,

What Terry said! Dennis at Speciality Tires didn't go into the earlier DOT coding, but he did explain the date coding on my tires, just as Terry explained it.

[Joe L.]

Re: Another tire question

Terry & Jeffrey,

I finally got it all figured out. You're both right. I spoke to Technical Support at Coker Tire and Customer Support at McCreary Tire (actually Speciality Tires of America since 1992). What I didn't realize was that Coker doesn't manufacture tires. They own the licenses and the original molds, but they contract with tire manufactures to make their tires. And they also allow other tire distributors to sell their licensed tires.

The Firestone tires in question were manufactured by Speciality Tires of America (formerly McCreary Tire) under Coker Tire's license agreement with Firestone. They were manufactured in the 16th week of 2007. They may have been purchased directly from Coker Tire or from any number of other tire distributors. Dennis at Speciality Tires identified that Universal Tire has an agreement with Coker to distribute these same tires so there's no way to identify which specific distributor they were purchased from.

Thanks, to both of you for your help. I wouldn't have been able to get as far as I did without your input to this thread.

Thanks.

Ken----


Yes, neither Coker nor Kelsey have ever manufactured any tires that I am aware of. Basically, it's just as you found out-----they own the molds and branding rights from the original manufacturers and have the tires manufactured by others. Manufacturing tires from "scratch" is not something that one could afford to set up to do within the small volume constraints of the reproduction tire market. In fact, if I had thought that these tires were manufactured in some "backroom" operation by either Kelsey or Coker, I would never have even considered using them or recommending them to anyone else.

Once-upon-a-time, I was told that the Kelsey Goodyear reproductions were manufactured by Kelly-Springfield which is owned by Goodyear. I don't know if they still are. Hopefully, someone who has purchased a set recently could report on the tire coding on their tires and we could then confirm the current manufacturer.

I was also once told that the Coker Firestone reproductions were manufactured by a Firestone tire plant somewhere in South America. Whether, or not, that was ever the case, they're apparently no longer manufactured there.

[Joe L.]

Re: Another tire question

I thought I share my experience with tires on my '72, hoping it might help someone in the future.

Within the last month, I took off my old Goodyear Eagle GT radials, and put on the F70/15 Speedway RWL from Kelsey Tire. My tank sticker says RWL tires, but doesn't specify which tire in particular. I the spare tire I have is Uniroyal Tiger Paw (bias ply) and I suspect it to be original. In addition to a tire change, I removed my gas shocks and put on oil filled AC Delco Pliacell shocks.

My impressions are as follows (in no particular order):

* The most noticeable thing is that the bias ply tires tend to track grooves or contours in the road surface, which results in a lot of unwanted travel. This is in comparison to the radials, which are much, much less likely to do so. This bias ply travel seems to diminish slightly as the tires warm up.

* The overall ride & handling is only slightly diminished. I tad more 'bumpy' but not horribly worse. This could be attributed to the shocks more than the tires.?

* I did notice a slight rub on tight corners. I haven't driven the car that much but bet it is the location as mentioned by someone above (Patrick I think).

* I'm not unhappy with the changes I've made, and, at this point I'm not planning to get a 2nd set of rims and put radials on them, switch back to gas shocks, etc. I think I'll ride the OEM setup for a while and see if my opinion changes.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

Fred-----


I've heard all sorts of "horror stories" about the miserable performance of these original-type tires for use on the road. However, when my 1969 was new, I just don't recall the tire performance to have been really all that bad. The only thing that I recall as being "bad" about the tires was that they didn't last too long (and I NEVER drove this car hard or "burned rubber" with it---NEVER).

When the original set wore out, I recall I considered replacing them with the same tires but decided against it due to the short life. Instead, I went with Goodyear Polyglas GT's of F-70-15 size. I LOVED these tires and went through several sets over the years. They lasted a LOT longer than the original tires and handled MUCH better. In fact, I definitely recall that when the Polyglas GT's became unavailable and I had to switch to radials, I noticed a HUGE loss in handling performance of the car. I was greatly disappointed but I "learned to live with it". Radials have improved a lot since then but I still think the Polyglas GT's would rival the current radials. And, reproductions of the Polyglass GT's are now available from Kelsey, albeit quite costly.

Could you provide the tire coding on the Kelsey Goodyear reproductions you purchased? I'd like to confirm the current manufacturer that manufactures them for Kelsey.