Thread: My next move with hiboy's metamorphosis

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Yeah, I'm brand new to this Hot Rodding deal and don't know a thing!!!

No, not saying that Dave, but as Joey said, if we wanted to be "absolutely safe" we would only be driving cars with airbags, ABS, etc. Hot rods are always a compromise, and lets face it, a car with no hood or fenders is a little less than ideal safteywise, but we still do it.

There are bias plys on the 5 cars sitting in our shop right now, and I wouldn't see my Sons driving on them if I thought they were unsafe. Like I said, I drove my rod pretty much as my only car for 7 years, and we get some heavy rains and hot weather here in Florida. Never has the car not tracked straight as an arrow, even at 70-80 mph when things were wet. Yeah, leaving a traffic light it tended to want to go sideways, but that is more a factor of high hp and no weight in the rear.

In fact, I think radials would impart different handling characteristics to the cars, as these early Ford type suspensions were designed for bias ply tires.

But that is what makes horse races, I guess. We all have our opinions and likes and dislikes.

Don

As an aside, I was in the Marine industry for 18 years. Most boat trailers come with bias ply tires, and I asked a trailer manufacturer why that was one time. He said bias plys are recommended if you trailer your boat long distances because radials have more sidesway. He said use radials if you only go from your house to the launch ramp, and use bias plys if you go on long trips with it.


Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

As an aside, I was in the Marine industry for 18 years. Most boat trailers come with bias ply tires, and I asked a trailer manufacturer why that was one time. He said bias plys are recommended if you trailer your boat long distances because radials have more sidesway. He said use radials if you only go from your house to the launch ramp, and use bias plys if you go on long trips with it.


Don

Interesting.

My three year old 20' enclosed box trailer came with radials from the manufacturer.
They are genuine trailer tires.
Granted, dumb sounding statement, but the sidewalls are imprinted with "trailer" and they run at 50# pressure and are about 25" tall.

The trailer did well a couple of summers back . . . pulled it's gross weight of 7000# across the desert in August.
Ran 60-70 mph depending.
Ambient temps ran 100 - 109 degrees F.

Other than the desert winds there were no sway problems.

The only tire problem we had was hitting a sharp piece of steel on a pullout which caused the tire to blow.

I didn't know trailer bias-plies were still available.

Originally Posted by C9x

Interesting.

My three year old 20' enclosed box trailer came with radials from the manufacturer.
They are genuine trailer tires.

My 1995 Pace enclosed car trailer came with radials also.
Goodyear Marathons
especially designed for trailers with " trailer only " cast into the sidewall.



My 2004 Horton Hauler ( motorcyle ) enclosed trailer has the same tires.
I have a new V-nose Pace Aero - Sport car enclosed trailer on order ... and the Goodyear Marathons are standard on it also ( spec sheet ) .

I prefer radials on my 32's ... but the Faith wants to try bias plys ...

I agree with Dave. Bias ply tires do not handle well and I too have concerns about them in the rain. My personal experience is on a heavier car though. I guess I don't really understand the look deal though. To each his own.

You'll never know if you don't try them though. But I know I felt the difference starting with backing the Monte out of the parking space at Firestone back in 1977.

Regards, Kitz

Joey, to answer your question, my front wheels are 5 inches wide. The 6 inch might cause the tires to bow out a little, and generally you want them to look sort of square. I think my fronts are US Royals and the rear are Commanders (?) but it has been a while since I ordered them, so I will have to look and get back to you. (my rear wheels are 7 inchers)


Originally Posted by SBC
Excuse my ignorance - but what is different about the 'look'.

Higher sidewalls?
Tread pattern?

Why hasn't someone made a bias looking radial?


To me, radials just look too "new". The sidewalls are too rounded, instead of squared off like bias plys. I know I live in the past, but we all build our cars to achieve a certain look and feel, and bias plys do that for me. I've looked at some of the radials that mimick the bias ply look, and they still don't do it for me.

As for life expectancy, the tires that are mocked up on the rear of my kids T bucket are the original L78's I bought in about 1990, and ran on my '27 for 7 years. There is still half tread left, and I did one or two smokey burnouts during that time. They will never see the road again because of pure age, but they could.

Don

Yes, the "look" can be many different things to many different people, and every style of car has different things that help give it "the look"... Would Chip Foose's Riddler winners have this "look" if he threw bias ply tires on them? Of course not... and i'm certainly not saying every car needs bias plys to look right. Hiboygirl's car is not a Chip Foose car, its a basically traditional styled/themed car, which is the perfect cantidate for bias ply tires IMO. I think a big part of "the look" is to try to not clash themes... not to say it can't be done tastefully and successfully, but generally speaking, a traditional/nostalgic style hotrod with radials brings about the same analogy as a Chip Foose car with bias plys. The tires don't fit the theme of the car in either case. I do agree that everyones car should be done the way they like it, not they way someone else likes it, I just never understood why people get so up in arms whenever someone says they want to run bias ply tires.