Anyone using these tires ?

Darren Bedford

PCS Member
I need a few sets of new tires for my hearses. Both my 1962's could use new tires. One still has the bias ply tires it came with. The other has radials and rides much nicer. Safer over bumps in the road for sure.

It seams harder to find P235/75/R15 radial tires with a 1.6" whitewall these days. Easier to find a 2-3" whitewall but are not correct for a '60s Cadillac.

Firestone use to make an extra load tire and so did Michelin. Both have discontinued them.

I have found Lucas Tires in Springfield OH and Coker Tire both sell the
American Classic for 134.00 each.

I was wondering if anyone has these on their hearse or has any experience with them.


If you have any recommendations for tires, please let me know.


All info regarding tires would be helpful.


Thanks !
Darren
 
tires

Darren,
I am planning on putting Diamond Back radials on my 61 M-M. They seem to be able to supply about any width white wall or stripe that you want. I have seen pictures of wide and narrow white walls on early 60s cars. That seems to be the transition year(s) to the narrower type stripes. My 61 is on BF Goodrich 235 75R 15s now. It does ride and handle better than when it was fitted with the old bias type tires. Diamond Back has a tire that is a radial but has a more square molded sidewall. It looks a bit more like the old style bias tire but is a radial. They also have a few tires that are rated for extra load. With the weight of our coaches extra load range tires is probably a good idea. I had bias Cokers on my 61 for several years. They were good tires. They just wanted to follow road ruts and always seemed to need time to warm up before the thumping would stop. The steering and stopping and just overall ride is better on the radials.
Mike
 
Diamond Back tire will install any size whitewall on any tire that you want. They will purchase the tires that you request, and then they vulcanize the white rubber to the casing and machine it smooth. They do a great job, and I have never heard of anyone that wasn't satisfied with the final result. When our cars were new, most often they came with an 8 ply rated tire, which back in the day was equivalent to a truck tire. Back then, the tire manufacturers would make truck tires available in white walls to the automobile manufacturers. I distinctly remember the tires that came on our new 1969 Superior Ambulance, were distinctly marked on the side wall...... Ambulance Use...... I have often wondered if the tires used on the hearses were similarly marked....
 
I think Dan had found a different source of the extra load 235 he listed them in a different thread. me I would love to have a set of bias ply tires on my car. in the right size and load range. I'm thinking of having diamond do a set for me off the 700 x15. I had a set on the 72 when I got the car and it handled great. the 235s work but are small. on Jim's 66 I have notice that the speedometer is right on with them though. it's off 5 mph on mine. for no more then I drive the cars the thought of tread separation of the steel belted tires is to me a real fear. one never knows about good "old " tires with them. the bias ply ones can be weather checked to were you see the cords and you can still drive on them. if I drove it a lot and could wear out a set of tires then the radials would be the way to go.
 
As Paul stated Diamond Backs are great. I have them on my 49 S&S and am VERY happy with them.
Everyone discontinued the one inch white wall on a 14" tire (my 85 Superior FWD, and 14's are original size) so I will be buying Diamond Backs for them next.
 
re daimondbacks on '49

John, do you know what would have been the proper whitewall width for '49 era hearses? Thanks in advance. Doug
 
John, do you know what would have been the proper whitewall width for '49 era hearses? Thanks in advance. Doug

I would have to look when I get home, but that may be a few days at least so be paitent. I cant even think of what is on there now but it is close. Also, they are radials. The '49 commercial chassis used 16" rims which mine still has, starting in 1950 they were 15".
I know, Im not much help at the moment.
 
Darren,

In answer to your original question, I have a set of the American Classic 235 75 R 15 with 1.6" whitewall on my 1991 Cadillac Brougham rear-drive six-door limousine, and have no negative issues with them. I have had them on my car for about a year now, and my limo is also my daily driver, and they are holding up just fine. My only comment that even comes close to being a complaint, is that they feel a bit slippery in wet weather to me, but not enough for me to consider it a problem. Assuming that you would be placing these on a nice weather only collector car, I don't think the comment I just made about slipperiness would be a concern.

Another tire that was discussed here on the PCS board a few months back is called the Runway Enduro 75, which is also a 235 75 R 15 with a 1" white wall. They are also much more affordable than the American Classics. I put a set of these on my 1980 Superior Cadillac hearse last fall, just before putting the car away for the winter, so although I have limited experience with driving on them thus far, I am impressed with how they appear to have held up the weight of the coach over the past few months. One thing that disappoints me, though, is that even just sitting there, the whitewalls have browned over the winter, so I suspect that keeping them clean and white may be a future issue.

And speaking of keeping white walls clean, I don't know if this is news to any of you, but its a new discovery to me. I have found that the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser does an unexpectedly good job of cleaning up whitewalls. Unfortunately, my experience so far has been that one eraser will only clean three tires before it falls apart, so I don't think they are a long term cleaning answer. But I do think that since water is all you need with them to clean, that throwing a couple into a travel car care kit would be a quick and easy way to do a last minute whitewall clean at a show.
 
Thanks to all that have posted comments or suggestions !


There is a guy here in Ontario who deals in Diamond Back tires.
He said they usually are Cooper Tires and he mentioned to me that they had a problem last year with the tires "browning".

He mentioned that there is a layer between the black tire and whitewall to prevent the whitewall from "yellowing" which would be fantastic.
It looks nasty when you have a whitewall that has yellowed or even browned.


I will look into Diamond Back Tires and see what I can find.


If not, I may try the American Classics.


If anyone else has any comments or suggestions regarding tires, Please post them ! Im sure everyone in this awesome club will be looking for tires at some point soon.


Thanks very much !
Darren
 
Thanks to all that have posted comments or suggestions !


There is a guy here in Ontario who deals in Diamond Back tires.
He said they usually are Cooper Tires and he mentioned to me that they had a problem last year with the tires "browning".

He mentioned that there is a layer between the black tire and whitewall to prevent the whitewall from "yellowing" which would be fantastic.
It looks nasty when you have a whitewall that has yellowed or even browned.




Diamond backs browning? I think they are guaranteed from doing this and will replace them if they do. My Diamond Backs are Hankook tires.

They recommend cleaning with simple green and a green scotch brite pad, and it works great. I have has them on the car for over 5 years now and they still look new, with many miles on them. One more thing is the whitewalls are very smooth, unlike regular wws that seem to be more porus. If they get scuffed the scotch brite pad will clean it right off.
 
No matter what brand of whitewall tire you finally settle on, never, ever use Bleach White Whitewall Tire Cleaner on them. It will destroy the white rubber compound and make the whitewalls chalky. I learned this lesson the hard way, having used Bleach White on my 1964 Chevy Corvair tires many years ago. Back then, I hadn't learned about how destructive to the tires that Bleach White was. It was only after talking to some tire manufacturer representatives that I learned why the whitewall became chalky after just a couple of years... Now I only use Simple Green....
 
I put Runway 75's on a few cars and had good luck with them. They come in 215/225 or 235. The white wall is 1.25, not as wide as the 1.6 but they are half the price too. I also have a set of American Classics on my 83 S&S, they look and ride good. Never had a problem with any of them.
 
So I ended up ordering a set of Diamond Back tires from Bill the owner who answered the phone today.

What I was recommended was the 235/75/15 Diamond Back Fury made by Cooper tires. They will have a 1.5" whitewall starting 1" up from the rim.

The price was 208.00 each and 66.00 UPS to Michigan, 898.00 total.

I was going to go with the American Classics but thought I would try these instead.

I will get them from a friends place when I go to the MM reunion and book signing May 21-22 in Piqua.

I mentioned they were going on a 62 Cadillac Hearse and wanted something that would handle the extra load. He said they were for good for 2100lbs per tire.

Hopefully all goes well and I like them.

I was going to order two sets at the same time, one for each '62 I have, but I decided to wait and check them out first. I can order the second set later and pick them up in Albany in the summer.

Thanks again for the info and suggestions.

Take care and keep posting tire stories to this thread !
Darren
 
I have Firestone 721's on my '53 flower car, '60 hearse, and '76 hearse. I've had great success with them, with the single exception that one of the 721's on my '60 Eureka blew out near Newton Iowa in 2005, returning from the Des Moines CLC Meet.

As part of the restoration of my '54 Eureka, I wanted very wide whitewalls on it, but still wanted the safety and ride of radials. I chose a set of Cokers, the specifics of which I don't remember. Suffice it to say that the tires I bought did not seem to tolerate the weight of the hearse. I had two major episodes of tread separation, but no blowouts. Two of the Cokers are still on the front of the hearse, showing the wider white, but the rears have been changed to some spare 721 Firestones I have. As many years had gone by, I never contacted Coker to attempt any warranty, even though I felt I didn't get my money's worth with the tires I bought from them, as the tires actually had relatively few miles on them. I'm hoping that their quality of manufacture has improved enough to be able to handle the weight of our commercial chassis cars.

Tom

54_45angle.jpg
 
John, do you know what would have been the proper whitewall width for '49 era hearses? Thanks in advance. Doug

Sorry it took so long to answer. An original 49 CC tire I had is a 750x16 with a 4" WW. I now have 215/85R16 (which is a 700x16) with a 3.75" WW from Diamondback Classics (Hankook tire). I believe they have the correct replacement size also but when I bought my 49 it was running 700x16 and I didnt know at the time the correct ones were 750x16.
Hope this helps some.
 
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