These wheels were built for bias ply tires. Once radials are put on them they will flex too much at high speeds. Of course age and usage make the condition worse. Tony Val Jeffers wrote: > > So you don't ever want to mount new radials on the old wheels ? > > Val Jeffers > In Almost Heaven WV ! > --- On Tue, 8/11/09, Ryan Hill < ryan_hillc300@ hotmail.com > wrote: > From: Ryan Hill < ryan_hillc300@ hotmail.com > > Subject: RE: [Chrysler300] 300F Tire questions - again! > To: awrdoc@yahoo. com , cpaviper@comcast. net > Cc: "Chrysler 300" < chrysler300@ yahoogroups. com > > Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 1:35 PM > > Just a quick observation regarding the failure of original steel wheels with or without radials. > It seems to me that these failures have far more to do with fatigue and usage than age or design themselves. I would bet a high milage 50 year old set of wheels that have been exposed to high temperatures, flexing (fatigue), and no doubt some degree of corrosion over the course of a half century are more likely to fail than the same wheel that has low or no milage, regardless of the tire mounted on it. I'd be looking to build sets from all those spare tire rims that have barely been used. > Ryan Hill (Vancouver, B.C.) > '65 Chrysler 300 > '68 Dodge Charger > To: cpaviper@comcast. net > CC: Chrysler300@ yahoogroups. com > From: awrdoc@yahoo. com > Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:23:43 -0700 > Subject: RE: [Chrysler300] 300F Tire questions - again! > Sorry, regarding the wheels themselves the original wheels flex too much for radial tires and are an accident waiting to happen. With all due respect to those who empirically swear that they have been running new radialds on old wheels for many a year I am happy that they are still on this planet and have not been involved in a catastrophic failure of an original wheel at high speeds. They should be playing the lottery with such good luck. > We are lucky that Stockton Wheels can make a modern replacement wheel that looks OEM for our 14" wheels. > cpaviper@comcast. net wrote: >> >> After reading the Club emails over the past few years discussing tires - I'm still trying to zero in on what to buy for our F Coupe. >> Re Coker, I'm still hearing issues - just about every Coker-related message talks to problems with balancing, and that they've hopefullly resolved their structural integrity issues. Re American Classics, their website gives no info - just refers to Coker, Universal, Lucas as distributors. Comparing the Coker and American Classic P235/75R14s, the load capacities, tread widths, section widths and overall diameters are identical - only Co ker catalog's UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grade) ratings differ between the 2 "brands " (American Classic's 540BB rating is apparently better than Coker's 400BB rating) and the Coker tire price is a few bucks more. Sounds like we're still unclear whether American Classic and Co ker are one and the same tire - the tread patterns in the catalog photos appear identical. >> I called Diamond Back this morning and spoke with one of their sales reps, Jim. He advised that there's no current maker of a quality P235/75R14 tire today - could be a dig against Coker? He did say that they're working on a 75 series 14" radial that will approximate the tire size we're all looking for. They just received their first test version of it, are were not at all pleased - he estimates that any such tire won't be ready to market until next summer [2010] or later. >> He did offer up the following suggestion, and I'm wondering if any of you have tried this. Diamond Back sells a European Metric tire that's also used on vans and light trucks, and that he says works very well in automotive applications. He says handling and road noise are very good. The tire's height is 27.3", vs Coker's 27.87"; tread width of 6.3" is the same as Coker's; cross-section of 8.5" is 3/4" narrower than Coker's 9.25"; it's a 6-ply tire rated at 2464# vs Coker's 1930#, is manufactured by Federal, and it replaces 225/75R14 - is described on Page 6 of their 2009 catalog. The tire does come in a 2 1/2" wide whitewalls. >> Is anyone out there running these tires? Or had any experience with them? >> And there's also the continuing debate re installing new rims. Diamond Back's website quotes the 12/6/07 Old Cars Weekly article that we saw on our Club website a few months back, and says the claim is bogus, that there's no alloy difference, and no markings on rims to indicate use with bias or radial tires. DB's argument in fact states that radials absorb more impact and are therefore less stressful on rims than are bias ply tires. Any new thoughts on this, as we're still running the original 1960 rims on the F? >> Th anks for your input, and apologies for again bringing up an old topic ! >> Noel Hastalis >> Burr Ridge, IL >> And there's also the continuing debate re installing new rims. Diamond Back's website quotes the 12/6/07 Old Cars Weekly article that we saw on our Club website a few months back, and says the claim is bogus, that there's no alloy difference, and no markings on rims to indicate use with bias or radial tires. DB's argument in fact states that radials absorb more impact and are therefore less stressful on rims than are bias ply tires. Any new thoughts on this, as we're still running the original 1960 rims on the F? >> Th anks for your input, and apologies for again bringing up an old topic ! >> Noel Hastalis >> Burr Ridge, IL >> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >> > ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _ > More storage. Better anti-spam and antivirus protection. Hotmail makes it simple. > http://go.microsoft .com/?linkid= 9671357 > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ To send a message to this group, send an email to: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm For archives go to http://www.forwardlook.net/300-archive/Yahoo! 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