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Re: Radial or Diagonal?

From: Billy-Jack Ebare
Email: ebare73@yahoo.ca
Remote Name: 24.70.144.97
Date: February 15, 2003

Comments

When I completed the restoratiom on my 1958 Plymouth Belvedere, I was left with a very difficult decicion. Whether to buy Bias Ply, or radial tires for it. They are very close in price, when your dealing with the wide white wall variety. Unfortunately, at the time I had no knowledge as to what tire would be better on this car, as the car did come originally with bias ply tires(750x14). So I made a desision based on my preferance to keep the car original. I feel now as though that was somewhat of a mistake. I drive my car between 2 and 4000 miles a year.(That is low compared to other people) I like to drive my car at pretty fair speeds (I like to keep up with the Jones's), and I like to travel on some pretty major highways with speed limits in the 75mph range. The downfall of the bias ply tires is that they likes to follow the road cracks. This can be particularily disheartening when you are traveling at 70mph, and all of a sudden your car pulls a real "Christine", and desides to veer closer to the other lane's on coming traffic than you might like! I think anyone that has truthfully owned the old bias ply tires will tell you this is the nature of this beast, so to speak. I will tell you this however, if you plan on not driving your car a whole lot, or if you really prefer to do a concours restoration on it, I would tell you to definately buy the original bias ply type tire for it. However, if you are like most of us, the radial www's look just as good, they are safer, and will make the car 100% more driver friendly. After 5 years of driving my car with the bias plys, I wish I had of bought the WWW radials for it. Just remember, they designed www radials, so us weekend warriors can enjoy our rides more safely with less worries of a blow out. Take advantage of this technology. You'll be glad that you did!

 


Last changed: March 03, 2024