[Formulajones]

I like the Mickey Thompsons and the Cooper Cobras, the only problem is they are still somewhat limited on 15" sizes. BFG covers so many more sizes, one in particular that I need on one car that the others don't have.

Other than that, a tire is a tire to me and I try not to keep them on a car more than 5-6 years if I can help it anyway.

[Steve C.]

In addition to the Cooper brand, the Cooper global family of companies manufactures tires for Mickey Thompson. Yes, The MT Sportsman tires have a similar tread pattern.

I use their 245/60-15 M/T on the front and 275/60-15 NT555R Nitto on the rear.
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[The Champ]

Originally Posted by Schurkey

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those tires wore out, they didn't DISINTIGRATE because they were MADE IMPROPERLY in a shiithole country.

My Uniroyal redlines were made in the US. So you're saying that the US is a ****hole country?

My point is (and it obviously went right over your head) that tires "back in the day" didn't get a chance to get old enough for cord degradation to occur.

You've already been corrected on your false claim that all tires are made overseas.

Goodyear and Cooper are still owned and have multiple tire manufacturing facilities in the US. They also have many subsidiaries that are manufactured here such as Kelly, Dunlop, Dean, Dick Cepek, Mastercraft and Mickey Thompson among others.

Goodyear USA Tire Plant Codes
M6 – Lawton, Oklahoma.
MB – Akron, Ohio.
MC – Danville, Virginia.
MD – Gadsden, Alabama.
MJ – Topeka, Kansas.
MK – Union City, Tennessee.
MM, PJ – Fayetteville, North Carolina.
MN – Freeport, Illinois.
MP, PL – Tyler, Texas.

Cooper USA Tire Plant Codes
3D – Albany, Georgia.
U9 – Tupelo, Mississippi.
UP – Findlay, Ohio.
UT – Texarkana, Arkansas.

Then we have the foreign owned firms that have plants in the US:

The largest tire manufacturers offering tires made in USA are:

Michelin (includes BFG and Uniroyal) with plants in Alabama, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Pirelli with plants in California, Tennessee and Georgia

Continental with plants in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.

Bridgestone with plants in Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and South Carolina.

Yokohama has a plant in Viriginia.

So, unless you buying some ****hole brands, there is a good chance that your tires were either made here in the United States or in a legitimate foreign facility in France, Germany, Italy or Japan, not a ****hole country (using your terms)...

[63 Pontiac]

I was just at the Yokohama plant on Thursday, have wondered about the build quality of the Yokos. Probably similar to other brands I suppose. I have 2 sets of Firestones that need replaced now.

[Skip Fix]

I know about 20 years ago the Yokos were the hot autocross tire.

[78w72]

i agree BFGs arent what they used to be, i went through 3 sets with the white letter problems in the last ~5 years, they replaced them all for free including mount & balance, the current set is not as bad as the others but still hard to keep the letters white. aside from that they havent had any belt slip or flat spot issues & i store my cars for a long time each winter, like 4-6 months, 2 are in a garage but not constantly heated the other one is on a lean to shed on the back of the garage exposed to temps. all i do is pump them up to ~38-40lbs so they keep psi over the super cold iowa winters. never any flat spots when i pull them out to drive in the spring. the best current RWL 15" tire IMO is the M/T ST, higher speed rated than the BFG & cost less.

BFG will warranty tires within 6 years of purchase, too bad the OPs are older than that or they would replace them.

i think the slipped belts/bulging is hit or miss with any tire brand, continental owns & makes general which are very good rated tires, i had a slipped belt on 2 general grabber A/T tires after less than 10k miles on a jeep SUV. besides defects, a pot hole or other impacts or even driving with low psi can cause or contribute to tire issues. a friend had a set of top of the line michelins on a f150 truck that slipped a belt on one with just normal mostly highway driving, so it can happen to any tire.

[Old Goat Racer]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

If only we can get Firestone to make their Indy 500's again - look just as good as the BFG's and a hell of a lot better tire. Cooper Cobras and M/T's seem to be the choice for 14 and 15's.

https://www.walmart.com/search?q=fir...head=firedtone



I bought two 275x60x15 and two 255x60x15 2 years ago for my TA.
BUT the white letters have some brown edges

[padgett]

I had a set of GR70x15s as trailer and rain tires for my Corvete.

[tjs72lemans]

I bought a set of BFG for my Camaro in 1980. Had 50,000 miles on them and replaced the fronts in 2015. Put about another 1,000 miles on the rear (did a lot of smoky burnouts too trying to wear them down) and replaced the rears. The replacements were good with the white RWL. But, two years ago I bought a set for the 72 Lemans. I, like others, can't get them white like the old ones.
I put a set of Goodyear Eagle on my 55 Chevy when I did a frame off restore on that in 2011. Same issue, brown RWL.

[1968GTO421]

Since white letters (if I remember correctly) really did not appear on cars until late '69 and into the 1970's. My GTO is a '68 which had blackwall or red or blue line tires. I just run the BFG's with the white letters on the inside (fake blackwalls) and it seems to be fine. As they brown up you never notice them there. I wish Steve C's tire black was more readily available (post 13).as the inside of the tire isn't as nice looking as the front side. FWIW

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by 1968GTO421

Since white letters (if I remember correctly) really did not appear on cars until late '69 and into the 1970's. My GTO is a '68 which had blackwall or red or blue line tires. I just run the BFG's with the white letters on the inside (fake blackwalls) and it seems to be fine. As they brown up you never notice them there. I wish Steve C's tire black was more readily available (post 13).as the inside of the tire isn't as nice looking as the front side. FWIW

Ever since RWL came out, if the tires I buy come with them, it goes to the inside.

Race tires have them for advertisement before they were on street tires, so you know what tire the winners were on. Now race cars get some form of payment for displaying the advertisement, but when you display it for free, you get no reimbursement.

IMO, it detracts from the paint, and wheels when sitting still. No one really cares what tire you have on your car. They look like whitewalls going down the road........

If anyone reading this remembers the fad of painting the undercarriage white in the early 70s, this RWL thing came about at the same time. I don't see anyone painting their undercarriages white any longer, maybe time to let the RWL thing go the same way......

There's a reason that it gets harder, and harder, to get tires made this way, very little demand....

FWIW, retreaders buy tire black paint to make their casings look like new tires. It's not something you need to beg off of someone to get it. Comes in buckets, or spray. If I was worried about my RWL turning brown, I'd probably buy a white paint pen to touch it up, and there are some products made specifically to paint over brown RWL.

[78w72]

almost every 2nd gen t/a has white letters & almost all of them came from the factory that way. same for all kinds of other makes & models of 70's & 80's muscle & sports cars. many people prefer RWLs over black walls... if RWLs distract someone from the paint or the car itself, they're looking at it wrong. RWL tires arent going away anytime soon.

[Formulajones]

Raised white letters have been around on factory production cars since the late 60's. Mustangs had them, Chevrolets had them. Primarily Goodyear wide treads. Firestone was also a big producer of them back then. They made the Sport Car 200's for the 1st gen Z's 67-8-9, and everyone that calls themselves a car guy is aware of the Wide Ovals.

All that stuff is now reproduced by Coker and Kelsey and hugely popular among the car culture. It's big business and not going away anytime.

[grandam1979]

Originally Posted by PontiacMatt72

Haven’t driven the car for a few months, but don’t recall feeling any vibration or other issues. Noticed the car had rolled back about 6” or so, as the lift arms didn’t quite line up on the frame where I had left it previously (lifted to drain radiator/coolant) figured dad may have moved it to get his snowblower out. Tried to roll the car forward back to where it was. Kept wanting to roll back. Figured maybe it was a flat spot in the tires.

Pulled a wheel off last night in preparation for a Vintage Air System install, and found a huge bulge in the tread. Don’t know the exact mileage these tires have, but can confidently say it’s well below 10k miles. Possibly less than 5k. Tires are about 7-8 years old, stored in a climate controlled garage.

Check those tires! Guess this is a broken or separated belt? (See pics below)

Can you post a picture of the date code? DOT

[1968GTO421]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

FWIW, retreaders buy tire black paint to make their casings look like new tires. It's not something you need to beg off of someone to get it. Comes in buckets, or spray. If I was worried about my RWL turning brown, I'd probably buy a white paint pen to touch it up, and there are some products made specifically to paint over brown RWL.

I found the tire black paint at Auto Zone (and Amazon)

https://www.autozone.com/paint-and-b...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

And referriing back to the OP's query, when tires look like this, get them off your car and get new ones (and check the date on the new ones). I had a tire that looked like post#1 and the whole damn tread came off the tire south of Charlotte on I-85 coming back from the Speedway at 75 mph. Scary as hell. It was an 8 year old Goodyear on 1990's FWD Mopar. I check tire dates now!

[djustice]

I had BFG radialts with RWL on , til a couple of years ago, In rainy/damp weather i would have next to no traction, i used to almost get stranded at the traffic ligths, when it turned green i had to let go of the brake and and let the car creep on the converter til i had about 10 mph then apply gas. Wen going downhill at about 45-50 mph braking on the transmission car would dart randomly left/rigth i had to figth the wheel.
I chalked that up to little to no caster.
But with a fresh set of budget rubber (Kenda rear and nankang front) for a fraction of the price, i had better traction and the downhill erratic steering was gone.

[Steve C.]

How long will the Dupli-Color tire paint last over the white letters?

[geeteeohguy]

Originally Posted by Schurkey

Get used to tire bulges. Tire/rubber companies have let quality drop like a paralyzed falcon. They can't even make decent wiper blades any more. All of it's been offshored to third-world countries.

I've seen/heard of more tire belt problems in the last twenty years than in the forty before that, by a large margin.

When the Firestone 500 had problems, Congress pulled Firestone executives into Congressional Hearings. Now, it's business-as-usual.

My same experience. Been in the auto industry since 1979, 14 years working for a tire company. I got 22 years out of a set of Goodyear Eagle ST's and they still looked great when I changed them out. Tires used to be made with good materials, not so any longer. Along with all rubber goods. Had a set of Coker inner tubes on my Model T rot and fail in about a year. Ended up re-installing the 40 year old USA made tubes and had no further issues. Times have changed. Even the 'good stuff' is junk now, compared to then.

[Mr Anonymous]

It seems that regardless of manufacturer or country of origin, the non-racing tire quality has really gone down. I'm seeing brand new tires with runout bad enough that I am building my own tire truing machine. I can't afford a $8000 Amermac, but I can afford a few hundred bucks and a fair amount of fabrication time which I dearly enjoy anyway.

[Steve C.]

This regarding the 15-inch tire....

"I see muscle car enthusiasts somewhat polarized. They either go full nostalgic, or are comfortable and happy to modify their cars out of their original form for reasons they’ve deemed important, like performance or aesthetics or whatever. The struggle for all manufacturers looking to cater to a niche is not if the product will sell, but will it sell enough? "

They question the development costs, the expense of creating the molds, etc for the small needs in ultra performance 15-inch tires.
Good luck finding a ultra performance 15-inch tire without the All-Season tread pattern... except maybe 23" inch diameter !

THROWBACK ROLLERS: THE 15-INCH TIRE PROBLEM

https://timelessmuscle.com/tech/whee...-tire-problem/



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