[1beautifuldaughter]

I was just wondering if anyone here has purchased Kelsey's goodyear polyglas tires, I bought 4) G-60-15 last fall. They where out of shape like they had bad belts,, Welts,, they took a lot of wheel weights, I took pictures and sent them to Kelsey, they told me that the weight was ok and that they might fix themselves driving. I accepted that because I really did not want to try another set and have to fix up my newly restored rims. now that the weather is warm and I have driven the car on the highway to 65 and found it shakes, which really didnt surprise me. I called and talked to someone different, they where very nice and offered me another set to try, said it was a very unusual problem.
So I guess I will have to take them up on it because I don't want deformed ,shaking tires. I hate that I will have to go through all the work of having them changed and probably have to repaint the outer edge of my rally two's. Plus another 100 bucks to have them changed over and balanced.

The question is,, has anyone else had this issue? I really hate to get another set and find out its common. I ordered a spare for it and it was much nicer, round and in shape. It looked almost like it came from a different manufacturer, The original ones that I got where full of sheets of rubber slag all over the white letters, I told the guy I thought they should have been considered blems. yet the spare I bought later was nice and round and clean. Any stories to help me feel better about this? was it just the luck of the draw?

[goatless]

I've run their G70-14 Polyglas without issue.

[1beautifuldaughter]

Where you tires shaped like this?? and not at all constant with each other, or from side to side. ???? And yes these are on rims inflated with air.

[elefantrider]

What is the condition of the suspension ball joints and bushings?

[elefantrider]

I run bias ply on 2 cars. The car with a rebuilt suspension doesn't shake. The other car has old bushings and it gets tire shake depending on the road and speed.

[1beautifuldaughter]

nothing loose in front end, and it was smooth with radial BF T/A's on it

[elefantrider]

Originally Posted by 1beautifuldaughter

nothing loose in front end, and it was smooth with radial BF T/A's on it

Mine did the same. The bias plys are less forgiving I've found. They also get aligned to different specs.

[1beautifuldaughter]

Thanks for the input,,This car was put away sometime around 1980 with 16000 miles on it, with its original born with polyglas front tires. they where in remarkable condition when I got the car around 2007, I drove it a little with them and they didn't shake, I later put the radials on and the car was not aligned since I have owned it, maybe never. All the ball joints, steering parts, idler arm etc. are tight. I then put the repos on and now about 65 miles an hour you can start to feel a shake. If I pick up the car on jack stands and spin the wheels , some more than others they are all over the place, Its hard to tell by looking at the photos because its only a still of one part of the tire at a time. a couple of the tires took very large weights to balance. I remember working for a goodyear store back in 1981 and once in a while I would put a wheel on the balancer and run some yellow chalk on it to show a person just how bad they needed a new one. Thats how these feel, like if a tire guy reached down and just rubbed there hand across the top they would look at me and smile. I was just hoping to maybe find others who purchased these tires and could say, "wow mine where not like that" so that I could feel alittle better about having them send me 4 more ,, I would hate to just get more of the same, I'm guessing that as my luck would have it I just got some bad ones. Since I purchased another tire and it is not shaped all screwy. also there are weights on the other side in addition to the ones in the photo

[elefantrider]

On my car with a rebuilt suspension, I have a lot of weights on my Firestones, they don't shake. 2 big weights also, about the same size as yours but only on one side I think.

[Bentwheelbob]

I'm with Goatless. I bought a set last year with no issues. They balanced well (on honeycombs nonetheless) and run fine. You might as well you bite the bullet and spend another $100. What you have now is not doing you any good.

[SmallHurst]

Please contact Kelsey (if that is where you bought them from.) They are good at making sure the customer is happy. They may also have some suggestions for balance issues. These are old school tires, they sometimes require old school ways!

[1beautifuldaughter]

Thanks everyone, Finally talked to someone different at Kelsey and they confirmed that my tires should not be shaped like this and they are going to send me a different set.

[The Boss]

Well done!

[Pontirag]

just a heads up that most cars that have these tire on them are trailer queens, and dont see the road, You have already seen 4 tires with different characteristics among all of them, Another I ran into is that they dont handle as well as real bias ply tires did when they were still available new back in the day and also the repro tires will all seem to wear at different rates. For about the same price you can get radials with redlines installed,

[66Post]

Tire issues are always difficult to figure out and very subjective. It appears to me that the amount of weight added is a bit excessive as the old rule of thumb for aircraft tire is no more that 1 ounce per inch of wheel radius and the pix looks like more that 7 1/2 ounces on that wheel, but I could be wrong.
I went with Diamond Back redline on Cooper radials, but then, the raised white letter look was something I wasn't after on my 66.
Good luck on figuring this out.

[1beautifuldaughter]

I was concerned about how the car would handle with these tires,, for those who might wonder about the drivability, I am happy with them, the look is awesome, if you are on an imperfect back road and driving slow you do have to pay attention a little and drive the car however once driving to a decent speed and or driving out on the road or highway I am very satisfied with how the car handles. Once I get a set without shape issues I'm sure I'll be "Good to Go"

[goatless]

Originally Posted by Pontirag

just a heads up that most cars that have these tire on them are trailer queens, and dont see the road, You have already seen 4 tires with different characteristics among all of them, Another I ran into is that they dont handle as well as real bias ply tires did when they were still available new back in the day and also the repro tires will all seem to wear at different rates. For about the same price you can get radials with redlines installed,

Glad to see that there are still all sorts of misconceptions floating around out there.

The circles I hang around in go through a LOT of repro bias plys, both Polyglas and WideOval. We all run them in excess of 100 MPH on a regular basis and a few of us run them regularly on the street. I can say that none of the issues listed above have been noted.

It sounds like the OP got a bad set of tires, but that is far from the norm.

[grrr421]

g-70-14 cant say i would auto cross them but the look is what I like and have had no troubles with them. JM2C.

[Pontirag]

Originally Posted by goatless

Glad to see that there are still all sorts of misconceptions floating around out there.

The circles I hang around in go through a LOT of repro bias plys, both Polyglas and WideOval. We all run them in excess of 100 MPH on a regular basis and a few of us run them regularly on the street. I can say that none of the issues listed above have been noted.

It sounds like the OP got a bad set of tires, but that is far from the norm.

So what I said is a misconception and your single observation/experience is a large enough statistical sample to pass judgement on? Not only has it been my own experience but I was also cautioned by one of the tire reps for repro tires, And also over in the corvette community it is such an issue that they have separate rims and tires for the street and for the shows,You can say anything you want that does not make you an authority or even right. But you did say that the circles you hang out around go through al LOT of repro bias ply tires. then you go on to say that it is far from the norm. "none of the issues listed above have been noted"And yet even if my self and everybody else is wrong how do you account for the tires in the pictures. I stand by my origonal statement and nothing I stated was in any way a misconception. Big words, now try using the right words.

[2manyponchos]

Originally Posted by Pontirag

So what I said is a misconception and your single observation/experience is a large enough statistical sample to pass judgement on? Big words, now try using the right words.

Jeremy races with the Pure Stock and FAST guys. Probably the largest group of folks actually driving their cars like they were meant to be driven on bias ply tires. For what its worth...