New rubber today

[lloyd3]

Sitting at Discount Tires waiting my turn. The manager of this new store was evidently working at the store I used to buy the last set of tires for it, 24-years ago. I asked him if anybody on his staff could drive a clutch. He responded that he could and maybe a few others but that they'd let me pull it in to the bay (nice, eh?). Why this is so nerve-wracking for me is a mystery... but there it is. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I've wanted to do this for years now, but something else always came up that was a higher-priority.  It had gotten to the point where I wasn't driving it because I was concerned about them. That ends today.

[LaOtto70Charger]

That is exciting!  I stopped driving mine for a long time because of drum brakes.  Stopping distance was too long compared to every one else on the road. Probably about time to start thinking about tires again. Mine are close to 10.

[lloyd3]

Thanks! I still have drums too but had the system totally redone in 2008. It's adequate for the moment but I still worry about it and drive it accordingly.

[Kern Dog]

I've driven 4 wheel drum cars and have found that when they are working properly, they are good. If the shoes or springs are of poor quality, you'll have problems. Where disc brakes really shine is repeated stops. Properly working drums will stop a few times but when they start to fade, it takes awhile for them to cool down and work right again.

[lloyd3]

It's been said many times before (even here I suppose) but...damn, new tires are sooo nice. It feels like Christmas here! I tipped the young man that took the time to do it all right (change over the centers, find the best two old rims, & do everything by hand). I couldn't be more pleased.

[Kern Dog]

The last new set I bought was a few months ago for my 2007 Dodge truck.
305-40-22s.
They did deliver a softer ride but here is a weird thing....At around 20 mph, there is a rumble in the truck like I'm on off road tires low on pressure. It is rotational and stops when I stop and also goes away when I'm over 20. It feels like I drove over a brick road.

[lloyd3]

These new T/As ride like the car is on new pavement. Haven't truly flogged them yet to see how they really feel.

[LaOtto70Charger]

Awesome!

[armor64]

that's awesome man, I'm looking forward to, and dreading the cost of, replacing the summer ties on my 12 Golf Daily. they have become noticeably harder, rougher and noisy since swapping from the winters. sad to think how the cost has tripled since i got the first set a decade ago.

[timmycharger]

These new T/As ride like the car is on new pavement. Haven't truly flogged them yet to see how they really feel.

I have had several sets of T/A Radials over the years, I don't know if they changed the manufacturing process but my latest set on my Charger started to turn brown (sidewall and white letters) really quickly, like within 2 years time. I have to constantly wipe them down with cleaner/tire black to keep them looking nice. I dont recall having to do this before.  Maybe its just the set I got which was about 6 yrs ago.

anyway, thanks for sharing, absolutely love your Charger!

[lloyd3]

timmycharger: Thankyou!

Tire chemistry (much like gasoline) seems to be constantly changing. The recent discovery of the toxic nature of 6-PPD Quinone on fish is a good example of that. It was explained to us in a briefing last Fall that in the effort to shelf-stabilize the tires (and to help them resist UV breakdown) a number of compounds have been tried by the tire makers over the years. I'm not a chemist, so I'll leave that to the folks that are, but for cars that are driven infrequently, this is interesting stuff. The "shelf-life" of tires has gone up dramatically since I was just a boy, with old tires then developing serious degradation on their sidewalls even after just a few years of use. The rear tires that I just took off of my "68 were all done (wonder why?) but the front ones looked just fine.  They had, with time, also developed a oxidized look on the sidewalls (grey/brown) that with a little effort easily cleaned off. After the application of a little elbow grease (and a brillo pad on the white letters) they still looked pretty darn good. How these "new" tires will age is a big unknown, but I'd suspect that I'll still have to occasionally squat down on my haunches and get after them to keep them looking good too. I'm actually looking forward to that (car detailing as a form of PE eh?).

Not only had I not driven my car much over the past few years, I hadn't done a thorough spring cleaning of it either for at least 3-years now. You know, that section by section, multiple-pass, multiple compounds, and extra-fussy detail work?  Looking forward to that again too.

[Kern Dog]

With as much as these classics sit, I was pissed to have to replace tires due to age. Because of that, I switched to tires with a much softer and stickier tread so they age out and wear out at about the same time.
With 18" tires, you have a much wider selection to do so. I went from a 300 treadwear to 200. The car now holds the road better.

[lloyd3]

KD: that makes perfect sense to me. If I was pushing this car that hard that's exactly what I would do.

As it is now, however, I'm just hoping for at least another 10-more years of fun (or more) and... if it isn't me doing the enjoying, then hopefully somebody that's deserving of it.

Finally got some pix uploaded...









Not huge, but much better than before. I'm not interested in air shocks and these 275s fit quite nicely without any suspension modifications. Since I like the "stock" look, the effect of the 15-inch rear wheels gives me a now more-perceptible "rake" and a much-fuller wheel well.  The stock 14-inch Magnum 500s that came off of it were the "correct" and original option, but they left a lot to be desired (& were the reason so-many cars had aftermarket rims back in the old days).  I'm guessing the handling won't be adversely affected in any meaningful way (I kept 235s on the original 14-inch rims up front). 

After I get it all cleaned up, I'll have to see how badly the older rims look when compared the new ones on the back.  If it bothers me enough I guess I now know how to resolve it, right? A new set of "centers" would also be a nice addition.  Money, money, money...

[armor64]

the Falken Azenis rt615+ tires i have right now are a 200 treadwear also, the softness has been no issue yet as i still havent driven it alot compared to most... Also i wanted white letter tires but nothing i could get that fit with the 17s i went with. Luckily there was a tire-letter kit for them that i could glue on to make it look how i hoped, so i gave the grippier tires a shot too.

[GreatOne34]

Try finding non-chinese whitewalls  New tires definitely have a much quicker "browning" of the letters / sidewalls. I am cleaning up the whitewalls pretty much once a week. Finally ended up with Uniroyal Tiger Paws

[RTSE440]

Nice ride & tires glad you made it through without any damage to your car those jacks don't look very safe

[triple_green]

the 275x60x15s fit well with no problems. The 2" taller tire gives it a slight lift in the rear. The only downside is you loose about7% rear gear ratio, losing a little of the line grunt. But they cruise on highway a lower RPMS. I ran 275 for years and was happy with them.
3X

[lloyd3]

It seems pretty happy with them. The off-the-line-grunt stuff isnt quite as big a deal as it used to be here.

[Kern Dog]

I can't be the only one that has a giggle at the title of this thread.
Nobody called them condoms when I was growing up, we called them rubbers.

[Pinballjim]

OK, so listen to this one.    I have a 69 AMX (yeah, yeah, I know, it's not a charger but relax, I have MoPars too...).  I've had it for about 30 years.   A friend of mine had a tire BLOW up in his garage because of dry rotting.  A week ago, that car was in a parade.   That got me to thinking.   I've never replaced the tires on the AMX.   I ordered a set of T/A radials and then pulled the wheels to inspect the tires on my car.  The tires themselves weren't too bad.  No dry rotting or anything crazy but the rubber is hard.   I checked the date code which read "074".  I'm pretty sure that means 1974!!!    I bought the car in 1994 with 25k on it (the odometer reads 31k now).   If that's the case, these tires were probably only the second set of tires that have ever been on my car.   That's both pretty neat and pretty scary at the same time.   The new tires will be at the shop by noon tomorrow.  I'll have them home, blue stuff cleaned off them and installed on the car by 4 pm.   

[Kern Dog]

Really? This site is so slow that NOBODY had a comment about rubbers?

 

[1970Moparmann]

I stopped driving mine for a long time because of drum brakes.

My 68 Coronet has drum brakes.  As much as they aren't the best, you can get them to stop pretty good with the right shoes.   I just drove my Coronet 1,200 miles on the Hot Rod Power Tour.   I just automatically drive a little more cautious due to stopping distance.    

[lloyd3]

KD: We called 'em rubbers too.

Lots of folks I know have been storing a "special" car for a long time now and almost never even consider the age of the tires on it. My brother has a mid-70s V-8 Jeep Renegade CJ-5 and his Mud-Kings just date-coded to 2001. The years just get by us somehow.

Since I'm now using non-standard height tires on my car, I'm guessing that my speedometer is wildly off (7%?). I changed-out the colored plastic gear in the transmission many years ago to make sure that my speedometer was accurate then (God only know what I did with the one I took out).  Does anybody still sell those color-coded gears and what "color" should I now be running?

[timmycharger]

KD: We called 'em rubbers too.

Lots of folks I know have been storing a "special" car for a long time now and almost never even consider the age of the tires on it. My brother has a mid-70s V-8 Jeep Renegade CJ-5 and his Mud-Kings just date-coded to 2001. The years just get by us somehow.

Since I'm now using non-standard height tires on my car, I'm guessing that my speedometer is wildly off (7%?). I changed-out the colored plastic gear in the transmission many years ago to make sure that my speedometer was accurate then (God only know what I did with the one I took out).  Does anybody still sell those color-coded gears and what "color" should I now be running?

Year one has them but they are expensive. Check out Brewer's 4 speed parts, I am sure he has them. Google has many charts of the colors vs teeth. Work computer is not cooperating or I would share a link.

[lloyd3]

timmycharger:

Thank you, Sir.