>>> my new tires <<<
 

:patriot: I just thought I would show what my next two sets of tires are.

I got eight of "FIGURE A" in size 7.50-16LT for the drive-axle.

http://www.stausaonline.com/light-tr...r-traxion.html

I got four of "FIGURE A" same size for the steer-axle in LR-E.

http://www.stausaonline.com/light-tr...transport.html


I haven't yet mounted any of them, as I intend to completely clean, strip, and paint the wheels inside-and-out prior to mounting.

I had a devil of a time getting them, so I went ahead and doubled up so I would be set for quite some time.

Plus, should I have a fatal catastrophe with a tire, I will not have to buy something I don't want and that doesn't match, just to keep things rolling.


I have never paid so much money for a radial tire; but I know these will be worth every cent as they are built right here in the :flag: USA :flag: by McCreary Tire and Rubber Company. :patriot:

They are out of Indiana, PA. Jimmy Stewart's hometown.

Interesting; I knew they were from Indiana,PA, but I did not know where Jimmy Stewart was from. :)

He was also a higher ranking officer in the Army Air Force during WW2.

What are your guys' opinions regarding bias versus radial tires? I don't even understand the difference really, let alone which are better.

Those look similar to the old tires we used to run on farm trucks. I still have some Generals on my M880 and been fretting what to replace them with. I like those traction tires much better that anything new for a field tire.

How well do you think the drive tires will wear on the road?

bearkiller,why did you go with bias tires?

It says at the top of the pages you linked to that they are bias not radial. Did you mean that you are paying more for bias tires than you have for radials in the past?

I have always heard that bias tires were better in the winter. Although I havent run any since the ole muscle car days, they were pretty good traction tires coming off the line.

My only concern would be with the spare set of tires, that if you didnt use them within a few years, they would start crackin/dryrotting.

On a side note, we used to get all of our racing tires from Mcreary in Indiana pa too, so no worries on the quality (at least we never had any issues) for racing (dirt track)

I also dont know if bias tires have a date on them like the radials do, so you can tell when you buy them just how old they are. Something to check out. There is some way to read the date of manufacture, but I dont recall off the top of my head right now how its done. There used to be a thread on that a long time ago I think.

I didnt even think they made bias ply tires anymore, all I remember about them was I use to get tons of flat`s

>>> bias beats radial every time <<<
 

:patriot: When reading my answers and reasons, keep in mind that I have been in and around the tire business for fifty years.

I have access and availability to any make or style of tire one could imagine and can run whatever I want.

Often, back in the good old days when people had money to spend, I have sold the tires off of my truck as often as twice in a week.

That being said, I will try to cover everyone's questions.

DATE CODE = that is federal DOT law and every highway tire sold in :flag: has it.


Shelf life = mostly due to the adhesive used to bond the synthetic rubber to the steel cords, radials are supposed to be considered and definitely are junk-tires after five-years; not so with BIAS; kept in a reasonably shaded place, a bias tire is good for at least a hundred years; fifty years plus if kept out in the sun.

A bias may start to appear all dry-rotted on the outer surface, but there are still several CROSS-WOVEN plies holding things together; look at the sidewall of a Michelin after a year.


YES; I did pay more for these BIAS tires than any radial I have ever bought.


There has been a set of BIAS Power Kings across the rear of my Ford for the last almost-100,000 miles and they will most certainly pass the 100,000-mile mark according to the depth of tread still on them; alas, Power Kings are almost impossible to lay hands on at present.

I will not pull them off until they fly apart or wear through.


The prior three sets of steer tires have been BIAS; BUT, there is currently a pair of TOYO HTs on there that I was sort of crowded into buying on short notice.

I hit a huge sharp something-or-other in a guys gravel driveway that ruined a brand-new two-day-old bias tire and I had no more bias to replace it with and no hopes of getting one in less than two weeks.

Hence, I put the remaining new bias tire on a trailer and the two new TOYOs on the truck.


All this baloney one hears about not mixing bias and radials is just that --- baloney, so long as one keeps the same thing across each axle; it matters not whether the front are radial and the rear bias or vice-versa; I have many times ran them in both configurations and have never noticed any of the effects that are warned against.

Maybe it would hold true in some little front-wheel-drive rolling casket, but not so on a truck.



Okay, to answer WHY did I go with BIAS, #1 is I do not trust radials; radials will fly apart with no warning and running a radial tire flat, even for a few hundred feet, is the death of that tire; a sidewall puncture also is the end of a radial tire.

Bias can be driven plumb down on the rim for a mile or so and still be repairable.


A radial tire cannot hold up to Father Time, sunlight, or occasional intermittent use.

If you want your money's worth out of a radial, you had better get it in the first four years; after that, you are driving on time-bombs.

An old BIAS tire can sit back in the honey-suckle vines, in the mud, on an old truck or trailer, for ten years of neglect;drag it out of the weeds, air it back up, and head off for anywhere the road goes and it will usually come back.

Also, a bias tire just plain drives and handles better. :patriot:

One more point I will make, way back when most people were familiar with bias tires, almost all tires also were TUBE-TYPE, with just-asking-for-trouble inner-tubes inside the tires.

I absolutely refuse to run a tube in a tire on a highway vehicle.

99% of the flat tires people remember were on account of the tubes, not because the tires were bias.

When tube-less tires came about, radials were also introduced.

Another important factor is that, at the same time as radial tires were becoming common, 99% of old Indian-arrowhead gravel roads were paved, thus eliminating almost entirely having a flat tire. :)

thanks for answering my question.

He was Brigadier General and was a Life Scout (the rank just below Eagle Scout), if I remember correctly.