The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Question on switching to radials on my 1953 3100

I recently bought a '53 3100 pickup. The truck has old bias ply 650/16 tires. I want to switch to radial for better ride and handling, and also to reduce the height about 2 inches so I can get it into my garage. I would like to keep the 16" wheels. Any suggestions. Also it has the 216 engine. I replaced the carburetor, plugs, points, etc. and it runs better but still backfires through the carburetor at times. It has an exhaust leak around the head riser rod on the exhaust manifold. Any suggestions on what would be causing it to backfire? Thank you.

442 - Your post is multi topic. I'm going to move this post (with a little edit) over to the Driveline forum for folks to reply back with their thoughts and advice/experience. Please post a new thread on your "engine topic question" in the Engine Shop as that's the best place for folks to try and help you solve your questions on your 216 performance.

You can buy radial tires for your truck just about anywhere.

215/85 R16 tires are the closest radial size to the original tire size. You can still buy radial tires - usually designed for light trucks in R700x16 size.

If you want whitewalls, contact Diamondback Tires. www.dbtires.com All of their tires are modern radials and the Auburn series are made to look like bias ply tires with a vertical sidewall and a pie crust edge without the radial bulge. I highly recommend them. I have them on multiple vehicles.

If you plan to drive your truck, especially on the freeway, I strongly recommend against trying to reduce the height of the tire by 2 inches. The smaller the diameter of your tires, the slower your truck will go at the same engine speed with larger tires. Your engine will have to work harder (higher rpm) to achieve the same speed it would have with properly sized tires. Considering the top speed of your truck is about 65mph (comfortably), you don't want to reduce that if you don't have to.

Also, it is much easier to drive without power steering when the tires are taller and skinnier rather than shorter or fatter. The steering wheel centers itself easier with taller skinnier tires than with shorter , fatter tires.

I drive my truck like a modern vehicle all the time and have put 10,000+ miles on it in the last 3 years.

Installing the right size rims and tires made a night and day difference in how the truck drives and handles. I regularly drive 55-65 on the freeway.Before and after pics below with fat 15" wheels and tires and correct 16" wheels with larger diameter tires.

When I switched to radials, I could finally bring a cup of coffee with me to work.

Otto, you are absolutely right about shorter tires and more rpm required for the same speed. The Good news however is unless you change the speedometer gear to compensate for the shorter tires, the speedometer will still show the same speed as before at a given rpm. It'll be wrong of course, but the driver may well be none the wiser unless he checks travel time between mile markers or has a GPS speedometer app on his phone. Ignorance is blessed (perhaps).

RonR

Lowering the height 2 inches with a tire change will cause a ridiculous change in the appearance of the vehicle, and it will reduce your cruising speed pretty dramatically. You would have to go to something like a 50-series sidewall profile which would look pretty funny on a stovebolt pickup.
Jerry

Been running 215/85 R16 radials on my truck for quite a few years and love it. Yes, whenever you change tires, you need to check the speedometer's accuracy. I use "Speedbox" app on my phone to check the speedometer. Can't say if this will drop your truck down enough to clear the garage door opening.

Perhaps there is another solution to getting the rig into the garage other than changing tire sizes. If you don't have to do it often you could let some air out of the tires till it clears the door. You could get one of those air-down tools the off-roaders use. They're easy to use.

I had the same issue of what fits the fender well and works with everything else so I put a Camaro rear end and some new gears and can still do 70 on the freeway. I ended up with 235/70R16 ride is smooth but steering lets just say if I feel lazy I drive the 2017 there is no question why they invented power steering.