The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Tires Tires, Another thread about tires!

1950 Chevrolet 3100 1/2 ton with 4 mismatched tires.. one looks like it came off a bulldozer, another looks like some kind of snow tire.. the other two? They're as smooth as a babys arse.

So at the very least, I wanna get 4 tires that at least SORTA match.. and I don't wanna spend a ton of cash. (do it up in the under $200 range)

So what is it I should be asking for when I call the junk yards looking for rims and tires other than "i'm looking for tires that will fit on a 50 3100"?

I'd like tires that are the same size as what you would expect to see stock.. i'm looking for direct bolt on replacements.

Thanks!

do you have 16 inch or 15 inch wheels?

you can usually find good deals on plain old radials for 15 inch wheels.

Tires for 16 inch wheels seem to cost more.

Here is the thread from tryign to find tires for my 'dad's '53 chevy with 16 inch wheels:

http://www.stovebolt.com/bboard/cgi-bin//ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=22;t=002046#000000


-W

I just went out with flashlight in hand to look..

Three of the tires (both front and rear drivers side) say 6.00 - 16

The rear passenger side says 6.70 and what could be a 15 or a 16.

I took a look again at that thread.. the 215 85R 16's sound like the way to go.

I'm assuming those are regular radial tires.. so they will go on the stock rims? Do you still need the tube?

Well I called a few places today, and they keep telling me '215 85R 16' is an 'oddball size'.. of course nobody seems to have an old used set floating around.

One guy did tell me he had some 225 75R 16, but said my rims were probably only about 4" wide, and the 225 75R 16's would be wide, and have a problem seating properly on the rims.

Guess i'll try and find a single 6.00 16 to replace the shreaded tire and keep my ear to the ground for some of the 215 85R 16's

Fumblin,
We took our old rims to the tire shop today to get the smooth oldies removed so we can sandblast and repaint the original rims. Our tire guys said getting replacement radials (no tubes) would be no problem at all, and that they do this kind of retro-work quite often.

They are preparing a quote for radials of the same size as the original bias tires they're taking off. They even gave us our choice of tread-life! Maybe it is because we are up here in the "sticks."

I'll post the quote and details as soon as we get them.

One other thing, as far as calling the junkyards, our rear-end came off a 1975 Chevy pickup 4x4 with six-lug rims. I imagine that the yard will be more likely to help you find something for a '75 than the '50. That might make your job a little easier. Or, you could just go with the 15s to get by. The rims are relatively plentiful at our local junkyards and tires can be had fairly cheap.

Anything is available if your willing to spend the bucks.. I was quoted $65 a tire if I wanted to buy 'em new.. altho they'd have to order them.

My little '50 3100 1/2 ton with the rinky dink 216 walked right up the moist grass hill with the passenger side tire flat as a pancake (and a whole bunch of junk in the back).. it went up so nice, it wasn't till I got on the gravel driveway that I realised that somethin' wasn't right and got out to look and saw that tire shredded to ribbons.

It apparently was my "donught speed unload" method (see barrel o' nasty post in Greasy Spoon) that was the last straw for that old tire.. and the stock configuration is really quite snappy and fast, so I don't have any desire to swap out rear ends.

For the time being, i'm going to go down into the gully and look around for a 6.00 - 16 down in the trash pit, and if there isn't one in there, i'll keep a close eye on those "No Hunting" labled tires I see hangin' on fence posts.

The plan is to fix her up slowly while i'm driving her, but I want to be careful not to make her too nice.. I don't want to be one of these guys with the mint truck who's afraid to leave it in the parking lot while they shop, or has a hemmorage when they get a little mud on it.

First and formost, my '50 (and my '46 for that matter) is a working truck.. the fact that they're old, cool, and to date, have less than $600 tied up in them.. thats just icing on the cake.

Here's our quote:

Size to fit original 16s: LT235/85R16 Chap Radial XT BL E $79.99 each

Balance 7.99

Valve install 2.25

Set of 5 Total: 475.82

Fumblin,
Go to a tire center and look in their take-off pile. you may find something to get you by. We have a stack of tire behind our shop and gladly let people take what they want. It costs us $1.00 a tire to dispose of them so come and get them,
Scott

http://www.high-tec-retreading.com/sizes.html

They have them in severial tread patterns for 54.99 each.... I am planning on buying a set soon...they are realy good tires! Out of the 4 my buddy got 2 were so true they didn't need any balancing weight.

Went to the local used tire shop and they put a set of P215/70 R16 Firestones (80% tread)on the original wheels. One wheel had a hole in it so they put the tube back in. $135.00 including spin balance. One was leaking a little, a bottle of green slime took care of that. Dropped the truck an inch or so, looks good and rides a lot nicer than the dry rotted "farm tires".

I was able to get 6.00-16 tires and tubes from Coker Tire. The tires were from India but were the right size and pattern.

http://www.coker.com/store/customer/help.php?section=about

AusTex