The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Tires tips?

Hello,

I am taking a trip in a couple weeks... about a 2 hour ride in a normal car. I found a set of tires for my vehicle. I have a 1946 Chevy Stylemaster Sedan. The tires I found are whitewall 4-ply tubed tires. The tires i have on the car now are rock hard bias ply straight line non-white walls. Only thing I realized is that I am not sure if I have tubes or not. If I do not have tubes can I still install these tires? Will the ride quality diminish significantly? I already have a nice vibration at 60MPH, I don't want it to get worse.

Thanks,
Dan

Hard to give an answer with the information provided. It would be a good idea to take the tires you bought to a local tire shop and ask them to inspect the tires for safety and how to install them correctly.

Take a look at where the air valve is on your old Chevy and on one of your newer cars. The modern tubeless tires have a tire air valve that ends in a sealing doughnut on the rim. A tube type has a air stem that comes through a hole in the rim but does not have a doughnut seal.

I'm not real sure I understand what you are asking. If you are thinking of reusing old tubes, don't do it. Tubes stretch with age and will make folds and leaks will start at the folds. Back when we still changed tires at our gas stations, more flats were caused by folded tubes than nails. Even if you are going to install used tires, install new tubes. Are the tires you are looking at tubeless. If they are, they will be marked as such. If they are tubeless and you had tubes, all you will need is tubeless stems.

Most like the new tires you are thinking of buying are tubeless.

I just bought a new set of Coker L78s for my 59 Apache. No tubes. On the website they tell you if the tires require tubes.

The ride is pretty good, not as good as radials. Stiffer. But it does steer nicer at low speeds! And it looks killer.

- Joe