Re: Getting new tires on a 34

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2008/8/17 11:38:00

Packard 12 Fan wrote: "In service, I found them totally unsatisfactory in several respects. First, their tread and side-wall design caused them to "hunt" and "track" any road surface irregularity.

Secondly, because they are of a primitive "bias" design, they "run hot", meaning, normal operation causes them to generate heat internally. At anything over a steady 50 mph they got REALLY hot, even at 32 psi. I had repeated cord and tread separation on several versions of their tires.

Some years ago, I finally gave up and went to radials. It was amazing. I remember how Packards drove during the "bias" tire era. They steered straight, did not "hunt", and I sure as heck drove my Packards fast . SOMETHING is wrong with today's bias "repro" tires."

Many years difference in our cars but have had same experience trying to find a decent set of bias-ply tires for my V8. Like you, I've always had a tendency to drive fast and drove plenty of Cadillacs, Lincolns, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles as well as later Packards on the road with bias-ply tires. Bad as my memory may have gotten, I REMEMBER the way they drove and they didn't, "hunt," all over the road, wobble, get hot or regularly separate (except for Firestone 500s in the late to mid-sixties). There's definitely something, "wrong," with modern bias-ply repros AND, in my experience, the more expensive they are, the worse they are. I, too, have given up and gone to radials.