Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

At least I won't be quite as upset when the relatively inexpensive modern tires go square from sitting.

When I was younger and had more ambition when I'd winterize a car I'd put it up on jackstands, it was much more important with Rayon cord tires than Nylon. But nowadays I just overinflate the tires perhaps 5 psi and can't say I've noted flatspotting in the spring. The race crowd has recently taken to little foam mattresses they drive the tires onto during storage to prevent flatspotting - one friend of mine who aggressively races on old Porsche tells me they are effective.

My four cars all have 5 Coker tires on them....all bias ply and have found the tires are holding up well and there are no issues so I can't comment on "warranty issues". I don't believe a speciality tire company that wasn't totally up front with the needs of a customer would last very long, word of mouth advertising is usually the "make it" or "break it" for a company.

Here's what the '54 Clipper with the Cooper "Untouchables" L78 tires looks like now. If I could replicate this exactly with decent new tires, I'd be happy. There actually was a set of the same tires on e- bay a while back, but of course they would've been as old as these.

To me the whitewalls really set it off, especially with the dog dish hub caps and the exposed body colored wheel in between. Even though the tread has a 60's look to it, I like that style of tread. I think a set like this would be reasonably "correct" for the period.

The cornering with these tires is not too great. They tend to slide under hard cornering on pavement, but no squeal. They seem to track and ride OK, but then I have nothing to compare them with.

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I lean toward the 800 size for the Clipper as well. It's equivalent to the "oversize" L78 bias ply I have on there now, and also the 235 75R.

These new tires from coker look really cool. I may pull the trigger on a set of the 760-15 for my 53 Clipper, which has 5.5 inch wide wheels. The 760 is spec'd for min rim width of 5.5 and the 800-15 is suggested min rim width of 6 inch, which would correspond to the senior rims.
I had been driving with coker classic radials in 215/75R15, which is also spec'd for a 5,5 inch rim, but is a little shorter than it should be.
It looks like plenty of People are running 800-15 or 235/15 radials on the 5.5 inch wide rim, which is not suggested by coker, but seems to be ok.
Pricy, but I hope to be driving in 6 months or so. A little undecided if I will go with The 760 or 800. T?V, our vehicle inspectors are pretty tough on oversize tires, so the 760 might be the right move.

For what it's worth, my 1950 Packard has been a daily driver for the past ten years. About nine years ago I purchased a set of 225/75/R15 wide white tires from Diamondback. These replaced an older set of bias ply tires that came with the car and were a significant upgrade in terms of handling.

Diamondback's owner, whom I spoke with on the phone, told me he drove a Packard. I believe he said it was a 1948. He convinced me to opt for what he called the "beauty ring," which was an additional layer of whitewall material about .75 inch wide around the outer perimeter of the whitewall. The tires I got had 3" whitewalls. The tires themselves were made by Hankook.

I liked the tires and put between 35 and 40,000 miles on them. I drove the car up & down the East Coast from Newfoundland to the North/South Carolina line and then up & down the West Coast from British Columbia to San Francisco, along with numerous shorter trips. I never experienced any unpleasant business from those tires.

My chief complaint was that when the car was stopped the front wheels were terribly hard to turn.

When my treads showed enough wear, I bought a second set of Diamondback 225/75/R15 tires, again with the "beauty ring" and again with 3" wide whites. This set was made by Cooper Tires. I am very happy with the Coopers. The handing is similar to the Hankooks but the great advantage is that the front wheels are WAY easier to turn when the car is stopped.

If I'm fortunate enough to put 40,000 miles on these Cooper Tires, I'll be back at Diamondback for a third set.

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That's a lot of miles! I notice you did go with the 225 rather than 235, as I was speculating about. I believe your '50 has the same 5 1/2" rims as my '54. The tires look nice. I wonder what the explanation would be regarding the harder turning at a stop with the first tires as opposed to the Coopers.

If Diamond Back gets tires from Cooper, maybe I can talk them into a one-off set of "Untouchables" for mine. I find it hard to part with that name on the sidewall. It is probably my favorite tire nickname except maybe for "Firehawk", a set of which I had on my '95 T-Bird. Thunderbird/Firehawk/Firestone> too cool. Raised white letters 'n' everything. Back when boy-racer stuff was more my thing.

Thanks for posting. I like this thread partly because it serves the same purpose for me as a winter seed catalog--shopping for car stuff while looking forward to the weather geting nice again.

Diamond back tires on the white wall side have no markings at least not on mine which are Cooper. If you look on their site they let you select the brand of tire onto which they install the white wall.

Saw a '50 Packard on e-bay today. One of the shots showed the side of the tire underneath the car: "Cooper Untouchables". At least someone else out there is still using their set. Must've been a popular white wall.

Interesting Tire thread on PackardInfo from 2009.

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

Apparently '54 Packard Clippers and Cooper Untouchable tires have some history together on this forum.

Note also the calm discussion about running 30-year-old bias ply tubeless tires, and even putting tubes in them if needed. I guess there were fewer objections to those practices back in '09 than there are now. But as I recall, the economy wasn't so hot then either, and maybe not as many people had money to burn on a $1000 set of radials. Ah, those were simpler times.

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Yes, JW, Packard is said to have offered the first standard tubeless tires on their new cars in 1954. But maybe the less said about that the better. I know from experience that if you speak of Packard having introduced something first, before other manufacturers, you're liable to open a whole can of worms that will come wiggling out, screaming in unison that it was NOT Packard that offered tubeless tires as standard equipment first, NOR did they offer the first practical power steering (also in '54) NOR the H pattern gear shift, NOR the first automatic spark advance, NOR the hypoid differential, NOR any of the other dozens of automotive breakthroughs that uninformed people claim that Packard introduced.

No, you will be advised, as I was, that you don't know nothin' 'bout carz, 'cause Chevy did all those things first. Or was it Cadillac, or the Deutsche Fratzmobile Companie, in 1915, with their tubucularless tyre? (Fratzmobile also introduced the first V12 engine in 1869, I believe.)

Anyway, don't breathe a word about Packard coming out with ANYTHIING first. Factory Air Conditioning? Forget it. Cadillac beat them to that with their introduction of the roll-down window in 1922.