Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I had to saw the old tires off the rims on my '38 1608.

They had been on the car since the 70's or earlier and smelled and felt like natural rubber. They were double sided white walls made by Vogue Tire. They were extremely hard.

I took them to a local tire store to dismount them and it broke their machine. They had red rubber inner tubes.

My question is with the current BF Goodrich tires is a tube required?

Here is a picture of the surgery required.

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Are we to assume your "current BF Goodrich" tires are tubeless?


The success rate for installation of tubeless (and without tubes) tires on Packard drop-center wheels as far back as 1938 is quite high but you won't know for sure until you try. Many use a sealant on the seams on the wheel construction to help insure airtightness though I know others who haven't and have also had successful installations.

Tire bead and wheel rim construction is different for tube-type and tubeless but is within the hobby generally not thought to be significant. Nevertheless I'd discuss the implications with my proposed new tire vendor.

When I bought my 1934 back in the early 1960s it had nearly bald Norwalk tires in front, U.S Royal Masters with red rubber tubes in the sidemounts, and 8-ply Pennsylvania truck tires in the rear, all probably reflective of the problems of getting tires during and after the war. Like yours, the rear tires had to be cut off to remove them.

It is SBR, not natural rubber, but is truly dead!

Styrene-butadiene rubber and it is harder than Chinese arithmetic. No cushioning effect with these bad boys

Yeah but they probably don't fall a part in 5 or 6 years....

My dad sealed the spokes with some type of sealant.

Then put an 0 ring on rim. His tubeless tires are still holding air. 40 years now.

Here is the inside of the rim. I don't see any potential leak points.

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Here is another view

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Looks like an original red rubber gutter strip, have you looked beneath it? I've used old bicycle inner tubes to fashion replacement gutter strips. The purpose of course was to prevent chafing of the inner tube.

EDIT. I thought you might appreciate this picture, a contemporary of the Vogue in the sexy boutique tire department was this, a Cooper I believe. Photo taken at the Kanter collection some years back.

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