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Can anybody tell me what tire sizes will fit the '49 Custom Eight?

I have the 15" rims.

Thanks!

Custom 8 is a 15x7 tire as shown in the specifications section of the service manual. However the parts book shows 15x6.

Note that for some reason Coker gives 820-15 as the size for a 49 Custom 8. Not sure why.

So I am confused too 🤔

More info on tire sizes:cokertire.com/tire-size

Anybody want to chime in about putting more modern radials on a 48 Custom 8?

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I believe these numbers are the wheel, not the tire, but no idea why the discrepancy. The tire size should be 8.20X15. If you go for radials, look at Diamond Back which makes radials that have the vintage bias ply look and come in sizes closer to what the car should have. You’ll likely need to get it properly aligned for radials but I am not sure of the details involved.

Like Don said the new Diamond Back Auburn Deluxe radials are really nice. Correct bias-ply look to them with modern technology. I have Diamond Back tires, though not the ones linked above because they weren't available. They are nice, highly recommend.

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I wonder what it would take to find an alignment show that would even know what a Packard is?

Years ago, (30 years) I took my 66 Dodge Charger in for tires and an alignment. The kid got the wheels off the car ok but after new tires were mounted he couldn't figure out how to put them back on. (Dodge has left-hand thread on the left side for that era) The manager came out to the waiting area and tried to explain to me that the wheels wouldn't go back on the car. "How is that possible?" I said. He had no clue. I had him take me to the car still up on the lift. I picked up the nuts off the floor and one by one fastened the wheel back in place, then I turned to the kid with the impact gun and said "Give me that!". tightened the lugs, walked over to the lift controls, and lowered the car back to the floor.
I'm not sure I've ever seen two individuals so inept and embarrassed since.
Now for the rest of the story....
I get in the car and start to head home when I notice the car is not handling well and when coming out of a turn the steering wheel didn't bring itself back to straight ahead but just tried to dive deeper into the turn.
I went back to the tire place, stood next to the alignment guy, and watched him put everything back the way it was when I went in.
The tire shop is no longer in business.

I had my 54 aligned without any issues. Only thing I had to help with was they were nervous on how to remove the rear skirts.

I also had no trouble getting my 1952 Henney-Packard aligned after installing factory power steering which, of course, meant replacing the idler, Pitman arm and all linkages. Doing that work in an apartment carport, it was so far off that I’m lucky it even made it to the shop but perfect afterward!

As for left hand studs and nuts, they typically have an L stamped large and visible on the end of the stud so the shop must have been totally inept. As a kid, I figured that out right away when I had a car with them.

Again, Diamond Back vulcanizes a not quite wide enough white wall on a Yokohama LT 7.00/15 radial, at a price. It is a bias sized light truck tire, correct for 1941-47 Buick Century/Roadmaster, Cadillac Series 62, Chrysler Saratoga/New Yorker, Hudson Commodore 8, '41 Packard Clipper, 1942-47 160/180-Super/Custom Super Clipper also on the original 127" wb. The junior 1942-47 Clipper 6 & 8 are smaller. Look in your owner's manual.

1948-on Packard 127" wb Custom Eight, Cadillac, Buick, Chrysler, etc. just listed all went to 8.20/15 lower pressure "balloon" tires. The bathtub Packards junior and senior are under-tired from the factory. Today, with a third of all Americans not chubby/fat but clinically morbidly obese, two couples alone are courting disaster with bias plies, not even adding any luggage/accoutrements. These cars were designed when Americans weighed considerably less, just as airlines today must raise fares to offset additional fuel required to loft passengers. Google and read about this. Radial truck tires inflated to at least 41 psi cold will offset that, but do not know of anything akin to correct 8.20/15 in radial. 235/15 SUV radials are wrong profile, too wide, can even hit tie rod ends in full rack turn, rub insides of rear fenders on bumpy or dipping roads, turns.

Radial tires must run about 10 psi over the maximum pressure of various brand bias tires' 32 psi. That could be steady trauma for the suspension links, bushings but radials' additional sidewall flex seems to absorb that. Radials' sidewalls are weaker than bias, but radials are otherwise a vastly superior tire. Some good points in the attached from last week.

Skip Diamond Back to help you find something close to your correct 8.20/15 size and go black wall. A cleanly styled automobile does not "need" white walls, and many people in the day considered them tacky, gauche.

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