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

I don't know if it is still the case, but at one time the Firestone collector car tires were manufactured in New Zealand due to the high numbers of older cars still in daily use there. The original molds were shipped down there for this purpose.
Shipping might be costly but duty for the UK should be low.

Brian

Thanks for that info, remember I am not in the UK but the Republic of Ireland but will look into it!

Quoted ?275 + tax + shipping from the UK to Ireland, equals around Euro375 + shipping per tyre.

Interesting from an outside perspective, what I am hearing is that the older Lesters tires appear to be pretty good based on Jim and Dave's accounts, yet the new Lesters appear to be where the problem lies. Or did I get that backwards?

Yes. Confusing isn't it. I am fully confident that we can accept the experiences and opinions of everyone that has posted about any and all REproduction tires as fact. Those experiences and opinions have wide variations of approval and disapproval and results. This subject of REproduction tyre problems or lack of problems arise quite often at many different websites. Not just this website nor is it limited to Packard.

At this point a rational and sober minded person must conclude that ANY REproduction tire is strictly for the purpose of cosmetic display and in no way should be considered for any application or service level that would resemble normal passenger car operation of any era regardless of any previous experiences with any REproduction tires.

At this point a rational and sober minded person must conclude that ANY REproduction tire is strictly for the purpose of cosmetic display.....

Perhaps you need to get out and talk to the folks who tour year in and year out in events such as the Glidden Tours, CCCA Caravans and the many other touring events.

Tours. Yes. Perhaps a record of each car on tour and it's tires as used on each tour could be kept. Let tours act as a test track for tthe tires.

From Page 1, post #8 of this thread:

"The second problem is quality of the tyres themselves. Apart from the 6 that were on the car when I got it, I am on my second replacement set in 5 years and around 16,000 miles in that time. "

Seems like an experience that could act as a test bed without going on a tour. Maybe official tours need to keep track of tires, mileage driven on the tour and other statistics similar to what Irish has done.

I think you miss the point. There would be an incentive to track tire brands/mileages and failures etc. if tire failures were common with the touring crowd, but at least as far as I know they are not - IrishPackard's experiences seem pretty much unique. We'd all like to know why but his situation, from what I hear, is not symptomatic of a larger pattern. Doing a statistical analysis is one thing, but having enough data to make it meaningful is another.

CCCA's Adirondacks Caravan last year - about 70,000 miles accumulated by the participants and a good friend was on the trouble truck - only issue he reported was a flat from a puncture. PAC's recent Henry Joy Tours, no tire issues. PAC's National last year with lots of local touring plus some long distances driven to get there - no tire issues that I heard of. I've a friend that regularly does Glidden tours - tire issues too infrequent to even be worth mentioning. Sure, there's the occasion tire failure, road hazards or running underinflated - but both those also occur with our everyday cars.

Our friends from "down under" are a great bunch for touring long distances; Mal - what are your observations and what do you hear?

Could always be a case of unloading the seconds or items not salable here overseas since foreign buyers are less likely to make trouble or else have looser laws. Food, apparel, electronics, pharmaceutical and a few other industries have been doing it for years.