Need Help Selecting Tires for 1935 Ford Wheels

AL in NY said:
I put the 16" wheels on and I love the better handling and smoother ride. I went with tubeless 225/75R16 radials and I added Tire Pressure Sensors. The tires have the same diameter as the 19" Model A tires, so there's no speedometer error. And they don't look oversized for the 5" wide rim. Everyone in my club likes the way my truck looks with the new tires. One of the reasons I went to 16" tires was to get rid of the tubes and also get a radial tire. This tire size is hard to find in a passenger car tire, most are for SUV with a stiffer sidewall. I bought the Westlake tire at Walmart's and run the tire pressure at 27 lbs. Another advantage to the wider tires, with more rubber on the road, your brakes are more effective. I have run these tire for four years and 10,000 miles with NO problems.
Click to expand...


AL,

Do you have a picture that you can post of your Model A and these tires?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
shew01, Here is a picture from last year at the MARC National Tour in Berlin, OH. We drove 500 miles each way from Newburgh, NY.
 

Attachments

  • Our arrival.jpg
    Our arrival.jpg
    46.2 KB · Views: 90
AL in NY said:
shew01, Here is a picture from last year at the MARC National Tour in Berlin, OH. We drove 500 miles each way from Newburgh, NY.
Click to expand...


Thanks. [emoji4]

Walmart is out of stock in my area at the moment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Why run those ugly late model radials on your Model A? I am running Diamond Back Auburn 600-16 on my 16" rim. They are the correct appearance for the vehicle, pie crust and handle like a dream. I am running them on 3 cars. At $359, you can't go wrong. Those rims come in several widths, but yours are probably 4".

Warren

20230630_134501_resized.jpg
 
When I was looking, I also took AL in NY's advice & went with a 225/75 R16.

Ended up with Uniroyal raised white letter, mounted with the raised inside & the white blacked out. Happy with the look & they were only 90 bucks a pop (a bit more now, but still a lot less than 359). Depends if you're looking for price or looks - I chose price.

Very minor speedometer diff.

Used dynabeads for balancing & run at 26-27 psi.

Better ride, handling & braking (IMHO).

FWIW
 

Attachments

  • 20240623_162153.jpg
    20240623_162153.jpg
    95.4 KB · Views: 51
I have had Coker 600-16 radial tires with tubes for over 7 years, on my 31 coupe ,with no troubles. My speedometer is bang on with the roadside radar units they put out to slow you down in neighborhoods etc. Handles well on highways that have ruts from heavy trucks ,just as a newer vehicle would. I would never go back to narrow bias ply tires.
Don S
 
Anybody ever try CJ2 Jeep wheels on an A? 16" with correct bolt patern - I'm not sure if any hubcap besides a Moon disc would work.[/QUOTE]

As a teenager,I had a 1956 Jeep for a short while, for use on a job site. Everyone (especially my father) was disgusted with me, for putting five 1935 Ford wire wheels, including a side mounted spare on it. Jeep was dark green, wheels were patina'd dark red, with older used double white sidewalls (free tires), beauty rings, and V-8 hubcaps, but lots of tread. I never got around to mounting the set of Cleveweld 14" balloon wheels on it. No one would have liked them either, I guess.
At different times I've used Ford pickup wheels, 15" and 16", on Model A's and V-8's. Hubcap choices are limited because of the early Ford protruding spindles. 1940 Ford caps do work, though, and of course 1940 rims.
On a related note, Chevy six lug wheels; wire, disc, mag and custom, can be used on Toyota, Datsun, and some Mazda pickups, but some trucks need a spacer to clear the steering parts. Beauty is in the eye of some beholders, but 16", 17", and 18" narrow, tall tires, (what some call "cookie cutters") may fit some requirement or taste. YMMV.
A quote I see sometimes, and like, is "Life's too short to drive boring cars."
 
In case anyone runs across this thread when looking for 16” tires and wheels, I thought I would follow up.

I finally got the hub caps (from CW Moss) on my newly powder coated 16” wheels. I went with the Westlake SU318 225/75R16 tires, available at Walmart. These tires have a 50,000 mile warranty. I may not get that much service, but surely they will last longer than my previous set of American Classic radials, which only lasted 14,600 miles. (There weren’t any flat spots or rounded edges on the old tires—they wore evenly and very quickly).

d63233daa99f3e5b7a42aba2f7714739.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The Portawalls came from Amazon, and the garage used balancing beads. (I didn’t let Walmart mount the tires because I thought the Walmart “kids” might make a mess with the newly powder coated wheels. The garage actually knew what Portawalls are, and they did a nice job mounting the tires.)

38ea27d2ca33451bad015bfbeeb3e202.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
shew01 said:
In case anyone runs across this thread when looking for 16” tires and wheels, I thought I would follow up.

I finally got the hub caps (from CW Moss) on my newly powder coated 16” wheels. I went with the Westlake SU318 225/75R16 tires, available at Walmart. These tires have a 50,000 mile warranty. I may not get that much service, but surely they will last longer than my previous set of American Classic radials, which only lasted 14,600 miles. (There weren’t any flat spots or rounded edges on the old tires—they wore evenly and very quickly).

d63233daa99f3e5b7a42aba2f7714739.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Shew - these look great! What did you use for powder coat - some random "red" from your powder coater or something more specific? Or is that orange?
 
What/why is the yellow gizmo under the wheel? What is it made out of? I'm guessing steel.
 
JayJay said:
Shew - these look great! What did you use for powder coat - some random "red" from your powder coater or something more specific? Or is that orange?
Click to expand...


The powder coat color is called Traffic Red, RAL 3020. It seems to be a readily available color. I’ve used 2 different powder coat businesses over several years for 3 sets of wheels, and both businesses were able to find the same color for each set of wheels.

Our 2016 Ford Mustang is in the background of the picture. Its color is called Race Red. The newly powder coated wheels are roughly the same color.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
As far as speedometer readings... we're running 650-16's on a '36 Ford, with '35 Ford spoked rims, and the speedometer reads 'slow'. (600-16's were stock.) Converted to hydraulics from a '46 Ford.


When the speedo reads '40' you are running about 53 MPH;) Not a big woof just good to be aware of it.
 
Question for those of you who are running these 16" wheels:

What do you set the toe-in at?

What was the spec in 1935? Does anyone have Ford Service Bulletins from back then?

It seems to me that with this different size wheel and tire (wider than on a stock Model A wheel) that the toe in would change slightly.

Thoughts?

We can start a new thread talking about this, if you prefer.

Thanks!
 
Jim I have had 16" 35 Ford wheels with radial tires for 15 years on my Tudor. I use the stock toe in, camber and caster. 29k miles.

A couple of notes on my tires.

Truck tires are usually 10 ply. I had these tires on back of my AV8 roadster and got rid of them after a short time.Bone jarring on bumps.

Coker Classic tires can be hard to balance and are often out of round. They are good about replacement of defective tires, but I had one I never could get right.

I have switched to Auburn tires with great results. Regular 16' tires such as posted above also are good quality.

John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top